Shortwave Magazine

Latest NonFiction

Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author: John Langan on Salman Rushdie

John Langan is the author of two novels and six collections of stories. That previous sentence is a direct lift from the biography he provided me for this opening. As far as understatements go, it’s an impressive. Langan is a master of the short story whose collections never grow stale and showcase an evolving, yet supremely confident author who has fun playing with the weird, the horrific, and the phantasmagorical…

Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Author: Elizabeth Broadbent on William Faulkner

Patrick Barb

Elizabeth Broadbent is a force of nature. Since making her acquaintance, I have found Eliza to be a friendly, passionate, and caring person. Her love for both writing and her fellow writers is palpable, whether you’re interacting with her online or in person at conventions. And she’s not only a cheerleader of her contemporaries, but a serious player in the writing game, putting up truly impressive stats…

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

C.S. Humble

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…

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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…