It's hard to write in times like these. Hard to speak. But there is something inexplicable in the written word, something ineffable. Fiction and poetry are the canvases on which we paint our hopes and dread. In systems that would silence us, writers scream with the scribbling of pens, the soft clacking of keyboards. "Writers are among the most sensitive, the most intellectually anarchic, most representative, most probing of artists," Toni Morrison once wrote. "The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power." The act of writing is an act of power, the key on the kite string calling down the lightning. It is a lever long enough, a fulcrum strong enough, that we might yet move the world with it. It is a power that can transform us.

In this issue, you will find a slew of stories, a plethora of poems, and a host of heartbreaking, hopeful, honest content. (You are instructed to please pronounce the h.) Find the god that lurks in polluted waters in "The God Who Never Sleeps Dwells Under an Inky Sea" by A. W. Prihandita, and weep over the ghosts that you may never find again in "The Coral Tombs" by Eric Raglin. Cure your heartbreak in "Bleeding Hearts" by Suzan Palumbo, and discover your father in unexpected places in "Giant Killer Shark" by Timothy Mudie. In "The Poison You Leave" by Krystle Yanagihara, settler colonialism marks the land, but we have the tools (and righteous monsters) to clear it all away, and in "A Good Catch" by Stacie Turner, make a promise to the sea that will be hard to keep.

If poetry is more your speed, come with us to Nigeria and watch the roads turn to rivers in "Somewhere in Nigeria" by AbdulBasit Oluwanishola, or raise your voice with the women and hear the many tongues of grandfather mouth in "Black Bile" by Chinedu Gospel. Else you might face the coming storm in "Category 4" by West Ambrose, read the words on the tomb of the world in "Epitaph of a World on Fire: An Abecedarian" by Jessica Peter, or refuse to be the princess they want you to be in "Meat, Bone, and Soul" by Beth Cato.

I once read that people facing parole hearings have a much better chance of release if their hearing is early in the morning. This is because, by the afternoon, the parole board has decision fatigue—the parts of their brains responsible for hearing testimony and weighing evidence are literally exhausted, and so they just start saying no to everyone. This is, in fact, a terrible reality that incarcerated people face in this country, and it's only one of the very many aspects of the carceral system that has to fundamentally change.

I've been thinking a lot about the concept of decision fatigue and how it applies to my life, though, and I have to say: running a magazine is hard, y'all. I've had enough people close to me do time that I'm comparing literal prison with running a small SFF magazine, but there are so many decisions that have to be made, from going through the slush to deciding what to include in each issue to figuring out how to beg people to support us through subscriptions and sales so that we can keep the lights on. Of course, the bright side is that when my brain sputters out and makes me want to hide under my desk, it's a lot harder to ruin people's lives.

These poems and fictions, like my life at the moment, are about change. Resisting it. Surrendering to it. Massaging it and its outcomes.

One is about getting revenge for other versions of you because you couldn’t get revenge for yourself. One is about the specter of grief and the art of letting go. One is about listening to the world we found amid the buzz of the world we’ve made. One is about becoming an alien and falling in/out/in love. One is about the powers of love, admiration, and becoming. One is about being taken and choosing to stay. One is about the travaux a woman survives and who she’s meant to be afterward. One is a force of nature and/or a woman scorned. One is sci-fi synesthesia. One is about the journey, what you lose to embark and what you find along the way.

In this issue, you will find fiction by Madi Haab, N. R. M. Roshak, Rin Willis, Avra Margariti, Natalia Theodoridou, and Matt Tighe, poetry by Emmie Christie, Jess Gofton, Elizabeth Shack, and Sofia Ezdina, and short fiction reviews by Danai Christopoulou. The cover art is by Lauren Raye Snow.
Guest Editor, LP Kindred

Spring has come to the Northern Hemisphere, and that means the birds are singing, the plants are blooming, and there's more great fiction and poetry to read! Spring is a time of renewal, a time of opening back up after the claustrophobia of winter, but it's not all sunshine and puppy dogs. A spectre is haunting us, like Marx and Engels said, but instead of communism, it's the deep and abiding dread of the climate crisis knocking on our doors. The March issue therefore is a special one, what we call our DRY ISSUE, and it's full of stories and poems meant to evoke a vision of a changing world, an clarion call of catastrophe and hope. Here are the sins of our past and the bright songs of a painful and glorious future.

In this issue, you will find fiction by E.M. Linden, Ai Jiang, Crystal Lynn Hilbert, and Lucero Valdovinos, poetry by Temidayo Okun, Abdulkareem Abdulkareem, and P. H. Low, and short fiction reviews by Danai Christopoulou. Cover art is by Aimee Cozza.

Haven Spec Magazine is now a pro-paying market! We’re grateful to everyone who supported our Kickstarter, and we are so glad to be able to give our wonderful authors the rates that they deserve. We have big plans for 2024, including interviews with some amazing editors, stories from across the width and breadth of the human experience, and short fiction reviews from your very own Haven Spec staff (okay, mostly Danai). I very much want Haven Spec to be a part of the wider SFF community, and that means paying people what they deserve, shouting out the stories and magazines we love, and publishing as much awesome fiction and poetry as we possibly can.

In this issue, you will find fiction by Melissa A Watkins, Thomas Ha, T. K. Rex, Sophia Adamowicz, and Dana Berube, poetry by Russell Nichols, Matthew Roy, A.J. Van Belle, and Anna Quercia-Thomas, and short fiction reviews by Danai Christopoulou. The beautiful cover art is by Carly A-F.

Issue Twelve is here!

We've got:

Fiction by Monte Lin, Richard Ford Burley, Elisabeth Kauffman, Karen Aria Lin, Elizabeth Broadbent, and Karl Dandenell!

Poetry by Wen Yu Yang, Shana Ross, H.V. Patterson, Goran Lowie, Anna Madden, Archita Mittra, Brian Hugenbruch, G.E. Woods, Elis Montgomery, Maria Schrater, and Elizabeth R McClellan!

Read the entire issue now!

Issue Eleven is here!

We've got:

Fiction by T. R. Siebert, James Parenti, Rajeev Prasad, Natalie Kikić, and A. R. Frederiksen!

Poetry by Sandra Pope, Connie La-Huynh, Gretchen Tessmer, • R L • powell, and Rebecca A. Demarest!

Read the entire issue now!

Issue Ten is here!

We've got:

Fiction by Amanda Haimoto Rudd, Lindsey Duncan, Dana Vickerson, Marissa Lingen, Lynne Sargent, and AD Sui!

Poetry by Sodïq Oyèkànmí, Kevin Martens Wong, Avra Margariti, Mark A. Fisher, and S. T. Eleu!

Read the entire issue now!

Issue Nine is here!

We've got:

Fiction by Jessica Cho, Timothy Johnson, KT Wagner, André Geleynse, Anne Marie Lutz, and Mike Morgan!

Poetry by Marcus Whalbring, Marisca Pichette, Anton Cancre, L. Acadia, Tania Chen, Colleen Anderson, and Eva Papasoulioti!

Read the entire issue now!