Fabulist Staff

What do we mean by ‘Hopepunk’?

Our January 1-7 submissions window for short fiction is coming up fast. While we welcome all manner of far-out, fantastical, speculative and genre fiction with each monthly open call, we also want to emphasize particular ...

Dec. 21: Solstice Holiday Party @ Adobe Books

Late-breaking news! Charlie Jane Anders has joined Alvin Orloff, Daphne Gottlieb, Jon Longhi, Kimi Sugioka, Denise Sullivan, Sparrow 13, Tarin Towers, Anders, and Hugh Behm-Steinberg for this fabtastic reading! Manic D Press & The Fabulist ...

Our 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominees

Each year The Fabulist makes nominations to the Pushcart Prize, which publishes an annual “best of the small presses” anthology. We’re limited to six, so, tough choices …  This year’s batch of fables, yarns and ...

December Open Call: Holidays & Seasonal Celebrations

Our next open call for short fiction runs from December 4-10. We welcome fantastical and speculative stories of all sorts, and also would love to see fantastical works themed around holidays and seasonal celebrations. What ...

What Do We Mean by ‘Post-Colonialism’?

Our November 6-12 submissions window, while open to fantastical and speculative fiction of all sorts, has a special-interest theme of "post-colonialism." What the heck does that actually mean? Read as literally as possible: We are ...

‘Utopia Hunters’: Lit Crawl ’22 Was Live!

On Saturday, October 22, The Fabulist Magazine returned to Lit Crawl for another stellar evening of striking, stirring, moving, hilarious and provocative readings from a fantastic lineup of Bay Area writers, who collectively drew a ...

The Fabulist presents: ‘Utopia Hunters’ @ Lit Crawl ’22

The Fabulist Magazine is thrilled to return to Lit Crawl this Saturday, October 22, from 6:30-7:30pm, at Adobe Books, 3130-24th Street, in San Francisco. Our latest knockout lineup of Bay Area literary heavies includes Hugh Behm-Steinberg, ...

‘Erewhon’ Wins Utopian Art Award

The Fabulist congratulates artist Roger Leege for winning the 2022 Utopia Award in the "Utopian Art" category. Leege's gallery "Erewhon and Other Strange Utopias," published in The Fabulist in April 2021, uses collage and transformation ...

Short Fiction Submissions, Fall ’22-Spring ’23

Starting in October, and running at least through Spring 2023, The Fabulist Magazine will be opening a new series of monthly submissions windows for short fantastical fiction of all sorts. Please refer to our submissions ...

Live-Tweeting the 80th World Science Fiction Convention

The Fabulist went to Chicon, the 80th World Science Fiction, and live-tweeted the heck out of it. We covered panels on writing craft, fiction publications to watch, the new "golden age of the novella," medieval ...

The Rin Kelly Scholarship for Fiction: DEADLINE EXTENDED

CALL FOR APPLICANTS UPDATE: The submissions deadline has been extended to September 10. The family of Rin Kelly is offering up to three $350 scholarships to emerging fiction writers for use in enrolling in San ...

Vote for The Fabulist in the Utopia Awards

VOTING is now open through Aug. 21 for the 1st Annual Utopia Awards! The Fabulist is a finalist in two-count-em-two categories — Roger Leege's "Erewhon and Other Strange Utopias" in the Utopian Art category, and Fabulist ...

Fabulist Podcast No. 1: Dan Hintz, Kimberly Unger

In The Fabulist Magazine's debut podcast, New York City photographer, musician and author Dan Hintz reads "Altar," a weird work of short-short fiction. We also speak with Kimberly Unger, author of "The Extractionist," a new ...

We’re on the Utopia Awards shortlist

We're chuffed to share that we've had two pieces shortlisted for the first annual Utopia Awards, established by the good folks over at Solar Punk Magazine. Check out the shortlist — we're in amazing(!) company, ...

The Year Ahead

The world so full of dire turns, and here we are telling stories. It's not just idle escapism. We turn to imaginative and fantastical tales because they keep us alive. Give us hope, inspiration, meaning, ...

Mark your calendars: Sept. 24 in San Francisco

Just a quick note to let you know that our first independently produced event is now booked. The First ConFabulist ConVergence — working title! — will be coming to Adobe Books (3130-24th Street, San Francisco), ...

Loren Rhoads: A Personal Relationship with Cemeteries

Death’s Garden Revisited, a new anthology edited by Morbid Curiosity's Loren Rhoads, collects cemetery essays from genealogists and geocachers, tour guides and travelers, horror authors, ghost hunters, pagan priestesses, and more about why they visit ...

Pushcart Prize ’22 Update

Each year, The Fabulist submits a selection of stories to the Pushcart Prize nominating committee for inclusion in their annual Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Press anthology. This year marks a first for us, ...

Don’t Get Lost in ‘The Backrooms’

In this short, nine-minute video by Kyle Parsons, an amateur film crew is wrapping up an exterior scene for what looks to be a low-budget horror movie. Then there's a sudden lurching motion, a yelp ...

All-Star ‘Radical Science Fiction’ Symposium: Feb. 26-27

Here's one not to miss. The great PM Press is teaming up with City Lights Books in San Francisco to host an all-star, two-day, virtual symposium on radical traditions in science fiction. The events, on ...

Slush pile update, 2022 publishing schedule + new open-call process

We have about 90 manuscripts left in the slush pile, out of the 350 we received during our last open call. We've accepted 10 stories so far, and have about 60 more on the longlist ...

‘The Book of Boba Fett’: Relax, Kid, It’s Just A TV Show

The spectacle of reasonably well-compensated TV critics struggling to make themselves relevant with their trenchant, telling, sharply observed takedowns of Disney's "The Book of Boba Fett" threatens, like the sound of a sour fart at ...

Video: ‘The Ash Tree,’ by M.R. James

A charmingly creepy period piece, the BBC's half-hour, 1975 adaptation of the classic M.R. James ghost story "The Ash Tree" opens with a long pastoral sequence — a figure on horseback, riding through bucolic English countryside. ...

Slush Pile Status Report

We are at present a bit less than halfway through the slush pile from our 2021 open call for short fiction. We received 350 manuscripts, and have 174 to go. We've accepted five so far, ...