OTHERSIDE

@othersidespec.bsky.social

OTHERSIDE is a quarterly magazine of speculative fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art by 2SLGBTQIA+ writers and artists. 🪐🗡️🌈

https://patreon.com/othersidespec · https://othersidespec.com

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 4:43 PM

Worried your work isn’t exploration-y enough? Try us anyway! This is a loose theme. We’re interested in explorations of new worlds and strange places. But we’re also interested in explorations of the self, the body, love, science, folklore, family… anything and everything! Seriously, go wild! 🔭 🗺️

@wiswell.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 1:57 PMReposted by @othersidespec.bsky.social

In light of some magazines pulling scummy things on creators lately, I’m doing a little thread on short story rights. I don't want anybody getting taken advantage of. Also, if you're new, this stuff can be confusing!

@spicycloaca.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 8:47 PMReposted by @othersidespec.bsky.social

i couldn't be happier that this story is reprinted in OTHERSIDE. thanks for giving my communal eco-grief story a second home 🌰🩸🫶

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 3:00 PMReposted by @othersidespec.bsky.social

We are now OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS from all 2SLGBTQIA+ authors! Issue 4's theme: EXPLORATION. Send us stories and poems that interpret the concept of exploration in abstract or literal ways, internal or external, strange and surreal—don't self-reject 🪐🗡️

Guidelines: othersidespec.com/guidelines/

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 3:00 PM

Issue 3 is OUT NOW! And the first reprint in this issue is a special one. @spicycloaca.bsky.social's “BLIGHT” is a wrenching, layered examination of an Appalachian community and their neighbors: a grove of dying chestnut trees.

🌳 Read it here: othersidespec.com/pieces/blight

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BLIGHT by Samir Sirk Morató

Despite our own blights, we’ve tried to help the chestnuts. Why wouldn’t we? They fed us in the cold and shaded us from heat. We burnt, bent and harvested their cradle-to-grave bodies for years, but out of love; we needed them. They wanted us.

Much has changed.

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 8:00 PM

Issue 3 is HERE! And we are SO happy to share and celebrate these amazing stories and poems. “The Clay King” by @armori.bsky.social is both creation myth and love poem, bittersweet and beautiful.

👑 Read it here: othersidespec.com/pieces/the-c...

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"The Clay King" by Arda Mori

I have counted the raindrops which dented you, cut
myself on the poetry collected in your breast

as you trailed your roots over blue-brimmed
steppes—untamed, unafraid of falling.

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 3:00 PM

Guidelines: othersidespec.com/guidelines/

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 4:17 PM

Just under 15 hours left to get print copies of our first two issues with free shipping from @bookshop.org! Don’t miss out! Every print issue is meticulously designed, lovingly illustrated, and packed with 30,000 words of brilliant queer SFFH. 💜

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 3:00 PM

ICYMI, Issue 3 is OUT NOW on our website! Mina Yeh’s heartbreaking and hopeful “Field Notes on Liturgical Rites, Co-Authored Li and Albrecht” insists that love can work miracles, literally.

📝 Read it here: othersidespec.com/pieces/field...

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"Field Notes on Liturgical Rites, Co-Authored Li and Albrecht" by Mina Yeh

April 2007. A child comes back from the dead. A standstill operation, an hour past reasonable expiration, a minor thaumatological miracle. Alice is the resident assisting, and when Elise finds her, pulls her close, minutes in the aftermath, she looks rapturous. Alice does not have the capacity to flinch, and she does not now.

@hvmator.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 6:39 PMReposted by @othersidespec.bsky.social

amazon AI says queers can’t have boobs butts or balls, especially if they are highly stylized lines on a canvas. please pay artists directly. peace and love

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 7:22 PM

Prefer print? Get FREE shipping on Issues 1 -2 from @bookshop.org today for Anti-Prime Day! Each issue includes 15+ speculative stories and poems by 2SLGBTQIA+ creators for only $14.99! Thank you for supporting queer art.

Issue 1: bookshop.org/p/books/othe...

Issue 2: bookshop.org/p/books/othe...

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 4:26 PM

Happy Banned Books Week AND Anti-Prime Day! We've spent this week fighting with Amazon, who blocked Issue 3... because a stylized illustration of a statue = porn, at least if you're a queer publication. The best way to support us is directly. Code ANTIPRIME gets you 15% off subscriptions this week.

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 3:00 PM

Issue 3 is OUT NOW on our website! In “One Floor, One Phoenix,” @crystalkoo.bsky.social examines the ugly intersections of technology and shame. We can't tell you more without spoilers; you're just going to have to read this one for yourself ASAP.

🐦‍🔥 Read it here: othersidespec.com/pieces/one-f...

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One Floor, One Phoenix by Crystal Koo

Unit 1805 is empty and dimly-lit. Wing’s alone. The windows are boarded up, the walls painted in the color of the polyester fog that hangs above Hong Kong at the start of spring.

The floor is a soft red, upholstered like a gigantic mattress. Wing snaps the QR code printed on the wall and taps SEED at the top of the list of services. It sounds the least intimidating.

She puts her phone down and waits.

@christinehanolsy.com Oct 6, 2026, 12:49 AMReposted by @othersidespec.bsky.social

Sometimes a breathtaking story just falls into your lap and, well, takes your breath away. This one by Sydney Paige Guerrero is a gorgeous, bittersweet homage to portal fantasies and mothers and daughters and needing and being needed. If you liked Every Heart a Doorway, this is right up your alley.

@softfutures.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 3:45 PMReposted by @othersidespec.bsky.social

I bought a copy of this to read on my kindle and have been slowly making my way through so as to let each fantastic piece take up the space it deserves in my mind Last night I read This Is Not a Place of Honor and damn... I'm gonna need to sit with that one for a while!

@ktonbsky.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 12:45 AMReposted by @othersidespec.bsky.social

“Feral thing in a lightbox” by Madeleine Poole is 🔥🔥 what a poem.

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 3:01 PM

Issue 3 is OUT NOW! We can't wait to share these amazing stories and poems with you 🪐🗡️

The issue opens with Madeleine Poole’s “Feral thing in a lightbox,” a bloody fairy tale about gender, want, and the girl in the wolf’s belly.

🐺 Read it here: othersidespec.com/pieces/feral...

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Feral thing in a lightbox, by Madeleine Poole

When I was a little girl I was really a wolf
in a dress & red cape, holding her sweetbread

in a basket. Palms bristled, shape streamlined
for speed, muzzle stronger than she knows.

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 8:45 PM

You can join for as little as $2/month, less if you snag an annual discount, and Discord access never expires, even if you need to pause your subscription! We are biased, but we're pretty sure it's the best (and also sometimes most spectacularly and joyfully unhinged) space on the internet.

@othersidespec.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 8:43 PM

We had the most wonderful time participating in @spacemagiccon.bsky.social this afternoon, talking about queer SFF community 💜 If you're also looking for community... check out our patron Discord, feat. book clubs, submissions resources, a lively crit swap channel, and more! We'd love to have you!

@crystalkoo.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 8:47 AMReposted by @othersidespec.bsky.social

One Floor, One Phoenix is live in @othersidespec.bsky.social Issue 3! Thank you eds. MR Robinson and Ash Vale. I haven't had a story set so overtly in HK for a while now (title is based on 一樓一鳳) so it's nice to see this out in the world!

Read it here: othersidespec.com/pieces/one-f...

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