Fusion Fragment Monthly - May 2024
The Latest from Fusion Fragment HQ
FF#21 Release: The latest issue arrives on June 9th (or this weekend if you’re one of our beautiful, intelligent, and probably baking-bread-scented Patreon members). This edition has everything you’ve ever wanted in an issue of FF: shadow-sourced soap, fast-food sponsorships, James Buchanan, and way too many teeth. Get it right here on the 9th!
Aurora & Locus Nominations: More award news for FFers! Tiffany Morris (Best Novelette/Novella & Best Poem/Song), Ai Jiang (Best Novelette/Novella & Best Poem/Song), David Shultz (Best Poem/Song), and Maria Haskins (Best Fan Writing) are all up for Aurora Awards (Canada’s top SFF prize). Ai Jiang (Best Novella & Best Novelette), Uchechukwu Nwaka (Best Novelette), and Thomas Ha (Best Short Story) are finalists for this year’s Locus Awards! Congrats to all!
CBC Short Story Prize: FF Reading Team member Adam McPhee was longlisted for the prestigious CBC Short Story Prize with his story, “The Ball Game”. Congrats Adam!
Submitter Survey: We’re up to 50 responses now, and I hope to start playing around with the data soon to see what it tells me about the stories that work best here at FF. In the meantime, I shared a very small mini-stats thread on socials last week. If you submitted to FF in 2024 and want to contribute, you can fill out the survey here: https://fusionfragment.aidaform.com/ff-submission-survey.
April Published Works by FFers
Neon Hemlock released A.D. Sui’s The Dragonfly Gambit as part of their latest novella series!
NewCon Press released Fiona Moore’s collection Human Resources!
Jordan Kurella guest edited Apparition Lit #26!
Brandon Crilly released B.O.A., a TTRPG about secret agent snakes!
And as ever, FFers had a great month of short work being released. Check out these amazing stories and poems:
"A Pedra" by Endria Isa Richardson in Lightspeed
"Against the Grain" by Lindz McLeod in hex literary
"Alabama Circus Punk" by Thomas Ha in ergot
"All the Better to Taste You" by Marisca Pichette in PodCastle
"By a Doorstep That Never Receives You" by Ai Jiang in Small Wonders
"Carbon Cycle" by Lindsay King-Miller in The Deadlands
"Cire Perdue" by Ariel Marken Jack in Gamut
"doorbell dot mov" by Jennifer R. Donohue in The Deadlands
"Even a Mighty God" by Vivian Chou in The Forge Literary Magazine
"Idomeneja, Or, The Death Mask" by Eris Young in Tales to Terrify
"If I Had A Time Machine" by Angela Liu in Small Wonders
"In This Dress, Stitched in Anger, I Thee Wed" by Lindsey Godfrey Eccles in Gamut
"No Happy Endings for Chasers" by Uchechukwu Nwaka in FIYAH
"Succession Plan" by Pauline Barmby in Utopia Science Fiction
"The Flowers I Grew For Her" by Avra Margariti in Stupefying Stories
"The Lost Dead World Thing" by Mari Ness in Kaleidotrope
"The Midnight Diyu" by Melissa Ren in Factor Four
"The Real Monsters Were the Children We Terrorized Along the Way" by Lindz McLeod & Sage Tyrtle in Kaleidotrope
"The Sun Never Sets in Our Country" by Abhishek Sengupta in Apparition Lit
"Winter Wears No Crown" by JL George in Wyldblood
"You Will Be You Again" by Angela Liu in Interzone Digital
Recommendations from FF HQ
I’m writing this edition of the newsletter so late in the month, I’d almost forgotten what I watched and read back in April, but a couple of standouts for you:
The Death of Stalin is an interesting experience for the writers in the crowd, seeing how it (not always successfully) navigates its constant shifts between witty, banter-filled satire and an extraordinarily dark portrayal of an authoritative government. Great performances throughout, with most everyone in the cast stealing a scene at some point.
If you enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale but thought “hey, I wish this was weirder” then allow me to present Johanna Sinisalo’s The Core of the Sun. Set in a Finland where an ongoing program of eugenics, behavioural and societal control have forced (most) women into submissive roles, it’s also a novel where people get high out of their minds on chili peppers. It treads some familiar dystopian ground, but does so extremely effectively.
Obligatory Photo of Associate Editor Henry
POV: Your Associate Editor is having a midlife crisis and won’t stop wearing his neck bandana to work.