“‘It is what it is.’ Fluff masquerading as profundity is almost always the apt thing to say.”

The floodgates are OPEN! BRING IT!

The SSFH community thrives because of spaces like locusmag.bsky.social! 📚✨ They’re currently running a fundraiser, full of amazing rewards and perks, to help keep their SFFH news, reviews, and content accessible to all! Wanna help support their work? Click the link ⬇️

Apparently, Thursday is the day I shout about Tuesday posts, so here we are! I'm clearly not great at doing appropriate timing. Oops XD Anyway, this week's stories are from @jennahanchey.bsky.social and @seandowie.bsky.social It's some beautiful weird stuff this time, and you should come look!

This is my "Year in Review" piece at Locus, where I talk about some of the titles I enjoyed. locusmag.com/feature/the-... Also - By the Numbers 10, from F&SF, for folks who haven't seen it yet: "What are the experiences of authors of color in publishing?" arleysorg.com/by-the-numbe...

Congratulations to our four Nebula Award finalists: @wtalabi.com, @somtoihezue.bsky.social, @hhpak.bsky.social, and @thomasha.bsky.social! Links to their stories in thread. Full list of finalists here: locusmag.com/2026/03/2025...

Hey! "Uncertain Sons" (novelette) and "In My Country" (short story) are Nebula finalists. All thanks to @undertow.bsky.social and @clarkesworldmagazine.com respectively. These would not be there without them. Thanks as well to readers who enjoyed these stories. And congrats to all the finalists!

Cooking something weird for this day.

Peeps, social media is fickle and volatile. hex is steadfast. Click here, and sign up for our email list to stay apprised of future openings. Speaking of which... Mark your calendars for March, 20th at noon. See you then 😈

A little nervy to share my FIRST EVER published verse poem! I feel so honored and lucky that @burialmagazine.bsky.social thought it decent enough to feature it! This one was inspired by a @toddedillard.bsky.social post! Todd is a phenom poet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THX 4 LOOKING! <3

I have a new short story out in @maudlinhouse.bsky.social! I think it's pretty cool. It's my shortest one yet, so those folks with short attention spans will LOVE this. maudlinhouse.net/jack-the-rip...

New @seandowie.bsky.social RIPS and I mean that both as a fantastic pun as well as a sincere compliment because Sean continues to write some of the funniest short fiction around

“If you don’t bind things together well they will fly away” New on hex today, a gorgeous story of flight and transcendence from Phoenix Alexander @dracopoullos.bsky.social ! Read “Dispersal” here! 👇🪶✨

This one is the most recent and it's so god damn good

I think Sam is pretty routinely funny and great! @kylerseibel.bsky.social always manages the funny to punch to the gut short story as well! and we've pubbed some HILARIOUS @seandowie.bsky.social stories on @hexliterary.bsky.social !!

REMINDER to send your 2025 original publications of queer speculative short stories (science fiction, fantasy, horror, anything odd and unusual) to We're Here 2025 for consideration - I am the guest editor this year, with the always awesome @cypayseur.bsky.social!! www.neonhemlock.com/were-here

In 2022, 2023, and 2024 I had 0(!) publications, and countless rejections. It was a bummer, and I wondered if anyone cared about my weird stories. This year, I had 6 publications. Thanks to those who have accepted and read my work, showing me that maybe I'm not the shittiest writer.

I have a story out today titled Corporations!. It's my favorite thing I've had published this year. Thanks to @maudlinhouse.bsky.social for finding a home for it. I like nothing more than a story that's funny and has a dramatic core that's depressing as fuck. Enjoy! maudlinhouse.net/corporations/

Thank you @reactorsff.bsky.social and @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social for including As The Earth Dreams!! 🥹💜🩵🖤 reactormag.com/reviewers-ch...

"So this twink in green tights swoops through your window, drugs you, then whisks you away to an island with gnashing crocodiles and famished cannibals and some madman with a rusty hook for a hand..." It's a damn thrill to have @sethwade.bsky.social back in hex with another wonderful creeper! 👁️

I'm RUINED. I just started a booktube channel, and the views/subscriber count are so LOW. I'm an ugly, crying mess! Subscribe to my channel (link in the comments) if you don't want to see this face again.

Today on hex, @seandowie.bsky.social offers an all-time great first line. Then there's this killer moment: "I strutted. My plump buttocks in denim shorts no doubt caught their attention." And you won't believe the ending. Read it! 👇

I saw lots of talk here this morning about grooming habits and masculinity and I'm nearly SURE that folks are talking about Chance (of Chance's Modeling Venue), the protagonist of @seandowie.bsky.social's latest in @hexliterary.bsky.social !!!! Go peep it!

My story Thirst Trap is out in @hexliterary.bsky.social (link in the comments). Read it to get your thirst quenched! Thanks to the hex team for being amazing!

"No modeling agency praised my biceps enough, so my father bought me an oasis. It became my personal modeling venue." We are lucky as hell to have @seandowie.bsky.social back in hex with one of the funniest, strangest tales we have ever read. I'm absolutely obsessed with "Thirst Trap," up now! 💪💀👇

"No modeling agency praised my biceps enough, so my father bought me an oasis. It became my personal modeling venue." This week, we bring you the Great American Short Story, a brand new one by @seandowie.bsky.social. This one is a jaw-dropper. Hilarious. Unexpected. Don't miss "Thirst Trap!" 💪💀👇

@hexliterary.bsky.social is the best, and I'm thrilled my latest story found a home with them. This story made my friend laugh so hard he pissed himself! (My friend had been hospitalized because he hadn't urinated in a month. Doctors are now using my story for more medical breakthroughs).

"There is an aperture in my hand, a thumb-print whirl where tissue once flowed uninterrupted—" We are obsessed with this wonderfully weird @mizukiyamagen.bsky.social story. A manifesting of grief that you won't soon forget. A wound that's more than a wound. Do NOT miss "The Hand's Aperture"! 🐌

we're live baby! send em if you got em 🙏

short. fiction.

psst: if you’d like email notice about our next submission period (very soon), please join our NEW mailing list! sign-up link is under the “Future” tab on our website!

Aftergooners! If you haven't already read "A Silent Song," what are you waiting for??? and if you have? Read it again ya dingus! This story rocks so hard!!!

"Allowed only those senses which enabled its labor, the malus drone’s world was one of touch and smell." A tale of wildness, of freedom, impeccably written, @katharinetyndall.bsky.social's "A Silent Song" is the body/eco/labor horror you need this week! We are so stoked to share this one with you!

I'm a serious, introspective person now! I have a new story out in @maudlinhouse.bsky.social called Queerbait. It's about a fisherman who catches gay mermen with queerbait. It's more somber and intellectual than my last few pieces. maudlinhouse.net/queerbait/

"Some kind of a noise. Or a nudge, a push." We are BEYOND thrilled to have @aaronburch.bsky.social back in hex this week with "The Attic!" This story is the best kind of surprise, linguistically wonderful, a foray into the unsettling, all without losing Aaron's great sense of heart. Don't miss it!

"Our eyes are plugs that keep truth out, that bend it when it tries to force its way in. The babies sat in their corner and stared back." new on hex today ! "The Babies Who Have No Eyes" by Lillie E. Franks @lilliekoi.bsky.social , a story that perfectly balances comedy and horror !! 👇 👶 ✨

The Lyricist by Sean Dowie maudlinhouse.net/the-lyricist/

OH MY GOD! This is what I look like right now, because I just had a story published in @maudlinhouse.bsky.social (link in the comments), and IT'S SO GOOD I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! It's about a vampire obsessed with Sabrina Carpenter. Check it out!

love this story by Ravi Mangla @ravimangla.bsky.social !! it’s about a recently widowed woman who goes to see the hippos at the zoo, meets a dude drinking alcohol through a straw, & overhears some juicy mermaid drama. read this pronto ! xraylitmag.com/sea-maidens-...

"My dead friend isn’t supposed to be on the whale watching tour." today we have a very beautiful & beautifully written story by Kelly Dasta ! great dialogue, perfect pacing, & an emotional ending. read it ! xraylitmag.com/whale-watchi...

it's "fuck it dawg friday," and also short story month is coming to an end (thankfully it's short story year every year) so here's one last short story. @pitheadchapel.bsky.social is a mag I've been trying to crack from the beginning, so was thrilled when they liked this one enough to run it!

"The first time he calls me babe, it’s the mid-90s again and I’m just a girl watching Bowie in the tightest leggings I have ever seen..." We are absolutely thrilled to have Adelina Sarkisyan back in hex with some nostalgic yearning, the brutal love of goblin hearts. A gorgeous new poem. Check it! 👇

Pssst! Want to read something weirdly fun?? Try this, but keep those laughs silent if you want to stay alive 🤫 Thanks @hexliterary.bsky.social and @seandowie.bsky.social for this! 😂 #speculative #flashfiction #weirdfiction #reading

"When the aliens swarmed Earth, people had to be silent or communicate through ASMR." Funny, weird as hell, and deeply human. @seandowie.bsky.social's newest has it all. This story is so exciting and if I were a ear-katana wielding alien I would force you all to read it. Mr. ASMR, up now on hex!

Joe said it best -- so grateful and lucky that y'all send us such brilliance, that we get to publish stuff like @seandowie.bsky.social's Mr. ASMR. Long live @hexliterary.bsky.social

I'm making my Bluesky debut with this post! I have a story out today in @hexliterary.bsky.social (link in the comments) called Mr. ASMR. Thanks to the hex team for finding it worthy!

"When the aliens swarmed Earth, people had to be silent or communicate through ASMR." This week on hex, an absolute wonder by @seandowie.bsky.social! This one is WILD. Katana wielding aliens! Infinite Jest! And all of it circling back around into the deeply human. Don't miss Mr. ASMR, up now! 👽👂⚔️