Authors in This Issue
“The Sixteenth Circumstance” by John Richard Trtek
John Richard Trtek is a retired physics teacher who lives with his wife and two cats in Portland, Oregon. After retirement, he volunteered at a classical radio station for a decade and then renewed pursuit of a modest second career as a writer. His latest story for Asimov’s recounts further adventures of Monsieur Picot, first introduced in “La Terrienne” (November/December 2021). At the direction of the Panharmony, Picot has now left the planet Unemone and embarked on a mission to Aphalaon where he finds that virtually nothing he encounters is as it first seems.
“Sisters of the Flare” by Stephen Case
Stephen Case <www.stephenrcase.com> is an author, professor, and historian of science. His work has appeared in places like Clarkesworld, Physics Today, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, American Scientist, and Aeon, and he reviews fiction for Strange Horizons. Stephen is coeditor of the Cambridge Companion to John Herschel (Cambridge University Press) and author of Creatures of Reason: John Herschel and the Invention of Science, forthcoming from University of Pittsburgh Press. His new story for us is set at an earlier time in the same universe as “Daughters of the Lattice” (July/August 2023).
“A Family Matter” by Robert Morrell Jr.
Bob Morrell is a South Carolina native living in the frozen wastes of North Carolina. He is husband to a retired librarian and servant to four formerly feral felines. This is his first science fiction publication in decades, after a distracting career in medical research computing. He can be found on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Twitter by searching for @wallet55 (don’t ask, it’s a dad joke). “A Family Matter” uses as its starting point Bob’s own genetic and genealogical history. He would like to thank his cousin Anne of McClellanville for taking him back to the swamp on her ATV and sharing stories about life in the Forest. He now owes her a good dinner in Charleston.
“This Good Lesson Keep” by James Van Pelt
James Van Pelt writes full time in western Colorado. He has coached swim teams, taught high school and college English, and enjoys the hiking trails near his home. His work has appeared numerous times in Asimov’s, Analog, and other venues. James has been a finalist for the Nebula, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (now the Astounding Award), and been reprinted in several Year’s Best anthologies. The author tells a tale about an intriguing high school English teacher.
“Yarns” by Susan Palwick
Susan Palwick has published four novels with Tor Books: Flying in Place (1992), The Necessary Beggar (2005), Shelter (2007), and Mending the Moon (2013). Her story collection The Fate of Mice appeared in 2007 from Tachyon Publications. Susan’s second collection, All Worlds Are Real, was published in 2019 by Fairwood Press. Her work has been reprinted in a number of Year’s Best anthologies, including several volumes of the prestigious Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series. The author’s fiction has been honored with a Crawford Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, an Alex Award from the American Library Association, and an Asimov’s Readers Award, and has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award, the Mythopoeic Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award. She was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 2023 after receiving their Silver Pen Award in 2006. After twenty years as an English professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, Susan retired in 2017 to earn an MSW degree and to move into healthcare. She has since worked as a chaplain (in both hospital and hospice settings) and as a dialysis social worker. She and her husband live in Reno with their three cats and her growing collection of craft equipment.
“Untouchable” by R. Garcia y Robertson
The author tells us, “Missy is a foster daughter of mine who grew up to be a good friend. She picked being invisible as her superpower. She practices it and has gotten very good. I tried to test her once. We were meeting in a one-street town called Bow, and I arrived early parking in front of a boarded up abandoned house where I could see up, down, and across the empty street, figuring I would see her coming. Then I slid into the passenger seat with my eyes at window level and waited for her to show up. Seconds later she opened the driver’s door and got in, saying, ‘This is a bad place to hide.’ All the incidents in Amerika are taken from the lives of the characters involved, only Hans and the airship Atlas are invented. Goodyear-Zeppelin was a real company that eventually transported four million passengers four hundred million miles without a single fatality, except for the thirteen killed when the Hindenburg may have been sabotaged. Schloss Ider castle is also real and the scene of the last battle of WWII in Europe as described in the story.”
“You Know Me Al” by Alex Irvine
Alex Irvine’s recent work includes stories in Asimov’s, F&SF, Tor.com, Lightspeed, and Bourbon Penn. He is working on a new book as well as new games from studios in Sweden and China. His 2009 novel, Buyout, was recently optioned for film by Mandalay Pictures, and his novella “Glitch,” seen in these pages in 2018, is also under development. Alex is a reluctant convert to the pitch clock but will fight robot umpires until his last breath.
“Flipped” by Leah Cypess
Leah Cypess <www.leahcypess.com> is the author of the middle grade Sisters Ever After series, which retells fairy tales from the points of view of forgotten younger sisters. The most recent book in the series, Braided, was published in May 2024. Leah has also written four young adult fantasy novels and numerous works of short fiction. She is a three-time Nebula Award finalist and a World Fantasy Award finalist. Regarding “Flipped,” the author tells us that she “loves both ice cream and frozen yogurt.”
“Tamaza’s Future and Mine” by Kenneth Schneyer
Kenneth Schneyer <Facebook: ken.schneyer; Twitter/X: @ken_schneyer; Bluesky: kenschneyer.bsky.social; LinkedIn: ken-schneyer> is a humanities professor, a lawyer, an IT project manager, an actor, an amateur astronomer and genealogist, and a political junkie who lives in Rhode Island. His stories appear in Uncanny, Lightspeed, Analog, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Nature Physics, Escape Pod, Podcastle, Pseudopod, and elsewhere. They’ve been honored with Nebula and Sturgeon nominations, translated into five languages, and found their way into a few Year’s Best anthologies. In 2020 Fairwood Press released his second collection, Anthems Outside Time and Other Strange Voices. His disturbing tale about “Tamaza’s Future and Mine,” which was written in June of 2023, is his first Asimov’s story.
“Future Perfect” by Genevieve Valentine
Genevieve Valentine is the author of Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, Persona, and Icon; she is the recipient of the Crawford Award, and has been shortlisted for the Nebula, Locus, Shirley Jackson, and World Fantasy. Her comics work includes Catwoman and Ghost in the Shell. Her short work has appeared in over a dozen Best of the Year anthologies, including Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her most recent book is the graphic novel Two Graves, alongside artists Ming Doyle and Annie Wu.
“The Weight of Oceans” by Mark D. Jacobsen
Mark D. Jacobsen <www.markdjacobsen.com> is a career military officer and professor who studies the complex challenges of managing our rapidly changing world. He is a previous Dell Award winner and his short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s, Derelict, and War Stories. Mark is also the author of a memoir called Eating Glass. His new story grew out of the common feeling that the world’s challenges are bigger than we can comprehend or manage.