Anthologies

Take a journey through Asia and beyond with twenty-three original thought-provoking and moving stories about identities, belonging, and choices—stories about where we come from and where we are going—each wrestling between ghostly pasts and uncertain future.

Asian characters and settings, identity focus

A writer of whimsy and passion, Sandra McDonald has collected her most evocative short fiction to offer readers in Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories. A beautiful adventuress from the ancient city of New Dalli sets off to reclaim her missing lover. What secrets does she hide beneath her silk skirts? A gay cowboy flees the Great War in search of true love and the elusive undead poet Whit Waltman, but at what cost? A talking statue sends an abused boy spinning through a great metropolis, dodging pirates and search for a home. On these quests, you will meet macho firefighters, tiny fairies, collapsible musicians, lady devils and vengeful sea witches. These are stories to stir the heart and imagination

An anthology full of diversity: featuring a trans woman (the titular Diana Comet) in multiple stories, queer characters, and characters of color.

"Love Beyond, Body, Space, and Time" is a collection of indigenous science fiction and urban fantasy focusing on LGBT and two-spirit characters. These stories range from a transgender woman trying an experimental transition medication to young lovers separated through decades and meeting far in their own future. These are stories of machines and magic, love, and self-love.

Queer Indigenous scifi anthology

The Dark Universe Anthology tells the origin story of the Cassad Empire, from its ambitious beginning to its evolution to the first great human Galactic Empire and its eventual fall. Milton Davis, Gene Peterson, Balogun Ojetade, Penelope Flynn, Malon Edwards, K. Ceres Wright and DaVaun Sanders are the storytellers that lay the foundation of this amazing empire. Dark Universe is space opera like you've never seen. The time has come; Dark Universe is here!

Space Opera tales set about the rise and fall of a futuristic African Empire. Racially and culturally diverse characters and settings.

Cyberpunk as you've never seen it before… Science fiction is all about outrageous ideas. Nice Malay girls breaking the rules. Censorship. Brain drain. Moral policing. Migrant exploitation. All the stuff of fiction, obviously. But these 14 short stories take it one step further. The nice Malay girls are cyborgs. The spambots are people. The brains have drained into cyberspace, and the censorship is inside your head. Welcome to Cyberpunk: Malaysia.

Malaysian settings and themes, diverse characters, focus on race and class

Beyond is an anthology of queer sci-fi and fantasy comics. Featuring 18 stories by 26 contributors, Beyond is a 250+ page, black and white, queer comic anthology, full of swashbuckling space pirates, dragon slayers, death-defying astronauts, and monster royalty. Each story celebrates and showcases unquestionably queer characters as they explore the galaxy, mix magic, have renegade adventures, and save the day! The Beyond Anthology was born from a desire to see stories inspired by people like us (queer people with diverse genders and sexualities) slaying dragons, piloting spaceships, getting into trouble, and saving the day—without having to read for their queerness from between the lines. We wanted to see beautiful, heartwarming, and adventurous stories that reflect and celebrate the many facets of gender and sexuality, without having to worry that their queerness would cast them as a villain, a pariah, or turn them into a cautionary tale.

Queer SFF comics!

The fifteen authors and nine artists in this volume bring us beautiful, speculative stories of disability and mental illness in the future. Teeming with space pirates, battle robots, interstellar travel and genetically engineered creatures, every story and image is a quality, crafted work of science fiction in its own right, as thrilling and fascinating as it is worthy and important. These are stories about people with disabilities in all of their complexity and diversity, that scream with passion and intensity. These are stories that refuse to go gently.

disability-themed scifi anthology with other elements of diversity!

Steampunk is fascinating. There's something compelling about the shine of clicking brass clockwork and hiss of steam-driven automatons. But until recently, there was something missing. It was easy to find excellent stories of American and British citizens... but we rarely got to see steampunk from the point of view of the rest of the world. Steampunk World is a showcase for nineteen authors to flip the levers and start the pistons and invite you to experience the entirety of steampunk. Edited by Sarah Hans, this anthology's nineteen authors bring us the very best steampunk stories from around the world. The full list of the award-winning authors - including the introduction's author, Diana M. Pho, founding editor of the oldest-running multicultural blog Beyond Victoriana - can be found below. The cover artwork is by James Ng.

International anthology

The future is vibrant, hopeful, and filled with dragons. In WINGS OF RENEWAL, twenty-two authors explore the exciting new subgenre of solarpunk through the lens of these majestic creatures. Whether they irrigate dry terrain or serve as spaceships, are mythic beasts come to life or biomechanical creations of man, these dragons show us a world where renewable energy overcomes gas and oil, and cooperation replaces competition. If you love fantasy/sci-fi fusion, this is an anthology you do not want to miss! So hop on solar wings, and follow us into futures that–for all their witches and dragons–are far more possible than they might seem.

Settings are post-discrimination. Characters are of various races. Several minor NB characters. Three F/F stories. Representation of disabilities.

In Tales from Rugosa Coven, catch a glimpse of a New Jersey even weirder than the one you think you know, as a covenful of very modern Wiccans wrestle challenges both supernatural and mundane-and, occasionally, each other. The personal injury attorney who chose kitchen-witchery over his family's five-generation lineage of old school ceremonial magic would like to miss his dead parents, only now that they're dead they won't leave him alone. The professional fortuneteller stands out at forty paces, with her profusion of silver amulets glittering over her Goth wardrobe, but nobody has guessed her secret sorrow, especially not the covenmates who see her as their wacky comic relief. And the resident skeptic, a reluctant Pagan if ever there was one, will have to eat her words if her coven sister's new boyfriend really does turn out to be from Atlantis. The Jersey Shore's half-hidden community of Witches, Druids, and latter-day Vikings must circle together against all challenges. It's a good thing they're as resilient as the wild rugosa roses that hold together the dunes.

Collection of 3 novellas about a coven in central NJ, written by a pagan author, reflecting the realities of the pagan community. Recent winner of the Mythopoeic Award

There have always been stories of those willing to blur or transcend the traditional gender roles. Some do it out of necessity, others are merely embracing their true selves. Sometimes it’s for fun, other times survival. Every culture has their gender benders, their cross-dressers, their rule breakers. From Bugs Bunny to Mulan, Alanna of Trebond to Klinger, our folk heroes and cultural icons push boundaries and challenge expectations. In Scheherazade’s Façade, twelve of today’s most intriguing authors spin tales of magic, mystery, self-discovery and adventure, each with a twist. In these pages you’ll find shape-shifting dragons, triumphant drag queens, tragic selkies, lost princes and would-be warriors. You’ll find star-crossed lovers and mysterious travelers, cross-dressers and gender bending heroes of all sorts.

Gender-bending and genderqueer short stories

Wolves, fairies, ghosts, monsters, lost campers, witches… Fiction is rife with tales of what happens to travelers who ignore warnings and venture deep into dark and mysterious woods… and occasionally about what comes out of them.

Queer romances. Several trans characters appear. Several stories feature POC.

The stories in this collection merge technological wonder with the everyday. Children upgrade their fighting spiders with armor, and toymakers create punchcard-driven marionettes. Large fish lumber across the skies, while boat people find a new home on the edge of a different dimension. Technology and tradition meld as the people adapt to the changing forces of their world. The Sea Is Ours is an exciting new anthology that features stories infused with the spirits of Southeast Asia’s diverse peoples, legends, and geography

Southeast Asian settings and characters, race and class issues discussed. Several queer and/or disabled characters.

Space is not always filled with adventures and glory. Not everybody goes racing off to battle evil and save the galaxy. Between the rebels, pirates, royals, and spies are the everyday people who work hard just to get by and ensure everyone gets home safe. Less Than Three Press presents a collection of tales about the ordinary folks who keep the stars running.

Stories are gay romances, often consider class issues as the protagonists are low-rank engineers, anxiety issues in About a Bot, prosthetic limb in The Aurora Conspiracy, deafness common in Flight Risk. Many characters are PoC (but hard to pin down as specific ethnicity due to futuristic non-Earth settings)

Second Contacts presents eighteen stories from writers in six countries (Canada, United States, England, Mexico, Israel, and the Netherlands) that answer the question: What happens after first contact? Set fifty years in the future, they explore the aftermath of alien contact, for us and for the aliens.

Generally diverse casts, especially in terms of East Asian and Hispanic characters. Genderqueer characters (spontaneous sex-switching with or without gender-switching) featured in As Above, So Below. Pronouns zhe/zhir/zhirm featured in Grief. Autistic protagonist in Translator.

The only limit is your imagination. A transgender boy and his mother hop dimensions in search of his father. A girl and her girlfriend face down the monsters that keep her village afraid. A little sea monster girl listens to her two grandfathers tell the story of how they found her. A woman fights to rescue her brothers from a sorceress - that she finds herself falling for. Welcome to Vitality!

Lots of queer characters! Find at readvitality.com

A witch, more machine than human, judges the character of the wicked and hands out justice in a ravaged Chicago. John Henry wields his mighty hammers in a war against machines and the undead. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman rule a country of freed slaves that rivals – and often bests – England and France in power and technology. You will find all this – and much more – between the pages of Steamfunk, an anthology of incredible stories by some of today’s greatest authors of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Steamfunk – African and African American-inspired Steampunk. Editors Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade have put together a masterful work guaranteed to transport you to new worlds. Worlds of adventure; of terror; of war and wonder; of iron and steam. Open these pages and traverse the lumineferous aether to the world of Steamfunk!

African and Black steampunk

In JEWS VS ALIENS, editors Lavie Tidhar and Rebecca Levene have gathered together brand new stories from the light-hearted to the profound, with authors ranging from Orange Prize winner Naomi Alderman to Big Bang Theory writer/producer Eric Kaplan, all asking, for the first time, the question you didn’t even know you wanted answered – what happens when the aliens arrive, only to encounter... Jews?

Science fiction with Jewish characters

Well known and well regarded in the world of science fiction and fantasy writing, Vandana Singh brings her unique imagination to a wider audience in this collection of stories, newly reissued by Zubaan Books. In the title story, a woman tells her husband of her curious discovery: that she is inhabited by small alien creatures. In another, a young girl making her way to college through the streets of Delhi comes across a mysterious tetrahedron. Is it a spaceship? Or a secret weapon? The first Indian female speculative fiction writer, Singh has said that her genre is a “chance to find ourselves part of a larger whole; to step out of the claustrophobia of the exclusively human and discover joy, terror, wonder, and meaning in the greater universe.” A revolutionary voice in fantasy writing, Singh brings her passion for discovery to these stories, and the result is like nothing of this world.

Indian author and diverse charaters

Whenever we envision a world without war, without prisons, without capitalism, we are producing speculative fiction. Organizers and activists envision, and try to create, such worlds all the time. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown have brought twenty of them together in the first anthology of short stories to explore the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change. The visionary tales of Octavia’s Brood span genres—sci-fi, fantasy, horror, magical realism—but all are united by an attempt to inject a healthy dose of imagination and innovation into our political practice and to try on new ways of understanding ourselves, the world around us, and all the selves and worlds that could be. The collection is rounded off with essays by Tananarive Due and Mumia Abu-Jamal, and a preface by Sheree Renée Thomas.

Science fiction stories focusing on social justice issues

A marionette, a weeping willow, and a house shade - there are more to them than what meets the eye. Written in a style reminiscent of classic European folktales, the three original fairy tale novellas in this collection explore a gay teen's coming-of-age in settings steeped in magic, wonder, romance, and infinite possibilities. In Benedict, a marionette is given a strange puzzle to solve during the king's quarter dance. A cursed tree finds salvation in the love of a homeless, ragged boy in The Weeping Willow. And in Grave's End, a house shade learns what it means to be human. At once whimsical, haunting, melancholy, and ultimately triumphant, these stories offer gay teens fireside tales they can call their own.

Gay YA historical fantasy anthology containing three original fairy tale novellas. Each story is a coming-out allegory using 19th century motifs. Each protagonist is a gay teen from different backgrounds - from impoverished and homeless to wealthy and even an immortal.

Strange music from a legendary haunted glade can only be heard by a special boy. A grieving young man turns to the dark arts to bring his deceased lover back. A soiled and tired knight protects the innocent from the threat of a dragon. Young love blooms in a desolate garden. Familiar and original fairy tales, myths, and legends explore the complexities in a gay teen's coming-of-age through allegory and metaphor. Rain-drenched circuses, old wives' tales involving candles in windows, water-irises deep in a wood, lonely fairy kings, and magical Christmas parties not only present valuable lessons, but also provide an escape into worlds in which a gay teen can see himself as the amazing, resilient hero of adventures and romance. Contains the stories: Clouds' Illusions, Erl-King, Out of the Depths, The Bridge, The Dollhouse, The Haunted Glade, The Knight, The Water-Irises, and The Winter Garden.

Gay YA fantasy short story (fairy tale) collection. Protagonists are gay teens from different socio-economic backgrounds. Wide range of tones from romantic to tragic to gothic horror and even contemporary magic realism.

"If you live near the jungle, you will realize that what is real and what is not real is not always clear. In the forest there is not a big gap between the two." A Datin recalls her romance with an orang bunian. A teenage pontianak struggles to balance homework, bossy aunties, first love, and eating people. An earth spirit gets entangled in protracted negotiations with an annoying landlord, and Chang E spins off into outer space, the ultimate metaphor for the Chinese diaspora. Straddling the worlds of the mundane and the magical, Spirits Abroad collects ten science fiction and fantasy stories with a distinctively Malaysian sensibility.

Malaysian author

The eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nevèrÿon's four volumes chronicle a long-ago land on civilization's brink, perhaps in Asia or Africa, or even on the Mediterranean. Taken slave in childhood, Gorgik gains his freedom, leads a slave revolt, and becomes a minister of state, finally abolishing slavery. Ironically, however, he is sexually aroused by the iron slave collars of servitude. Does this contaminate his mission - or intensify it? Presumably elaborated from an ancient text of unknown geographical origin, the stories are sunk in translators' and commentators' introductions and appendices, forming a richly comic frame.

Famous gay Black author. Many queer characters and exploration of sexuality and race.

Sample Stories: -The Prince and the Dancing Selkies- (transgender); A prince must choose between her duty to her kingdom and the opportunity to be true to herself. -First- (lesbian, disability): The girl Dana loves doesn’t love her back. She’s devastated until a stranger appears offering a solution. (Be aware that this is a horror story)

Online short fiction anthology. The current issue has many queer/diverse stories.

A 300 year-old story collector enlists the help of the computer hacker next door to save her dying sister. A half-resurrected cleanup man for Death s sprawling bureaucracy faces a phantom pachyderm, doll-collecting sorceresses and his own ghoulish bosses. Gordo, the old Cubano that watches over the graveyards and sleeping children of Brooklyn, stirs and lights another Malaguena. Down the midnight streets of New York, a whole invisible universe churns to life in Daniel Jose Older's debut collection of ghost noir.

Short fiction by Daniel José Older

These 18 darkly complex short stories and novellas touch upon human nature and perception, metaphysics and epistemology, and gender and sexuality, foreshadowing a world in which biological tendencies bring about the downfall of humankind. Revisions from the author's notes are included, allowing a deeper view into her world and a better understanding of her work. The Nebula Award–winning short story Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death, the Hugo Award–winning novella The Girl Who Was Plugged In, and the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novella Houston, Houston, Do You Read? are included. The stories of Alice Sheldon, who wrote as James Tiptree Jr. ( Up the Walls of the World ) until her death in 1987, have been heretofore available mostly in out-of-print collections. Thus the 18 accomplished stories here will be welcomed by new readers and old fans. ''The Screwfly Solution'' describes a chilling, elegant answer to the population problem. In ''Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death,'' the title tells the tale--species survival insured by imprinted drives--but the story's force is in its exquisite, lyrical prose and its suggestion that personal uniqueness is possible even within biological imperatives. ''The Girl Who Was Plugged In'' is a future boy-meets-girl story with a twist unexpected by the players. ''The Women Men Don't See '' displays Tiptree's keen insight and ability to depict singularity within the ordinary. In Hugo and Nebula award-winning ''Houston, Houston, Do You Read?'' astronauts flying by the sun slip forward 500 years and encounter a culture that successfully questions gender roles in ours.

Short stories by Alice Sheldon, writing as James Tiptree Jr. Her influential works questioned gender and gender roles and inspired the Tiptree Award.

Fairy tales never leave us. Romantic and sensual, dark and terrifying, old and new, these ten stories move beyond the old trope of prince and princess living happily ever. Sleeping Beauty, Indeed offers readers imaginative tales based on the classic works - Cinderella, the Pied Piper - but retold through the lavender lens of lesbian experience. With such talented contributors as Meredith Schwarz, Catherynne M. Valente, and Erzebet YellowBoy, turning a page is like taking a bite of that luscious apple. Sweet and dangerous but fated.

Lesbian fairy tales

Queer culture meets fey folklore in the pages of So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, an enchanting anthology of fantastical tales for lovers of Lord of the Rings and all things Tolkien. But these faery stories have a magical twist--every one has an LGBT theme The genre's top writers spin stories of coming out and growing old, of identity and loss, and of hardship, with a focus on youth and beauty, the love of the dance, wild passion and decadence, and the drama of vengeance and spurned love.

Queer stories

The essence of fantasy is magic and the folklore of women has often dwelt on the innumerable powers they possess. Magic that heals, magic that destroys, magic that saves their community. All these elements and more can be found in the queer women of Hellebore & Rue. These lesbians shape their worlds, their wants and needs, and, most important, their destinies. Here are stories of a greenmage reuniting with her former partner on one last mission in Connie Wilkin's "The Windskimmer"; a shaman calling on the power of the Medicine Buddha to fight demons in Jean Marie Ward's "Personal Demons"; and even an aging school nurse discovering a dark secret about her heritage in Steve Berman's "D is for Delicious." A dozen stories by a dozen talented authors, including Juliet Kemp, Lisa Morton, Ruth Sorrell, C. B. Calsing and other names that promise the reader many wonders.

Queer women and magic

This celebration of feminine power, beauty, and complexity tells the stories of ten goddesses from cultures the world over. There is tremendous variety in this volume including the stories of Kuay Yin, the compassionate Buddhist goddess; Durga, the fierce Hindu warrior goddess; lx Chel, an ancient Mayan goddess; Changing Woman, the man-faceted Navajo deity, and more. Each story in this dynamic collection is accompanied by an exquisite portrait by the late, supremely gifted illustrator Trina Schart Hyman.

International goddess myths

This volume is an anthology of 18 stories about heroines with as much courage, wit and intelligence as their more familiar male counterparts. It includes Li Chi, the serpent slayer, and the old woman sly enough to outsmart the devil.

Women of many cultures

A father must come to terms with his son's death in the war. In Venice an architecture student commits a crime of passion. A white southern airport loader tries to do a favor for a black northern child. The ordinary stuff of ordinary fiction--but with a difference! These tales take place twenty-five, fifty, a hundred-fifty years from now, when men and women have been given gills to labor under the sea. Huge repair stations patrol the cables carrying power to the ends of the earth. Telepathic and precocious children so passionately yearn to visit distant galaxies that they'll kill to go. Brilliantly crafted, beautifully written, these are Samuel Delany's award-winning stories, like no others before or since.

Diverse and often queer short stories

The stories in Kiini Ibura Salaam's debut collection, Ancient, Ancient, from feminist science fiction publisher Aqueduct Press, are imbued with the urgency and expansive scope of imagination that we've come to expect from the best of science fiction. Salaam takes us to distant places but makes them familiar in unsettling ways, ably transforming the fantastic into a mirror through which we can examine—and reckon with—our own struggles.

Tiptree Award winner

In this first-ever anthology of Indigenous science fiction Grace Dillon collects some of the finest examples of the craft with contributions by Native American, First Nations, Aboriginal Australian, and New Zealand Maori authors. The collection includes seminal authors such as Gerald Vizenor, historically important contributions often categorized as "magical realism" by authors like Leslie Marmon Silko and Sherman Alexie, and authors more recognizable to science fiction fans like William Sanders and Stephen Graham Jones. Dillon's engaging introduction situates the pieces in the larger context of science fiction and its conventions. Organized by sub-genre, the book starts with Native slipstream, stories infused with time travel, alternate realities and alternative history like Vizenor's "Custer on the Slipstream." Next up are stories about contact with other beings featuring, among others, an excerpt from Gerry William's The Black Ship. Dillon includes stories that highlight Indigenous science like a piece from Archie Weller's Land of the Golden Clouds, asserting that one of the roles of Native science fiction is to disentangle that science from notions of "primitive" knowledge and myth. The fourth section calls out stories of apocalypse like William Sanders' "When This World Is All on Fire" and a piece from Zainab Amadahy's The Moons of Palmares. The anthology closes with examples of biskaabiiyang, or "returning to ourselves," bringing together stories like Eden Robinson's "Terminal Avenue" and a piece from Robert Sullivan's Star Waka. An essential book for readers and students of both Native literature and science fiction, Walking the Clouds is an invaluable collection. It brings together not only great examples of Native science fiction from an internationally-known cast of authors, but Dillon's insightful scholarship sheds new light on the traditions of imagining an Indigenous future.

Indigenous science fiction, on trans list

Returning again to the fertile ground of sex and identity, this third entry in a successful and controversial anthology series continues to celebrate thought-provoking and provocative fiction that explores and expands gender. Through their subversive, engaging stories, Tiptree Award-winning authors offer fascinating speculations on the ever-increasing mutability of our public and private selves. James Tiptree, Jr. was the pseudonym of Alice Bradley Sheldon, whose lasting contributions to the gender-bending genre are honored with this annual award, now in its 15th year. Previous winners of the Tiptree Award include Karen Joy Fowler, Ursula K. Le Guin, M. John Harrison, Kelly Link, Joe Haldeman, and Joanna Russ.

Genderqueer short stories

Following the successful debut of the series, this second serving of innovative storytelling continues to celebrate thought-provoking and provocative speculative fiction. Touching on the most fundamental of human desires—sex, love, and the need for acceptance—Tiptree Award-winning authors continually challenge and redefine social identities, simultaneously exploring and expanding gender. James Tiptree, Jr. was the pseudonym of Alice Bradley Sheldon, whose lasting contributions to the genre are honored every year with the award. This collection gathers short fiction and essays that were chosen by the Tiptree Award judges in 2004, as well as additional selections from previous years. Contributors include Raphael Carter, L. Timmel Duchamp, Carol Emshwiller, Eileen Gunn, Joe Haldeman, Nalo Hopkinson, Gwyneth Jones, Jaye Lawrence, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jonathan Lethem, Debbie Notkin, Julie Phillips, Johanna Sinsalo, and Leslie What.

Genderqueer short stories

These fifteen thrilling and ingenious tales take the familiar genre of steampunk in exciting new directions, following women from across the globe and through pasts that never were (but could have been) on their search for money, adventure, prestige, freedom--and the love of another woman. Here you'll meet a Moroccan airship engineer and an English diplomat who receive a cryptic message and an exploding music box, a librarian who doubts her God, a Malaysian shipping clerk who dreams of adventure, a terracotta bride from the Tenth Circle of Hell, and an aeronaut on her way to certain death and a surprising discovery--and many more. Though they hail from across the globe and universes far away, each of them is driven to follow her own path to independence and to romance. The women of Steam-Powered 2 push steampunk to its limits and beyond.

Lesbian characters, diverse characters

The fifteen tantalizing, thrilling, and ingenious tales in Steam-Powered put a new spin on steampunk by putting women where they belong -- in the captain's chair, the laboratory, and one another's arms. Here you'll meet inventors, diamond thieves, lonely pawn brokers, clockwork empresses, brilliant asylum inmates, and privateers in the service of San Francisco's eccentric empire. Though they hail from across the globe and universes far away, each character is driven to follow her own path to independence and to romance. The women of Steam-Powered push steampunk to its limits and beyond. "From colonial India to New Orleans in slavery times, from a rogue San Francisco to the Lower East Side of old New York, these stories are thoughtful, wide-ranging, exciting, and often very, very sexy. Anybody who thinks that "steampunk" and "lesbian" are niche interests should read Steam-Powered and get their horizons seriously expanded." -Delia Sherman, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner and author of Through a Brazen Mirror.

Lesbian characters, diverse characters

[none given]

Gay and lesbian science fiction

The universe is full of possibilities, they say. From technological advances to human evolution, there are as many possible outcomes to our endeavors as there are stars in the sky. We are small specks of matter in the cosmos, but the scope of our dreams and hopes could easily touch the furthest reaches of space. This collection of speculative fiction examines and explores the human experience as it collides with technology. When people have the chance to create their own identities based on their needs and wants, and the ability to create their own ideal body is a possibility, the world begins to change. From exploring high fantasy landscapes with swords and magic, to the dark edges of outer space, we learn that the gender that we are born with is not limited and our biological destiny is not finite. These are the stories of our Other Selves.

Explores gender

Bending the Landscape: Horror brings together a tantalizing slew of truly horrifying tales guaranteed to provoke, entertain, and inspire fear in even the most seasoned horror aficionado. World-renowned fantasy author Nicola Griffith and fantasy publisher Stephen Pagel have compiled an exciting array of never-before-published stories, both from talented newcomers and award-winning genre veterans. These stories, written by writers both gay and straight, incite fear and spur thought, transporting the reader into realms of shock and dread.

Gay and lesbian writers and characters of horror fiction

Between these covers are the best short stories of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and genres in-between, selected from the first five years of the Philippine Speculative Fiction annuals. Step through the portal and explore worlds old and new and experience the power of the literature of the imagination as crafted by Filipino authors.

Filipino SF short stories from Philippine Speculative Fiction journal, 2005-2010

From Sholom Aleichem to Avram Davidson, Isaac Bashevis Singer to Tony Kushner, the Jewish literary tradition has always been one rich in the supernatural and the fantastic. In these pages, gathered from the best short fiction of the last ten years, twenty authors prove that their heritage is alive and well - in the spaces between stars that an alphabet can bridge, folklore come to life and histories become stories, and all the places where old worlds and new collide and change.

Jewish scifi and fantasy

This unique collection of science fiction tales demonstrates the diversity of the Chinese experience around the world, merging China's rich heritage with new traditions, offering North American readers an opportunity to discover these exciting writers.

Chinese-inspired science fiction, and SF by Chinese authors

Filipinos and Chinese have a rich, vibrant literature when it comes to speculative fiction. But what about the fiction of the Filipino-Chinese, who draw their roots from both cultures? This is what this anthology attempts to answer. Featuring stories that deal with voyeur ghosts, taboo lovers, a town that cannot sleep, the Chinese zodiac, and an exile that finally comes home, Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology covers a diverse selection of narratives from fresh, Southeast Asian voices.

Filipino and Chinese spec fic

These stories run the gamut from science fiction, to fantasy, to horror. Some are translations (from German, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Swedish), and some were written in English. The authors herein come from Asia and Europe, Africa and Latin America. Their stories are all wondrous and wonderful, and showcase the vitality and diversity that can be found in the field. They are a conversation, by voices that should be heard. And once again, editor Lavie Tidhar and Apex Publications are tremendously grateful for the opportunity to bring them to our readers.

International science fiction short stories

An expedition to an alien planet; Lenin rising from the dead; a superhero so secret he does not exist. In The Apex Book of World SF 2, World Fantasy Award nominated editor Lavie Tidhar brings together a unique collection of stories from around the world. Quiet horror from Cuba and Australia; surrealist fantasy from Russia and epic fantasy from Poland; near-future tales from Mexico and Finland, as well as cyberpunk from South Africa. In this anthology one gets a glimpse of the complex and fascinating world of genre fiction – from all over our world.

International SFF short stories

Enter the magical world of Isabella Fox, mediocre witch for hire, and Emily Deer, outcast shapeshifter, and the charming little town of Benevolence, where these two women-in-love make their home. The Benevolence Tales, Volume 1 is a compilation of the full first three novellas in the Benevolence Tales series: ONE SOLSTICE NIGHT: Isabella Fox has just moved to the charming little town of Benevolence. As the new village magicmaker, she's expected to cast only one spell a year in the sleepy village--something not even she could mess up. When Isabella meets the mysterious outcast shapeshifter, Emily, love begins to grow between the two women, but the chill of winter forewarns that not all is well in Benevolence. ONE IMBOLC GLOAMING: When the winter festival of Imbolc draws near, Isabella makes preparations for her yearly pilgrimage to Lunarose Abbey, where she and her friends, since their Academy days, have always participated in the annual Imbolc play and kept candlelit vigil to the Rose Goddess. This year, Isabella asks Emily to come with her but warns her about the abbey's odd quirks--like the fact that it's haunted by a lovelorn ghost... And ONE OSTARA SUNRISE: Every year on Ostara, all the townsfolk of Benevolence journey to nearby Mirror Lake, where they peer into the depths of the waters to see a moment of happiness from their coming year. But the lake itself is not enchanted–the creature that descends from the mountaintop and blesses the lake is what gives it its magic. This year, for the first time in millennia, the creature has not come, and Isabella and Emily make the treacherous journey to the top of the mountain, the advent of spring and the end of winter hanging in the balance. The Benevolence Tales, Volume 1 also includes a never-before-published short story featuring the origin of Isabella’s Familiar, Alice; an introduction by the author; and a few more enchanting extras!

Lesbian short stories

The Sappho's Fables series takes well-known, beloved fairy tales and retells them from a lesbian perspective. Volume One contains the first three novellas in the series: SEVEN (Snow White), BRAIDED (Rapunzel) and CRUMBS (Hansel and Gretel), compiled together in an enchanting omnibus edition. * SEVEN: A Lesbian Snow White The strange witch girl Neve has skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and a dark secret. Her father Lexander, an alchemist, harbors an evil obsession, and Catalina, his newest bride, made the grave mistake of becoming his wife. When Catalina finds herself falling in love with his daughter, Neve, instead, the deepening bond between the women sets in motion the final chapter of a story that began long ago, with a desperate longing and a handful of apple seeds. Together, Neve and Catalina must venture into the Huntsman's haunted forest to undo what has been done and set themselves free. * BRAIDED: A Lesbian Rapunzel Zelda is cursed to spend her days on a platform in an ancient, holy tree, growing her hair long enough to touch the ground. But it wasn’t her curse to bear: Gray, the witch’s daughter, was meant for that lonely fate. Gray visits Zelda each day, mourning their switched fates, and falling deeper in love with the cursed girl, until one night, at the Not-There Fair, an extraordinary creature outlines a magical plan that could set both of them free. Will Gray’s love for Zelda be strong enough to survive the strange dream world of Chimera, or will Zelda remain a prisoner of the curse forever? * CRUMBS: A Lesbian Hansel and Gretel Greta's never ventured beyond the refuge of the Heap. Outside, the Ragers lurk, ever hungry and hunting. But Greta and her brother, half-starved and now alone, must risk death for the dream of safety they hope to find within the metal forest. Once there, nothing is as it seems: in the confines of a crumbling old candy factory, the woman who rescues them with sweet words and sweeter treats harbors a dangerous secret.

Lesbian fairy tale retellings

The 2013 edition of the annual series showcasing the best tales of lesbian-themes fantasy, science-fiction, and the weird, includes such acclaimed authors as Jewelle Gomez, Nisi Shawl, Carrie Vaughn, and Brit Mandelo. The editors have ensured that a variety of voices and styles present imaginative fiction encompassing the love between women.

Anthology of lesbian spec fic

Dark Matter is the first and only series to bring together the works of black SF and fantasy writers. The first volume was featured in the "New York Times," which named it a Notable Book of the Year.

Black SF/F

AfroSF is the first ever anthology of Science Fiction by African writers only that was open to submissions of original (previously unpublished) works across Africa and abroad.

Science fiction by African authors

After a year’s hiatus, Crossed Genres Magazine returns! Collected here are the first 6 issues of the new magazine: * Boundaries * Cloak & Dagger * Myth * Discovery * Escape * She 18 stories and 6 Spotlight interviews make up this first anthology of the reborn Crossed Genres Magazine 2.0!

Diverse short stories

This debut anthology features short fiction, novel excerpts, and essays that have won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Created in 1991 to honor the innovative fiction of Alice Bradley Sheldon (who wrote under the pen name James Tiptree), the Tiptree Award is presented to speculative fiction that explores and expands gender roles—and in the process touches on the most fundamental of human desires: the need for sex, for love, and for acceptance. This collection includes thought-provoking essays by Suzy McKee Charnas, Karen Joy Fowler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Pat Murphy, and Joanna Russ.

Genderqueer short stories

The world of speculative fiction is expansive; it covers more than one country, one continent, one culture. Collected here are sixteen stories penned by authors from Thailand, the Philippines, China, Israel, Pakistan, Serbia, Croatia, Malaysia, and other countries across the globe. Each one tells a tale breathtakingly vast and varied, whether caught in the ghosts of the past or entangled in a postmodern age. Among the spirits, technology, and deep recesses of the human mind, stories abound. Kites sail to the stars, technology transcends physics, and wheels cry out in the night. Memories come and go like fading echoes and a train carries its passengers through more than simple space and time. Dark and bright, beautiful and haunting, the stories herein represent speculative fiction from a sampling of the finest authors from around the world.

Diverse SF short stories

The lushness of language and the landscape, wild contrasts, and pure storytelling magic abound in this anthology of Caribbean writing. Steeped in the tradition of fabulism, where the irrational and inexplicable coexist with the realities of daily life, the stories in this collection are infused with a vitality and freshness that most writing traditions have long ago lost. From spectral slaving ships to women who shed their skin at night to become owls, stories from writers such as Jamaica Kincaid, Marcia Douglas, Ian MacDonald, and Kamau Brathwaite pulse with rhythms, visions, and the tortured history of this spiritually rich region of the world.

Caribbean fantasy

Inventors, pilots, tinkers, and soldiers; magical metals to replace an aging heart or a ruined limb; steam-powered fantasy worlds of clockwork nightingales, automatons, dirigibles, and men. The stories in this anthology visit diverse times in the history of modern man, and the men who populate these tales face war and cruelty, masters and autocrats, illness and poverty and greed. Yet the heat of romance outmatches even the steam engines, and time and again, the gears of love rule the day.

Gay steampunk stories (also on a NB rec list)

Myth, magic, and monsters—the stuff of childhood dreams (or nightmares) and adult fantasies. Delve into these classic fairy tales retold with a queer twist and surrender to the world of seductive spells and dark temptations.

Queer fairy tale retellings

Edited by world-renowned lesbian fantasy author Nicola Griffith and fantasy publisher Stephen Pagel, this groundbreaking anthology of all-original science fiction stories brings together some of mainstream's and science fiction's most notable writers -- gay and straight -- creating worlds where time and place and sexuality are alternative to the empirical environment. Keith Hartman's "Sex, Guns and Baptists" gives a disturbing view of how the world could become if the Christian fundamentalists continue gaining political ground; Ralph Sperry's delightful aliens in "On Vacation" are refreshingly similar to us: shy workaholics, exasperated lovers, good with machines; Ellen Klages takes a '90s dyke back forty years to 1950s San Francisco where she discovers her modern sensibilities are utterly alien to the lesbians of the time. These stories explore physical, emotional, and moral landscapes vastly different from the familiar -- where nothing is as it seems.This group of talented newcomers and award-winning genre veterans includes Jim Grimsley, Mark W. Tiedemann, Charles Sheffield, Carrie Richerson, Keith Hartman, Nancy Kress, Richard Bamburg, L. Timmel Duchamp, Charles Sheffield, Don Bassingthwaite, and many others.

gay scifi anthology

In the groundbreaking anthology, queer writers write fantasy for the first time, and genre writers explore queer characters. But don't expect the usual fantasy backdrops-these stories will give you a frisson, a thrill, as they fizz off the page. They are extraordinary characters living outside the bounds of reality. But you will recognize them... It's about being gay, being straight, falling in love, sorrowful partings, death, and fantastic circumstances. Bending the Landscape stretches the standard fantasy genre.

Queer fantasy anthology

In a world gone wrong, heroes and villains are not always easy to distinguish and every individual has the ability to contribute something powerful. In this stunning collection of original and rediscovered stories of tragedy and hope, the stars are a diverse group of students, street kids, good girls, kidnappers, and child laborers pitted against their environments, their governments, differing cultures, and sometimes one another as they seek answers in their dystopian worlds. Take a journey through time from a nuclear nightmare of the past to society’s far future beyond Earth with these eleven stories by masters of speculative fiction. Includes stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, Ursula K. Le Guin, Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Daniel H. Wilson, and more.

diverse YA scifi

This third issue of LONTAR presents speculative writing from and about Singapore, the Philippines, Cambodia and Taiwan. Inside these pages, you’ll find: the evocation of an alternate ancient Cambodia from multiple award-winner Geoff Ryman; an investigative automotive revenge tale from Palanca Grand Prize winner Dean Francis Alfar; the mystery of magically appearing furniture from Taiwanese short fiction wunderkind Sabrina Huang (deftly translated by PEN/Heim grant recipient Jeremy Tiang); an uneasy exploration of marital discord on the road from Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award winner Nikki Alfar; a quasi-Ballardian take on beach resort culture from Ben Slater; the uniquely Singaporean response to a viral outbreak from JY Yang; and speculative poetry from Anne Carly Abad, Arlene Ang, Tse Hao Guang, Cyril Wong, David Wong Hsien Ming and Daryl Yam.

Southeast Asian science fiction

This second issue of LONTAR presents speculative writing from and about Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Inside these pages, you’ll find: a metamorphic love story near the Korean DMZ from award-winner E.C. Myers; a brand new supernatural crime tale from bestselling author John Burdett; a cautionary tale about Singaporean elitism from Tiffany Tsao; an examination of the illusory facets of love from Victor Fernando R. Ocampo; a haunting and beautiful evocation of a fantastical Vietnamese floating market from Eliza Chan; and speculative poetry from Jerrold Yam, Tse Hao Guang, Ang Si Min, Shelly Bryant and Daryl Yam.

Southeast Asian science fiction

Speculative fiction is the literature of questions, of challenges and imagination, and what better to question than the ways in which gender and sexuality have been rigidly defined, partitioned off, put in little boxes? These seventeen stories explore the ways in which identity can go beyond binary from space colonies to small college towns, from angels to androids, and from a magical past to other worlds entirely, the authors in this collection have brought to life wonderful tales starring people who proudly define (and redefine) their own genders, sexualities, identities, and so much else in between.

short stories with non-traditional genders

This volume introduces black science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction writers to the generations of readers who have not had the chance to explore the scope and diversity among African-American writers.

African science fiction

This premiere issue of LONTAR presents speculative writing from and about the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Laos, and Vietnam. Inside these pages, you’ll find: a young Laotian journalist’s place in the sensationalist future of news reporting from award-winner Paolo Bacigalupi; a post-apocalyptic Manila from Kate Osias; a utopian Kuala Lumpur from Zen Cho; a haunting military excursion down the Yellow River from Elka Ray Nguyen; speculative poetry from Chris Mooney-Singh, Ang Si Min, and Bryan Thao Worra; and an unusual exploration of Philippine magic systems from Paolo Chikiamco

Southeast Asian science fiction

In an anthology that spans from India in the west to Hawai‘i in the east, and as far south as Australia and New Zealand, 24 authors bring you an exciting range of tales set in the past, present, and future. Discover characters like the Moon Rabbit from Chinese mythology, a kitsune from Japanese mythology, and the aswang from Filipino mythology. Find out what arises when a struggling Malaysian student seeks help for her studies in Chinatown, and what happens when the garbage in the Pacific Ocean is seen as a valuable treasure. Futures imagined stretch from amazing advances in technology to depressing dystopias. Read these stories and so many more in Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction.

Anthology of Asia-Pacific spec fic

So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy is an anthology of original new stories by leading African, Asian, South Asian and Aboriginal authors, as well as North American and British writers of color.

Post-colonial science fiction

In 1514 Hungary, peasants who rose up against the nobility rise again – from the grave. In 1633 Al-Shouf, a mother keeps demons at bay with the combined power of grief and music. In 1775 Paris, as social tensions come to a boil, a courtesan tries to save the woman she loves. In 1838 Georgia, a pregnant woman's desperate escape from slavery comes with a terrible price. In 1900 Ilocos Norte, a forest spirit helps a young girl defend her land from American occupiers. These gripping stories have been passed down through the generations, hidden between the lines of journal entries and love letters. Now 27 of today's finest authors – including Tananarive Due, Sofia Samatar, Ken Liu, Victor LaValle, Nnedi Okorafor, and Sabrina Vourvoulias – reveal the people whose lives have been pushed to the margins of history.

Diverse historical fantasy fiction

Griots: Sisters of the Spear picks up where the ground breaking Griots Anthology leaves off. Charles R. Saunders and Milton J. Davis present seventeen original and exciting Sword and Soul tales focusing on black women. Just as the Griots Anthology broke ground as the first Sword and Soul Anthology, Griots: Sisters of the Spear pays homage to the spirit, bravery and compassion of women of color. The griots have returned to sing new songs, and what wonderful songs they are!

Black women sword/sorcery

PROJECT UNICORN, VOLUME TWO is a collection of thirty young adult short stories featuring lesbian heroines. As ghosts and robots, mermaids and werewolves, the characters in this extensive and varied collection battle monsters and inner demons, stand up to bullies, wield magic, fall in love, and take action to claim their lives--and their stories--as their own. PROJECT UNICORN, VOLUME TWO is a collection of thirty young adult short stories featuring lesbian heroines. As ghosts and robots, mermaids and werewolves, the characters in this extensive and varied collection battle monsters and inner demons, stand up to bullies, wield magic, fall in love, and take action to claim their lives--and their stories--as their own.

short fantasy stories about gay girls

What do a disabled superhero, a time-traveling Chinese-American figure skater, and a transgendered animal shifter have in common? They're all stars of Kaleidoscope stories! Kaleidoscope collects fun, edgy, meditative, and hopeful YA science fiction and fantasy with diverse leads. These twenty original stories tell of scary futures, magical adventures, and the joys and heartbreaks of teenage life. Featuring New York Times bestselling and award winning authors along with newer voices: Garth Nix, Sofia Samatar, William Alexander, Karen Healey, E.C. Myers, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Ken Liu, Vylar Kaftan, Sean Williams, Amal El-Mohtar, Jim C. Hines, Faith Mudge, John Chu, Alena McNamara, Tim Susman, Gabriela Lee, Dirk Flinthart, Holly Kench, Sean Eads, and Shveta Thakrar

anthology of diverse YA SFF

In a world increasingly complicated by questionable technologies and factional politics, what does the future hold for gays, lesbians, and transgender people? In this anthology, the first of its kind in over ten years, provocative stories and comics posit a queer future of limitless possibilities, covering issues like cloning, gene manipulation, and gender assignment. It includes contributions from best-selling author and comic book creator Neil Gaiman (Anansi Boys, The Sandman), World Fantasy Award-winner Rachel Pollack, and cult UK comic artist Bryan Talbot.

anthology of queer scifi

Magic. Myth. Warfare. Wonder. Beauty. Bravery. Glamour. Gore. Sorcery. Sensuality. These and many more elements of fantasy await you in the pages of Griots, which brings you the latest stories of the new genre called Sword and Soul.The tales told in Griots are the annals of the Africa that was, as well as Africas that never were, may have been, or should have been. They are the legends of a continent and people emerging from shadows thrust upon them in the past. They are the sagas sung by the modern heirs of the African story-tellers known by many names - including griots.Here, you will meet mighty warriors, seductive sorceresses, ambitious monarchs, and cunning courtesans. Here, you will journey through the vast variety of settings Africa offers, and inspires. Here, you will savor what the writings of the modern-day griots have to offer: journeys through limitless vistas of the imagination, with a touch of color and a taste of soul.

anthology of black sword/sorcery

PROJECT UNICORN, VOLUME ONE is a collection of thirty young adult short stories featuring lesbian heroines. As ghosts and witches, aliens and vampires, the characters in this extensive and varied collection battle monsters and inner demons, stand up to bullies, wield magic, fall in love, and take action to claim their lives--and their stories--as their own. Written by wife-and-wife authors Jennifer Diemer and Sarah Diemer, this volume of stories, with genres ranging from science fiction and fantasy to the paranormal, is part of Project Unicorn, a fiction project that seeks to address the near nonexistence of lesbian main characters in young adult fiction by giving them their own stories. PROJECT UNICORN, VOLUME ONE contains the full first three collections of Project Unicorn stories: The Dark Woods, The Monstrous Sea and Uncharted Sky.

short fantasy stories about gay girls