Shortwave Magazine

Latest NonFiction

The People Are the Place: A World Building How-To

If you’re a writer, and you likely are because you’ve decided to read this post, you have found yourself threshing through dozens, if not hundreds, of articles with similar titles such as this one. As writers, we read the essays, listen to panel considerations, and attend the tool-building seminars of our peers and inspirations like prospectors panning for gold…

Behind the Title: Amid the Vastness of All Else

C.S. Humble

Over the last seven years I have been writing, what I consider to be, a collection of love letters. An epistolary which uses the epistle format at times, but primarily exists as a collection of novels revolving around a family of characters who learn to live and breathe, fight and die not only for the sake of the world, but for the sake of each other. Because in the end, each other is all we have…

Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author: Cynthia Pelayo on Samuel Beckett

Patrick Barb

Back during the height of the pandemic, when the HWA held a virtual version of their annual StokerCon, Cynthia Pelayo was one of the first authors who really welcomed me to the fold, who made me feel like I belonged and that I was part of something bigger than myself and my work alone. I’ve never forgotten that little bit of kindnes…

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Highlighted Stories

"Give Me English"

Ai Jiang

I traded my last coffee for a coffee. How ironic. My finger jabbed at the ordering machine. The Langbase implanted in my brain popped up in front of my eyes, and I watched as the word disappeared. A heavy breath escaped my lips. I would have to trade my teas next…

"The Imperfection"

Mae Murray

Mira was in a hospital gown looking at her phone. The girl with the bleach-blonde pixie cut had been tantalizing in her OKCupid photo, but when they met last week, she noticed the deep-pitted acne scars peppering her jawline and the glaring red spots on her cheeks and between her thick brows…

"FFUNS"

Johnny Compton

Holding the unlabeled black video cassette somehow reassured her of the legitimacy of its contents. With that reassurance came effervescent nausea, an ugly, unreal sensation befitting the place she was in and the sight that awaited her…

Latest Fiction / Short Stories

"More Than Metal"

Lyndsey Croal

Maddie was washing the dishes on a Thursday evening when she decided that she must be a robot. It made complete sense, once she started to think about it. There were so many bots on the market now, and she’d seen an advert just last week for Unreals, sentient models that didn’t know that they were artificial. When Maddie looked into it, she discovered they could have thoughts installed, set speech algorithms, even false memory implantation. Maybe Clint had done the same to her…

"We Are a Little Hotel"

Ai Jiang

At UM Hotel, we provide the best service, ranging from emotional and physical support, unconditional love and care, domestic upkeeping, and self-sacrifice. To book a room, please text your check-in date and time in the following format to…

"After the Fall"

Barry Charman

The carcass fell without warning. A series of frenzied thunderstorms had unfurled abruptly across the sky one morning, followed by blunt stabs of tortured lightning; but there was no true hint of what was to come. The skies had suddenly cleared, and then it had simply tumbled down…