Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 190 (March 2026)

We have original science fiction by Matthew Kressel (“Espie Droger Dreams of War”) and Patrick Hurley (“Terms of Enlightenment”). We also have two terrific flash pieces: “Eat, Prey, Love: A Modest Proposal for Ensuring Gender Equality Through Selective Dietary Practices” from Jilly Dreadful and “An Encounter at the Dawn of the Time War” by JT Petty. Plus, we have original fantasy by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe (“The Devourers Of War; or, An Excerpt From The Cookbook Of The Gods”) and Vanessa Fogg (“Lotus Dew for the Emperor’s Tea”). We also have a flash story (“When We Loved Giants”) from Sara S. Messenger, and another (“The Tide Folk”) from Jennifer Hudak. All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our terrific review team. It’s another great issue, so be sure to check it out.

Cover art by Joe Therasakdhi

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 190 (March 2026)

Editorial

Editorial: March 2026

by John Joseph Adams

Be sure to check out the editorial for a rundown of this month’s content and for all of John Joseph Adams’s media and book recommendations!

Publishes Online on 3/5

Science Fiction

Eat, Prey, Love: A Modest Proposal for Ensuring Gender Equality Through Selective Dietary Practices; or, a Geriatric Millennial’s Guide to #GirlDinner

by Jilly Dreadful

The earliest videos went something like this: disembodied female voices singing strange intonations of the words “girl dinner” in a voice-over effect as the visuals of the video featured dozens of increasingly strange combinations of food. A handful of Cheez-It crackers, grapes, and a stick of string cheese with a line of sriracha along the top? Girl dinner.

Publishes Online on 3/5

Fantasy

The Devourers of War; or, An Excerpt from the Cookbook of the Gods

by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

You know that thing you humans say about how your life flashes before your eyes just before you die? I think you guys might be onto something. I have lived for eons but every single day is running through my mind right now. Every trick I ever pulled, every city destroyed in anger, every lover I took to bed. I see them all, clear as day.

Publishes Online on 3/5

Fiction

Espie Droger Dreams of War

by Matthew Kressel

Espie Droger dreams of war. What else can he dream of? There is nothing left. He has dreamed of world travel and expensive Scotch and lithe young women and sudden uncontrollable laughter. But his vitality has seeped from him like fluid from a dying tree. Espie is old. And Espie is tired.

Publishes Online on 3/12

Fantasy

The Tide Folk

by Jennifer Hudak

In summer, when the ocean ebbs at dusk, when the sand turns to glass and it becomes impossible to discern the difference between reflection and sky, the Tide Folk emerge from their pools. You might think, if you clamber on the cliffs searching for those tiny ecosystems the sea leaves behind twice a day, that you can see all there is to see—that you could, if you tried, touch the bottom of the pockets of water with your fingertip.

Publishes Online on 3/12

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Matthew Kressel

by Erik Grove

If it’s not obvious, I wrote this story during the period last year when DOGE was tearing apart long-standing US government agencies and firing skilled workers by the tens of thousands for a supposed cost reduction, but really to remove federal oversight from private enterprise.

Publishes Online on 3/12

Nonfiction

Book Review: Midnight Somewhere by Johnny Compton

by Arley Sorg

If you’re looking for a horror short-story collection that has a little bit of everything, Arley Sorg recommends Johnny Compton’s Midnight Somewhere.

Publishes Online on 3/12

Science Fiction

An Encounter at the Dawn of the Time War

by JT Petty

This was in August of 2019. A day-old newspaper reported civil wars in Somalia and Yemen. A gunman killed twenty-two people in an El Paso Walmart. Jeffrey Epstein had taken a plea deal, promising to name names, promising to name the name.

Publishes Online on 3/19

Fantasy

Lotus Dew for the Emperor’s Tea

by Vanessa Fogg

The First Emperor was the first and last of true immortals on earth, and no winter touched his realm. No autumn wind blew. His orchards bloomed and fruited and bloomed again. In his court, death and old age were shut out. And every day, he drank a cup of tea brewed in the dew of lotus flowers, which had been collected that morning from the lotuses that grew in a heaven-touched lake at the easternmost point of his palace grounds.

Publishes Online on 3/19

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Vanessa Fogg

by A Humphrey Lanham

I’ve always been fascinated by stories of the quest for immortality, and Chinese legends abound with such tales—Taoist sages “spiritually cultivating” their way to immortality and riding away on cranes; emperors poisoning themselves with “immortality” elixirs that contain mercury and arsenic; an emperor who funds multiple failed expeditions to Penglai, the fabled land of immortals.

Publishes Online on 3/19

Nonfiction

Book Review: The Girl Who Made a Mouse From Her Grandfather’s Whiskers by Kenneth Hunter Gordon

by Melissa A Watkins

Melissa A. Watkins recommends The Girl Who Made a Mouse From Her Grandfather’s Whiskers for your next dose of dreamy speculative fiction.

Publishes Online on 3/19

Science Fiction

Terms of Enlightenment

by Patrick Hurley

Jay found himself sitting across from a bearded old man in voluminous maroon robes. “Why are you here?” the robed man asked. “I was sentenced to VSIM rehabilitation by my judge-counselor.” “Yes,” replied the robed man. “You would choose the literal interpretation of the question, wouldn’t you?”

Publishes Online on 3/26

Fantasy

When We Loved Giants

by Sara S. Messenger

I beg you, let me tell you about my daughter. My brilliant daughter will be one of the four people who survive their airplane crashing into a giant. Or, more accurately, a giant swiping their airplane out of the sky. Perhaps it meant to catch, or caress. My daughter will never know. Usually airlines predict giants ahead of time, from sightings or seismic activity, but this one was not easily seen and quick as a whip, like my daughter.

Publishes Online on 3/26

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Patrick Hurley

by Phoebe Barton

“Terms of Enlightenment” came about after I started dabbling in meditation several years ago. I’d go on Ted Talk or Calm app binges, and during that time, I heard the same Buddhist parables over and over. While listening to “The Tiger & the Strawberries,” I had the (always worthwhile) thought, “How would Terry Pratchett write this?”

Publishes Online on 3/26

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Sara S. Messenger

by Delia Cullity

From the very beginning, I was pulled into this story by the urgent, almost prophetic voice of the narrator. What was it like to write a story from this perspective? Was your writing process also nonlinear? One day in the summer of 2024, I was seized by an intense maternal feeling toward a potential future […]

Publishes Online on 3/26

Nonfiction

Book Review: The Franchise by Thomas Elrod

by Chris Kluwe

Check out Chris Kluwe’s review of the upcoming SF/F novel The Franchise by Thomas Elrod.

Publishes Online on 3/26