It's national short story month — and to celebrate, here are acclaimed writers Elizabeth Hand and Timothy Zahn, plus editor Ellen Datlow, to explain why short fiction keeps science fiction awesome. Zahn's description of the role of editors in shaping his early work is particularly lovely.

Short stories have always been the lifeblood of the science fiction and fantasy genres, even though novels get the lion's share of the attention. There are hundreds of great stories published every year — and a large portion of them are available for free online — but many people only read the shorts in one of the…

David D. Levine has been many things, including Hugo-winning short story writer and Martian explorer — but now he's taking on a new role: supervillain. Check out this brand new Dr. Horrible-esque video, in which he delivers a "Letter to the Editor" from the supervillain Dr. Talon, from his story in the anthology The…

Manuel Gonzales' bizarre, fantastical story collection The Miniature Wife is getting rave reviews from the likes of Charles Yu and Hannah Tinti. It was named one of last week's best books by Publisher's Weekly, which also gave it a starred review. And people are comparing Gonzales, executive director of the Austin Bat…

io9 is proud to present fiction from Lightspeed Magazine. Once a month, we'll be featuring a story from Lightspeed's current issue. This month's selection is "The Sounds of Old Earth" by Matthew Kressel. Enjoy!
The Sounds of Old Earth
Matthew Kressel

io9 is proud to present fiction from Lightspeed Magazine. Once a month, we'll be featuring a story from Lightspeed's current issue. This month's selection is "The Perfect Match" by Ken Liu. Enjoy!

io9 is proud to present fiction from Lightspeed Magazine. Once a month, we'll be featuring a story from Lightspeed's current issue. This month's selection is "Searching for Slave Leia" by Sandra McDonald. Enjoy!

There are a lot of new takes on L. Frank Baum's Land of Oz coming up, including Sam Raimi's Oz The Great and Powerful, and a new animated film featuring Patrick Stewart and Lea Michele. But the most unique takes might come from a new anthology, edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen. Oz Reimagined: New Tales…

Two of the internet's coolest fiction magazines need your support right now. Strange Horizons is having its annual fund drive, with tons of prizes for donors — but the main prize is satisfaction that you're helping to support one of the most important magazines in the field, whose unpaid staff works tirelessly to keep…

io9 is proud to present fiction from Lightspeed Magazine. Once a month, we'll be featuring a story from Lightspeed's current issue. This month's selection is "Flowing Unimpeded to the Enlightenment" by Robert Reed. Enjoy!