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smallwondersmag.com
Small Wonders
@smallwondersmag.com
4K followers 240 following 1.1K posts
An online monthly magazine for speculative poetry and flash fiction! Edited by @cislyn.bsky.social and @granades.com.
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We implore you - "Stop Thinking, The Kid Can Hear" every word. Our story by Lucy Eller today is a glimpse at the horrors of telepathy:
Stop Thinking, the Kid Can Hear - Small Wonders
“Your daughter is telepathic, Mrs. Claridge,” he said. “The random declarations, that apparent lack of filter—it’s a tell-tale sign in children.”
smallwondersmag.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:13 PM
smallwondersmag.com
We implore you - "Stop Thinking, The Kid Can Hear" every word. Our story by Lucy Eller today is a glimpse at the horrors of telepathy:
Stop Thinking, the Kid Can Hear - Small Wonders
“Your daughter is telepathic, Mrs. Claridge,” he said. “The random declarations, that apparent lack of filter—it’s a tell-tale sign in children.”
smallwondersmag.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:13 PM
smallwondersmag.com
In Dawn Vogel's "Grandmother Firebird," family dynamics get complicated. It's bound to happen when creatures of myth and legend are involved:
Grandmother Firebird - Small Wonders
Grandmother Firebird should be back by now. She shed her last feather, erupted into a blossom of flame, and fell to ash three nights ago.
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February 7, 2026 at 8:00 PM
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This one's for all the horse girls: "The Horses and Ponies of 8th Avenue" by Jennifer Lesh Fleck in our issue 26:
The Horses and Ponies of 8th Avenue - Small Wonders
One June we became ponies and horses, all of us aged nine to twelve years old, most of us girls.
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February 7, 2026 at 5:00 PM
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We round out this week with "Grief Trawling" by Suzanne J. Willis. When you throw your nets in these waters, you'll find more than just fish:
Grief Trawling - Small Wonders
The island's fisherwomen came to the shores to haul misery and lament, hair tied back in dead men’s kerchiefs.
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February 6, 2026 at 5:15 PM
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If you heed the call of adventure, you will surely also have "A List of Sharp Things I've Held In My Mouth." Some of the items in J. Kosakowski's poem might surprise you, though...
A List of Sharp Things I’ve Held in My Mouth - Small Wonders
A list of sharp things I’ve held in my mouth: / —A knife.
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February 5, 2026 at 8:00 PM
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Davian Aw's "Dead Season" is creepy in but overt and subtle ways. Dive into it today, but don't forget to mark the exits well, lest you get lost:
Dead Season - Small Wonders
you sleep and wake and doors are missing / and buttons don't go to every floor / and every face you see has a smile
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February 5, 2026 at 5:00 PM
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"Straw Gold" by @mariness.bsky.social is a take on Rumplestiltskin we hadn't seen before, with a thoughtful look at what comes after the fairy tale ends:
Straw Gold - Small Wonders
After this / she never wears a trace of gold, / nor allows it in her presence / unless worn by the king.
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February 4, 2026 at 5:13 PM
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Two years ago we shared Aidan Doyle's "The Royal Wizard's Apprentice Explains the Prophecy of the Return of the Sorceror King in Varying Levels of Complexity" with you, and today you should read it again!
The Royal Wizard’s Apprentice Explains the Prophecy of the Return of the Sorcerer King in Varying Levels of Complexity - Small Wonders
The royal wizard assures me the Sorcerer King is dead and will not return. Go back to your fields and rejoice.
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February 3, 2026 at 8:00 PM
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Can you believe it's been six months since we published J. L. Akagi's "Going to Hell"? Let's take that road trip again today:

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February 3, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Small Wonders
rjaurand.bsky.social
"The heron of forgetfulness hovers over the ale-drinking;
he steals men’s wits;
with the feathers of this bird I was fettered
in the court of Gunnlod."

(Sayings of the High One, trans. Carolyne Larrington)

I hope you love this story! It's very dear to my heart.

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February 2, 2026 at 5:29 PM
smallwondersmag.com
Go to the mead-hall. Go again. The heron of forgetfulness is there, and you don't want to miss your chance.

"Drinking the Heron" by RJ Aurand is our story today, and we think you'll want to read it again. And again.

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February 2, 2026 at 5:13 PM
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We're really happy with it! Our art director @farawaygrace.bsky.social has been doing phenomenal work with the layouts!
February 1, 2026 at 5:02 AM
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February is almost here, and that means a new issue of Small Wonders! Subscribe now and get this whole issue in your inbox! Our cover art this month is by Deborah Beauchamp - find more of her work here:
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The cover for Small Wonders issue 32, February 2026. The predominant colors are white, pink, black and gray. The central artwork is an eerie black and white picture of a bird on a bare branch. Authors: R.J. Aurand, Mari Ness, Suzanne J. Willis, Lucy Eller, Marisca Pichette, Marie Vibbert, M.J. Pettit, Diana Olney, Aimee Ogden. Cover photo by Deborah L. Beauchamp. Edited by Cislyn Smith and Stephen Granade.
January 31, 2026 at 10:08 PM
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Be good to each other. Make art. Share it. It mattters.
16/16
January 26, 2026 at 7:49 PM
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Grief and healing: In the Sloth Tunnels, at a Time of War by Daniel Ausema, A Country of Feathers and Scars by Santiago Márquez Ramos, and Tasks for the Mourning, or Flowers as for Flesh by G.E. Woods

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15/16
In the Sloth Tunnels, at a Time of War - Small Wonders
The tunnelers are long gone now, / known only / by the claw marks on the walls
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January 26, 2026 at 7:49 PM
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Don't give up: Five Hundred Defects by Michael Zahniser, Granny’s Spider by Wen Wen Yang, and In Which the Minotaur Just Wants to Get Out of the Labyrinth, Dammit by Nadia Born

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14/16
Five Hundred Defects - Small Wonders
You’ll hunt me down, of course. Humans will play it for laughs: “Inspection robot goes haywire, starts inspecting everything!”
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January 26, 2026 at 7:49 PM
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You don't just have to look for the helpers. Be them: Backdoor by Gendel Gento, A Runaway Android’s Guide to the Oro-Ti Night Market by M. R. Robinson, Eight Reasons You Are Alone by Benjamin C. Kinney

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13/16
Backdoor - Small Wonders
Rick has been catching runaways for years. He loves the thrill of the chase. The rest he hates. Especially the robots.
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January 26, 2026 at 7:48 PM
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You'll get through this. There is an after: You Cannot Help but Bloom by C. A. Kane, An Itemized List of Charitable Contributions by Addison Smith, and Ink Reviews by Rachel Gutin

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12/16
You Cannot Help but Bloom - Small Wonders
This isn’t her teahouse anymore. It’s yours. The warm funk of old-fashioned pu-erh and oolong has faded beneath the aromatic orange blossom of your new house blend.
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January 26, 2026 at 7:48 PM
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Help when you don't expect it, because we're all in this together: Grandpa and the Ghosts by Ray Chanteur, Everybody Comes to the Velociraptor’s by Timothy Mudie, and The Memory Technician by Ian Li

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11/16
Grandpa and the Ghosts - Small Wonders
There was no Grandpa Argle waiting at the end of the pier to listen to eager children’s dreams. No one tunneled through the planet's crust with magic Drill Moles on Arglemas Night. It didn’t matter how well she behaved; no one was going to grant her wish.
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January 26, 2026 at 7:48 PM
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Continuing on the theme of finding new ways: A Feast for Mandrakes by Jennifer Mace, Unbending My Bones by Sierra Branham, and To Kiss the Chrysanthemum Moon by Wen Wen Yang:

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10/16
A Feast for Mandrakes - Small Wonders
The summer is dying, and so are you.
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January 26, 2026 at 7:48 PM
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When things seem inevitable, make a new way. The Colossus Stops by Dafydd McKimm, Dreadful Necessity Governs All Things by Rien Gray, and Any Good Sacrifice by C. J. Subko:

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9/16
The Colossus Stops - Small Wonders
When the Colossus stops moving, the silence hits the island like a thunderclap.
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January 26, 2026 at 7:48 PM
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Surviving? Yes. Thriving? Also yes. If We Live to Be Giants by Allison Mulder, Five Easy Hairstyles for Snake-Haired Girls by Jelena Dunato, and Grandma is the Final Girl by Wen Wen Yang:

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8/16
If We Live to Be Giants - Small Wonders
Grandpa measures our heights every day against the hallway markings. Rhiannon and I stand flat as we can, afraid even breathing will subtly lengthen our spines.
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January 26, 2026 at 7:48 PM
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Overcoming is a process. Bite by Bite and Lie by Lie by Malda Marlys, To Save, To Break, To… by Emily Scharff, and The Founding of Zeget by Diana Dima show us that we make history. Let's make it good.

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7/16
Bite by Bite and Lie by Lie - Small Wonders
In a land replete with small gods and smaller miracles, a barefoot stranger in devotional robes was an afternoon’s amusement.
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January 26, 2026 at 7:48 PM
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Angry? So are these stories. Kannaki Contemplates the Fire in Her Breast by Tehnuka, Tearing the Hood by Gerri Leen, and ACCESS DENIED by Lydian Kind:

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6/16
Kannaki Contemplates the Fire in Her Breast - Small Wonders
Kannaki sits alone on the unswept floor of the gaudy temple / that was once hers, / watching beige-dressed soldier-guards stalk the grounds
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January 26, 2026 at 7:47 PM