Short Fiction

Most Recent Publications:

• “The Things Melati Learns.” Adventures in Bodily Autonomy: Exploring Reproductive Rights in Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror. Ed. Raven Belasco. Aqueduct Press, forthcoming.
  A young woman in a lonely marriage meets a fellow hiker with a mysterious secret in the hills behind her home.
  
• “Fever Dreams.” New Suns 2: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color. Ed. Nisi Shawl. Solaris Books, March 2023.
  A man seeking a rest cure has strange dreams that may or may not be closely tied to reality.
  
• “Farid Out At Sea.” Project Future Malaysia. May 2022. Ed. Kevin Bathman. 
  A newly-disabled man on the outs with friends and family moves to a new city designed for pedestrian-friendly ease of living. 
  
• “In the Glass Hall of Supreme Women.” Fireside Magazine, October 2020. Ed. Maurice Broaddus.
  On a distant space station, a rich man’s barren wife tries to redeem her dignity by volunteering at a cordyceps farm.
  
• “Scholar Miaka’s Brief Summary of Memories Imbued in Memory Object Exhibit 132.NW.1.” Recognize Fascism. Ed. Crystal M. Huff. World Weaver Press, October 2020.
  A catalog entry describing a skirt found in the catacombs of an ancient city.
  
• “The Freedom of the Shifting Seas.” New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color. Ed. Nisi Shawl. Solaris Books, March 2019.
  A pornographic triptych of three different individuals encountering a creature part human, part bobbit worm.
  • Reprinted in Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020. Ed. Diana Gabaldon. Series ed. John Joseph Adams. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: October 2020.
  • 2019 Parallax Award Honor List. Carl Brandon Society.
    
• “By the Storytelling Fire.” Fireside Magazine Issue 63, January 2019. Ed. Julia Rios.
  A couple on opposite sides of a campfire tell fairytales that may or may not be about themselves.
  
• “Magic Potion Behind-the-Mountains.” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #262, Tenth Anniversary Special Double Issue II, October 2018. Ed. Scott Andrews.
  Exiled to a distant outpost, a magistrate apprentices himself to the woman known for the best magic potion recipe that makes the local people strong.
  
• “A Field of Sapphires and Sunshine.” Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers. Ed. Sarena Ulibarri. World Weaver Press. June 2018.
  Grieving a breakup and finished with her studies abroad, a young woman returns home to the family business.
  
• “When the Bough Breaks.” Mythic Delirium 4.3, January 2018. Ed. Mike Allen.
  The children living in a luxury hillside condominium cope with hostile forest spirits.  
  • Best Horror of the Year Volume 11 2019 Recommended Reading List, ed. Ellen Datlow.
    
• “The Last Cheng Beng Gift.” Lightspeed Magazine #88, September 2017. Ed. Wendy Wagner.
  A ten-year-dead Singaporean matriarch confronts her fraught relationship with her youngest child.
  • Reprinted in Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018. Ed. N.K. Jemisin. Series ed. John Joseph Adams. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: October 2018.
  • Reprinted in LeVar Burton Reads, Ep. 27. Stitcher Productions, August 2018.
    
• “Eruption.” Anathema Magazine #2, Aug 2017. Eds. Michael Matheson & Andrew Wilmot.
  #killallmen-style revolution and generational trauma.
  
• “Mana Langkah Pelangi Terakhir? (Where is the Rainbow’s Last Step?)” Interfictions, Fall 2016. Eds. Sam J. Miller and Carmen Machado. Interstitial Arts Foundation.
  A journalist investigating the causes of dreams come true finds a missing popular colleague. Myth and reality blend.
  • Reprinted in Sunspot Jungle: The Ever-Expanding Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Vol. 2. Ed. Bill Campbell. Rosarium Publishing, 2020.
    
• “A Name to Ashes.” Hidden Youth: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History. Eds. Mikki Kendall and Chesya Burke. Crossed Genres. November 2016.
  A young clerk with the ability to see ghosts accompanies the Chinese Commission of 1874 to investigate the coolie trade in Cuba.
  
• “Crocodile Tears.” Lightspeed #76, September 2016. Ed. Wendy Wagner.
  The tale of the crocodile and the old grandmother meets the tale of Si Tenggang.
  
• “Liminal Grid.” Strange Horizons, Nov 2015. Ed. Catherine Krahe.
  In a near-future Malaysia where government tracking has turned extreme, activists ruminate on taking action.
  • Best Science Fiction of the Year 2015, Recommended Reading List ed. Neil Clarke

Peranakan Steampunk series:

Set in a steampunk alternate history in which steam engines developed in Arabia, and Captain Francis Light’s annexation of Penang island was thwarted.

• “Between Islands.” Expanded Horizons, June 2009. Ed. Dash.
• “Lunar Year’s End.” Crossed Genres #25, Jan 2010. Eds. Jaym Gates & Natania Barron.
• “Hidden Strength.” Steampunk World. Ed. Sarah Hans. Alliteration Ink, 2014.

Assorted solarpunk and steampunk stories:

• “In The Heart of Yellow Mountain.” Steam-Powered 2: More Lesbian Steampunk Stories. Ed. JoSelle Vanderhooft. Torquere Press, 2010.
• “What You Fuel.” The Omnibus of Doctor Bill Shakes and the Magnificent Ionic Pentatetrameter: A Steampunk’s Shakespeare Anthology. Eds. Matt Delman & Jaymee Goh. Doctor Fantastique Books, 2012.
• “The Reset.” Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation. Eds. Brontë Wieland and Phoebe Wagner. Upper Rubber Boot Press. August 2017.
• “A Field of Sapphires and Sunshine.” Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers. Ed. Sarena Ulibarri. World Weaver Press. June 2018.