Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 240, September 2026

by Neil Clarke (Editor), Beth Goder (Contributor), Zhu Yixuan (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 September 2026 issue (#240) contains:

Fiction
• "Water-Eaters" by Beth Goder
• "When Humans Are No Longer Born Human" by Zhu Yixuan
• "To Walk This Distant Shore with You" by A.D. Sui
• "And So I Open My Fists" by Rachel Sobel
• "Fistful of Antimatter" by Rich Larson
• "Country Music" by Madeleine Vigneron
• "Skin and Glass" by R. P. Sand

Non-Fiction
• "Talking to Whales (and Other Cetaceans)" by Priya Sridhar
• "Devastating and Liberating: A Conversation with Cadwell Turnbull" by Arley Sorg
• "Enjoy the Apocalypse! A Conversation with Peter Watts" by Arley Sorg
• "Editor's Desk: The Other Shoe" by Neil Clarke

Cover Art
"Planet" by Alex Vede

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Science Fiction

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 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

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Beth Goder, Zhu Yixuan and Rich Larson.

- "Water-Eaters" by Beth Goder: as negotiations for a place on a world for a human colony wind down, one human negotiator suddenly faces a request from the alien 'water-eaters' for her arm. Can she say no and risk losing a home her colony is depending on?

- "When Humans Are No Longer Born Human" by Zhu Yixuan: in a world where clones and embodied AI proliferate, an official has the task of classifying whether a pregnant person is human or not, to prepare for an upcoming vote that only humans can take part. Ironically, the official wonders whether he is more human or not than the pregnant woman.

- "To Walk This Distant Shore with You" by A.D. Sui: two friends prepare to be separated for life. One is to go into deep sleep until reaching the colony world, while the other has the task of remotely helping to prepare the new world for the colonist. Despite the gulf in time and space, they think of ways to communicate with each other.

- "And So I Open My Fists" by Rachel Sobel: a story about connections between families in an isolated rural area, set among people who appear to be gender-fluid in an interesting biological way.

- "Fistful of Antimatter" by Rich Larson: on a desert world, a transport is robbed by a mother and her family, setting off a chain of events that would lead to a revolution. Along the way, the family would encounter a decapitated man with a heart of antimatter and use him to rob a top security bank. The ending hints that the story may yet continue.

- "Country Music" by Madeleine Vigneron: the story of how a farmhand came to work on a farm, while listening to music on only one music band. But occasionally, as he scans the radio band, he gets messages from possible future expeditions to the outer planets.

- "Skin and Glass" by R. P. Sand: in a time when making eye contact bleeds your life force away, one person wonders whether living a long life without eye contact is worth it.

[Thia Reads A Lot]

Not the worst issue but also not the best. I DNFed "Fistful of Antimatter", the rest of the stories got between 2* and 4*.

[Shyan · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

There was a window in the room. As a child, I often liked to push it open and look outside. Beyond it was a world filled with color. A deep blue sky, green grass, pure white clouds, and black nights. I reached out and clenched my hand tight outside the window, wanting to catch a handful of that color and bring it back into my room. But as always, when I drew my hand back, my palm held nothing at all.

A nice collection of stories that generally opt to reveal their surprises to the reader quite quickly, and afterwards ponderously explore the implications. We get many different ways of being, most revolving around playing with gender, marriage, connection, and birth. All the tales are good. My favorite is A.D. Sui’s “To Walk This Distant Shore with You.”

Questions hang over her like grotesque shadows; so too do grotesque shadows, for above […] a gravity gallows has been installed. Corpses dangle high in the pink dawn, kept aloft by metallic yokes […] The executed are permitted, in a small way, to continue their revolutionary activities: their bodies slowly rotate, as horrible mobiles. Murder birds flutter from one to the next, stripping soft tissues.

[Conor Brandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting collection of short stories that beyond everything else, push you to think about yourself and your place in the world.

Standouts for me were “Country Musics” which tells a story about a woman who works while science fiction happens around her, but she’s too busy to take real note of it. And also “and so i opened my fists” an exploration of gender, aging, and the way that colors our relationships.

There was a story about life leaking out through your eyes which didn’t really hit for me. The idea was interesting, the prose just didn’t work.

[Nicole (bookwyrm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story by Madeleine Vigneron is probably my favorite of the bunch, though I also enjoyed the stories by Rachel Sobel and Zhu Yixuan. Overall, this issue was, more of a miss for me than a hit... but that's okay; everyone has their own preferences and others will like the things I disliked about this issue.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very difficult month to pick a favorite from, many strong contenders. I think I’d go with Fistful of Antimatter by Rich Larson, with To Walk This Distant Shore With You by A. D. Sui as a close second.

[Drunken McNulty · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

My first Clarkesworld and I liked it.
Bought on mainly for the Peter Watts interview (great) but also enjoyed the rest of the content.
I am considering subscribing once my TBR shrinked a bit

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked some of the stories, but not all of them, unfortunately.