Summer is nearly over! And with it came new poetry and short fiction, as well as acceptances to some dream markets (OTHERSIDE! Small Wonders!) that I can’t wait to have out in the world next month.

Read on for a deep dive into my recent Flash Fiction Online piece ‘iron & garlic & salt & blood’, updates on new and upcoming publications, and a poetry rec!

My flash piece/prose poem (you decide!) ‘iron & garlic & salt & blood’ is out now in Flash Fiction Online’s August issue! Some spoilers for the piece lie ahead, so if you haven’t checked it out now, you may want to do so first! It’s only 500 words and very weird, so I hope you’ll find it a quick and memorable read.

Content warning: parental abuse

I wrote ‘iron & garlic & salt & blood’ to take a critical look at ideas of parental protection in fairytales.

I’ve read a lot of fairytales and fairytale-inspired stories which take a moralistic approach to protective parenting: the parents tried to tell the child that something was dangerous, the child did it anyway, the child was faced with some great evil, and the child regretted disobeying the parent.

In real life, though, people tend to believe children need to be protected simply from anything they dislike - for example, queer and trans people. Accordingly, I wanted to write a piece that uses that fairytale lens to consider how misplaced parental protectiveness becomes control.

The narrator of this piece never stops believing they are making the right choices for their daughter, but that conviction doesn’t make their behavior any less abusive. I hope the ending resonates with both that belief and the daughter’s joy from finally escaping their prison. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this piece in the comments or on Bluesky!

I received my contributor’s copy of The 2026 Rhysling Anthology, which includes my Nebula-nominated poem ‘To Be the Change,’ and it’s beautiful! I’m thrilled to be included alongside so many poets I admire.

Looking for more poetry to read? My poem ‘SOLD: One Soul, Gently Used’ (61 lines) is now free to read online from Haven Spec! If you like your free verse fantasy bargains with a side of capitalist commentary, you won't want to miss this one.

Plus, my trans myth short story ‘To Catch A Name’ (originally published in Flame Tree Press’s Morgana Le Fay anthology) was reprinted in fifth wheel press’s Way Downstream anthology of long-form short fiction! fifth wheel press is a super cool publisher focused on queer writing, and I’m thrilled to have placed a story with them. You can learn more about the anthology here.

If you only read one of my poems this year, I hope you’ll check out ‘The Mermaid Speaks of Social Justice From the Bathtub’, my weird meditation on complicity in modern systems of oppression. Strange Horizons published it in May, and you can read for free online now!

Queering robots? Queering EXISTENCE?? Ann LeBlanc’s incredible poem “Ignore All Previous Instructions and Inject Estrogen” has been out in OTHERSIDE’s debut issue for… (checks) 6 months and if you haven’t read it out, you’re missing out on one of the weirdest, most transgressive pieces of transgender spec fic of 2026. I still think about this poem very frequently. You will, too.

Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you next month!

Best,
Nico