Rachel Swirsky holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers Workshop and graduated from Clarion West in 2005. Her short fiction has been published in a number of magazines and anthologies, including Tor.com, Clarkesworld, and Subterranean Magazine, and been nominated for a number of awards, including the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and the World Fantasy Award. In 2010, her novella The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window won the Nebula Award. As a kid, she watched too much Fairy Tale Theatre and memorized the score to Sondheim’s Into the Woods.
Terra stands alone in the middle of the room, staring at nothing. She moves sometimes like someone dreaming, but never reacts...
"If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love"—Published in Apex Magazine issue 46, March 2013...
I was supposed to go to the ball, but I spent the night licking out my stepsister instead.
Bethesda moaned and rustled mulberry...
[TRIGGER WARNING: Some readers may find this story disturbing]
My cock is throbbing so I pull it out.
My wife lolls in front...
If you were a dinosaur, my love, then you would be a T-Rex. You’d be a small one, only five feet, ten inches, the same height...
I’m probably going to die
at midnight.
Don’t worry—
I’ll set the timer on the coffee pot
before I go.
The crows will be up with...
PART ONE: LIVING
New Year’s celebrations crashed through the streets of Whitcry in a din of masks and swirling petticoats. Pottery...
On her wedding day
she is red and black and white:
cheeks flushed with desire,
dark hair spilling over bridal gown.
She sits before...
Welcome Discount
