One of my favorite speculative fiction magazines, FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, got a lot of deserved and overdue attention this past weekend and has acquired enough new subscribers to move into paying their writers SFWA pro rates. This has really brightened my day!
Along with the impromptu subscription drive efforts I noticed many people asking about back issues. You can buy back issues of FIYAH and they’ve also put together back issue bundles for each of their previous years of operation. That being the case I thought a little roundup of the FIYAH stories I’ve included in past roundups would be in order.
Please note: EVERY issue of FIYAH is excellent and I am not issuing these as any kind of authoritative “best of” of the magazine. That’s not how my roundups work. I read widely and I put a selection of things I personally particularly enjoy into my roundups in the weeks I do them. I don’t usually read issues of any magazine back to front in order all in one go so stories I choose to include in round ups are never a commentary on the other stories in any particular issue of any particular magazine that I don’t, that’s just not how my process works.
That said, if you’re looking for some back issues of FIYAH here are some stories I enjoyed in the past and what I said about them then. I’ve edited out some commentary that’s irrelevant to the actual stories for here and it should be noted that over time how verbose I’ve been when discussing stories in my roundups has generally grown and also waxed and waned. The amount of words I spilled over any story has no bearing on my views of it’s quality. If I included it in a roundup it’s because I like it and think it’s well worth people’s time.
From Weekly Fiction Rec Roundup 3:
“Riley and Robot” by Arnica Ross from FIYAH Magazine Issue 4
So, most stories I’m sharing in these weekly roundups are free to read. However, writers should be paid for their work and some markets and authors choose to use a traditional pay-to-read model, tonight’s story is from one of them: FIYAH Magazine. FIYAH is one of the best new things to show up in speculative fiction this year, and I highly recommend all of it’s issues. At the time of this post you can get Issue #4 for $3.99.
This is a sweet story about a single mother doing what she needs to to help her young son who just hasn’t found a way to fit in yet. This story connected with me on a very personal level. In many ways Nicey and Riley could be my son and I. When Nicey cries, I could feel the urge myself. If I read it again I just might. I’m stating my bias plainly here, and I don’t rate or rank these stories, but this one immediately became one of my favorite stories of the year.
From Weekly Fiction Rec Roundup 6:
“With These Hands: An Account of Uncommon Labor” by L.H. Moore from FIYAH #5
This is one of those stories I often like (when done well) which feels like it could have been written in a different era, which suits an issue dedicated to “Ahistorical Blackness”. The POV character recounts to us strange things he witnessed while helping build the White House, but in truth it’s a story about just how far people will go to be free, done with a nicely light touch.
From Weekly Fiction Rec Roundup 11:
“Yard Dog” by Tade Thompson from FIYAH Issue #7: Music
The story is of the let-me-tell-you-of-that-one-weird-brush-we-had-with-the-supernatural-sort and in it our protagonist and narrator describes how his little circle of jazz musicians and their local venue had a brush up against someone, perhaps better labeled something. Of course I personally enjoyed getting to visit the jazz world with these characters, but I also loved that fact that for me this story was about the need to share our art that many, if not most, artists of any kind so desperately feel. Even this…angel? demon? cosmic horror entity? Just wanted to play for an audience. Desperately so. I can relate to that.
Now before I wrap this up I will point out for anyone who doesn’t know that FIYAH produces a Spotify playlist for every issue with the tracks picked by the writers of each issue to match their stories. The tracks that were11 chosen by Thompson to mesh with his story are “Haitian Fight Song” from Charles Mingus’ The Clown, “Mr. P.C.” from John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, and Cab Calloway’s “The Hi-De-Ho Miracle Man”. Just. Perfect. The Calloway track isn’t as famous as his other “Hi-De-Ho” song “Minnie the Moocher”, but the lyrics are perfect for this story. Those first two albums, though, are two of the best jazz albums of all time from two of the absolute greatest musicians to ever live. So worth your time.
From Weekly Fiction Rec Roundup 13:
“Saudade” by Nelson Rolon from FIYAH Issue 8: Pilgrimage
Hey look: it’s a novelette! I don’t often read the longer short fiction for the Round Up, and I really would like to make the time to read it a little more often. Novelette’s are really interesting lengths where stories can breath more and take on a different pacing. As a writer who tends to go shorter and has written a lot of flash and even micro fiction, that interests me.
Now, first thing I have to say is this story had a bit of an unfair advantage in grabbing my attention and endearing itself to me by being set in Seoul. I lived in South Korea5 for a very long time.6 It’s my other home. So if you want to give me a cool, weirdish, future South Korean setting where people drink Cass and soju I’m going to jump all over that.
Perhaps strangely for a story this long we don’t get a lot of answers to some of the questions about whats going on. We do get a nicely fleshed out setting where humanity has moved past the confines of earth, a world that feels a little Cowboy Bebop esque, and an interesting cast of characters. We get a rat-creature the size of a dog that can be splattered and reconstitute itself, a cybernetic bounty hunter, and a mysterious necklace with a penchant for solving peoples problems with the aid of very large works of art. I enjoyed my time in this world and I intend to read the story again to try and better understand what I currently don’t. I’m also going to hope that Rolon does more with this world – someone get him a contract to turn this into an anime or a comic series! – and keep my eye out for more from this debut author.
THE FOLLOWING STORY REQUIRES A CONTENT WARNING:
When I originally read the following story it sent my thoughts to state violence aimed at Black people. When the wonderful and prolific short story reviewer Charles Payseur read it his thoughts went to the AIDS epidemic. As we now are in the midst of both a new pandemic and a new wave protest triggered by the near constant state of state-sanctioned police brutality and murder of Black people this story, which would likely always land hard, is potentially an emotionally untenable read for some right now. As noted in the original review it also comes with a content warning for suicide.
From 2019 Short Story Roundup 1:
“Notes on The Plague” by Shamar Harriott from FIYAH Issue #9
This is a powerful, meditative, painful story. It’s the kind of story that sits with you. The kind of story that has to come last in a roundup of short fiction because it just wouldn’t feel right to have anything else after it. The story is laid out quite clearly in the blurb from the table of contents:
A mysterious plague is killing black people. Amidst this tragedy, a small group of hopeful survivors tries to figure out how to retain their will to survive without the ability to touch—or trust.
It’s also important to mention that it carries with it a trigger warning for suicide.
After posting this I went and read Charles Payseur’s review of the story and realized quite immediately that he has most surely hit much closer to the mark of what the author intended with this story. I’ve left my thoughts below because, frankly, part of experiencing any art is what the artist intends but also what we bring with us to our experiencing of that art. Art and stories are conversations and will evoke different things for different people. I feel, however, you would be very well served to go read Charles’ review of this one too. His conversation with this story is an important one.
Clearly, I approach a story like this as an outsider. Yes it is an incredibly human story that will pull at the emotions of anyone with a shred of empathy. But it is also, I suspect (remember: outsider here) an especially relevant story for Black people living through what I can only imagine must sometimes feel like a plague ridden world. A place where no action, however normal and milquetoast can lead to a confrontation with people authorized to use deadly force anytime they feel afraid. I see it said often in the people I follow on social media, a simple phrase or variation on it: “I’m tired. Aren’t you all tired?”
The characters in this story are tired. Exhausted even. It is not a fun read, but it is a very damn good read. Depending who you are I would not be surprised if you feel tired when it’s done too. Or you might feel seen. Either way, if you feel up to it, it gets my highest of recommendations.
From 2020 Short Fiction Roundup 1:
NEW NOTE: I just have to add, that this story is in my opinion, perfect for the moment we find ourselves in. Give me the messy powerful stories of revolution please!
“The Transition of Osoosi” by Ozzie M. Gartrell from FIYAH Magazine #13
Here we have something that is once again, a bit dark, at times, but also quite cool. Here Ozzie M. Gartrell spins an afrofuturist cyber punk novelette with a world that is soaked in all the cool and slick tech that cyberpunk demands, but with the awareness that the extreme capitalism run amok of such settings as a projection of our own timeline will bring their corporate and societal boots down hardest on the people they have always brought them down on. Here is a society of second class citizens and the abuse of police and the legal system codified into law. And in such a world is there really such thing as going too far to smash the system? Are any sacrifices too great? It’s hard not to cheer on our protagonist and the hacktivist cyber gods who are his potential patrons when they seem to answer no. Definitely one of those stories where I would do a little dance of joy to hear it were being turned into an HBO series. This I would most definitely watch.
And there you go. A tiny sampling of the wonderful fiction put out by FIYAH magazine and which issues to check out to find some of my favorite stories of the last few years (not just favorite FIYAH stories, favorite stories anywhere).