Space Unicorns! This year, poetry is eligible for the Rhysling Award, the Hugo Award, and the Nebula Award. Here is a list of all of the poetry published by Uncanny Magazine in 2025 and the appropriate Rhysling Award category!

Short Poem (11–49 lines)

Care for Lightning by Mari Ness

Nymph by Kailee Pedersen

Love Letter in Cobra Pose by Shankar Narayan

the bud of a dead dream by Ai Jiang

The Birds by Rafiat Lamidi

Time loop for the day I die. by Abdulrazaq Salihu

A Full Belly by Elizabeth Hart Bergstrom

Letter to My Future Reader by Margaret Rhee

Post-apocalypse Love Poem by Gospel Chinedu

moth boy by Praise Osawaru

Seaside Prophets by Avra Margariti

Wishbone by Prosper Ìféányí

Dreamscape with the Devil by Taylor Byas

The Mourning Robot by Angela Liu

Dear Saturn, by Susan L. Lin

Prayer for Winter by Romie Stott

Call Us Boy. by Somto Ihezue

Welkin Burials for Drones by Hannan Khan

My Duende: in the Wall and in the Mirror by Angel Leal

Long Poem (50–299 lines)

Cassandra by E. N. Díaz

Red-Coded and Weary by Lesley Hart Gunn

Soft, Your Grief, and Leporine by Lora Gray

Psycho-Journey of the Cyborg-in-Therapy by Shankar Narayan

Caesar Says, Earthquakes Aren’t So Manifest From Space by Jasmine Leng

Fabulous news, Space Unicorns! “Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou won the Best Short Story 2025 British Fantasy Award! Congratulations to Eugenia and to all of the finalists and winners!

From the British Fantasy Awards website:

After a crowdsourced suggestion list for eligible works, and then a period of public voting, the shortlist for this year’s British Fantasy Awards has now been confirmed.

These works will now be considered by a jury of peers, with the ultimate winners being announced at an awards ceremony at World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, held from 30 October to 2 November.

To be eligible, works had to have been published for the first time in the English language during the calendar year 2024, anywhere in the world, and must contain some speculative element—though we interpret ‘fantasy’ widely. More details in the awards FAQ, here.

Wonderful news, Space Unicorns! “Marginalia” by Mary Robinette Kowal won the 2025 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction! Congratulations to Mary Robinette!

Once again, congratulations all of the finalists, including Uncanny Magazine Interviewer Caroline M. Yoachim for her story “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” from Lightspeed Magazine.

From their website:

The Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction (or Eugie Award) celebrates the best in innovative fiction. This annual award is presented at Dragon Con, the nation’s largest fan-run convention.

The Eugie Award honors stories that are irreplaceable, that inspire, enlighten, and entertain. We will be looking for stories that are beautiful, thoughtful, and passionate, and change us and the field. The recipient is a story that is unique and will become essential to speculative fiction readers.

Coming September 2, the 66th issue of the Hugo, Locus, and World Fantasy Award-winning Uncanny Magazine!!

All of the content will be available in the eBook version on the day of release.

The free online content will be released in 2 stages- half on day of release and half on October 7.

Don’t forget eBook Subscriptions to Uncanny Magazine are available from Weightless Books, and you can support us on our Patreon!

Uncanny Magazine Issue 66 Table of Contents

Cover:
Listen To Me and I’ll Tell You A Story by Ejiwa “Edge” Ebenebe

Editorial:
“The Uncanny Valley” by Michael Damian Thomas

Fiction:
“The Lure of Stone” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (9/2)
“Whale Fall of Yours” by M. M. Olivas (9/2)
“The Caravan” by AnaMaria Curtis (9/2)

“The Shadow on the Nest” by Alaya Dawn Johnson (10/7)
“Seven Minutes in Heaven with the Electric Seraphim” by Juliet Kahn (10/7)
“Wend-Way-Go” by Tim Pratt (10/7)

“Brooklyn Beijing” by Hannah Yang (9/2)

Essays:
“Dream Journals” by Senaa Ahmad (9/2)
“Cat Physics, Deconstruction, and the Shape of Love” by LaShawn M. Wanak (9/2)

“The Evolution of the Vampire Image, from Nosferatu to Sinners” by Del Sandeen (10/7)
“Solace in Fantasy Monster Romances and My Trans Body” by Theo Kane (10/7)

Poetry:
“The Mourning Robot” by Angela Liu (9/2)
“Dreamscape with the Devil” by Dr. Taylor Byas (9/2)

“Caesar Says, Earthquakes Aren’t So Manifest From Space” by Jasmine Leng (10/7)
“Dear Saturn,” by Susan L. Lin (10/7)

Interviews:
Interview: Silvia Moreno-Garcia by Caroline M. Yoachim (9/2)

Interview: Juliet Kahn by Caroline M. Yoachim (10/7)

Podcasts:
Episode 66A (September 2): Editor’s Introduction; “The Caravan” by AnaMaria Curtis, as read by Erika Ensign; “Dreamscape with the Devil” by Dr. Taylor Byas, as read by Matt Peters; and Michael Damian Thomas interviewing AnaMaria Curtis.

Episode 66B (October 7): Editor’s Introduction; “The Shadow on the Nest” by Alaya Dawn Johnson, as read by Matt Peters; “Dear Saturn,” by Susan L. Lin, as read by Erika Ensign; and Michael Damian Thomas interviewing Alaya Dawn Johnson.

Fabulous news, Space Unicorns! The 2024 Shirley Jackson Awards winners have been announced, and “Three Faces of a Beheading” by Arkady Martine won the Best Short Fiction Shirley Jackson Award! Congratulations to Arkady, and to all of the phenomenal finalists and winners!

From the website:

Boston, MA (July 19, 2025) — In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, The Shirley Jackson Awards, Inc. has been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories: Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Fiction, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology.

The 2024 Shirley Jackson Awards were presented in-person on Saturday, July 19, 2025 at Readercon 34, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Fabulous news, Space Unicorns! “Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou is a finalist for the Best Short Story 2025 British Fantasy Award! Congratulations to Eugenia!

From the British Fantasy Awards website:

After a crowdsourced suggestion list for eligible works, and then a period of public voting, the shortlist for this year’s British Fantasy Awards has now been confirmed.

These works will now be considered by a jury of peers, with the ultimate winners being announced at an awards ceremony at World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, held from 30 October to 2 November.

To be eligible, works had to have been published for the first time in the English language during the calendar year 2024, anywhere in the world, and must contain some speculative element—though we interpret ‘fantasy’ widely. More details in the awards FAQ, here.

Fabulous news, Space Unicorns! “Marginalia” by Mary Robinette Kowal is a finalist for the 2025 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction! And that’s not all! Uncanny Magazine Interviewer Caroline M. Yoachim’s “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” from Lightspeed Magazine is also a finalist for the 2025 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction!

Congratulations to Mary Robinette, Caroline, and to all of the finalists!

From their website:

The Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction (or Eugie Award) celebrates the best in innovative fiction. This annual award is presented at Dragon Con, the nation’s largest fan-run convention. Starting with the 2020, we will add a video presentation of the award online, along with a reading of a section of each finalist.

The Eugie Award honors stories that are irreplaceable, that inspire, enlighten, and entertain. We will be looking for stories that are beautiful, thoughtful, and passionate, and change us and the field. The recipient is a story that is unique and will become essential to speculative fiction readers.

Wonderful news, Space Unicorns! Two Uncanny Magazine stories are Ignyte Awards finalists! “A Stranger Knocks” by Tananarive Due is a finalist for the Outstanding Novelette Ignyte Award, and “¡Sangronas! Un Lista de Terror” by M. M. Olivas is a finalist for the Outstanding Novelette Ignyte Award!

Also, congratulations to Uncanny Magazine Interviewer Caroline M. Yoachim! Caroline’s story “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” from Lightspeed Magazine is a finalist for the Outstanding Short Story Ignyte Award!

It is a fabulous ballot! Congratulations Tananarive Due, M. M. Olivas, Caroline M. Yoachim, and to all of the finalists!

From the Ignyte Award website:

Voting for the 2025 awards opens June 9th – August 15th, 2025 at 11:59PM EDT.

Whenever possible, we will provide the purchase or read links for finalist titles in the hopes that you will engage the works before voting. We will generally provide links to listings on bookshop.org or links to purchase or read directly on publisher or author website. Amazon links are only provided if no other links are available. We also maintain a list of the small presses responsible for publishing the current year’s finalists in the hopes that you will support their work.

The short list is derived from 20 BIPOC+ voters made up of SFF community members and previous award winners, of varying genders, sexualities, cultures, disabilities, and locations throughout the world. They are referred to as the Ignyte Awards Committee. The kidlit categories (Young Adult and Middle Grade) each had an additional 5 judges from the age demographics ideally targeted by each of those categories. We thank those kids and their guardians for participation in this process. No active staff members of FIYAH Literary Magazine work with or administer the Ignyte Awards.

The Committee was not limited to selections authored or otherwise created by BIPOC. Public voting on the shortlist does not permit write-in nominations. Each year, we ask winners to be part of the subsequent year’s committee to ensure fresh perspectives and to help prevent repeated nominations of the same popular authors as recognized in many other genre awards.