Issue Twenty-Three of Haven Spec Magazine is here! This issue will plant its seeds in the loamy soil of your soul, but do not fear the things that grow. They are what sustain us. In these pages, you'll find something much like horror and hope, rage and resignation, and all the other aporetic alliterations that characterize life in this here modern age.

So settle in for fiction by EC Dorgan, Spencer Nitkey, Madi Haab, Corey Farrenkopf, and Emily O'Malley Liu; poetry by Ai Jiang, Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe, Jordan Hirsch, Lynne Sargent, Oladosu Michael Emerald, and Nico Martinez Nocito; and a brief note from the editor.

Subscribers get the issue on June 25th, 2026, and the free-to-read online version goes up on July 2nd!


Cover Artist

Carly A-F

Carly A-F is a freelance illustrator & author from the UK. Her work is a combination of traditional media (charcoal, acrylic paint, pastels, chalk, pencil and ink) mixed with digital colour. She illustrates sci fi, fantasy & horror, as well as picture books, editorial, games, graphics & more! Nature, science, myth & magic are her main inspirations.


Table of Contents

Fiction

We Whose Fathers Have Transformed into Wild Animals of the Land, Sea, and Sky by Spencer Nitkey

Mother’s Bane by Madi Haab

What Is A Lake Beyond An Extinct Word? by Corey Farrenkopf

Strawberry Island by Emily O'Malley Liu

Poetry

The Carcass of the World by Ai Jiang

What to Watch For by Jordan Hirsch

A Science Center Education by Lynne Sargent

The Archivist of Vanished Tongues by Oladosu Michael Emerald

SOLD: One Soul, Gently Used by Nico Martinez Nocito

Non-Fiction