Million Writers Award: The Best Online Science Fiction and Fantasy

Sanford, editor of the online literary journal storySouth, assembles a remarkable collection of science fiction and fantasy works, all originally published online and heralded in storySouth’s annual Million Writers Award contest (some are winners, others finalists and notables). New York City is the setting for Richard Bowes’s haunting post-9/11 “There’s a Hole in the City” and N. K. Jemisin’s “Non-Zero Probabilities,” where to know the odds is to fear them. “The Faithful Soldier, Prompted” by Saladin Ahmed is a futuristic folk tale of love and desperation with a warm, old-fashioned feel, while Adam-Troy Castro’s chilling “Arvies” envisions a world where only the unborn have rights. Alaya Dawn Johnson’s “A Song to Greet the Sun” explores the grim circumstances behind an honor killing, and Jenny Williams’s “The Fisherman’s Wife” and Catherynne M. Valente’s “Urchins, While Swimming” offer fresh insights into selkies and rusalka. Many of these stories have earned other awards and nominations, and they prove that online journals and magazines deserve readers’ respect and attention. (June)