Cover by Lizy Campbell, originally an acrylic painting. Welcome to our journeys to distant lands, searching for futures that resonate to us as true, without platitudes or simplistic dogma.
-
Cyberpunk, Hopepunk, and Beyond
Stories pursue truth. A narrative that feels sentimental and cloying, portraying the triumph of the pure and just over heartless, cackling evil will not resonate beyond an audience of schoolchildren because it does not convey truth. The same is true of a narrative that portrays humanity as universally corrupt and heartless, caring only for material […]
Leave a Reply
-
Hands Like Wings, Dancing Upon the Air (June 2023 Poetry)
I. There is so very little time left– my father never lived to see the usurpation of the fossil fuel empiresand the treaties of the climate wars, fallen with the decomposing trees, something else taking root in his place. He never gave up the fight— his feet stomping the violence cradled by their hands, his fingers untyingthe knots […]
Leave a Reply
-
The Lighthouse (June 2023 Fiction)
Vita lay on a cold slab of stone, feeling disappointed with death. She resented the darkness and chilly discomfort, and resented being alone. Vita wasn’t the kind of woman who enjoyed solitude. A memory nudged her, and she wriggled her toes, which were cold and bare, but animate. She’d come to this place to find […]
Leave a Reply
-
Orion’s Belt May 2023 Cover Art
Enjoy a contemplative voyage into distant lands, with an ethereal, enchanting poem from John P. Johnson, a harrowing story of myth, connection, and solemnity by Lia Swope Mitchell, and an essay on the relationship between speculative fiction and metaphor by me, Joshua Fagan.
Leave a Reply
-
Metaphor and Speculative Fiction
All fiction is to a certain extent metaphorical. The setting and plot points of a story matter, but they matter in that they create a foundation for the passions and laments and psychological tensions that give a story the capacity to captivate its audience. Theorists from Aristotle to Percy Shelley have discussed this idea, but […]
Leave a Reply
-
Orion’s Belt 2022 Year-End Anthology Free to $2 Patrons
If you give $2 or more per month, you can receive the entire Orion’s Belt 2022 Year-End Anthology for free. That’s right! Free. It’s attached to this post. It includes stories not currently on our website, along with all the stories we published this year.
Leave a Reply
-
A Cosmonaut’s Prospectus
Writing about literary trends and tendencies from the narrow viewpoint afforded by the present has never been easy. In “How It Strikes a Contemporary,” Robert Browning creates as an allegory of the poet-figure an enigmatic observer, attempting to understand the beguiling networks of secrets and circumstances unfolding themselves in the enigmatic corners he observes. That […]
Leave a Reply
-
The Whispering Bones
The bones whisper to me in my sleep, in my waking, in my moments of thinking nothing at all. They whisper stories of pain, loss, and of wishes that never came true when they were living. I try to drown them out with dreams of my own, but I cannot compete with the dead. Not […]
Leave a Reply
-
Suddenly, I Remember Camelot
Did I want another cup of tea? my mother asks, rising awkwardly from her chair. I shake my head and wave my half-eaten biscuit at her over my half-drunk mug. She settles back down into her chair but starts twiddling her thumbs. I swallow quickly and scoot over to her, phone in hand, encouraging her […]
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply