In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Dan Hartland speaks with writers and critics Octavia Cade and M. L. Clark about writing in hard times. How and why is speculative friction written in contexts of defeat, despair, or decay? They discuss climate change and artificial intelligence, systems political, biological, and economic—and how SF might be, and yet sometimes isn't, a key tool in opening up new modes of understanding during a time that Octavia suggests might best be termed the Necrocene.

M. L. Clark's review of Ray Nayler's Where The Axe is Buried.

Octavia Cade's review of Vanessa Saunders's The Flat Woman.

In this episode of Strange Horizons at 25, editor Kat Kourbeti chats to author Debbie Urbanski about her 2018 Strange Horizons publication and the 13 years of submissions it took to get accepted, writing in the gray areas between genres, and what it means to be artistically honest in your work.

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Episode show notes:

• Read Debbie Urbanski's story, Some Personal Arguments in Support of the BetterYou (Based on Early Interactions)
• Visit her website, or follow her on Instagram and Substack
• Buy her book, After World, or her short story collection Portalmania
• Read Andy Sawyer's Strange Horizons review of After World
• Find more links to her work and other things mentioned throughout the transcript page on our website.

In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Angela Liu's 'Time is an Ocean' read by Emmie Christie.

You can read the full text of the story, and more about Angela Liu ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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