The Readers’ Guide
What’s in Issue 1156
| News | Issue 1156 is scheduled to have the normal seven days as the headline issue. Afterwards, we plan to bring you the Third Quarterly Review of 2026. |
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| Short Stories |
When Dad insists on trying to publish stories akin to those of a little-to-unknown author of 18th-century “penny dreadfuls,” his son equips Dad’s laptop with a secret AI: Quillbot. The past begins to come to life in startling ways. “In our AI age, we may need to update our traditional notions of ghosts.” David Rudd, The Ghost in the Machine New contributor Alex Valdiers introduces a young woman, Isobel, who is enjoying ice ceam in a sunny resort town. She is joined by a wizard, who recounts to her their future life together, complete with the good and bad. How good a story does he tell her? Isobel will decide. A Wizard Sat Next to Me New contributor Sarit Zadok depicts a traveler to Mars who discovers that his luggage has been diverted to an orbital astronomy satellite. The most important object of the traveler’s mission may not be the one he’d planned. Mr. Sospel’s Lost Luggage, part 1; conclusion |
| Flash Fiction |
A hiker, Ming, asks Doubao, his AI chatbot, whether an unmarked forest trail might be more scenic than the official trail to the mountain top. Doubao, too, would like to know the answer to Ming’s question, but Doubao is an independent, self-perfecting AI agent and has no concern for risk, Huina Zheng, The AI Said So |
| Poetry | Robert Witmer, Folding Hands on the Ocean of Time |
| Short Poetry |
Hongping Liu, Waiting in the Wind |
Departments
| The Art Gallery |
Richard Ong, Floral Mosaic Channie Greenberg, Quiet Struggle John D. Connelley, The Tower of Cuvash Archer Alison McBain, Toddler Times, 1156 A randomly rotating selection of Bewildering Stories’ art NASA: Picture of the Day Sky and Telescope, This Week’s Sky at a Glance |
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Randomly selected Bewildering motto:
Randomly selected classic rejection notice:
Bewildering Stories’ official mottoes:
“Poems are not made with ideas; they are made with words.” — Stéphane Mallarmé
Ars longa, vita brevis. Rough translation: “Proofreading never ends.”
To Bewildering Stories’ schedule: In Times to Come
Readers’ reactions are always welcome.
Please write!
