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diagrammatic symbol of a motor outlet from a 1924 instruction manual

At the head of the cellar stairs
there is indicated an electric switch,
and a dotted line points down the stairs˰

In the cellar plan a 50-watt lamp is shown˰
this instrument is used˰
for transferring distances˰

An imaginary cut is
made through materials˰
outside of the border lines˰

Run the line straight through
regardless˰
erasures can be made

diagrammatic symbol of a power outlet from a 1924 instruction manual


Collaged text and image fragments from Architectural Details, by Louis Rouillon and Charles G. Ramsey (1924). Caret footnote marks˰ indicate the seams between glued-together quotations.



M.C. Childs' poetry has won awards from the Science Fiction Poetry Association and appeared in multiple magazines. Professor Childs is the author of award-winning urban design books, including Foresight and Design; The Zeon Files: Art and Design of Historic Route 66 Signs; Urban Composition; and Squares: A Public Space Design Guide.
Current Issue
16 Mar 2026

The garden is the resting place of your vulnerabilities; there’s a reason you’ve left them here instead of carrying them with you. Typically you enter hardened and hurried, beelining straight for the correct plot and quickly releasing whatever is clutched in your hand without a second thought—today, an attempted weaving of leather and lace, strength and suppleness that your body cannot figure out how to wear, nor your words to narrate.
If you say there are rats, I will believe you, though I don’t hear or see them.
A ruffling of branches as they resettle for the night. We dare not ask why they are here.
Spec Fic and the Politics of Identity 
As part of a collective of African writers who have created an Afrocentric Sauútiverse of five planets, two suns and a spirit moon, a world of science and fantasy, where there is no written language, we play with technology and sound magic to scrutinise the world as we know it, and use speculative fiction as a response to our world. 
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Issue 9 Mar 2026
By: Lio Abendan
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
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2 Mar 2026
Strange Horizons invites non-fiction submissions for our March 30 special issue on “Fungi in SFF.”
Issue 2 Mar 2026
Strange Horizons
Issue 23 Feb 2026
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Issue 2 Feb 2026
By: Natasha King
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
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