khōréō magazine

5.4 The Trick to Taking Over the World by K. Lynn Harrison

26 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a post-apocalyptic world, a mother accidentally becomes a leader and a god. Content warnings: Death of a spouse, natural disasters, references to p...

5.4 The Body is a Cage Opened Only By Fire by J.A.W. McCarthy

05 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A woman returns to burn the last of her mother's body, in the wake of her mother's death — an effort to escape a dark entity that has sealed itself ...

5.4 Skin and Hide by Anita Moskát

28 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Deerbreed blogger Kirill wants to tell the story of worldwide human-animal transformations, but the Flock is calling to him. Content warnings: Classis...

5.4 The North by Subodhana Wijeyeratne

08 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A young scribe joins a voyage to hunt sea creatures in waters that once belonged to the feared Northerners, but the truth behind the Northern myths is...

5.4 Her Right Arm by Natalia Theodoridou

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A man sets out on a voyage accompanied by his fiancée's right arm.  Content warnings: Violence (graphic), threat of bodily harm, covert misogyny Cop...

5.3 Deep Down Inside: Parasitism and Symbiosis by Premee Mohamed

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An essay reflecting on parasitism, symbiosis, and the ideas of naturalisation and invasion in the issue. Content warnings: Parasitism, infection/sickn...

5.3 The Moon's Forests Burn All Your Life by brandon brown

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A woman slowly smokes herself to death to protest an atrocity. When her cigarette supply runs low, a local kid grappling with both the protest and the...

5.3 Closed Doors by Mary Miseon Wu

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When her mother is absorbed into the local flesh monolith, Kayla struggles with her identity and looks for a way in. Content warnings: Violence, nudit...

5.3 Island Getaway by Sonia Focke

07 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Able Seaman Pol has a lot of problems — getting the cats fed, watered, and reporting for duty, keeping tree roots from destroying the wiring, the mo...

5.3 Symbiote by T. Chiu-Chu

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's about the things that become a part of you when you aren't paying attention, without your even realizing they're there.  Copyright © 2025 khōr...

5.3 Toothpaste Feelings by Sharang Biswas

17 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An alien-human symbiote tries to sort out complicated feelings at his former friends' weddings. Content warnings: Brief mention of suicide Copyright ©...

5.2 The Peculiarities of Hunger by Woody Dismukes

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A transnational adoptee is haunted by the ghost of his birth mother. Content warnings: Self-harm, suicidal ideation Copyright © 2025 khōréō magazi...

5.2 Wax and Full Circles by Stefani Cox

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Wax and Full Circles" is the quiet story of a couple navigating life where one of them is a werewolf. Content warnings: Death, animal death, grief Co...

5.2 The Swampmasters by Joshua Lim

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Japanese-occupied Malaya, an older Chinese immigrant reflects on his arrival to this land in his youth and embarks on a daring rescue. Content warn...

5.2 The Traveling Mountain by Diana Dima

07 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When a lonely mountain is visited by a wonderbird, she learns about the far-away White City, and sets out on an unlikely journey. Copyright © 2025 kh...

5.1 Legs by Evgenia Nekrasova

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A young paramedic defies a military summons by heading into the forest, where she gradually builds a new home and becomes something more than human. C...

5.1 The Significance Cofactor by H.H. Pak

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A father bumbles his way through family domesticities as he makes his way to the airport. His children do not know he is not their father at all, but ...

5.1 möbius loop by Samir Sirk Morató

15 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A traumatized time traveler keeps traveling back to his past to punish his younger self. Over multiple loops, he learns to forgive himself. Copyright ...

5.1 Sun's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Emanations by Shiwei Zhou

01 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Sun, the solo practitioner of an extraordinary medical specialty, is asked to save one last patient by the protege who abandoned her. Copyright kh...

5.1 Cypress Teeth by Natasha King

17 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An imprisoned god is bound to the trees of an ancient swamp, until one day someone comes looking. Content warnings: Violence, body horror Copyright kh...

4.4 Kolumbo 1619: Choose Your Own Adventure by KÁNYIN Olorunnisola

13 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In an RPG game, a Black avatar repeatedly attempts to survive an encounter with the police. Content warnings: Violence, death, racism, hateful languag...

4.4 The Secret by Fumio Takano

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2102, Michi goes undercover as a maid for a hacking job, while in 2030, Ryo sells his appearance to a tech company. Their lives intersect to expose...

4.4 The Tangle by Rae Mariz

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A storyteller in the distant future shows the reader different vantage points, in hopes they might "see" the web of connections between past and futur...

4.4 AITA for telling my genetic double she cant be transgender? by Leon Tomova

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In New Hope City, an indentured clone comes out as trans. People have opinions about it. Content warnings: Transphobia (including misgendering), abuse...

4.4 The Doll's Boy by Kawai Shen

04 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A boy walks into an art exhibit and steals a sex doll on display. It doesn't go anywhere the doll expects. Content warnings: Body horror described in ...

4.4 The Trauma Tourist by Christos Callow Jr

18 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hollywood actor Hendrick lives through a curated trauma experience to become Greek enough for a role. But how much will it cost him? Content warnings:...

4.3 Nightskin's Landing by Chris Campbell

28 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Aliens who share distant human ancestors with Earthlings arrive on Earth seeking refuge, and their African lineage run into issues with the US governm...

4.3 The Universe & Miss Debbie by Cindy Phan

07 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Deb is dead set on getting a pedicure, now, damn anyone else's time! But the Universe has its own plans, and she's not the only VIP to walk through th...

4.3 The Last Flesh Figure Skaters by Claire Jia-Wen

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rival figure skaters use dangerous body modification technology to outperform each other in the rink. Content warnings: Racism Copyright khōréō mag...

4.3 A Little Like Sap, a Bit Like a Tree by Natalia Theodoridou

28 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“A Little Like Sap, a Bit Like a Tree” by Natalia Theodoridou is a story about a transmasc nursing birds, based on true events. Content warnings: ...

4.3 In the Age of Fire by Ana Rüsche

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“In the Age of Fire” by Ana Rüsche follows the journey of a boy from Panama to the United States, through the immigration crisis and the climate ...

4.3 Cuckoo by Esra Kahya, translated by Aysel K. Basci

09 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nuran struggles with her mental health and an abusive household. Is escape possible with a voice down the well? Content warnings: Mental Illness, deat...

4.2 Mappamundi by Angelisa Fontaine-Wood

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A Croat refugee comes to terms with his trauma through studying metaphorical maps to his own lostness. Content warnings: Graphic wartime violence and ...

4.2 Human Trials by Madeleine Vigneron

05 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A young scientist struggles to find purpose in life after being left behind by those fleeing a post-apocalyptic Earth. Content warnings: Suicide and s...

4.2 Ace of Knives by E. A. Xiong

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Someone has to be the best at something, and when a new technology begets a new sport, it may as well be her. Content warnings: Knife violence, blood,...

4.2 High Performer by Jason Pangilinan

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Peace (Filipino, Scorpio, middle child) encounters Leon, a shapeshifter. Leon's inability to commit to one form challenges Peace's concept of identity...

4.2 Wayback by Leslie What

16 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A family vacation in the mountains takes a weird turn when they are forced to choose what to bring and what to leave behind. Content warnings: Violenc...

4.1 Take Up Thy Mother's Song by Natasha King

27 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A family living under oppression hides their magic in a song passed down the generations. Take Up Thy Mother's Song is a story about when to choose su...

4.1 Piroska and the Wolf by Varju Izzy

13 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Wolf is Piroska's sister, and they play with bombs in the backyard of their new home. Is Piroska wolf enough to survive? Content warnings: Threat...

4.1 The Goddess of Loneliness and Misfortune by Anna Bendiy

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when you come home and home is in pieces, and everyone is gone? Here, unruly spirits and old memories are dredged up in this act of recl...

4.1 Child's Tongue by Monique Laban

16 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After learning the true history of her land, a young woman returns to her isolated hometown to dispel the propaganda they were told. "Child's Tongue"...

4.1 Intersected Sky by Andrew Najberg

02 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An endless beam of light arrives and splits the sky. In the turmoil following the resulting global EMP, aging immigrant Demetri's family collapses and...

3.4 Trees Can Have My Soul; in Return, Let Me Have My Grief by Rukman Ragas

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"Trees Can Have My Soul; In Return, Let Me Have My Grief" asks what a mother tongue is when survival requires assimilation. Content warnings: Mild bod...

3.4 The Ancestors Tell You What to Do When Your Teenage Daughter Is Given a Cursed Wolf Skin from God and Becomes a Mardagayl by Jolie Toomajan

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Armenian folklore, all werewolves are women. Cursed, punished, feared, shunned. But that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, does it, dear?...

3.4 The Maiden Voyage of the Piranha Belle by L.M. Guay

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A deluxe riverboat welcomes the galaxy's wealthiest tourists to the drought-ridden Amazon — but no one's seen her mysterious captain. "The Maiden Vo...

3.4 RAIN FIRE CLOUD by Caroline Hung

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Come one, come all! Witness the fall of a despot alongside the glorious rebirth of one heavenly beast in "RAIN FIRE CLOUD" by Caroline Hung. Copyrigh...

3.4 Rhythms of the Resonant Revolution by Rodrigo Culagovski

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The defiant notes of a bass guitar ignite a city's fight against tyrants through the raw magic of music. Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by R...

3.4 Pink Bird, War Sun by Tania Chen

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The unsettling arrival of war and how hope in tales pass from generation to generation. Content warnings: War, orphans, implied trauma due to armed c...

3.4 Blue Cube by Prema Arasu

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the near future, the corpse inside the abandoned deep-sea submersible Blue Cube becomes another landmark of the Challenger Deep. Content warning: ...

3.4 Ghost and the Piano by Sofia Ezdina

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A ghost of the dead daughter visits the musician every night. Together, they compose their masterpiece of grief. Content warning: Death of a child C...

3.4 Homeland in Verse by Naomi Day

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An unnamed narrator takes an unusual journey home. "Homeland in Verse" by Naomi Day explores loss both, individual and diasporic, and what it means to...

3.4 Seven Recipes for the Crossing by Diana Dima

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A daughter living overseas visits her mother. Their time is counted in recipes, familiar yet growing ever stranger. Content warning: Death Copyright...

3.4 Thank God Things Are Different Now by Desiree Winns

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Years after the terrifying dictator of a small island nation has been deposed, a native bartender tells his side of history to an unsuspecting touris...

3.4 When We Make it to Bet-Zelem by Louis Evans

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"When We Make it to Bet-Zelem" is a profound meditation on hope and what it means to seek something that may no longer exist. Content warnings: War, ...

3.4 Mad Studies by [sarah] Cavar

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Countryboy T loses their home after the deaths of their parents. Luckily, the cats have been in charge all along. Content warnings: Institutionalizat...

3.3 Dragonsworn (Part 2 of 2) by L. Chan

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Feng, once indentured to the university in return for her studies, accompanies the Professor who bought her debt to the mountains. There, they expect...

3.3 Dragonsworn (Part 1 of 2) by L. Chan

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Feng, once indentured to the university in return for her studies, accompanies the Professor who bought her debt to the mountains. There, they expect...

3.3 The Cursing of Herman Willem Daendels by A.W. Prihandita

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ni Darti is determined to curse Herman Willem Daendels, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, for the death of her son. But a shaman cannot curs...

3.3 The Blue Glow by Lisa Hosokawa

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A standalone excerpt from a novel-in-progress, "The Blue Glow" is set in Hiroshima in 1945, in the aftermath of the atomic bomb. Sen, a sixteen-year-o...

3.2 Sartor by Tanvir Ahmed

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Sartor" by Tanvir Ahmed is a story about stories, about endings and beginnings, about the telling and the listening. Copyright khōréō magazine 202...

3.2 Memories of Memories Lost by Mahmud El Sayed

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Memories of Memories Lost" by Mahmud El Sayed is a story about the price of the things we choose to forget. Copyright khōréō magazine 2023. Sto...

3.2 Come Back, Crocodile Bird by M.S. Dean

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Come Back, Crocodile Bird" by M.S. Dean follows the story of Arnaz, navigating a flooded world that leaves her both stuck in the past and trying to ...

3.2 Umeboshi by Rebecca Nakaba

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Umeboshi" by Rebecca Nakaba is an exploration of what it means to be connected through heritage—and chain email. Copyright khōréō magazine 2023....

3.2 The Abode of the Palms by Karim Kattan

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“The Abode of the Palms” by Karim Kattan is a story of the desert and jinn, of siblings and family and wishes, and what it means to be born second...

3.2 Kwong's Bath by Angela Liu

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In "Kwong's Bath" by Angela Liu, Kwong is visited by the ghosts of the people she has trouble letting go. Copyright khōréō magazine 2023. Story by ...

3.1 The Field Guide for Next Time by Rae Mariz

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"The Field Guide for Next Time" by Rae Mariz is a nonlinear tapestry of a story and the most experimental piece that khōréō has published to date....

3.1 The Shadow and the Light by Su-Yee Lin

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You wake up. You do your job. You eat. You speak to no one. Nothing ever changes about life here in K— — until, suddenly, it does. "The Shadow an...

3.1 The Land of Happiness by Laura Wang

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do you communicate in a foreign land, when the only language those living speak is one of happiness? What of the days you feel lonely, or sad, or...

3.1 For However Long by Thomas Ha

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A mother, left behind on Earth, receives a birthday card from her son, who is worlds away. How much time do we have together with the ones we love, es...

3.1 In April, the Dead by Natalia Theodoridou

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In April, the dead return to spend brief moments with their loved ones. But what happens if the one you love doesn't come back? "In April, the Dead" ...

2.4 This Is What You Came For by Phong Quan

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You've been in this club before, because you've been in a thousand like it. Each night a loop. Except this one is too familiar—and not quite right. ...

2.4 Rattlers by D.K. Lawhorn

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In "Rattlers" by D.K. Lawhorn, dance and music mark the end of exile for two former outcasts once betrayed and hunted by the same allies who now see...

2.4 The Ballad of the Octopus by Simo Srinivas

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"The Ballad of the Octopus" by Simo Srinivas is a haunting, luscious tale of an octopus who loses an arm to a man, who in turn devours it, hopelessly...

2.4 Bride of the Gulf by Danai Christopoulou

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

By day, Niki serves coffee and tsoureki — but at night she is haunted by a mysterious song she can't get out of her head. "Bride of the Gulf" by Da...

2.4 Mothership Connection by Melissa A. Watkins

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join us on a vessel taking its passengers far beyond Earth, using an unconventional source to help power its journey. "Mothership Connection" by Meli...

2.4 Tina Yu and the Karaoke Time Machine by Allison King

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tina's life is a series of dominos falling toward the creation of the ultimate invention—with unforeseen consequences. Allison King's "Tina Yu and ...

2.3 Skin by Isha Karki

29 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An unnamed narrator wears different skins to navigate different parts of her life: academia, her wealthy boyfriend's social circle, and her family's r...

2.3 All Good Children, Come Out to Play by Karlo Yeager Rodríguez

15 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A moment of anger leaves nine-year-old Marta without her brother—but the bond between the twins has always been strong. "All Good Children, Come Out...

2.3 The Storyteller by Rhea Roy

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What are stories for? In Rhea Roy’s “The Storyteller,” an extraordinary, headstrong woman conceives and enacts a death-defying story out of the ...

2.3 This Excessive Use of Pickled Foods by Leora Spitzer

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bex chose a university parsecs away from family and friends. Alone and overwhelmed, she finds comfort and history in an unlikely place. "This Excessi...

2.3 Unname Me at the Altar by Ashaye Brown

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Child, parent, and grandparent: each stands at a threshold in "Unname Me at the Altar" by Ashaye Brown, a tender and brutal story of unbreakable bond...

2.2 Where Secrets Lie by Cindy Phan

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Alice's father finds a snake in a crate of bok choy in their grocery store their family owns, he wants to kill it. But Alice sets the snake free...

2.2 Ours But Not Our Own by Joshua Tong

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Liz and Owen jump at the chance for a weekend away, house sitting in suburbia, only to find something... strange... about the mirror in the house. "Ou...

2.2 The Scumbling by J.C. Changmore

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Eliza's mother was a talented artist without much time for family—until she died. Now, she needs Eliza for her last shot at fame, whatever the cost....

2.2 Sin Eater by T. M. Hurree

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Adam has inherited his grandmother's restaurant, where they serve sins—often covertly and illegally purchased from a nearby prison. When a customer...

2.2 Banhus by M.E. Bronstein

28 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alice meets a man who loves languages, who consumes them as one would a delicious meal. "Banhus" by M.E. Bronstein is a story about language, and conq...

2.1 Electric Waterfalls by Ruth Joffre

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Xiomara's birthday is tomorrow. She figures she'll do some last-minute planning as she sets out to fix a solar panel—only to have her crush ask to k...

2.1 Matchmaker, Matchmaker by Evalyn Broderick

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Esther and Chaviva are best friends who never expected to be each other's direct competition for an arranged match with an off-world boy whose family...

2.1 Me and Seed Sheself by Celeste Rita Baker

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Junisa grows up under the care of two personal guardians — "Me and Seed Sheself." But Junisa is no longer a child, and her longtime guardians must r...

2.1 Hiraeth Heart by Lulu Kadhim

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A young woman visits her mother's homeland for the first time, which has since been ravaged by war. "Hiraeth Heart" by Lulu Kadhim is a touching medi...

2.1 Phoenix Tile by Guan Un

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An all-but-forgotten demigod bets everything on one last gambit to secure his future before he fades from existence. Copyright khōréō magazine 2022...

1.4 Ketchup Pork Chops and Foreign Potatoes by C.H. Hung

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cooking is a necessity, but it often requires a luxury of time that many—especially new immigrants—don't have. In "Ketchup Pork Chops and Foreign...

1.4 Tomatoes by Eugenia Triantafyllou

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Charged with carrying on her family's magical tradition, Filio must choose between legacy and freedom. "Tomatoes" by Eugenia Triantafyllou is a story ...

1.4 Sorry We Missed You! by Aun-Juli Riddle

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When you follow your dreams into the stars, there are places—and people—you must leave behind. "Sorry We Missed You!" is a touching meditation on...

1.4 My Mother's Samosas by Malavika Praseed

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A teenage girl's mother makes the best samosas in the world, but all is not as it seems. "My Mother's Samosas" by Malavika Praseed is a coming of age...

1.4 Más chileno que ... by Lily Raphaela Philpott

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A young woman safeguards her birth mother's name: a string of pearls she carries in her mouth. This story explores transracial adoption and the intan...

1.4 Review for Izakaya Tanuki by J.L. Akagi

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"Review for: Izakaya Tanuki" is a magical slice-of-life tale about yearning for that special dish from a home you can't return to, told in the form o...

1.4 Some Thoughts on Cuisine and Culture by Aliette de Bodard

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happens to recipes when they're transplanted to a new country? "Some Thoughts on Cuisine and Culture" reflects on how cuisine and interest in it...

1.3 What South Asian Sci-Fi Can Tell Us About Our World by Nudrat Kamal

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"What South Asian Sci-Fi Can Tell Us About Our World" by Nudrat Kamal This essay on South Asian genre fiction explores the rich tradition of SFF in So...

1.3 Cultureship by Esther Alter

11 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"Cultureship" by Esther Alter What do common roots mean in a future where humanity is so far-flung that Earth is more fable than fact? An exploration ...