There was a lot of fantastic SFF fiction published in 2020, and I only wish I could have read even MORE of it. This recommended reading list is based on my short fiction roundups during the year, and really, I highly recommend all the stories that have been included in those roundups, both at Curious Fictions and at Strange Horizons.
My Monthly Roundups at Curious Fictions:
My quarterly Short Fiction Treasures Roundup at Strange Horizons:
My recommended reading list:
Short stories (sorted by title, from z to a)
- Your Name Is Oblivia by Vincent Tirado in Fiyah #15
- You Can Check Out Any Time You Like by Rhonda Eikamp in Apparition Lit
- Yo, Rapunzel! by Kyle Kirrin in Podcastle
- Worm Song by David Naimon in Fireside
- White Noon by Aidan Doyle in Podcastle
- When Hope Is Lost, Touch Remains by Nin Harris in Podcastle
- We Will Build a Haunted House – Andrew Van Wey in Lamplight Magazine Vol. 8, Issue 3&4
- We Are the Moor by Sylvia Heike in Flash Fiction Online
- We Are the Flower by Claire Humphrey in Podcastle
- Wait For Night by Stephen Graham Jones at Tor.com
- Uniform by Errick Nunnally in Fiyah #14
- True In His Fashion by E. Catherine Tobler in Three-Lobed Burning Eye
- Tiger of the New Moon by Allison Thai in Anathema
- This Is How You Remember by Phong Quan at Cast of Wonders
- Things Boys Do by ‘Pemi Aguda in Nightmare
- The Wrong Girl by Angela Slatter in Nightmare
- The Wandering City by Usman T. Malik in Us in Flux
- The Sycamore and the Sybil by Alix E. Harrow in Uncanny Magazine
- The Stonemason by Danny Rhodes in Black Static #75
- The Smell of Night In the Basement by Wendy N. Wagner at PseudoPod
- The Night Soil Salvagers by Gregory Norman Bossert at TOR.com
- The Mermaid Astronaut by Yoon Ha Lee in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
- The Limits of Magic by Samantha Mills in Apparition Literary Magazine
- Prism by S.D. Brown in Augur Magazine
- The Honey of the World and the Queen of Crows by Dimitra Nikolaidou in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
- The Gwyddien and the Raven Fiend by J.T. Greathouse in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
- The Girlfriend’s Guide to Gods by Maria Dahvana Headley in TOR.com
- The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter by Elaine Cuyegkeng in Black Cranes
- The Future in Saltwater by Tamara Jerée in Anathema #10
- The Fenghuang by Millie Ho in Lightspeed
- The Cat Lady and the Petitioner, by Jennifer Hudak in Translunar Travelers Lounge
- The Bone-Stag Walks by K.T. Bryski in Lightspeed
- Teeth Long and Sharp as Blades by A.C. Wise in PseudoPod
- Tara’s Mother’s Skin by Suzan Palumbo in PseudoPod
- Sweet Sting by Sara Saab in The White Review
- St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid by C.L. Polk at TOR.com
- Small Magics by Juliet Kemp in Flash Fiction Online
- Slipping the Leash by Dan Micklethwaite in Podcastle
- Salt by Rosemary Melchior in Luna Station Quarterly
- Rocket Man by Louis Evans in Interzone #286
- Riding Through the Desert by Laurence Raphael Brothers in Zooscape
- Resilience by Christi Nogle in Pseudopod
- Renovation of a Finite Apartment by Toby MacNutt in Strange Horizons
- Recognition by Victor LaValle in New York Times Magazine’s Decameron Project
- Rat and Finch Are Friends by Innocent Chizaram Ilo in Strange Horizons
- Phantasmagoria by Abi Hynes in Black Static #76
- Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell in Diabolical Plots
- Open 27 Hours by LP Kindred in Speculative City
- Ngozi Ugegbe Nwa by Dare Segun Falowo in The Dark
- More Than Simple Steel by Aimee Ogden in Escape Pod
- Mist Songs of Delhi by Sid Jain in Podcastle
- Mechanical Connection by Frances Rowat in CossMass Infinities #1
- Matches, Tower, Sister, Stone by Lora Gray in Flash Fiction Online
- Lusca by Soleil Knowles in Fiyah #13
- Like Faded Joy by Ashley Bao in Cast of Wonders
- Kiki Hernández Beats the Devil by Samantha Mills in Translunar Travelers Lounge
- John Simnel’s First Goshawk by Tegan Moore in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
- It Is a Beautiful Day On the Internet, and You Are a Horrible Bot by Aimee Ogden in the anthology If There’s Anyone Left
- In the Wake of My Father by Ray Cluley in Black Static #74
- Hunt by Mina Li in Translunar Travelers Lounge
- How Did it Feel to be Eaten? by Amit Gupta in Escape Pod
- Holy Communion by Jennifer Lewis in Entropy Magazine
- High in the Clean Blue Air by Emma Törzs in Uncanny Magazine
- Have Your #Hugot Harvested At This Diwata-Owned Café by Vida Cruz in Strange Horizons
- Getaway by Nicole Kornher-Stace in Uncanny Magazine
- Felt Along the Seam by Kelly Sandoval in Flash Fiction Online
- Everything and Nothing by Jenny Rae Rappaport in Lightspeed
- Elsewhere by James S.A. Corey in Avatars.Inc
- Driving With Ghosts by Clara Madrigano in The Dark
- Dresses Like White Elephants by Meg Elison in Uncanny Magazine
- Devoured Stars Over Dublin by Méabh de Brún in Giganotosaurus
- Dégustation by Ashley Deng in Nightmare Magazine
- Deep in the Drift, Spinning by Lisa L. Hannett in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
- Dead Girls Have No Names by Claire Wrenwood in Nightmare
- Bunting by Katherine L. Hester in Bracken
- Body, Remember by Nicasio Andres Reed in Fireside
- Bobbie and Her Father by Gillian Daniels in The Dark
- Biography of Algae by Martha Riva Palacio Obón in Strange Horizons
- Badass Mom’s in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson in Uncanny Magazine
- Baboon, Brain, Brick by Louis Evans in The New Modality
- And This Is How To Stay Alive by Shingai Njeri Kagunda in Fantasy Magazine
- An Indefinite Number of Birds by Kurt Hunt in Fantasy Magazine
- An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands by Fran Wilde in TOR.com
- AirBody by Sameem Siddiqui in Clarkesworld
- A Wake For the Living by Jordan Kurella in Zooscape
- A Voyage to Queensthroat by Anya Johanna DeNiro in Strange Horizons
- Amber by Sandra M. Odell in Daily SF
- A Hench Helps Her Villain, No Matter What, by Izzy Wasserstein in Escape Pod
Novelettes
- To Balance the Weight of Khalem by R.B. Lemberg in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
- A Stick of Clay, in the Hands of God, is Infinite Potential by JY Neon Yang in Clarkesworld
- Real Animals by Em North in Lightspeed
- To Sail the Black by A.C. Wise in Clarkesworld
- Kikelomo Ultrasheen by Dare Segun Falowo in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction March/April 2020
- An Important Failure by Rebecca Campbell in Clarkesworld
- How To Burn Down the Hinterlands by Lyndsie Manusos in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
- “Save, Salve, Shelter” by Essa Hansen in F&SF January/February 2020
- The Air in My House Tastes Like Sugar by ZZ Claybourne in GigaNotoSaurus
- The Black Menagerie by Endria Isa Richardson in Fiyah #15
- One Hand in the Coffin by Justin C. Key in Strange Horizons
- Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker at TOR.com
Novellas
- Le Jardin Animé (1893) by Victoria Sandbrook in GigaNotoSaurus
- The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon Publications)
- City of a Thousand Feelings by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Novels
I did not read a lot of novels published in 2020, so this is slim pickings, but I loved these books:
- THE STONE WĒTĀ by Octavia Cade
- PIRANESI by Susanna Clarke
Anthologies
- Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora , edited by Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald
- If There’s Anyone Left, edited by Jason P. Burnham
- A Sinister Quartet, with fiction by C. S. E. Cooney, Mike Allen, Amanda J. McGee, and Jessica P. Wick
- Avatars Inc., edited by Ann VanderMeer
- A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope, edited by Patrice Caldwell
- Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, edited by Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn
Short story collections
- The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A.J. Fitzwater
- Red New Day & Other Microfictions by Angela Slatter
- The Grand Tour: A Jackson’s Unreal Circus & Marmalade Collection by E. Catherine Tobler
- Nine Bar Blues: Stories from an Ancestral Future by Sheree Renée Thomas
- Songs For Dark Seasons by Lisa L. Hannett
Maria Haskins 
2 thoughts on “My Recommended Reading List for 2020”