Heartlines Spec, Issue 6, Fall 2024

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.

Short Fiction
Visiting Birds by Jen Tombs
Grief's Apogee by R. J. Howell
Legs, Scopulae, Pedipalps, Fangs by Jennifer Lesh Fleck
Butchered Tongue by Gunnar De Winter
Two by Two by Two by Celia Winter
If Ever I Would Leave You by Katherine Heath Shaeffer
Do You Know How the Lotus Flower Blooms? by T.H. Young

Poetry
The God of Friendship by Allison Burris
Lonely Rocks by Tabor Skreslet
my lover and i, sat in a giant space rat by Veda Villiers
Beth by Kathryn Reese
Astrometric Love by Ian LiNon-Fiction
Devouring Cannibalism, colonialism, and the power of female transformation by Aly Laube