Issue Twenty-Five, August 2026
Issue Twenty-Five of Haven Spec Magazine is here! Each month I write, "The words you'll find on every careful page show hope and love and heartache." And each and every month I mean it. So let this fiction and poetry fill the quiet moments of your day, or let it carry you to the roof to shout out loud, but come with us to feel the ways that we have felt. There are fish in your pockets and fossils on the riverbank, so here's your chance to find out why. And please, spread the word!
Fiction by E.M. Linden, Sydney Sackett, Carol Scheina, C.M. Fields, C.G. Aubrey, and J.A. Bryson
Poetry by Sarah Chin, Mahaila Smith, and Lesley Hart Gunn
Cover Art by Caroline Jamhour
Plus a brief note from the editor and little reviews by our associate editors.
Subscribers can read it now, and the free-to-read online version goes up on September 8th!
Cover Artist
Caroline Jamhour
Caroline Jamhour is a Brazilian self-taught artist currently based in the UK. Working across traditional and digital media, her independent practice explores symbolic imagination, mythology, spirituality, and melancholy through paintings inhabited by celestial beings, contemplative figures, and mythic creatures. She has also worked with publishers and other clients on book covers and illustration projects.
Table of Contents
Fiction
Like Water by E.M. Linden
The Singers by Sydney Sackett
Between Tides and Bones by Carol Scheina
Crown Shyness by C.M. Fields
The Forest, the Sea, & Those Caught Between by C.G. Aubrey
Proliferation by J.A. Bryson
Poetry
Sestina for My Summer Situationship with the Lake Michigan Lake Monster by Sarah Chin
Please stop asking how I'm doing by Mahaila Smith
Acceptable Reasons for Embracing Your Incubus by Lesley Hart Gunn