Authors in This Issue

“Barbarians” by Rich Larson
Rich Larson was born in Galmi, Niger, has lived in Spain and Czech Republic, and is currently based in Montreal, Canada. His newest novel Ymir, which shares DNA with Barbarians and was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, is now available in print, ebook, and audio. Both works blend far-future invention, rapid-fire action, and a healthy dollop of dark humor.

“To Make and End” by William Preston
The fifth, final story in William Preston’s “Old Man” sequence was conceived of fourteen years ago, drafted ten years ago, partly lost, dabbled with, distrusted, fled from, and, once Bill retired from teaching, hammered out by rejecting and embracing our own dire timeline. It has always begun with a discovery—the purposes and meaning of which the writer now knows and here reveals.

“Maragi’s Secret” by Michèle Laframboise
Michèle Laframboise recently won the prestigious Trillium award for her YA SF novel, Le secret de Paloma. She tells us she grew up on science fiction adventures featuring either daring young men or Asimovian robots. Detecting an annoying absence, she grappled fiction to pen her own daring heroines while studying in Earth sciences. Eventually, Michèle resolutely left the rigid serious-literature dirigible to board the merry SF community airship. A move she had never regretted, after more than eighty stories and twenty novels published.

“The Rattler” by Leonid Kaganov (translated by Alex Shvartsman)
Leonid Kaganov is from St. Petersburg, Russia. He is a scriptwriter and multiple award-winning author of ten novels and short story collections. His fiction has been translated and published in France, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, and Estonia. His fiction has been published in English in Clarkesworld. In Leonid’s first story for Asimov’s, humanity confronts a terrifying alien.

“In the Palace of Science” by Chris Campbell
Chris Campbell <@chriscampbell.bsky.social> is a speculative fiction writer whose words have appeared in FIYAH, Nightlight, and khōréō. His first story for Asimov’s is an homage to Lewis Latimer, the often overlooked designer of the improved carbon filaments that made light bulbs both practical and functional, and Thomas Washington Talley, the first Black chemistry professor to teach at a major American university and the collector of two formative volumes of African American oral folktales.

“Last Thursday” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Kristine Kathryn Rusch finally retired from weekly blogging about the publishing industry so that she can write more fiction. She still provides some entertainment on her website, though, from a weekly free short story to a monthly recommended reading list. You can find her at kriswrites.com. The author’s latest novel, The Ivory Trees, got its start in Asimov’s in two different novellas, “Death Hole Bunker” (July/August, 2023) and “The Break-in” (September/October 2023). The novel expands on both of those—particularly the events after “The Break-in.” Right now, she’s finishing a big Fey project before turning her attention back to the Diving universe. Her new story was inspired by a sign that she saw “outside a nearby bar in December of 2020. Yep. During the pandemic. So that sign is real or was real. It’s gone now . . . ”

“Arazem-2 Is Waiting for a Letter” by Amal Singh
Amal Singh is a writer from Mumbai, India. His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Tor.com, Clarkesworld, F&SF, among others. Amal’s debut novel The Garden of Delights should be out soon from Flame Tree Press. He also has an epic fantasy audio-drama currently streaming on Audible. This is Singh’s first story for Asimov’s.

“Renting to Killers” by Elena Pavlova (translated by Elena Pavlova & Kalin M. Nenov)
Elena Pavlova lives in Montana, Bulgaria, and has been in love with science fiction since an early age. Her short stories have appeared in various Bulgarian anthologies and magazines, winning awards from national competitions. In 2021 her novel Christmas Carolers vs Hallus Beasts won the ESFS Best Work for Children award, and she was awarded the SLF’s Diverse Worlds grant as well. Elena’s short stories have been published in Future Science Fiction Digest #3, Compelling Science Fiction, and Samovar. Her first story for Asimov’s considers the peril of interacting with the practitioner of a certain occupation.

“Cynthia in the Subflooring” by Christopher Rowe
Christopher Rowe lives and writes in Kentucky, where he was born and where he has spent most of his life. His stories have been published, reprinted, and translated around the world, and he has been a finalist for many awards. Asimov’s favorite Michael Swanwick described Christopher’s most recent story for us, “The Four Last Things” (November/December 2023) as “very good” and “very challenging.”