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| Art by John Glover |
So Mithila Review seems to be back on a much more regular basis, and the latest issue is out now in its entirety, in part because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. There’s a lot of content, and there’s no way I’m getting to it all in one go, especially with it dropping on the last day of what was a very busy month. To cut myself a bit of slack, I’m only looking at one story and two poem today, and will stretch the rest of the issue between two more posts to come throughout April and May. For now, the story and poems are wonderful and push the boundaries of form and meaning. There’s a lot of good stuff to get to, so let’s dive right in!
It’s a month of me adding some publications to my regular rotation, and (as voted in by my patrons), that includes Augur Magazine! It’s in its second year of publication and is a Canadian magazine specializing in SFF short fiction and poetry! I personally love venues that do both fiction and poetry so that’s extra awesome! I’m going to be breaking the issue up into two parts, though, in order to not bury myself in work (and to help me fill up some space in my rotation). The first half of the issue is strong and rather dark, filled with intense yearning as well as broken systems that often leave people vulnerable and without support. But there’s hope to these pieces, as well, that these characters can survive regardless, and find ways to help each other, and achieve compassion and community, even if it’s with just one other person. It’s a beautiful collection of works, and I’ll get right to my reviews!
Good news, everyone—Strange Horizons funded for 2019! The fund drive had been running for a while, complete with bonus fiction and poetry, so it’s a bit of a larger release than usual today, with three stories and five poems to look at. And there’s a lot of damage on display in these works. A lot of characters trapped by circumstance in situations where there really doesn’t seem like a good way out. Where their pain seems inevitable and unavoidable. And, often, pain is unavoidable. But the shape of that pain is often something that can be effected, and here we see how these characters seek to choose the pain they have to experience. And it’s just a wonderful collection of short SFF, really showing what Strange Horizons does as a publication, and I’ll get right to my reviews!
