The sixth issue of Heartlines Spec is focused on relationships that once were and some that still are. These stories and poems span different types of loss, of grief, and how each allows for transformation. Whether it's spider-aliens in a forest, a dying starship, or new familiar – change is fundamental.

Each week, we will release two free-to-read pieces on our website. Paid subscribers have complete access. All levels of subscribers can read select pieces ahead of public release.

Buy Issue 6

Paperback (to come)

Editorial

Editorial by Emily Yu

Short Fiction

Do You Know How the Lotus Flower Blooms? by T.H. Young

If Ever I Would Leave You by Katherine Heath Shaeffer

Grief's Apogee by R. J. Howell

Butchered Tongue by Gunnar De Winter

Two by Two by Two by Celia Winter

Visiting Birds by Jen Tombs

Legs, Scopulae, Pedipalps, Fangs by Jennifer Lesh Fleck

Poetry

Astrometric Love by Ian Li

Lonely Rocks by Tabor Skreslet

my lover and i, sat in a giant space rat by Veda Villiers

The God of Friendship by Allison Burris

Beth by Kathryn Reese

Non-Fiction

Devouring Jackie: Cannibalism, colonialism, and the power of female transformation by Aly Laube

PDF and EPUB

PDF and EPUB (for paid subscribers only)