Fusion Fragment Newsletter: Q2 2025
Hi there FFriends! Summer is upon us, and so is a brand new issue of Fusion Fragment, which just arrived on June 30th.
Read on for all your FF-related news!
Issue #25 has some great stuff, such as: Thousand year old frogs coming back to life! Hacking the limbs off pesky creatures that emerge from the walls! Spider-bots! Dragonfly-bots! Celebrity-bots! Eerie voids that threaten to swallow the children! Thinking about maybe stealing someone else's body that you're only just renting! Finding the truth about the sand-sunken ship! Hanging constellations in your bedroom!
As always, you can download a copy for free (or toss us a few bucks if you want to support the mag).
Since the last newsletter, we also released not one, but two issues of Saros SF!
Saros #2 was released in March and edited by C.A. Kane, a longtime FF submissions reader. This one was a themed issue, centering on a topic near and dear to my heart: cocktails!
With a gorgeously designed interior, C.A. gathers cocktail related stories about fae, robot bartenders, mixology, and a lot of blood. Also included are a collection of drabbles to whet your appetite, and some cocktail recipes (both real and imagined) to try your hand at.
Saros #3 was released in May and edited by another FF submissions reader, Em Arata-Berkel. Another themed issue, this one is subtitled “Tears in Rain” (thank you, Blade Runner) and focuses on cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk.
This one’s got stories of the body, bunkers, and bands, along with a great set of drabbles and an interview with SF reviewer and scholar Gary K. Wolfe on the history of cyberpunk.
Reading Period News: After a brief influx of submissions through May and June that accordingly brought up our response time, we’re back down to 5-7 days for first-round responses. The FF Bluesky is currently the best place to get periodic progress on our reading period status, as I try to post updates like this one on a regular basis.
Publishing Schedule / Reprints: Back in March, we announced a reduction in our publishing schedule and our permanent closure to reprints. For more details, you can see the announcement on Bluesky.
Awards / Reviews / Best Ofs: Big wins for FFers at the Nebula Awards, as A.D. Sui (FF#19, FF#22) took home the prize for Best Novella with The Dragonfly Gambit, while A.W. Prihandita (FF#18) won Best Novelette for her Clarkesworld piece “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being”.
M.R. Robinson’s “Lucinda Espinosa’s Twenty-Seventh Death” from FF#24 landed on the recommended list in Locus, where it was called “a heartbreaking story, beautifully told”.
Meg Elison’s “Callie’s World” from FF#22 was named to the honourable mention list in this year’s Best American Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Most recently, Louis Evans’s “Show Goes On” from FF#20 was named to the TOC of We’re Here: Best Queer Speculative Fiction of 2024.
2024 Submitter’s Survey: I promise it’s almost done, this time for real! I should have details to share later this month! Also, thanks to all who have contributed so far to the 2025 survey.
Obligatory Photo of Associate Editor Henry
