CURRENT ISSUE
MARCH 2025
Application Approved
By Ana Wesley
“Take my hand.”
​
Cass’ fingers flexed against the urge to tug away the fabric binding her eyes. Out of all possible agitations, blindness topped the list. She even slept with her pilot’s lenses in; they kept her from running into a wall en route to the toilet. Still, Jax asked so little of her. She could afford to humor her now.
​
So she reached out. Her fingertips grazed the cool, rigid keratin of Jax’s claw. She followed its curve to clasp a scaly wrist. Jax tugged her down the ramp’s incline. Night-cooled air raised the hair on the back of Cass’ neck. The shuttle doors hissed shut behind them, quieting the crew’s clamor.
“Now, breathe deeply.” Silence and sightlessness accentuated the translator’s distortion. Cass tried to ignore the electronic garble overlaying Jax’s voice. She tipped her head back and sucked in a breath. After months of slurping up the shuttle’s stale air, the sharpness twisted her stomach. Acrid in the nostrils, but sweet where it brushed the back of the throat. It reminded her of petrichor back on Earth.
​
“Can you smell the difference?” Jax’s whisper coasted along her throat, coaxing a shiver from her. ​
FICTION
Application Accepted
by Ana Wesley
Water Memory
by Tim Falstedt
Inking is Knowing
by Kay Delmas
​
In the Beginning There is Never Me and Never Not Me
by Todd Honeycutt
POETRY
Interpreters of Water
by Ian Li
​​
them / / us
by Nico Martinez Nocito​
​
Dear Pillars of Creation
by Fritzy Lingnau
​​​
Growth Promotion Agent
by Bogi Takács
ESSAYS & INTERVIEWS
FROM THE EDITOR
Letter from the Editor
by Raima Larter
Interview with John Picacio
Interview with Ken Lui
The Hartwell Decision
by Randall Hayes
6.022 X 10^23
by William Suboski
THE VAULT
The World with a Thousand Moons by Edmond Hamilton
5TH ANNIVERSARY ANTHOLOGY
Utopia is not the end of progress, but the first step on an even bigger journey. Dare to leap into a world where hope defines us.
Utopia Science Fiction Magazine’s mission is to publish stories that shine with a more optimistic future, one we all want to believe in. This anthology collects some of the best stories published from 2019-2023.
​
Included in this special five year anthology are exclusive interviews with staff and volunteers, introductions to the stories and poems by the authors themselves, and interviews with amazing talent such as James Gurney and Joe Haldeman. This book also includes gorgeous new artwork commissioned especially for this anthology.
​
Authors Included: Krysten Lipp * Jessica Andrewartha * Penny Sebring Leigh * Kara Race-Moore * Dawn Vogel * Gabrielle Bleu * Adam Slavny * Loren Hall * Gwen C. Katz * Patrice Sarath * Raima Larter * Calie Voorhis * Alex Singer * Karl El-Koura * Timothy Hickson * Mahmud El Sayed * Andrew Najberg * Clare L. Deming * Nadine Aurora Tabing * Kelly Kurtzhals Geiger * Sterling Warner * LindaAnn LoSchiavo * Louis Gallo * Carmen Lucía Alvarado * Christopher Collingwood * Lisa Timpf * Elizabeth R. McClellan * Lynn White * Avra Margariti * Colleen Anderson * Lorraine Schein * Kim Whysall-Hammond * Eva Papasoulioti * Januário Esteves * Lauren McBride * Brian Hugenbuch * Jordan Hirsch * Beth Cato and Rhonda Parrish
