The Literary-Speculative Issue

The staff at Orca has always had an affinity for the speculative, those stories that exhibit imagination as well as literary excellence. In our first three issues we published a handful of primarily literary works that contained a touch of the imaginative.

Late last year, a writer named Rebecca Starks contacted us. She had a literary-speculative story that exceeded our word limit, she said, and would we be interested in seeing it? We read it, and it knocked us out. It started us thinking. How many other writers could wow us like that? What if we dedicated an entire issue to such work?

We have not been disappointed. We received nearly a thousand submissions, and a vast majority of them were worth reading. It made our decision process more difficult than it has ever been. We accepted more work than usual, and we could have accepted many others, had the printing cost not been prohibitive. It’s great to know that there is still a dedication to  this kind of literature. The stories you read in this issue represent a variety of sub genres, from science fiction to fantasy to a touch of horror. What they have in common is superb writing and deep, thoughtful themes.

Now that we’ve published the Literary-Speculative issue, we’re already looking forward to the next one. In the meantime, we will make room in every issue for this kind of work. –  Joe, Zac, Renee, David, Marci, Tommy, Zoë

Table of Contents (click the links for stories and excerpts)

About the Cover
Copper-Ink-Ghost: A Series of Etchings, M.E. Bronstein
Mr. and Mrs. Alien, Rosaleen Bertolino
Those Particular Histories, Peter Alexander
Hex, Daniel Dagris
Aurora, Nancy Kathryn Walecki
The Right to be Forgotten, H.R. Owen
Between, Allison Brice
Proxies, Isaac Yuen
For the Weird Girls Who Want to be Mermaids, Dawn Vogel
To Bill Murray, With Regrets, Suzanne Faber
Omniscience, Kristi Peterson Schoonover
Madeleine Bouletier, She-Wolf of Crozon, Stephanie Dupal
Opportunity, Sway Benns
The Rest of Us, Meghan E. O’Toole
How to Meet an Angel, Rebecca Starks
Contributors

If you like what you see here, please consider purchasing a copy of the issue using the sidebar to the right. A pdf is a mere $3, and a print copy is $10.99.