Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 195 (August 2026)

We have original science fiction by A.M. Maris (“Legs”) and David Anaxagoras (“Ladd’s Robot Repair”). We also have two terrific flash pieces: “What Do You Mean the Nanobots Formed A Union??” from Joel W.D. Buxton and “The Age of Cancer” by Vajra Chandrasekera. Plus, we have original fantasy by Adelehin Ijasan (“Of All Who Dream”) and Marissa Lingen (“Until the Cure”). We also have a flash story (“Infinite Wishes”) from Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and another (“The Goddess of Not Enough”) from Susan Palwick.

Cover art by liuzishan

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 195 (August 2026)

Editorial

Editorial: August 2026

by John Joseph Adams

Be sure to check out the editorial for a rundown of this month’s content!

Publishes Online on 8/6

Editorial

Announcement: We’re Launching a New Kickstarter Soon. Sign up to be notified when it launches!

by John Joseph Adams

On September 15, 2026, we’ll be launching our first Kickstarter campaign in more than a decade, to fund Year 17 of Lightspeed and Year 15 of Nightmare. Join us for a year of new short fiction from some of the biggest stars in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, including: Travis Baldree Olivie Blake P. Djèlí […]

Science Fiction

Legs

by A.M. Maris

He called her Legs. “Legs for days,” he’d say, his voice thick with wonder. When he spoke to her, she was filled with a warm, heady feeling that made her purr and rub against him. She had to be careful when she did, because she was still growing into her spikes and she’d already drawn blood more than once. His skin was so flimsy, so tearable. She marveled he didn’t end up a shredded mess just from going about his days.

Publishes Online on 8/6

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: A.M. Maris

by Robin Jeffrey

I was thinking about power dynamics, and about a Tamsyn Muir story that appeared in Lightspeed in 2017. It’s called “The Magician’s Apprentice,” and it follows a young girl, Cherry, as she learns how to work magic. I was intrigued and distressed by the extreme power imbalance between Cherry and her teacher, a much older man with a secret about where his magic really comes from.

Publishes Online on 8/6

Fantasy

Infinite Wishes

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Rachel sat at the edge of the sparkling pond in the secluded glen that had taken her five years to find. The air smelled of roses and lavender and pine. Tiny white sparks, like fireflies, floated upward, almost as if they were watching her.

Publishes Online on 8/6

Fantasy

Fragments of the Whole

by Brooke Bolander

Lise’s personas have no warning when the XexlCo Construct appears at the gate of her memory garden, smiling cheerfully at each of her personas in turn like a neighborhood milkman making his daily rounds. They watch the newcomer saunter by with open curiosity, moving aside to let him pass as though he’s a regular guest in Lise’s subconscious. There’s nothing threatening about him. He might’ve popped in a million times, the way he behaves.

Publishes Online on 8/13

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Brooke Bolander

by A Humphrey Lanham

What you see is more or less what’s on the page! If it was a longer work I’d obviously know more about her than what got written but all fiction (short fiction especially, IMO) is a little like making a friend on a flight: Generally you only know what they feel like telling you about their life before they stepped on the plane, and that varies from person to person.

Publishes Online on 8/13

Nonfiction

Book Review: The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass by Leslye Penelope

by Melissa A Watkins

Melissa A. Watkins suggests revisiting the Y2K era with this unique, multimodal tale of a lost twin.

Publishes Online on 8/13

Science Fiction

The Age of Cancer

by Vajra Chandrasekera

ANNOUNCEMENT: We’ll be launching our first Kickstarter campaign in more than a decade, to fund Year 17 of Lightspeed and Year 15 of Nightmare. Clicking lightspeedmagazine.com/kickstarter will take you to the campaign pre-launch page. Once you’re there, click the NOTIFY ME ON LAUNCH button so you’ll be notified when the campaign goes live on September […]

Publishes Online on 8/13

Science Fiction

What Do You Mean the Nanobots Formed a Union??

by Joel W. D. Buxton

“What do you mean the nanobots formed a union??” I asked the lawyer, biting my thumbnail.

It’s an old habit, kept up well after I got the “Pro Nano Blitz Package,” as the ad called it. A muscular man in tight clothing explained: a quick, painless injection, then a couple days sick as a dog, then another month for the nanobots to multiply, specialize, and spread out through the body. Then: easy street.

Publishes Online on 8/20

Fantasy

Of All Who Dream

by Adelehin Ijasan

“God” is not the word I’d use. But it is the only one that suffices. There are all kinds of gods: the old and the new; the useful, the useless; the capricious and the dependable; the wrathful and the meek. They all had one thing in common—whether they were created at the dawn of time when hunter-gatherers huddled in caves and cowered at the crack of thunder, or they were engineered by men in frocks, or worse, born of minds harvested by modern technology—all gods were born starving.

Publishes Online on 8/20

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Joel W. D. Buxton

by Phoebe Barton

In terms of the idea for this story, the premise just kind of came to me all at once one morning over a coffee. I think it stems from an interest in what potential medical miracles nano-technology may unlock for humanity. And, of course, the inevitable question of who will have the cash flow to partake in said miracles.

Publishes Online on 8/20

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Adelehin Ijasan

by Delia Cullity

The inspiration came from my own fascination with the true nature of reality and consciousness. I mean, what is this world we live in? How are seemingly psychic dreams possible? Does consciousness emerge from matter, or is it the other way round? Exploring those questions led me down the rabbit hole where ideas of panpsychism and gnosticism began to intersect in my imagination, and gradually a story started to take shape.

Publishes Online on 8/20

Nonfiction

Book Review: Forged in FIYAH by DaVaun Sanders, ed.

by Arley Sorg

Read more Black authors! Arley Sorg recommends a great anthology featuring eighteen original stories chosen by the editor of FIYAH magazine.

Publishes Online on 8/20

Science Fiction

Ladd’s Robot Repair

by David Anaxagoras

I wasn’t even two blocks into the Tumbledown when the walker’s nav crystal started fuzzing out. She veered left like a scavver drunk on coolant, and I knew I was in trouble. I tried sweet-talking her back on route, but she wasn’t listening. I was used to that. Nobody listens to a twelve-year-old—especially not a scrap pile with legs.

Publishes Online on 8/27

Fantasy

The Goddess of Not Enough

by Susan Palwick

You’re eighteen. Your fairy godmother just fired you, because after three balls, the prince has grown bored with you. Tonight you stepped on his foot during a gavotte. “If you’d been cleverer,” the fairy godmother says—her words silver chimes girded with steel—“you’d have pretended your clumsiness was really punishment: a reminder to focus on you, not that floozy in scarlet silk across the room.”

Publishes Online on 8/27

Nonfiction

Book Review: All We Have Is Time by Amy Tordoff

by Chris Kluwe

This month, reviewer Chris Kluwe recommends a time-travel tale for fans of This Is How You Lose the Time War.

Publishes Online on 8/27