Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 238, July 2026

by Neil Clarke (Editor), K.J. Khan (Contributor), Fiona Moore (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 July 2026 issue (#238) contains:

Fiction

• "The Life and Times of the Extraterrestrial Potoo" by K. J. Khan
• "Cliff's Girl" by Fiona Moore
• "Focus" by Carlos Hernandez
• "The Animator and the Glazer" by Ju Chu
• "Our Revels Now Are Ended" by Thomas Ha
• "This Is an Emergency Broadcast" by R.S.A. Garcia
• "Nesting Behavior of Imported Species Troglodytes aedon on Planet Americearth" by R.L. Meza

Non-Fiction

• "Donut Brains and Skin Dreams: Aliens on Earth" by Gunnar De Winter
• "Art and Arcade Games: A Conversation with Tran Nguyen" by Arley Sorg
• "Horror And Absurdity: A Conversation with Meg Elison" by Arley Sorg
• "Editor's Desk: July Is for Survivors" by Neil Clarke

Cover Art

"Constellation Field" by Alex Vede

Genres: Short Stories

166 pages, Paperback

First published July 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

[Kaia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This was a really great issue! I didn't skip or skim anything. Favorite stories:

-"The Life and Times of the Extraterrestrial Potoo" by K. J. Khan (hopeful & touching)
-"Our Revels Now Are Ended" by Thomas Ha (like an episode of Black Mirror)
-"This Is an Emergency Broadcast" by R.S.A. Garcia (powerful message & creatively told)
-"Cliff's Girl" by Fiona Moore (so fun to get another Morag story!)

[Mark Cheverton (scifipraxis) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of good stories worth reading, and many I bounced off hard. Thomas Ha is the standout, I'll be looking for more of his writing.

The Life and Times of the Extraterrestrial Potoo, K. J. Khan ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Touching story of friendship across species in the midst of colonial exploitation. While the prose is uncomplicated, the characters and their relationship are vivid.

Cliff's Girl, Fiona Moore ⭐⭐

Everybody is building and hacking robots while living in cosy post-climate-collapse pastoral communities. I just couldn't suspend my disbelief.

Focus, Carlos Hernandez ⭐⭐⭐

Twitchers with clairvoyant tech that lets them be one with the birds, are haunted by their dead friend.

The Animator and the Glazer, Ju Chu, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu ⭐⭐

Generative AI has ended white-collar work. Only those who glaze their style can hope to protect it. A fable-esque tale of a long con gone bad.

Our Revels Now Are Ended, Thomas Ha ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A virtual interrogation doesn't go well when the tables are turned and the reality of the interrogator is questioned.

This is an Emergency Broadcast, R.S.A. Garcia ⭐

Constructed from fragmentary sentences from a mass media stream of consciousness. Social commentary rather than narrative and plot. DNF

Nesting Behavior of Imported Species Troglodytes aedon on Planet Americearth, R.L. Meza ⭐⭐

Told from the perspective of an avian xenomorph trying to oust human explorers from its forest. More an exercise in alien perspective than a story.

Non-fiction

Donut Brains and Skin Dreams: Aliens on Earth, Gunnar de Winter

Art and Arcade Games: A Conversation with Tran Nguyen, Arley Sorg

Horror And Absurdity: A Conversation with Meg Elison, Arley Sorg

Editor's Desk: July Is for Survivors, Neil Clarke

[Arturo Sierra]

Very good:
— "This Is an Emergency Broadcast," by R.S.A. Garcia: Random snippets of radio transmissions. An evil corporation puts people in a simulated reality, surreptitiously "borrows" its client's civil rights, doesn't let them wake up; takes over, hijinks ensue. Also, ufff!

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting issue, with good stories by K. J. Khan, Fiona Moore, Carlos Hernandez and Ju Chu.

- "The Life and Times of the Extraterrestrial Potoo" by K. J. Khan: a traveller on an alien world is collecting pollen as part of his job. He runs into an alien 'potoo' that proves surprisingly friendly. On they journey together, the man discovers more about the potoo's life cycle and is dismayed to realise the pollen he collects may affect the potoo. But he may have a way to avoid his corporation from exploiting the pollen in the future.

- "Cliff's Girl" by Fiona Moore: another story in the author's series of stories set in the post collapse world, this one has one of the main character's robot acting strangely. After an event, she is forced to shut it down and contemplates doing a reboot, erasing the robot's character than had been developing since the collapse. But events may force her hand in this.

- "Focus" by Carlos Hernandez: a group of ultrarich people, who are also avid bird watchers, debate over what to do with the body of one of their members. A large gathering of birds over their meeting hints at what the dead person had done before his death, and may still be capable of doing even after his death.

- "The Animator and the Glazer" by Ju Chu, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu: in a future where AI can imitate any artists' style unless the artwork is protected by 'glazing' it (making minute changes that cause the AI to mis-interpret the images), one glazer meets with an elderly person who turns out to be a superb animator. But when his work gets imitated by AI, the animator may have no choice but act in order to preserve future human art from AI imitation.

- "Our Revels Now Are Ended" by Thomas Ha: in a simulated environment, an interrogator questions a suspect over acts that may endanger the State. But with multiple instances of the interrogation happening at once, questions arise over whom the one being interrogated and to what end.

- "This Is an Emergency Broadcast" by R.S.A. Garcia: a story told in a series of conversations and news dialogues about a new drug and virtual simulation system that takes over the world, and the company takes over the lives of the people using it.

- "Nesting Behavior of Imported Species Troglodytes aedon on Planet Americearth" by R.L. Meza: a story told from the viewpoint of an alien animal inhabiting a tree. As the story develops, we discover humans have taken over the tree. But the alien wants it back and, possibly, the rest of the its world too.

[Shyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Social niceties plus neuroses equals composure.

A particularly “modern”-feeling collection. The foci this family of stories orbits around are R.S.A. Garcia’s This is an Emergency Broadcast and Thomas Ha’s Our Revels Now Are Ended, the former inundating the reader with waves of distress, crisis, resistance, the latter a more sober, slow meditation on the state and the position of the individual within it. Carlos Hernandez’s Focus is willing to play with all sorts of references to contemporary literature, as it envisions a collective universal distributed gaze, and Ju Chu’s The Animator and the Glazer (translated by S. Qiouyi Lu) is depressingly relevant, the eye and it’s power playing a very different role.

[…] in uncertain worlds like these, the only reasonable way to behave was as if we each had value, because the grim alternative meant consenting to an infinite exploitation, including of oneself, eventually.

[Thia Reads A Lot]

Good issue. "The Life and Times of the Extraterrestrial Potoo" was really good. I had to DNF "The Animator and the Glazer" because it hit too close to home for me (AI replacing artists).

[Astrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the K.J. Khan, Ju Chu and R.S.A. Garcia stories.

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the Potoo story most :)