iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The We Demand Stories event with @bsfwriters.bsky.social scheduled for 3 PM today has been postponed on account of Nor'easter! In lieu of blowing away in the high winds, we'll do this in October, but we'll keep you posted about when! More info: www.eventbrite.com/e/we-demand-... Stay safe!

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

If you're in NYC on Saturday, join @bsfwriters.bsky.social and our editor @leonp.bsky.social for a panel discussion on cities and how they shape our lives (and fiction)! www.eventbrite.com/e/we-demand-stor…

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

If you haven't read the poem "Acceptable Reasons for Embracing Your Incubus" by Lesley Hart Gunn in our 🌟August 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! Find it here: havenspec.com/poetry/acceptable-rea… (Art: @carolinejamhour.bsky.social)

Teaser image of the poem "Acceptable Reasons for Embracing Your Incubus" by Lesley Hart Gunn in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 25, published August 2026. The text in the image is an excerpt of the piece over the cover image, titled "Quietness in Amber" and made by Caroline Jamhour. The image features a contemplative woman, her eyes closed, standing in shoulder-deep water beside a crescent moon, her hair flowing on the water's surface.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Reading for award noms? Please consider the short story "Horseland" by EC Dorgan in our ✨June 2026 issue✨! Find it here: havenspec.com/fiction/horseland-jun… (Art by @carlydraws.bsky.social)

An excerpt of the story "Horseland" by EC Dorgan, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire for hair (overlaid with branches) as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

If you haven't read the short story "The Forest, the Sea, & Those Caught Between" by C.G. Aubrey / @cgaubrey.bsky.social in our 🌟August 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! Read: havenspec.com/fiction/the-forest-th… Art: @carolinejamhour.bsky.social

Teaser image of the short story "The Forest, the Sea, & Those Caught Between" by C.G. Aubrey in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 25, published August 2026. The text in the image is an excerpt of the piece over the cover image, titled "Quietness in Amber" and made by Caroline Jamhour. The image features a contemplative woman, her eyes closed, standing in shoulder-deep water beside a crescent moon, her hair flowing on the water's surface.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

If you haven't read the poem "Please stop asking how I'm doing" by Mahaila Smith / @mahailasmith.ca in our 🌟August 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! Find it here: havenspec.com/poetry/please-stop-as… (Art: @carolinejamhour.bsky.social)

Teaser image of the poem "Please stop asking how I'm doing" by Mahaila Smith in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 25, published August 2026. The text in the image is an excerpt of the piece below the cover image, titled "Quietness in Amber" and made by Caroline Jamhour. The image features a contemplative woman, her eyes closed, standing in shoulder-deep water beside a crescent moon, her hair flowing on the water's surface.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Reading for award noms? Please consider the short story "Fragments of Sky in Quantum Grief" by Lex Chamberlin in our ✨February 2026 issue✨! Find it here: havenspec.com/fiction/fragments-of-… (Art by @mspencerdraws.bsky.social)

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

If you haven't read the short story "Crown Shyness" by C.M. Fields / @toomanyspectra.bsky.social in our 🌟August 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! Find it here: havenspec.com/fiction/crow...

Teaser image of the short story "Crown Shyness" by C.M. Fields in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 25, published August 2026. The text in the image is an excerpt of the piece below the cover image, titled "Quietness in Amber" and made by Caroline Jamhour. The image features a contemplative woman, her eyes closed, standing in shoulder-deep water beside a crescent moon, her hair flowing on the water's surface.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

As you read for award nominations this year, please consider the short story "Magical Girl: Corporate Failure" by Lia Lao / @thelialao.bsky.social in our ✨January 2026 issue✨! Find it here: havenspec.com/fiction/magi... (Art by @aimeecozza.com)

An excerpt of the short story "Magical Girl: Corporate Failure" by Lia Lao, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

If you haven't read the short story "Proliferation" by J.A. Bryson / @jbrysonwrites.bsky.social in our 🌟August 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! Find it here: havenspec.com/fiction/prol...

Teaser image of the short story "Proliferation" by J.A. Bryson in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 25, published August 2026. The text in the image is an excerpt of the piece over the cover image, titled "Quietness in Amber" and made by Caroline Jamhour. The image features a contemplative woman, her eyes closed, standing in shoulder-deep water beside a crescent moon, her hair flowing on the water's surface.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

If you haven't read the short story "Between Tides and Bones" by Carol Scheina / @carolscheina.bsky.social in our 🌟August 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! Find it here: havenspec.com/fiction/betw... (Art: @carolinejamhour.bsky.social )

Teaser image of the short story "Between Tides and Bones" by Carol Scheina in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 25, published August 2026. The text in the image is an excerpt of the piece over the cover image, titled "Quietness in Amber" and made by Caroline Jamhour. The image features a contemplative woman, her eyes closed, standing in shoulder-deep water beside a crescent moon, her hair flowing on the water's surface.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

If you haven't read the poem "Sestina for My Summer Situationship with the Lake Michigan Lake Monster" by Sarah Chin from our 🌟August 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! Find it here: havenspec.com/poetry/sesti... (Art: @carolinejamhour.bsky.social)

Teaser image of the poem "Sestina for My Summer Situationship with the Lake Michigan Lake Monster" by Sarah Chin in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 25, published August 2026. The text in the image is an excerpt of the piece over the cover image, titled "Quietness in Amber" and made by Caroline Jamhour. The image features a contemplative woman, her eyes closed, standing in shoulder-deep water beside a crescent moon, her hair flowing on the water's surface.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

If you haven't read the short story "The Singers" by Sydney Sackett from our 🌟August 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! Find it here: havenspec.com/fiction/the-...

Teaser image of the short story "The Singers" by Sydney Sackett in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 25, published August 2026. The text in the image is an excerpt of the piece over the cover image, titled "Quietness in Amber" and made by Caroline Jamhour. The image features a contemplative woman, her eyes closed, standing in shoulder-deep water beside a crescent moon, her hair flowing on the water's surface.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

If you haven't read the short story "Like Water" by E.M. Linden / @emlinden.bsky.social from our 🌟August 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! havenspec.com/fiction/like...

Teaser image of the short story "Like Water" by E.M. Linden in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 25, published August 2026. The text in the image is an excerpt of the piece over the cover image, titled "Quietness in Amber" and made by Caroline Jamhour. The image features a contemplative woman, her eyes closed, standing in shoulder-deep water beside a crescent moon, her hair flowing on the water's surface.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

👀August 2026 Poetry👀 "Acceptable Reasons for Embracing Your Incubus" by Lesley Hart Gunn about giving in to the demons that possess you--or at least the ones you'd like to. Read it here! havenspec.com/poetry/accep...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

👀August 2026 Fiction👀 "Proliferation" is a short story by J.A. Bryson / @jbrysonwrites.bsky.social about the painful legacies of family and the agonizing lengths we go to for the ones we love (also killer alien plants) Read it here! havenspec.com/fiction/prol...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

👀August 2026 Fiction👀 "The Forest, the Sea, & Those Caught Between" is a short story by C.G. Aubrey / @cgaubrey.bsky.social about the unending power of storytelling (and also strange children on strange lands) Read it here! havenspec.com/fiction/the-...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

👀August 2026 Poetry👀 "Please stop asking how I'm doing" is a poem by Mahaila Smith / @mahailasmith.ca about anxiety that literally spills from pockets and goes flopping around on the floor Read it here! havenspec.com/poetry/pleas...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

👀August 2026 Fiction👀 "Crown Shyness" is a short story by C.M. Fields / @toomanyspectra.bsky.social about all those places, inside and out, we hide from ourselves and the world Read it here! havenspec.com/fiction/crow...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

👀August 2026 Fiction👀 "Between Tides and Bones" is a short story by Carol Scheina / @carolscheina.bsky.social about necromancy and family and how our parents remain with us, even after they've gone Read it here! havenspec.com/fiction/betw...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

👀August 2026 Poetry👀 "Sestina for My Summer Situationship with the Lake Michigan Lake Monster" is a poem by Sarah Chin about grief and loss (and also the Lake Michigan Lake Monster) Read it here! havenspec.com/poetry/sesti...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

👀August 2026 Fiction👀 "The Singers" is a short story by Sydney Sackett about strange signals from far off planets that ask us to hold onto hope for a far and distant future that we will never see. Read it here! havenspec.com/fiction/the-...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

👀August 2026 Fiction👀 "Like Water" is a short story by E.M. Linden / @emlinden.bsky.social about losing the things we hold most dear when we are made to assimilate. Read it here! havenspec.com/fiction/like...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Our ✨August 2026 issue✨ is now free to read online! In this thread are links to all of its poems and stories. Please read it and please spread the word! havenspec.com/issues/issue... 🧵

Cover of Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 25, August 2026.

Fiction in the issue is by E.M. Linden, Sydney Sackett, Carol Scheina, C.M. Fields, C.G. Aubrey, and J.A. Bryson.

Poetry in the issue is by Sarah Chin, Mahaila Smith, and Lesley Hart Gunn.

The cover art is titled "Quietness in Amber" and is by Caroline Jamhour. It features a contemplative woman, her eyes closed, standing in shoulder-deep water beside a crescent moon, her hair flowing on the water's surface.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The ✨August 2026 Issue✨ is starting to go live, so here is an excerpt of this issue's Letter from the Editor! It's roughly 500 words on the myth of the genius (and the fragility of tech bros) Find it in our August Issue! havenspec.com And please subscribe or buy an issue and support small presses!

An excerpt from the Letter from the Editor in the August 2026 issue of Haven Spec Magazine.

The text reads: The tech bro is simply the latest iteration of the settler genius, and AI is only his latest weapon of conquest. But there is a deep and abiding insecurity at the heart of AI that stems, at least in part, from the myth of the genius. I imagine him standing before the bathroom mirror, speaking his tech bro affirmations: “It’s you, it’s you, it’s you,” he tells himself. “You’re the only one who might save this world.” But something tickles at the back of his throat, the doubt that grips all human hearts. What if I am not enough? I am the Boy King, the Nerd King, this world’s Tony Stark. I am the genius—so why am I feeling so human?

The letter was written by Leon Perniciaro.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

ICYMI, "A Tree is not a Home" is a short story in our 🌟January 2026 issue🌟 by @dianadima.com about seeking refuge wherever you might find it. Read it for the quiet grief and pain of its birch tree narrator havenspec.com/fiction/a-tr...

An excerpt of the short story "A Tree is not a Home" by Diana Dima, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

A tree is not a home. But you, twelve years old and bony, dragging a suitcase behind a gray mother into the gray building where you were now going to live, looked back at me as though it was all wrong. As though the building should have been me.

You came out soon afterwards, walked across the parking lot and over the low wire fence into my patch of land. (I saw you, in a manner of speaking, like an arrow rushing at me in the dark.)

I could tell that you had never seen a birch before.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Our ✨August 2026 issue✨ is ready at last! Subscribers get it Monday, August 31st, and everyone else can read it Tuesday, September 8th! Subscribe now and be the first to read it! havenspec.com/subscribe/

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

ICYMI, "Queercoded Villanelle" is a poem in our 🌟January 2026 issue🌟 by anaum sajanlal about how memory itself can serve as sacred practice. Read it for its grief and survival havenspec.com/poetry/queer...

An excerpt of the poem "Queercoded Villanelle" by anaum sajanlal, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

Build an altar to memory. Do not forget.
Dot ancestors all over, then kneel down and pray
to all the joys you do not think possible, yet.

And once you have swallowed the moon of your grief, get
up and run. Leave your eye-silver flowing. Though they
burn altars to memory, we do not forget.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

ICYMI, "last psalm" is a poem in our 🌟January 2026 issue🌟 by @ph-low.com about skeletons and harpists and how systems of power sanctify cruelty. Read this one for its strong voice and spooky ambience havenspec.com/poetry/last-...

An excerpt of the poem "last psalm" by P.H. Low, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

that you might be appeased by one such as me.
that, smug on your garnet altar,
you would unhinge your jaws
and drink wetly of my fear,
as a thousand mahogany harps
tremble beneath your altar
and ten thousand haunted skeletons
writhe your praise.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

If you haven't read the poem "SOLD: One Soul, Gently Used" by @nicowritesbooks.bsky.social from our 🌟June 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! It's about regret and impossible choices, and you can read it here: havenspec.com/poetry/sold-...

An excerpt of the poem "SOLD: One Soul, Gently Used" by Nico Martinez Nocito, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

His eyes trail over me with the hungry wanting of a nightmare.
“You’d sell your soul for a few coins?” His voice has the lilt
of my own splintered fears. “Why, what
a terrible bargain, when you could fix every error
that led you here?”

The man in black offers a second chance, who will raise him?

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

ICYMI, "A Beginner’s Guide to Summoning Demons" is a short story in our 🌟January 2026 issue🌟 by @czwrites.bsky.social about growing up a target but finding ways to fight back. Also, summoning demons. havenspec.com/fiction/a-be...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

If you haven't read the poem "The Archivist of Vanished Tongues" by Oladosu Michael Emerald from our 🌟June 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! It's about the dead and dying tongues we speak and how we make them live. Read it here: havenspec.com/poetry/the-a...

An excerpt of the poem "The Archivist of Vanished Tongues" by Oladosu Michael Emerald, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

They say the wind here speaks in broken alphabets. I collect dying languages, fragile things made of breath and dust, barely alive, like insects caught in amber. I’m a boy born with sand in his mouth, raised by silence and the slow scratch of forgotten scripts across his skin.

At night, the walls murmur in extinct vowels. I write them down with a stylus carved from my father’s rib, pressing ink into salt paper. The letters flicker like moths caught between two flames. Above us, the sky...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

ICYMI, "Branches" is a short story in our 🌟January 2026 issue🌟 by @mktighewrites.bsky.social about how sometimes every path you take can lead to loss. Read this one for its bittersweet multiverse and the impossibility of letting go havenspec.com/fiction/bran...

An excerpt of the short story "Branches" by Matt Tighe, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

You smile when you see her across the street again.

She laughs when you ask her the way to the station. It is right there behind her, South Entrance in huge letters, people bustling in and out of the oversized doorway.

She asks where you are from—don’t they have trains there—and you smile and shrug. A version of you exists in almost every branch of reality, but part of you, the part that hurts, that knows how she holds your heart, has only just arrived in this world.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

ICYMI, "Rainmaker" is a poem in our 🌟January 2026 issue🌟 by Olumide Manuel about the language and sound of water. Read this one as an invocation havenspec.com/poetry/rainm...

An excerpt of the poem "Rainmaker" by Olumide Manuel, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

Rivers above and below, hear my voice. A ripple is how you speak. A pour is how you sing. I sing with both feet in vestigial bodies. By the stitch of the skies in me, I call you forth to this dance. In the epigenesis of silence, you forged the ways. The womb of the world was sedentary until you fed its first seed, broke it to light with your wet voice. You raised the first song to the dawns. The thunderbirds harvested it from there. The winds scrapped their leftover screams. The trees mothered the first mother—clay-skinned, sea-eyed. She...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

If you haven't read the short story "Strawberry Island" by Emily O'Malley Liu from our 🌟June 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! It's about first love and finally coming home, and you can read it here: havenspec.com/fiction/stra...

An excerpt of the short story "Strawberry Island" by Emily O'Malley Liu, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

We were boys when we met by the seashore. He threw a stick at me and called me ugly. I tackled him into the sand. We became inseparable.

His name was Angelo. For fourteen days, Angelo and I met as if by preordination at dawn, on the beach behind my family’s vacation rental on the southern Maine coast. The tide in the bay went out, out, out, and so did we, scouting across the massive expanse of wet, freshly revealed earth, hunting in the tide pools that formed between the rocks...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

ICYMI, "Demon In Repose" is a short story in our 🌟January 2026 issue🌟 by @jawmccarthy.bsky.social about the demon projectionist guiding your dreams and nightmares (also sleep paralysis) havenspec.com/fiction/demo...

An excerpt of the short story "Demon in Repose" by J. A. W. McCarthy, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

You know this elevator well.

You’re leaving the room that was never really your room, another transient visitor in a transient space, but something nips at the back of your neck as you wait for the cables to pull the elevator car up to your floor. What did you forget? Blue and grey and beige carpet squares point endless forking paths towards doors sheltering lost things and lost people, but you’re not among them anymore.

Last night’s haven has spat you out despite its warm welcome. What did...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

If you haven't read the poem "A Science Center Education" by @lynnesargent.bsky.social from our 🌟June 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! It's about life and chance and how lucky we are that we exist and can build all our hopeful fragile lives together. Read it here: havenspec.com/poetry/a-sci...

An excerpt of the poem "A Science Center Education" by Lynne Sargent, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

It was a wheel of probability,
of all the living beings in the world:
organized, a pie-chart
of domain, kingdom—mammals separated out,
humans separated again from that, and last
the smallest sliver, barely large enough to hold
its colour representing the chance:

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

ICYMI, "A Party, A Party!" is a poem in our 🌟January 2026 issue🌟 by @faithallington.bsky.social about finding community among those labeled *monster*. Read this one as sanctuary and join the party (a party!) havenspec.com/poetry/a-par...

An excerpt of the poem "A Party, A Party!" by Faith Allington, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

You don’t choose vampires
and ghouls any more than they
choose you, but you find consolation
in each other, all the unloved
and objectified strata of myth.

Everybody wants to fear you

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

If you haven't read the short story "What Is A Lake Beyond An Extinct Word?" by @coreyfarrenkopf.bsky.social from our 🌟June 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! It's about drought and the broken promises of a not-too-distant future, and you can read it here: havenspec.com/fiction/what...

An excerpt of the short story "What Is A Lake Beyond An Extinct Word?" by Corey Farrenkopf, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

The cabin is cool compared to the elements outside. It holds some ghost scent of fresh water, the whisper of times not so hard, times when people could still float a house across a lake to better lands, to a future not so hollowed-out and ravaged by their past decisions. She wonders what it was like to truly believe in better. How it was a reality for her grandfather when he was her age.

Mattie gives a little laugh.

What even is a lake anymore beyond an extinct word?

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

ICYMI, "Bootcut" is a short story in our 🌟January 2026 issue🌟 by @apottern.bsky.social about women finding solidarity and battling back against their abusers (and also a particularly well-fitting pair of jeans). Read this one for its mighty vengeance and rage havenspec.com/fiction/boot...

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

If you haven't read the poem "What to Watch For" by @jordanrhirsch.bsky.social from our 🌟June 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! It's about hope in a world that refuses to forget, and you can read it here: havenspec.com/poetry/what-...

An excerpt of the poem "What to Watch For" by Jordan Hirsch, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Grandmother taught me what to watch for:
curling blue leaves growing opposite each other.

Every year, she threw a handful of seeds in the soil,
and now I do, too. She taught me

what to watch for: cooler mornings,
something called frost, the shores receding back

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

ICYMI, "And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must" is a short story in our 🌟 January 2026 issue🌟 by @keychild.bsky.social about being forced to outsource your anger. Read this one for its refusal of the patriarchy and its embracing of all the right kinds of wicked havenspec.com/fiction/and-...

An excerpt of the short story "And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must" by Elou Carroll, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

You are looking right at her when it happens. When your hands clench around his throat—his skin bright and warm beneath your fingers.

It should be her with her nails sharp and her knuckles paling. She is behind him with her mouth hanging open. She cannot hold your stare—she looks away and bites her lip. For the first time, you are reversed, as if you were born in the mirror all along. She hunches her shoulders and squeezes her eyes shut.

Then, she looks up. She watches. She must.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

ICYMI, "Magical Girl: Corporate Failure" is a short story in our 🌟January 2026 issue🌟 by @thelialao.bsky.social about what happens *after* the battle is done and the world gets saved. Read this one for its Magical Girls, queer love, and the travails adulting havenspec.com/fiction/magi...

An excerpt of the short story "Magical Girl: Corporate Failure" by Lia Lao, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

The problem with saving the world at sixteen is that you’re doomed to chase that high for the rest of your life. You’ll fall asleep tossing and turning, dreaming of tiaras that cleave through bone, sky-high heels you can land spinning kicks in, and blood splattering across your face—thick, black, and pungent, like decay settling into your skin.

And when you wake each morning to the tinny, lifeless pulse of your alarm, you’ll wish that your limbs actually ached, that the claw marks...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

If you haven't read the short story "Mother's Bane" by @madihaab.com from our 🌟June 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! It's about breaking the cycles of abuse that we are heir to (and also killer plants), and you can read it here: havenspec.com/fiction/moth...

An excerpt of the short story "Mother's Bane" by Madi Haab, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Edwin was an enthusiastic lover, eager to please and to pleasure. He kissed Briar all over, even the strange red bumps she’d first noticed on her skin that morning. His mouth was slow, then teasing, and he brought her to her peak—once, twice—as they made love.

After, they fell back on the mattress in a sweaty, sticky-sweet tangle. “You taste like honeysuckle,” he whispered in her ear before dozing off.

Those would be her husband’s last words.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

If you haven't read the poem "Poison" by Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe from our 🌟June 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! It's about oil and blood and the prayers we offer to the wind and the earth, and you can read it here: havenspec.com/poetry/poiso...

An excerpt of the poem "Poison" by Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Heaven falls again. & the river cries black.
So much until it becomes a miracle, how a

woman can bleed & not bring out blood the
color of night. In my ache for catharsis, I

baptize in his mouth of filth. In the name of
the father. I am dunked. The oil clings to my...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

If you haven't read the short story "We Whose Fathers Have Transformed into Wild Animals of the Land, Sea, and Sky" by @spencerwriting.bsky.social from our 🌟June 2026 issue🌟, now's your chance! It's about what we inherit from our fathers, and you can read it here: havenspec.com/fiction/we-w...

An excerpt of the short story "We Whose Fathers Have Transformed into Wild Animals of the Land, Sea, and Sky" by Spencer Nitkey, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Kaye dreams of killing his father. When I am not terrified of this dream, I am so jealous that I wish I could steal it through his lips. I don’t know what I’d do if I ever saw my father again. Kaye’s certainty calms me, violent as it is. Now, as Kaye stares down the sight of his rifle and the tremendous buck we’ve been tracking for three days comes up from the brush, he is closer than ever to achieving it. In the Sierra Nevada, mosquito-bitten and muddy, I am not jealous. My tongue tastes of pennies, and more than anything, I am sorry. I want to take Kaye in my hands, run his calloused fingers across my beard, and ground him in something, anything, other than the circle of his scope and his father’s beating heart.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

👀July 2026 Poetry👀 "Wintering Grounds" is a poem by @brokenswanquill.bsky.social about the sorrow that comes with unbridgeable distance and the unsettled ache of whatever love might remain Read it here: havenspec.com/poetry/winte...

Excerpt of the poem Wintering Grounds by Anna Madden. The text reads:

You mapped out the flight
after the bathroom flooded.
The pipes’ veins across a leaf,
frozen until bursting.

A migration to escape our winter,
I’d thought while tracing contrails skyward.

The cover art is titled "Finally, some sleep" and is by Caleb Worcester. It features an astronaut lying comfortably on a cloud high above the lights of a city.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

👀July 2026 Fiction👀 "Convergence" is a short story by @danpeacock.bsky.social about paranoia and war and the eternal possibility that we might yet work together before it's too late Read it here: havenspec.com/fiction/conv...

Excerpt of the short story Convergence by Dan Peacock. The text reads:

Something triggers a sensor and jars me awake, as if I’m falling. The enemy does not seem to be moving, but they are much, much closer. My empty weapon systems jerk into action again, hitting my firewall before they can kick-start another lethal short-surge inside me. I wait for the enemy to show their hand.

And nothing happens.

Suddenly, it makes sense. Gravity is patient, infinitely tireless, and it is slowly teasing both of us together in a silent convergence.

The cover art is titled "Finally, some sleep" and is by Caleb Worcester. It features an astronaut lying comfortably on a cloud high above the lights of a city.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

👀July 2026 Poetry👀 "Here Comes The Men In Black, or, Out Wrecks The Shroud, or, Kelly's Black Boyfriend Is Actually The Eschaton???" is a poem by @csilverandgold.bsky.social about imagining new universes of racial possibility and belonging Read it here: havenspec.com/poetry/here-...

Excerpt of the poem Here Comes The Men In Black, or, Out Wrecks The Shroud, or, Kelly's Black Boyfriend Is Actually The Eschaton??? by Christopher Leigh Silverberg. The text reads:

Spacetime changes now
beneath and to the
right of you, your theater’s
shroud of film, dead presidents, and skylight—
all sources of white, I mean, all sources of light—cosmology is
hushed, flayed, opened
silent before a new elementary birthing. And
this is the end of the thing we in adolescence called high noon.

The cover art is titled "Finally, some sleep" and is by Caleb Worcester. It features an astronaut lying comfortably on a cloud high above the lights of a city.

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Haven Spec Magazine @havenspec.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

👀July 2026 Fiction👀 "If You Don’t Return, I Want You To Know" is a short story by @mercwolfmoor.bsky.social about risking everything to save the people you love Read it here: havenspec.com/fiction/if-y...

Excerpt of the short story If You Don't Return, I Want You To Know by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor. The text reads:

I stand on the edge of a kaleidoscope of inverted colors and inside-out sounds and backwards tastes. Baked cinnamon cornbread coughed onto a plate, fried pistachio green lullaby, baby shrinking from childhood into a crib lined with felt dinosaurs and milk-scented bibs.

Everything has a sense of echo. Not a sound, but the feeling that afterimages of myself, my existence, are spreading out like ripples through the cosmos. I’m balanced on a wire of straight gray light, and the expansive presence of the bridge is blooming around me.

Quinn is somewhere out here.

The cover art is titled "Finally, some sleep" and is by Caleb Worcester. It features an astronaut lying comfortably on a cloud high above the lights of a city.

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