The idea of re-reading is a strange one, profoundly out of place in a consumerist society. Those who re-read discuss how the experience helps them remember the first, implicitly more memorable time they read a book. Those who don’t re-read talk about how they don’t have the time. Instead of retreading the same material, they […]
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Rumpelstiltskin, If
I only look at it when he is sleeping: the straw-spun thread, golden, trailing from my index finger to the back of his delicate hand. When I shift, I feel the tug, bone deep, and imagine his tender pulse in the quiver of that single bartered strand. I tell myself I am not a monster. […]
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In Praise of Difficult Literature
No one has ever convinced a friend to read a book by talking about how difficult it is. Check the fiction bestseller list and you’ll find cozy mysteries, spy thrillers, and sweet romances. We talk of “beach reads” or “airport novels,” books that exist to fulfill a specific function, rather than being valuable for their […]
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A Catalog for the End of Humanity
Emmeline was allowed to pick from three “archetype” versions of herself, much like how she might have chosen a home-droid from a catalog. The ones best representing her were projected up onto the platform—her whole life and fears and experiences filtered down to ones and zeroes, color-coded and bullet-pointed with all the best features of […]
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architect of night-bridges
Moonlight Sonata: Or, How I Swim through Dreams with You Let me tell youabout the moonlight – how it is to lie in bed across the unstained quilt, exposed to nocturnal rhythms through naked panes, waiting for the pregnant moon to unhook her luminary limbs and slip through sliver of space between glass and sill. I hunger for this moment – […]
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The Star-Dappled Puddle: Reflecting on Poetic Practice
The night is violet moonless— a creamy banquet of pirouetting stars dapples a hilltop puddle. Plunging my head into the placid water, I hope to taste the light. Writing poetry is not harder than prose fiction, but it is a different kind of hard. Fiction is an adventure to a distant land, planned out with […]
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An Open Letter to Bakers
I think apologies to you every morning when I take loaves of wheat bread out of the oven, cool them on big metal racks, and glance over every so often to see if they’ve gone missing. When that happens, there is more cash in the register. I smile sadly when the bread has disappeared and […]
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Orion’s Belt 2022 Team Announced!
I’ll release this information to everyone in time, but if anyone donates to this Patreon, I feel they should know first. As we enter into Orion’s Belt’s second year and prepare ourselves to publish more daring speculative fiction, I believe I should provide an update on the current state of the magazine. I, Joshua Fagan, […]
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