We’re just over 50% funded and there’s only 9 days left to go. Help us get across the finish line and publish another year of immigrant and diaspora speculative fiction!

I feel really proud of this issue, and I encourage you to read it!

I hate how suspicious the threat of LLM-generated submissions has made me. Haven Spec has gotten about 39 fiction submissions since we opened about 9 hours ago, and I can't help but wonder--how many of these did the robots write? The answer is, without question, not zero.

Today I feel grateful for the patience and kindness of the genre community at large. Sometimes I am very slow to do things, and folks are always extremely forgiving We need more kindness in this world

👀June 2026 Fiction👀 "Horseland" is a short story by EC Dorgan about authenticity and the monsters that haunt our hearts and histories. As a special preview of the issue, you can read it NOW! havenspec.com/fiction/hors...

Our ✨June 2026 issue✨ is ready! Subscribers will get it tomorrow, and everyone else can read it July 2nd! In this issue, you'll find five new stories and six new poems, many of which are vaguely environmental and all of which are amazing!

When I was younger, email sign-offs like "sincerely" and "best wishes" always seemed so weird to me. I'd think, "Does this email really call for sincerity? And are these really my best wishes?" I like to use "all the best" and "talk soon" because I feel like I know exactly what they mean

Spent my first work hour today training a former student/new intern, and it's so amazing to hear someone speak enthusiastically about the stories in our queue. Sometimes it's easy to feel bogged down, and I'm glad to be reminded that there is joy here too

TJ and I spent several hours today planning out the next few issues of Haven Spec, and o frabjous day, callooh, callay, I even managed to start sending people notes again. I just hope the Jabberwock doesn't get me.

The truth is I never use the crying with laughter emoji because I never feel the crying with laughter emoji. Are you allowed to lie through emojis? I guess I'm never a cat with hearts for eyes either, though I yearn to be 😻😻😻

Congratulations to all those who made the 2025 Nebula Awards final ballot! I'm particularly pleased 11 of them have chatted and chewed with me on my Eating the Fantastic podcast. If you'd like to learn more about these amazing creators, here's how to take your seat at the table. pod.link/1083737796

I will be more-or-less impossible to reach until Monday morning. Next week--I swear next week I'll get it together. Wish me luck.

A complete list of this year’s Nebula finalists with links for the ones that are free-to-read (including mine). Check it out! www.andrewliptak.com/2026-nebula-...

I bought Slay the Spire last night, and it's so addictive. All I want to do today is play it more (but okay, I should do some actual work) I also read a book just for fun this past weekend, so hopefully that all points to me coming out of this funk that has gripped me

Arthur Dent says, "It must be Thursday . . . I never could get the hang of Thursdays." Mostly I think I haven't quite gotten the hang of this life. Sometimes it feels like it's all Thursdays, and I tend towards despair.

I just realized I spelled "majestic" as "magestic" in my January letter from the editor, but in my defense, English is hard and also why do we have so many letters that do the same thing? Whatever, I'm owning it--misspelling things is about the most magestic thing a person can do

I accidentally spent an hour this morning learning Orthic shorthand, and boy does studying orthographies scratch an itch in my brain like nothing else

If a tree falls in my backyard (and crushes our swing set), but no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound?

I'm sorry but asking if I'd be the savior of the broken, the beaten, and the damned is just too much pressure. I just wanted to enjoy the parade, dad

We're talking about Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer in my American Studies class today, and I'm kind of excited about it! It's a gen ed class, so at this point we're completely focused on how cultural narratives of Americanness promote ideas of belonging and exclusion. Should be interesting!

I know I'm super late to the party, but I've been listening to The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones on my long commute, and it's honestly incredible

I don't seem to be vibing with my classes this semester as well as I did last year. One of my students told me on Monday that the class is tedious, and that landed surprisingly hard. Luckily I have my dread over my dissertation to distract from all the other dreads.

My kid is home sick from school today, and I'd much rather hang out with her all day, but apparently I have to work?

Yesterday marked 20 years since Katrina, and for a long time after the storm, I dreamt each night of packing, of evacuating, of rain and thunder and floods. I fled to my girlfriend's roommate's boyfriend's mom's house in Jackson MS, and 20 years later, I can still feel the wind on my face

My kid goes back to school next week, so today we're at a big bouncy thing at the mall, and boy is my age showing

Today I am reading newspapers from the 1920s about the Okeechobee Hurricane. That storm is central to Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, and I'm really enjoying putting my chapter together but I also deeply dread what my committee will say about it

Every few hours, I take a break from working on my dissertation to force everyone in the house to play 5-Minute Dungeon with me, and it is so very fun

Took a break yesterday from working on my dissertation to go to Cave Comics in Newtown, and check out this weird Archie comic I found

Nisi Shawl is one of my favorite writers, a queer elder & a BIPOC icon. I hate that the state of publishing is such that the book of their dreams would struggle to find a home, but I love that we as a community can come together to make it happen!! Give/boost as you're able? 🙏 gofund.me/3a52097a

I forgot my electric toothbrush and have to use a manual one Remind me, do we still brush in a circular motion? Octagonal? Trapezoidal? Has the shape changed at all in the last few years?

As a bonus action, I use Second Wind and regain hit points equal to 1d10 plus my Editor level, which allows me to work for several more hours

Filled out a form today that ended, "Final thoughts?" and it occurred to me that one day I really will have a final thought, and that's sad to think about

I guess they finally built a better mousetrap

Came home from Readercon yesterday feeling inspired by all of the interesting conversations I had over the weekend. Got some great ideas about how to grow Haven Spec, and I'm determined to find time to work on my own fiction now

Headed to Readercon this afternoon and omg there's still so much to do before I go, but I can't wait to see all those lovely folks I only get to see once a year! Here's my schedule if anybody is interested :)

Working on Haven Spec holds today, although I feel the whispers of a dozen other projects calling my name

I started watching El Eternauta last night, and it's so good. I accidentally stayed up way too late watching the first three episodes. It's like a good book I couldn't put down.

Our ✨July 2025 Issue✨ is now free to read online! Find it here: www.havenspec.com/issue-twenty Or get the PDF and EPUB: ko-fi.com/s/b837a91596

I truly believed, with every fiber of my being, that today was Wednesday. I did my Wednesday work on a Tuesday and mere anarchy was loosed upon the world. I'm still not convinced today isn't secretly Wednesday.

Editing a magazine is an extraordinary amount of work. But also (usually) an extraordinary amount of fun too

Today I'm having a marvelous time offering short fiction critiques to our Kickstarter backers. And who knows? I might even venture outdoors today and experience the sunshine.

Got laid off this morning from my side gig because of university budget cuts. On the plus side, that means more time for my million other projects

How weird it is to share an obituary with my own name. How weird these last few weeks and months have been. How weird it is we die. RIP dad. www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/c...

I'm sitting next to a man on the plane who seems to be made exclusively out of elbows. An anatomical marvel

Dropped everything to come home to New Orleans because my dad isn't doing so well, but on the plus side, it looks like I'll meet my sister for the first time since I was a little kid

After a truly hellish few weeks, I am back to working on Haven Spec. At this point, everyone who knows me knows that I am perpetually running late, and that's mostly because of the extreme anxiety I feel interacting with people on a day to day basis, but at least this time I have a good excuse

I've decided last-minute to go to Seattle for Worldcon this year. If 10 Things I Hate About You has taught me anything, it's that the city is full of angsty teens making oblique references to Shakespeare. I just hope I get invited to Bogey Lowenstein's party

On the train to NYC for a spontaneous museum visit. I really need to get into the city more often!

I am teaching an interactive narrative course this semester, and the students all have to write their own interactive narratives on twine. I am continually blown away by how dedicated and talented they are. I like to complain about my undergrads, but also I kind of love them?

I have not checked off everything on my to-do list, but my brain is mush, so let's start fresh in the morning, shall we? Also, it's 3 am and I briefly thought I heard people talking outside, and I have to hide under the covers now