Haven Spec Magazine

@havenspec.bsky.social

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Online SFF magazine featuring stories for the 21st century! We publish six issues a year, two of which are focused on the climate crisis. Editor: Leon Perniciaro. HavenSpec.com

An excerpt of the poem "The Archivist of Vanished Tongues" by Oladosu Michael Emerald, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

They say the wind here speaks in broken alphabets. I collect dying languages, fragile things made of breath and dust, barely alive, like insects caught in amber. I’m a boy born with sand in his mouth, raised by silence and the slow scratch of forgotten scripts across his skin.

At night, the walls murmur in extinct vowels. I write them down with a stylus carved from my father’s rib, pressing ink into salt paper. The letters flicker like moths caught between two flames. Above us, the sky...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the poem "SOLD: One Soul, Gently Used" by Nico Martinez Nocito, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

His eyes trail over me with the hungry wanting of a nightmare.
“You’d sell your soul for a few coins?” His voice has the lilt
of my own splintered fears. “Why, what
a terrible bargain, when you could fix every error
that led you here?”

The man in black offers a second chance, who will raise him?

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the short story "Strawberry Island" by Emily O'Malley Liu, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

We were boys when we met by the seashore. He threw a stick at me and called me ugly. I tackled him into the sand. We became inseparable.

His name was Angelo. For fourteen days, Angelo and I met as if by preordination at dawn, on the beach behind my family’s vacation rental on the southern Maine coast. The tide in the bay went out, out, out, and so did we, scouting across the massive expanse of wet, freshly revealed earth, hunting in the tide pools that formed between the rocks...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the short story "What Is A Lake Beyond An Extinct Word?" by Corey Farrenkopf, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

The cabin is cool compared to the elements outside. It holds some ghost scent of fresh water, the whisper of times not so hard, times when people could still float a house across a lake to better lands, to a future not so hollowed-out and ravaged by their past decisions. She wonders what it was like to truly believe in better. How it was a reality for her grandfather when he was her age.

Mattie gives a little laugh.

What even is a lake anymore beyond an extinct word?

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the poem "A Science Center Education" by Lynne Sargent, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

It was a wheel of probability,
of all the living beings in the world:
organized, a pie-chart
of domain, kingdom—mammals separated out,
humans separated again from that, and last
the smallest sliver, barely large enough to hold
its colour representing the chance:

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the poem "What to Watch For" by Jordan Hirsch, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Grandmother taught me what to watch for:
curling blue leaves growing opposite each other.

Every year, she threw a handful of seeds in the soil,
and now I do, too. She taught me

what to watch for: cooler mornings,
something called frost, the shores receding back

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the short story "Mother's Bane" by Madi Haab, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Edwin was an enthusiastic lover, eager to please and to pleasure. He kissed Briar all over, even the strange red bumps she’d first noticed on her skin that morning. His mouth was slow, then teasing, and he brought her to her peak—once, twice—as they made love.

After, they fell back on the mattress in a sweaty, sticky-sweet tangle. “You taste like honeysuckle,” he whispered in her ear before dozing off.

Those would be her husband’s last words.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the poem "Poison" by Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Heaven falls again. & the river cries black.
So much until it becomes a miracle, how a

woman can bleed & not bring out blood the
color of night. In my ache for catharsis, I

baptize in his mouth of filth. In the name of
the father. I am dunked. The oil clings to my...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the short story "We Whose Fathers Have Transformed into Wild Animals of the Land, Sea, and Sky" by Spencer Nitkey, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Kaye dreams of killing his father. When I am not terrified of this dream, I am so jealous that I wish I could steal it through his lips. I don’t know what I’d do if I ever saw my father again. Kaye’s certainty calms me, violent as it is. Now, as Kaye stares down the sight of his rifle and the tremendous buck we’ve been tracking for three days comes up from the brush, he is closer than ever to achieving it. In the Sierra Nevada, mosquito-bitten and muddy, I am not jealous. My tongue tastes of pennies, and more than anything, I am sorry. I want to take Kaye in my hands, run his calloused fingers across my beard, and ground him in something, anything, other than the circle of his scope and his father’s beating heart.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the poem "The Carcass of the World" by Ai Jiang, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

When the carcass of the deer first appeared
erect and alive—not in flesh but in soul—
Father told me that the world was ending.
Its antlers grew, rose into the sky, pierced
its heart with its sharpened edges, and we stood,
watched as the clouds bled, pouring dark tears,
unleashing lightning redder, brighter
than what flowed through our veins, darker...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the short story "Horseland" by EC Dorgan, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

By every measure, I’m a success. I have the perfect home, the perfect partner. He works for an oil company. We’ve paid down our mortgage and invested in equities. He makes a good salary, but I make more, empowering people and selling my story.

I help people find their authentic selves. They say my talks are life-changing. Last year I was on a national news magazine cover, and last month, I made Edmonton’s “Forty Under Forty.” Our guest room became my award room. Now the laundry room’s full, too.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground

An excerpt of the poem "SOLD: One Soul, Gently Used" by Nico Martinez Nocito, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

His eyes trail over me with the hungry wanting of a nightmare.
“You’d sell your soul for a few coins?” His voice has the lilt
of my own splintered fears. “Why, what
a terrible bargain, when you could fix every error
that led you here?”

The man in black offers a second chance, who will raise him?

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the poem "The Archivist of Vanished Tongues" by Oladosu Michael Emerald, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

They say the wind here speaks in broken alphabets. I collect dying languages, fragile things made of breath and dust, barely alive, like insects caught in amber. I’m a boy born with sand in his mouth, raised by silence and the slow scratch of forgotten scripts across his skin.

At night, the walls murmur in extinct vowels. I write them down with a stylus carved from my father’s rib, pressing ink into salt paper. The letters flicker like moths caught between two flames. Above us, the sky...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the short story "Strawberry Island" by Emily O'Malley Liu, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

We were boys when we met by the seashore. He threw a stick at me and called me ugly. I tackled him into the sand. We became inseparable.

His name was Angelo. For fourteen days, Angelo and I met as if by preordination at dawn, on the beach behind my family’s vacation rental on the southern Maine coast. The tide in the bay went out, out, out, and so did we, scouting across the massive expanse of wet, freshly revealed earth, hunting in the tide pools that formed between the rocks...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the poem "A Science Center Education" by Lynne Sargent, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

It was a wheel of probability,
of all the living beings in the world:
organized, a pie-chart
of domain, kingdom—mammals separated out,
humans separated again from that, and last
the smallest sliver, barely large enough to hold
its colour representing the chance:

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the short story "What Is A Lake Beyond An Extinct Word?" by Corey Farrenkopf, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

The cabin is cool compared to the elements outside. It holds some ghost scent of fresh water, the whisper of times not so hard, times when people could still float a house across a lake to better lands, to a future not so hollowed-out and ravaged by their past decisions. She wonders what it was like to truly believe in better. How it was a reality for her grandfather when he was her age.

Mattie gives a little laugh.

What even is a lake anymore beyond an extinct word?

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the poem "What to Watch For" by Jordan Hirsch, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Grandmother taught me what to watch for:
curling blue leaves growing opposite each other.

Every year, she threw a handful of seeds in the soil,
and now I do, too. She taught me

what to watch for: cooler mornings,
something called frost, the shores receding back

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the short story "Mother's Bane" by Madi Haab, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Edwin was an enthusiastic lover, eager to please and to pleasure. He kissed Briar all over, even the strange red bumps she’d first noticed on her skin that morning. His mouth was slow, then teasing, and he brought her to her peak—once, twice—as they made love.

After, they fell back on the mattress in a sweaty, sticky-sweet tangle. “You taste like honeysuckle,” he whispered in her ear before dozing off.

Those would be her husband’s last words.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the poem "Poison" by Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Heaven falls again. & the river cries black.
So much until it becomes a miracle, how a

woman can bleed & not bring out blood the
color of night. In my ache for catharsis, I

baptize in his mouth of filth. In the name of
the father. I am dunked. The oil clings to my...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the short story "We Whose Fathers Have Transformed into Wild Animals of the Land, Sea, and Sky" by Spencer Nitkey, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

Kaye dreams of killing his father. When I am not terrified of this dream, I am so jealous that I wish I could steal it through his lips. I don’t know what I’d do if I ever saw my father again. Kaye’s certainty calms me, violent as it is. Now, as Kaye stares down the sight of his rifle and the tremendous buck we’ve been tracking for three days comes up from the brush, he is closer than ever to achieving it. In the Sierra Nevada, mosquito-bitten and muddy, I am not jealous. My tongue tastes of pennies, and more than anything, I am sorry. I want to take Kaye in my hands, run his calloused fingers across my beard, and ground him in something, anything, other than the circle of his scope and his father’s beating heart.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the poem "The Carcass of the World" by Ai Jiang, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

When the carcass of the deer first appeared
erect and alive—not in flesh but in soul—
Father told me that the world was ending.
Its antlers grew, rose into the sky, pierced
its heart with its sharpened edges, and we stood,
watched as the clouds bled, pouring dark tears,
unleashing lightning redder, brighter
than what flowed through our veins, darker...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

An excerpt of the short story "Horseland" by EC Dorgan, in Issue 23 of Haven Spec Magazine (June 2026). The text reads:

By every measure, I’m a success. I have the perfect home, the perfect partner. He works for an oil company. We’ve paid down our mortgage and invested in equities. He makes a good salary, but I make more, empowering people and selling my story.

I help people find their authentic selves. They say my talks are life-changing. Last year I was on a national news magazine cover, and last month, I made Edmonton’s “Forty Under Forty.” Our guest room became my award room. Now the laundry room’s full, too.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Red and Gold, by Carly A-F. It shows a skeletal figure with fire and branches for hair as they loom over a solitary human figure in the foreground.

Cover of Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 23, published June 2026.

Fiction: EC Dorgan, Spencer Nitkey, Madi Haab, Corey Farrenkopf, Emily O'Malley Liu

Poetry: Ai Jiang, Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe, Jordan Hirsch, Lynne Sargent, Oladosu Michael Emerald, Nico Martinez Nocito

The background features cover art by Carly A-F and features a skeletal figure with branches and fire over their head as they loom above a solitary human figure.

A graph showing the total number of submissions to Haven Spec Magazine for the 2026 Winter Reading Period (covering January 1st to today, February 22nd). Each day is color-coded for open, recommended, rejected, and withdrawn. Almost all of the January submissions have been processed (either rejected or held for further consideration). The graph peaks at February 1st, with about 115 submissions, of which about half have been processed.

An excerpt of the poem "Roommate" by Arthur H. Manners, in Issue 22 of Haven Spec Magazine (February 2026). The text reads:

The day after Danny died of pneumonia
He came downstairs to call the landlord.
I watched trembling from the kitchen
As he rasped and bubbled into his
phone, “Damp’s gotten worse,
you need to get down here.”

[...]

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Harmonies of the Harvest, by Matthew Spencer. It shows a figure with a human body and a deer head.

An excerpt of the poem "Mothercraft (a villanelle)" by Erin Brown, in Issue 22 of Haven Spec Magazine (February 2026). The text reads:

It isn’t magic, doll, which fastens you.
I am the needle, thread, I am the pin.
It is the art I wield, the work I do.

I hasten credit where I think it due,
And do not find earned pride to be a sin.
It isn’t magic, doll, which fastens you.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Harmonies of the Harvest, by Matthew Spencer. It shows a figure with a human body and a deer head.

An excerpt of the short story "We are the Giants We Fear" by Lee Zanello, in Issue 22 of Haven Spec Magazine (February 2026). The text reads:

This is a trick our uncle teaches us before he leaves. When the rumbling from the mountains makes our homes shake and we are scared or anxious, he calms us by forcing us to focus on our immediate environment. “Look for colours,” he says. “Something red, something brown, something yellow. Listen, really listen, to the space around you. This is your home and you are safe here.”

Our uncle teaches us many things as kids, my sister and me. We learn how to make a fire, which plants are edible and which can heal a wound. He takes us...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Harmonies of the Harvest, by Matthew Spencer. It shows a figure with a human body and a deer head.

An excerpt of the short story "Tring-a-Ling" by Dafydd McKimm, in Issue 22 of Haven Spec Magazine (February 2026). The text reads:

The Monster pedals into the village on a bright yellow bicycle, red tassels streaming from the handlebars, stabilizers clattering on the cobbles as it rings its bell—tring-a-ling, tring-a-ling—past the first of the well-kept houses.

Mrs Griffiths, scourge of aphids, rain-goddess to hydrangeas, spots it as it passes her gate, arrests it with a "Hello there, young man. Where have you come from?"

To which the Monster, face aglow, angelic in the sun, replies in a voice like...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Harmonies of the Harvest, by Matthew Spencer. It shows a figure with a human body and a deer head.

Haven Spec Magazine, Issue Twenty-Two, February 2026. Cover and table of contents.

The issue is now available to subscribers, and its contents are as follows:

Cover Art by Matthew Spencer.

Fiction:
Fragments of Sky in Quantum Grief by Lex Chamberlin.
She Will Help You The Only Way She Knows How by Janel Comeau.
Skin Deep by Cressida Roe.
Tring-a-Ling by Dafydd McKimm.
We Are The Giants We Fear by Lee Zanello.

Poetry:
If I must exist here, by Eleanor Ball.
Fairest One by Sophia Zhao.
Persephone Wins Custody of Herself by Marisca Pichette.
Roommate by Arthur H. Manners.
Mothercraft (a villanelle) by Erin Brown.

Nonfiction:
Letter from the Editor, Ya Herd? by Leon Perniciaro.
Poetry for the End of the World by Jessica Peter.
Little Fiction Reviews by the Editors of Haven Spec Magazine.

An excerpt of the poem "Persephone Wins Custody of Herself" by Marisca Pichette, in Issue 22 of Haven Spec Magazine (February 2026). The text reads:

between cold-pink toes
the grass my mother worked so hard to plant
wilts, browns, dies.

white dress stained muddy at the hem,
hair tangled with sticks
I catch a snowflake in my teeth.

[...]

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Harmonies of the Harvest, by Matthew Spencer. It shows a figure with a human body and a deer head.

An excerpt of the short story "Skin Deep" by Cressida Roe, in Issue 22 of Haven Spec Magazine (February 2026). The text reads:

We started shifting in sixth grade. It wasn’t hard, just a simple slither sideways into another skin, more invisible beneath pelts and exoskeletons than in running shorts and t-shirts getting too tight in the wrong places. Easier to bark in a circle, run up trees after squirrels, scuttle beneath a tilted horizon. I had a rodent phase early on and guiltily gorged on scraps of mac-and-cheese. That’s how Mom found out. She’d been trying to sweep me out the front door with a broom when I shifted back.

Of course, she had a meltdown and demanded I tell her who I picked up ...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Harmonies of the Harvest, by Matthew Spencer. It shows a figure with a human body and a deer head.

An excerpt of the poem "Fairest One" by Sophia Zhao, in Issue 22 of Haven Spec Magazine (February 2026). The text reads:

and I know Mama knows best
after He, eyes fair
beneath a crown of gold,

presents to her a pair
of iron shoes,
a pit of burning coal,

[...]

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Harmonies of the Harvest, by Matthew Spencer. It shows a figure with a human body and a deer head.

An excerpt of the short story "She Will Help You The Only Way She Knows How" by Janel Comeau, in Issue 22 of Haven Spec Magazine (February 2026). The text reads:

Sophie Barbeau had taken just four steps through the front door of her childhood home when her mother noticed the bruises.

“What’s this?”

Her mother licked the pad of her thumb and scrubbed at Sophie’s cheek, the way she’d scrubbed at dirt and crumbs and smears of melted popsicle when Sophie was little. A deep purple bruise bloomed on her cheekbone as a coat of makeup rubbed away.

Sophie pushed her mother’s hand aside. “Ow, Maman. It’s nothing. Just a...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Harmonies of the Harvest, by Matthew Spencer. It shows a figure with a human body and a deer head.

An excerpt of the poem "If I must exist here," by Eleanor Ball, in Issue 22 of Haven Spec Magazine (February 2026). The text reads:

then with open arms. Bitten nails. Tongue bloody
from eating itself like a snake. From pressing
my mouth to yours. Oracle, puzzle,

three-body problem. Then in prayer,
licking the wounds of the earth.
Then sunflowers, springing

[...]

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Harmonies of the Harvest, by Matthew Spencer. It shows a figure with a human body and a deer head.

An excerpt of the short story "Fragments of Sky in Quantum Grief" by Lex Chamberlin, in Issue 22 of Haven Spec Magazine (February 2026). The text reads:

The pieces did not trickle down at the start—they fell in sheets that peeled off like expired wallpaper, leaving a starless abyss gaping wide overhead.

It’s been months now. The deluge has slowed some: a chip here, a sliver there, carving a dark and crooked chunk from the otherwise perfect summer sky. But it’s always at its worst where I’m currently biding my time, on a gritty towel in the shadow of some oversized driftwood—she loved the beach more than anywhere else. Someone too much like her runs past, and my heart clenches...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Harmonies of the Harvest, by Matthew Spencer. It shows a figure with a human body and a deer head.

Haven Spec Magazine, Issue Twenty-Two, February 2026. Cover and table of contents.

The issue will be available to subscribers on February 16th, and its contents are as follows:

Cover Art by Matthew Spencer.

Fiction:
Fragments of Sky in Quantum Grief by Lex Chamberlin.
She Will Help You The Only Way She Knows How by Janel Comeau.
Skin Deep by Cressida Roe.
Tring-a-Ling by Dafydd McKimm.
We Are The Giants We Fear by Lee Zanello.

Poetry:
If I must exist here, by Eleanor Ball.
Fairest One by Sophia Zhao.
Persephone Wins Custody of Herself by Marisca Pichette.
Roommate by Arthur H. Manners.
Mothercraft (a villanelle) by Erin Brown.

Nonfiction:
Letter from the Editor, Ya Herd? by Leon Perniciaro.
Poetry for the End of the World by Jessica Peter.
Little Fiction Reviews by the Editors of Haven Spec Magazine.

An excerpt of the poem "Rainmaker" by Olumide Manuel, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

Rivers above and below, hear my voice. A ripple is how you speak. A pour is how you sing. I sing with both feet in vestigial bodies. By the stitch of the skies in me, I call you forth to this dance. In the epigenesis of silence, you forged the ways. The womb of the world was sedentary until you fed its first seed, broke it to light with your wet voice. You raised the first song to the dawns. The thunderbirds harvested it from there. The winds scrapped their leftover screams. The trees mothered the first mother—clay-skinned, sea-eyed. She disgarnished the grief...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

An excerpt of the short story "A Tree is not a Home" by Diana Dima, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

A tree is not a home. But you, twelve years old and bony, dragging a suitcase behind a gray mother into the gray building where you were now going to live, looked back at me as though it was all wrong. As though the building should have been me.

You came out soon afterwards, walked across the parking lot and over the low wire fence into my patch of land. (I saw you, in a manner of speaking, like an arrow rushing at me in the dark.)

I could tell that you had never seen a birch before. You pressed your cheek...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

An excerpt of the poem "last psalm" by P.H. Low, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

that you might be appeased by one such as me.
that, smug on your garnet altar,
you would unhinge your jaws
and drink wetly of my fear,
as a thousand mahogany harps
tremble beneath your altar

[...]

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

An excerpt of the short story "Branches" by Matt Tighe, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

You smile when you see her across the street again.

She laughs when you ask her the way to the station. It is right there behind her, South Entrance in huge letters, people bustling in and out of the oversized doorway.

She asks where you are from—don’t they have trains there—and you smile and shrug. A version of you exists in almost every branch of reality, but part of you, the part that hurts, that knows how she holds your heart, has only just...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

An excerpt of the poem "Queercoded Villanelle" by anaum sajanlal, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

Build an altar to memory. Do not forget.
Dot ancestors all over, then kneel down and pray
to all the joys you do not think possible, yet.

And once you have swallowed the moon of your grief, get
up and run. Leave your eye-silver flowing. Though they
burn altars to memory, we do not forget.

[...]

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

An excerpt of the short story "And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must" by Elou Carroll, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

You are looking right at her when it happens. When your hands clench around his throat—his skin bright and warm beneath your fingers.

It should be her with her nails sharp and her knuckles paling. She is behind him with her mouth hanging open. She cannot hold your stare—she looks away and bites her lip. For the first time, you are reversed, as if you were born in the mirror all along. She hunches her shoulders and squeezes her eyes shut.

Then, she looks up. She watches. She must.

[...]

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

An excerpt of the poem "A Party, A Party!" by Faith Allington, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

You don’t choose vampires
and ghouls any more than they
choose you, but you find consolation
in each other, all the unloved
and objectified strata of myth.

Everybody wants to fear you

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

An excerpt of the short story "Demon in Repose" by J. A. W. McCarthy, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2026). The text reads:

You know this elevator well.

You’re leaving the room that was never really your room, another transient visitor in a transient space, but something nips at the back of your neck as you wait for the cables to pull the elevator car up to your floor. What did you forget? Blue and grey and beige carpet squares point endless forking paths towards doors sheltering lost things and lost people, but you’re not among them anymore.

Last night’s haven has spat you out despite its warm welcome. What did...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

An excerpt of the short story "Magical Girl: Corporate Failure" by Lia Lao, in Issue 21 of Haven Spec Magazine (January 2025). The text reads:

The problem with saving the world at sixteen is that you’re doomed to chase that high for the rest of your life. You’ll fall asleep tossing and turning, dreaming of tiaras that cleave through bone, sky-high heels you can land spinning kicks in, and blood splattering across your face—thick, black, and pungent, like decay settling into your skin.

And when you wake each morning to the tinny, lifeless pulse of your alarm, you’ll wish that your limbs actually ached, that the claw marks...

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Pile, by Aimee Cozza. It shows a figure with blood around their mouth and on their neck and chest, cuddling a pack of wolves.

Haven Spec Magazine, Issue Twenty-One, January 2026. Cover and table of contents.

The issue will be available to subscribers on January 26th, and its contents are as follows:

Cover Art by Aimee Cozza.

Fiction:
Magical Girl: Corporate Failure by Lia Lao.
Demon In Repose by J.A.W. McCarthy.
A Beginner’s Guide to Summoning Demons by Cynthia Zhang.
Bootcut by Allison Pottern.
Branches by Matt Tighe.
And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must by Elou Carroll.
A Tree is not a Home by Diana Dima.

Poetry:
A Party, A Party! by Faith Allington
Queercoded Villanelle by anaum sajanlal
last psalm by P. H. Low
Rainmaker by Olumide Manuel

Nonfiction:
Letter from the Editor, Ya Herd? by Leon Perniciaro.
Little Fiction Reviews by the Editors of Haven Spec Magazine.

Image shows a snippet from the Haven Spec website of Jessica Peter's bio and image. The text reads as follows:

Jessica Peter writes dark, haunted, and sometimes absurd short stories, novels, and poems. A social worker and health researcher, she lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Her writing can be found in Apparition Literary, The NoSleep Podcast, Flame Tree, and Cosmic Horror Monthly, among other places. She also co-edited Howls from the Scene of the Crime: An Anthology of Crime Horror (Howl Society Press, May 2024). You can find her on Bluesky at @jessicapeter.bsky.social, or at www.jessicapeter.net.

Bio of ghazal, Haven Spec's newest associate editor, which reads:

ghazal is an Iranian writer and translator. They are a puppetry postgrad and an avid fan of books, fashion, horror, and cats (big animal enthusiast overall). They've worked with several magazines based in Iran and are now trying to get their grubby little hands on THE WORLD. You can find them never checking instagram on @sighbugs.

Also included is their image, which shows them looking down studiously as if in concentration.

Image shows Saleha Chowdhury's art of a dark figure over a red background, their organs made up of strange animals. Superimposed on the image is an excerpt from issue twenty of Haven Spec Magazine, published July 2025.

Author: H.V. Patterson
Title: Cryptid Sister

Excerpt:

The summer Mom died,
I summoned you
From vulture feathers,
From discarded cicada husks,
From car-wrecked armadillos,
Legs surrendered to the eternal, burning sky.

Image shows Saleha Chowdhury's art of a dark figure over a red background, their organs made up of strange animals. Superimposed on the image is an excerpt from issue twenty of Haven Spec Magazine, published July 2025.

Author: Vivian Chou.
Title: Restaurant Space for Lease.

Excerpt:

I get my killer recipes from my Vietnamese mom, and my distrust of people from my Chinese dad. Maybe it's not healthy, but least it kept me out of the crypto craze.

"For the last time, Clarissa, this space is not cursed," Tanya says. "But it's the only affordable space in this overpriced town." Her words echo through the restaurant space, empty of furniture save for the built-in bar and hostess station.

An excerpt of the poem "Dawn Witching with Crows" by Devin Miller, slated for Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 19, March 2025. The text reads:

Softly lift the tools of your secret witching.
Make no noise your mothers will hear, no telltale
scrape of knife on stone; keep your setup silent.
Answer no questions.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Daydreamer, by Abi Stevens Art.

Image shows Saleha Chowdhury's art of a dark figure over a red background, their organs made up of strange animals. Superimposed on the image is an excerpt from issue twenty of Haven Spec Magazine, published July 2025.

Author: Elizabeth R McClellan.
Title: Anchor Spindrift.

Excerpt:

When they carved the desk, a necessary place
to keep paper from molding and aging,
they cried as they stripped curves

from the world. Flat surfaces repelled
their sodden flesh like oil vomiting out
water. A necessary compromise with

An excerpt of the short story "Host" by Catherine McCarthy, published in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 19, March 2025. The text reads:

This morning the golden hour is a quantum leap, each wave a time-lapsed sequence, each colour shift, through violet to red, over in a heartbeat. He sits at the foot of the tallest megalith, digs his heels in firm among the pebbles, and leans back, spent. The tide rolls in ever closer, until it licks at the stones, causing those at the water’s edge to decrease in height with each surge. An act of slow drowning. He watches...and waits.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Daydreamer, by Abi Stevens Art.

Image shows Saleha Chowdhury's art of a dark figure over a red background, their organs made up of strange animals. Superimposed on the image is an excerpt from issue twenty of Haven Spec Magazine, published July 2025.

Author: Leanne Howard
Title: Brother, What Is Your Name?

Excerpt:

The publican greets me warmly; perhaps I am the first monk he's seen in a long time. But I decline his offer of a brew. I'm sure it's come from up there, from the mountain, from the Sisterhood. People say their beer makes princes cry.

People say their beer can do a lot of things.

An excerpt of the short story "Coming Home to Leviathan" by Sagan Yee, published in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 19, March 2025. The text reads:

Kath stands barefoot in the surf, staring out over a calmly rolling sea. The sun blazes over the long stretch of beach, with its half-naked tourists lounging about on rainbow bath towels and collapsible loungers. She’s wearing a skimpy bikini because she knows it will piss off the woman behind her. Everything is just as she remembers it, and more.

It’s amazing how much detail the tripper can pull out of a hacked memory.

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Daydreamer, by Abi Stevens Art.

Image shows Saleha Chowdhury's art of a dark figure over a red background, their organs made up of strange animals. Superimposed on the image is an excerpt from issue twenty of Haven Spec Magazine, published July 2025.

Author: A. R. Frederiksen.
Title: Fish Upon A Star.

Excerpt:

Before he died, my dad fished stars for a living. Sucked them straight out of the sky with a glorified mechanical fishing rod. Of all the possessions that I inherited, the starfisher was dad's truest legacy. I picked up where he left off, expanding on his star smuggling business as he would've wanted. All I had to do was find the people who'd wished on stars when they were children and offer them one of two options: pay me to keep their star in the sky or pay me to fish it free.

An excerpt of the poem "Bandits of Dream City" by Sharang Biswas, published in Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 19, March 2025. The text reads:

In my dreams, we’re burglars

Our fingers ooze through castle walls of toffee and cloud
like a warmed spoon through the toffee-walnut ice-cream I churned on your birthday

The background is the issue's cover art, titled Daydreamer, by Abi Stevens Art.

Image shows Saleha Chowdhury's art of a dark figure over a red background, their organs made up of strange animals. Superimposed on the image is an excerpt from issue twenty of Haven Spec Magazine, published July 2025.

Author: Alex Woodroe.
Title: Visions of Althea.

Excerpt:

I’d often wondered what the world would be like if we could sink into the depths and draw our power directly from wherever spawned these creatures, whatever wells they drank from. Chase them to their beds, stir them in their sleep. I dreamed that maybe in some world, Althea and all those gone down into the water like her, still lived below and searched for answers for us. Searched for more of a future for humanity, for something other than this.