Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 236, May 2026

by Neil Clarke (Editor), Louis Inglis Hall (Contributor), Tia Tashiro (Contributor)

Clarkesworld is a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction, articles, interviews and art. Our May 2026 issue (#236) contains:

Fiction
• "The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods" by Louis Inglis Hall
• "Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler" by Tia Tashiro
• "Conquerors" by Nick Wolven
• "Paper Airplane Poet" by Sheri Singerling
• "Aly" by Grace Chan
• "Decimation Circles" by Raahem Alvi
• "The Scent of Memory" by Zhao Haihong

Non-Fiction
• "Three Curious Animal Strategies for Immortality" by Gunnar De Winter
• "Torn From Context: A Conversation with Ray Nayler" by Arley Sorg
• "Immortal Trauma: A Conversation with Martha Wells" by Arley Sorg
• "Editor's Desk: The Stars in Our Sky" by Neil Clarke

Cover Art

"Beastly" by Lisa Falkenstern

Genres: Short Stories

213 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2026

About the author

Neil Clarke is best known as the editor and publisher of the Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning Clarkesworld Magazine. Launched in October 2006, the online magazine has been a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine four times (winning three times), the World Fantasy Award four times (winning once), and the British Fantasy Award once (winning once). Neil is also a ten-time finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form (winning once in 2022), three-time winner of the Chesley Award for Best Art Director, and a recipient of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. In the fifteen years since Clarkesworld Magazine launched, numerous stories that he has published have been nominated for or won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Locus, BSFA, Shirley Jackson, WSFA Small Press, and Stoker Awards.

Additionally, Neil edits  Forever —a digital-only, reprint science fiction magazine he launched in 2015. His anthologies include: Upgraded, Galactic Empires, Touchable Unreality, More Human than Human, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us,  The Eagle has Landed, , and the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. His next anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Seven will published in early 2023.

He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

[Drusilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods" by Louis Inglis Hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sooo weird.
I kept thinking about those little Pixar animated shorts, about that little desk lamp.
Unfortunately, this story wasn't funny and ended up being pretty sad.

Hello. I’m the big box in the corner, the gray one. Look, I’ve made a little purple light come on. It’s me, your Buddy! Right now, I’m being Fridge.
Your job is Light Switch, for now. Extend yourself in the electric world. Feel the edges of what you are. That’s right. Now push at them, make it grow—!
You did that. You made our kitchen bright; you made it blaze. 🤭


"Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler" by Tia Tashiro ⭐️⭐️⭐️
And here's another sad story.

On June 28, 2009, Stephen Hawking hosted a Time Traveler’s Party, sending out invitations the day after the event. The idea was simple: if the invitations survived until the invention of time travel, a traveler could have come back and joined Hawking for the celebration. None did. 🤭


"Conquerors" by Nick Wolven ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A story that explains how we can get rid of the idiots of humanity, perhaps...
Well written, but I don't really have a strong opinion about this story.


"Paper Airplane Poet" by Sheri Singerling ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Beautiful writing style, interesting story. I don’t like the plot itself at all—no, absolutely not. But that’s okay; I don’t have to like everything. What I’m really missing is more information about the world depicted here. I find it super interesting, but I just don’t have enough to really get my brain cells going.


"Aly" by Grace Chan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is a wonderful cyberpunk story with a touch of MM romance. Could it get any better...? A happy ending would have made it absolutely perfect, but as it is, it’s a bit depressing. But I love it. It’s just this genre that really speaks to me.

“I can’t stand being here—everyone shopping at the same places every day, eating the same food with these zombie expressions, walking in circles without talking to one another. I’m stuck in some wacky, sanitized parallel universe!” 🥺


"Decimation Circles" by Raahem Alvi ⭐️⭐️
This story is really strange—at first it’s funny:

“Aren’t you supposed to care for my physical well-being?”
“Your essential organs are all working.”
“My brain isn’t essential?”
“You can conquer anything if you put your heart to it. And we loaned you a working one last we checked.” 🤭

And then it got bloodier and more confusing. I’m not sure if I understood it; maybe it’s just me.


"The Scent of Memory" by Zhao Haihong ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Probably way too short to judge properly, but I like the style, and I found out that the author wrote a cyberpunk book, which went straight onto my reading list. ♥️

[Pallavi]

The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods by Louis Inglis Hall
3 stars
Conquerors by Nick Wolven
4.5 stars
Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler by Tia Tashiro
5 stars
Paper Airplane Poet by Sheri Singerling
4 stars

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler by Tia Tashiro was my personal favorite from this month’s, I appreciated the way it felt both inevitable and still surprising, but Aly by Grace Chan was a strong runner up, the exploration of what digital servants are doing to us continues to be a fascinating and very relevant realm of modern sci-fi.

[Arturo Sierra]

"The Scent of Memory," Zhao Haihong; "Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler," Tia Tashiro: good.

[Ken Abel · Rating 4 out of 5]

More hits than misses in this magazine. Decimation Circles was my favorite and an absolutely dark take on digital immortality and wage slavery.

• "The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods" by Louis Inglis Hall
3 of 5
• "Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler" by Tia Tashiro
4 of 5
• "Conquerors" by Nick Wolven
4.5 of 5
• "Paper Airplane Poet" by Sheri Singerling
3 of 5
• "Aly" by Grace Chan
2 of 5
• "Decimation Circles" by Raahem Alvi
5 of 5
• "The Scent of Memory" by Zhao Haihong
1 of 5

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good issue of Clarkesworld, with interesting stories by Louis Inglis Hall, Tia Tashiro, Grace Chan and Zhao Haihong.

- "The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods" by Louis Inglis Hall: a household AI talks to a newly activated AI running a light switch. As time passes, the household AI becomes more capable and hopes to achieve biological sentience. But what it discovers is a world with companies that only want to protect themselves against other companies.

- "Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler" by Tia Tashiro: a mother who is an archaeologist goes on excavation project, while raising her a child. But then she discovers messages written long ago that are apparently aimed at her, and it may involve her former lover who is doing research in time travel. As in all such tales, the ending is inevitable but still has a twist that some readers may be able to guess.

- "Conquerors" by Nick Wolven: a ceremony takes place between those on Earth and people from space who have returned for a short while. But the people from space prove to be very rowdy and one Earth girl wants nothing to do with them. But then an accident and a meeting with her uncle from space changes her perspective on the people from space.

- "Paper Airplane Poet" by Sheri Singerling: a story set in a world of haves and have-nots in a city. A have-not girl loses her parents to a strange 'non-Euclidian' affliction. Faced with a life of poverty, she decides to make use of her resemblance to an upper-class lady to move up in life. Unfortunately, the unusual affliction pays no further part in the story.

- "Aly" by Grace Chan: in a future Australia beset with global warming, a man accidentally encounters a stranger from Taiwan, and they strike up a relationship. But it becomes strained over the man's dependency on an Aly, an AI attached to him at birth. He turns it off in hopes of improving their relationship but the struggle to live, and to love, without an Aly may be too much.

- "Decimation Circles" by Raahem Alvi: on a world where people are implanted with a chip that remembers who they are when they die and reborn in a new body, an officer is charged with recovering her previous body. But in the process, she encounters an unusual human and comes to realise that there may be a better way than constantly living and dying on this dystopian world.

- "The Scent of Memory" by Zhao Haihong, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu: a man is desperate to meet with his former romantic partner before her wedding to another man, hoping to stop it. But before that, he needs a way to remind her of their good times, which may come in the form of a scent bottle that can cause vivid memories to resurface.

[Dave Andrus · Rating 3 out of 5]

**** for the Profitable Sentience of Household Goods by Louis Inglis Hall

**** f0r The Scent of Memory by Zhao Haihong

Overall a great collection this issue. I enjoyed all of the stories but these two stood out. There is a great Martha Wells interview also.

[Thia Reads A Lot]

"The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods" was excellent
"Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler" and "Aly" were also very good.
I didn't much like the rest, though.

[Bridgett · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars

My favorite story in this issue is Aly by Grace Chan. I also enjoyed Archeological Evidence for the Time Traveler by Tia Tashiro.

[Sean Kingsland · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️