Short Fiction

Here's everything tagged: Family

All Sci-fi Fantasy Horror
Stupefying Stories

In Her Image

Coming Soon

Esther willingly sacrifices it all: job, relationship, even liberty to see her children survive long enough to call her 'Mother'.

Far Future Machine Sentience Queer Family X
A photograph of an ornate, multi-level historic library interior, with floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves filled with old books, an elaborate wrought-iron balcony railing in the foreground, and a large, white, sans-serif text overlay across the center that reads "Coming Soon".
Kaleidotrope

Ethereal Vibrations

After piercing the boundary between life and death, Mourad must protect his discovery from those who would exploit its unimaginable potential.

Family X Inequality Death
A photograph of an ornate, multi-level historic library interior, with floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves filled with old books, an elaborate wrought-iron balcony railing in the foreground, and a large, white, sans-serif text overlay across the center that reads "Coming Soon".
Bad Romance (Parsec Ink)

Never Again, Yet Again

The afterlife is nothing like you imagined, and much, much more! Nude selfies, gilded antiques, and white truffles. Watch your pennies!

Far Future Queer Inequality Family X
A photograph of an ornate, multi-level historic library interior, with floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves filled with old books, an elaborate wrought-iron balcony railing in the foreground, and a large, white, sans-serif text overlay across the center that reads "Coming Soon".
Utopia Science Fiction

Pomegranates for Kangaroos

Twins Nesma and Nady make the best of life in a refugee camp until the raptors intervene.

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Near Future Inequality Family X
Cover of Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Volume VII June, 2026, featuring an illustration of an astronaut looking out from behind a plant stem where an orange caterpillar crawls.
Home Constellations (Manawaker Studio)

Triangles Are Forever

Weighed down by her past and beset by threats, Keziah risks it all for love and family.

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Far Future Queer Family X
Cover of Home Constellations: A Speculative Anthology of Unconventional Bonds, featuring an illustration of a domestic kitchen scene where a diverse family—including humans and anthropomorphic, fox-like characters—interact, with one young fox child looking out a large window into a starry nebula.
Gavagai

Son of the Sea

Amid the ruins of a world all but submerged under surging oceans, a community of gritty survivors rediscover hope.

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Near Future Family X Climate
A black-and-white photograph of the silhouette of a pregnant person standing against a bright, cloudy sky, looking down and gently cradling their stomach.
Inner Worlds

3 East

When a family medical emergency takes an unexpected turn, conditional love and reluctant acceptance are no longer enough.

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Queer Family X Death
Cover of Inner Worlds, Issue Nine, November 2025, featuring an illustration of a person in a yellow helmet surrounded by plants and stars.
Robots Past & Future (Flame Tree Press)

Arboreal Recovery Cluster, Node 896

Are loneliness, duty, honor, and most of all hope strictly human-only emotions?

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Near Future Machine Sentience Climate Family X
Cover of Gothic Fantasy: Robots Past & Future Short Stories, featuring an ornate turquoise-and-black illustration surrounding the title.
Amplitudes (Erewhon Books)

Fettle & Sunder

When a queer couple's worst nightmare is reified, it upends their orderly life and sends them scrambling for a way out.

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Near Future Queer Family X Religion
Cover of Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity, featuring elongated, iridescent metallic lettering for the title surrounded by shiny four-pointed stars on a dark background.
Inner Worlds

Mashrabiya

Some are born ill-suited for the lives expected of them. The lucky ones eventually realize that their reality is the only one that matters.

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Mental Health Addiction Family X
Cover of Inner Worlds, Issue Six / March 2025, featuring a surreal illustration of an anglerfish-like creature illuminating a jellyfish amidst a speckled, cosmic purple background.
Kaleidotrope

Rise Again

Afaf defies the strictures of her community to set out on a search mission for her mother, for the truth, and ultimately for herself.

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Far Future Machine Sentience Rebellion Family X
Header artwork for Kaleidotrope Magazine, Autumn 2024, featuring a vibrant, watercolor-style fantasy illustration of a silhouetted witch wearing a pointed hat standing in a forest clearing, surrounded by dark gnarled trees, a perched owl, and glowing fireflies against a starry, multicolored twilight sky.
Heartlines Spec

Unfit for Purpose

Facing the sudden loss of her carer bot, eight-year old Marwa fights back with every trick she knows.

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Far Future Machine Sentience Young Adult Family X
Cover of Heartlines Spec, Issue 5, Summer 2024, featuring a stylized illustration of a person sitting on a shoreline next to an orange tent, looking out at a large, multi-humped spiky sea serpent swimming in a lake at night under a full moon.
Translunar Travelers Lounge

Redemption for the Unseen

The afterlife is nothing like you imagined, and much, much more! Nude selfies, gilded antiques, and white truffles. Watch your pennies!

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Far Future Queer Inequality Family X
Cover of Translunar Travelers Lounge, Issue Nine, August 2023, featuring an illustration of a figure standing on a wooden suspension bridge holding a torch aloft toward a large, glowing orange phoenix flying in the night sky.
Utopia Science Fiction

Earl Grey and Some Glue

In a dizzyingly changing world, Awad hangs onto the only thing he has left from the life he once cherished, whatever the cost.

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Far Future Queer Machine Sentience Family X
Cover of Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, June/July 2023, featuring a top-down photograph of broken white and blue ceramic shards scattered across a dark, marble-patterned tiled floor.
StarShipSofa

Rockhoppers

Zohra tussles with a devastating loss, a life-changing find, and herself.

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Far Future Machine Sentience Death Family X
Sci-fi illustration of characters in armor facing a large, multi-limbed creature in a misty landscape overlaid with the red and yellow StarShipSofa logo.
Tree And Stone

Triangles Are Forever

Weighed down by her past and beset by threats, Keziah risks it all for love and family.

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Far Future Queer Family X
Cover of Tree And Stone, Issue 2, October 2022, "QUEER AS F*", featuring an illustration of two figures embracing in front of a pink floral patterned wall, with one light-haired character reaching up to touch the dark, braided hair of an elf-eared companion.
Anathema Magazine

Semsema of the Zabbaleen

Semsema is caught between clinging to the familiar and venturing into the unknown.

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Near Future Inequality Colonialism Family X
Cover of Anathema: Spec from the Margins, Issue 14, December 2021, featuring a stylized graphic illustration of a person sitting at a desk working on a laptop surrounded by tall stacks of paper, with a massive cloud of black smoke billowing from their head against an orange background.
The Colored Lens

Of Ashes & Tears

How far would Brynn go to save her mother? How far is too far?

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Myths Young Adult Family X
Cover of The Colored Lens: Speculative Fiction Magazine, Winter 2021, Issue #38, featuring an illustration of two children silhouetted on a rocky cliff, with one pointing toward a bright glowing star against a massive blue planet background.
Andromeda Spaceways Magazine

Arboreal Recovery Cluster, Node 896

Are loneliness, duty, honor, and most of all hope strictly human-only emotions?

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Near Future Machine Sentience Climate Family X
Cover of Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, Issue 80, September 2020, featuring a purple-haired woman writing at a desk surrounded by books and papers.
Little Blue Marble

In the Teeth of the Gale

What would you sacrifice for a lifelong dream? What wouldn't you?

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Near Future Utopia Climate Family X
Cover of Little Blue Marble 2019, featuring a landscape image that juxtaposes rolling sand dunes in the foreground with a massive wall of white glaciers under a clear blue sky.