Queer Sci Fi has just released the annual QSF Flash Fiction anthology. This year, the theme is "Migration."
MI-GRA-TION (noun)
1) Seasonal movement of animals from one region to another.2) Movement of people to a new area or country in order to find work or better living conditions.
3) Movement from one part of something to another.
Three definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell. Here are 120 of our favorites.
Migration feaures 300 word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.
Giveaway
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Excerpt
Each year, hundreds of writers send in stories for the Queer Sci Fi flash fiction anthology. Here are the opening lines from some of the stories chosen for the 2019 edition – Migration:
“Darkness has substance. It is tangible; different shades within the black, sounds, a taste. It is accompanied by self-awareness of time and thoughts, even when other senses fail.” —Hope for Charity, by Robyn Walker
“The sky has been screaming for five straight days when the shrimps come to take us away. They’ve been boxing up the others and hauling them off. Now they’re here for us, soaking wet, dragging cords and crates behind them.” —Shrimpanzee, Sionnain Bailey
“Allister always had faultless hair. He’d comb and gel it to perfection while gazing in the mirror. One day a pair of eyes stared back.” —Zulu Finds a Home, by Kevin Klehr
“On her sister’s wedding day Ari noticed that one of her ears had migrated to her hand. It was right after her high school crush, Emily, arrived with Cousin Matt.” —Playing It By Ear, Aidee Ladnier
“The wound was fatal. Their vessel wouldn't live much longer. This is what came from leaving loose ends. Frantically they sought out a new vessel to migrate to. “ —The Essence, by L.M. Brown
“That night, we were sitting in the bed of her daddy’s old pickup truck and the radio was playing the best song. We had a pack of cigarettes between us and her hand was almost touching mine. The wheat field was silver in the moonlight. When they came, we weren’t surprised, just disappointed that our time was up already.” —Our Song, by Lauren Ring
“Willow said she was my wife, but I knew it wasn’t her, not the right her, anyway. Sure she looked like her with olive skin and bright pink hair. She even smelled of mango flowers, just like I remembered, but there was something about her smile that was slightly off, something about when she said she loved me that didn’t sit well in my old heart.” — They Said It Would Be Her, by Elizabeth Andre
“Agnes is eight when she first sees the river. Cutting its way through town, the only thing she knows not coated in coal dust. She sticks her toes in, comes home with wet socks and a secret. See, the river hadn’t been there yesterday.” —Stream of Consciousness, by Ziggy Schutz
“Terry twirled in her green synthsilk dress, looked at her reflection, liked what she saw. She felt good in her own skin, for maybe the first time.” —Altball, by RE Andeen
“The thing was in the corner. It had come through the window and had slid down the wall. Scratch went the sound. The noise of a hundred nails clawing at the wood. Nails of white bone. Alex pulled the sheets up quickly, covering every inch of skin and hair in a warm darkness.” —Whose Nightmare, by Jamie Bonomi
Shrimpanzee, by Sionnain Bailey
The sky has been screaming
for five straight days when the shrimps come to take us away. They’ve been
boxing up the others and hauling them off. Now they’re here for us, soaking
wet, dragging cords and crates behind them.
Slo nudges under Flo’s arm.
“Shrimpies gonna take you two. I’ll be all alone.”
They’d stuck Flo and I
together last season, in a room by ourselves, trying to make us do the baby
thing. Neither of us swing that way, but we had to if we wanted food, or if Flo
wanted to get back to Slo again.
The shrimps file in, mumbling
under the pounding wetness on the roof. Flo, who has the most shrimpy words,
tries to translate: something about flood—
evacuate— Chicago.
“Chicago?”
Flo throws me a warning
glance.
The shrimps had shipped Croo
off two seasons ago now, to some other facility in a place called Chicago,
leaving me here without him.
A shrimp kneels down to tie a
cord around my neck. I lean in towards it. “I go to Croo?”
Flo snaps her head in my
direction, glaring.
The shrimp locks eyes with
me. It squints like it’s almost upset, then it smiles widely. I pull away,
confused, unconvinced, and the cord tightens.
The shrimps tie us into our
boxes and load us into their truck. Closest to the screened rear, I watch our
home twist away. All around us are more trucks, more shrimps inside them,
moving alongside us, peering up at me through the screen like they always do.
Maybe they plan to follow us to Chicago, to gawk as they let me out into some
strange room Croo has kept warm for me, some dry place where they never box us
up again, never touch us at all, only stare.
Author Bio
A hundred and twenty authors are included in Migration:
- Butterflies, by A O'Donovan
- The Return, by A.M. Leibowitz
- A New Spring, by Aaron Silver
- Universal Quota, by Abby Bartle
- The Call of Home, by Adrienne Wilder
- Starfall, by Adrik Kemp
- Playing it By Ear, by Aidee Ladnier
- Rabbit, by Amanda Thomas
- That Does Not Love…, by Andi Deacon
- Inborn, by Andrea Speed
- Saving Ostakis, by Angelica Primm
- A Dawn Wish, by Antonia Aquilante
- Diaspora, by Ariel E. James
- Transmigration, by Ashby Danvers
- Across the Mirror, by Ava Kelly
- Between, by BE Allatt
- The Speck, by Bey Deckard
- The King of the Mountain Cometh, by Bob Goddard
- Before and After, by C. A. Chesse
- Home, by C.A. McDonald
- Too Much Tech, by C.L. Mannarino
- Ze Who Walks Into the Future, by Carey Ford Compton
- The Gate, by Carol Holland March
- Our Last Light Skip, by Chloe Spencer
- Passage, by Christine Taylor-Butler
- The Perils of Pick-Up Lines, by Colton Aalto
- Parched, by Crysta K. Coburn
- Changeling Dreams, by Damian Serbu
- Destinations, by Dave Creek
- Another Job, Another Planet, by David Viner
- Thiefmaster Rosalind's Apprentice, by Devon Widmer
- A Weight Off Their Shoulders, by Diane Morrison
- Once a Year, by Dianne Hartsock
- Mettle, by Die BoothForever Bound, by E.W. Murks
- They Said It Would Be Her, by Elizabeth Andre
- Til Death Do Us Part, by Elizabeth Anglin
- Little One, by Eloreen Moon
- GBFN, by Emilia Agrafojo
- The Long Distance Thing, by Ether Nepenthes
- Call My People Home, by Evelyn Benvie
- Jace vs. the Incubi, by Eytan Bernstein
- A New Tradition, by Foster Bridget Cassidy
- The Curious Cabinet, by Ginger Streusel
- Ready, by Hank Edwards
- The Albatrosses, by Harry F. Rey
- A Boy's Shadow, by Helen De Cruz
- Portrait of a Lady, by Isobel Granby
- Beam That Is In, by J. Comer
- The Hunt, by J. R. Frontera
- Repeating History, by J. Summerset
- Neil's Journey, by J.P. Bowie
- Homeward Bound, by J.S. Garner
- Whose Nightmare?, by Jamie Bonomi
- A Moment of Bravery, by Jessie Pinkham
- Laetus, by Jet Lupin
- Where You Go, I'll Follow, by Joe Baumann
- Ambrose Out of Ash, by Jonathan Fesmire
- Shooting Modes, by Joshua Darrow
- TerrorForm, by Juam Jocom
- The Curse, by Jude Reid
- Throwing Eggs, by K E Olukoya
- Fly, by Kayleigh Sky
- The Keep, by KC Burn
- Zulu Finds a Home, by Kevin Klehr
- The Risks and Advantages of Data Migration, by Kim Fielding
- Irreversible, by kim gryphon
- Looner, by Krishan Coupland
- The Essence, by L.M. Brown
- Our Song, by Lauren Ring
- O Human Child, by Lisa Hamill
- Goodbye Marghretta, by Lou Sylvre
- Choices, by LV Lloyd
- Endangered Species, by M Joseph Murphy
- Planet Retro, Unplugged, by M. X. Kelly
- Elemental, by M.D. Grimm
- To Wish on a Love Knot, by Margaret McGaffey Fisk
- Firebirds, by Marita M. Connor
- Breeding Season, by Mary Newman
- Kooks at Home, by Matt McHugh
- Spring, by Mere Rain
- Into the South, by Mindy Leana Shuman
- Not How We Planned It, by Minerva Cerridwen
- What Is Left Behind, by Monique Cuillerier
- How Far Would You Go for the One You Love?, by Nathan Alling Long
- Innocence, by Nathaniel Taff
- Heart and Soul, by Nils Odlund
- Tides, by Patricia Scott
- Killer Queen, by Paula McGrath
- Genesis, by Pelaam
- If Pigs Could Fly, by Penelope Friday
- Click, by R R Angell
- Be Kind to Strangers, by Raina Lorring
- Altball, by RE Andeen
- Far From Home, by Riley S. Keene
- Hope for Charity, by Robyn Walker
- Night Comes to the Bea Arthur, by Rory Ni Coileáin
- MIG Ration, by S R Jones
- Going Back, by Sacchi Green
- World Behind and Home Ahead, by Sara Testarossa
- The Call of the Suet, by Sarah Hadley Brook
- Research & Development, by Shaina Phillips
- Into the Void, by Shannon Brady
- The Silkie's Dance, by Shannon West
- Seal Hunt, by Shirley Meier
- Shrimpanzee FIRST IN BOOK, by Sionnain Bailey
- The Woman With No Name, by Siri Paulson
- Memories of Clay, by Spencer Mann
- Simulacrum, by Steve Carr
- The Experience, by Steve Fuson
- Flight, by Steven Harper
- Birds of New Atlantis, by Stewart C Baker
- Lurching Forward, by Sydney Blackburn
- Spores of Retribution, by Tray Ellis
- Skin Hunger, by Treasure Nguyen
- Elvira, by Trevor Barton
- Ever After, by Warren Rochelle
- Into the Light, by Wart Hill
- Dryads, by X Marduk
- Stream of Consciousness, by Ziggy Schutz
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