The short story is the perfect form for sci-fi. It allows a writer to explore a big idea in a very small space. Each of the stories listed here imagines a world that’s different from our own in some brilliant or terrible way – with few aliens or spaceships in sight…
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Literary Lists: Literary Short Stories
Here’s our literary list of short stories that are freely available to be read or listened to online. Great short stories are miniature miracles. When done well, they’re certainly a thing worth celebrating…
Neon’s 2022 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominations
The annual Shirley Jackson Awards recognise outstanding achievements in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. They’re named after Shirley Jackson, a prolific novelist and short story writer whose output includes “The Lottery” and The Haunting of Hill House…
Neon Literary Magazine Issue 54
Issue 54 of Neon Literary Magazine is full of stories of strange transformations and surreal futures. We visit the sinister Ministry of Literature, contemplate the lives of gay frogs, ride along on the travels of the Shadow Man, and drop into a world where people can become animals in more ways than one. A selection of short…
The Horse From Pit 91
We pulled you from the ageless darkand embraced your bones in plaster—a hasty sacrament to noteyour restoration to the world of light.Now you stand in tribute to your kind:a breathless monument of when you lived.I hope you had some peace, a sip of cool,dark water before your hooves got stuck.You must have panicked, alerting wolvesto…
The Shadow Man Travels
At the time, he’s sick of it, the heavinesssettling in his shadow limbs. All those nightsmixing with the same old spirits in New Orleans,or rattling chains in windowless European castles.He’s tired of strangers who call themselves expertson him, then walk through his body on the stairscall out with cold hearted threats. So the Shadow Man…
Sunflower Heart
They say I have to write a story. It’s what I wanted when my back was breaking. You should be careful what you wish for. At least there’s a window and I can watch the evening primroses opening while I think. I lift the lid on my tea mug and smell the green tea. This…
Cascading Failures of the Heart
They will never know they are perfect for each other. Theoretically. Algorithmically. A solved equation of two strangers. Objectively a cosmic match. As objects moving through the universe are drawn toward each other by their natures. They’ll never know they should have found each other and been as beautiful and strange and full of fire…
2022 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem Nominations
The Forward Prizes for Poetry have been running for almost two decades now, but their mission remains the same: to recognise the best poetry published in the UK and Ireland each year. They’re among the most prominent poetry prizes in the country…
The Best Online Writing Tools
Here’s our list of online tools you can use to help improve your writing, find a home for your completed works, boost your inspiration when it’s lacking, and keep track of your burgeoning career. Best of all, most of these are either free or very inexpensive. Take a look and bookmark the ones you might find handy…