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The Golden Nugget
A found stone gives an isolated schoolboy the courage to invent a royal past. As the lie carries him into adulthood, its weight begins to change.
Crossings -Etta Levi Smythe
A boat crossing from Ithaca becomes a passage through grief, drought, memory, and the return of what the body has tried to bury.
Storm Rachel
Part One: Mouse House
“After you,” said Stuart, holding back a bright shock of gorse. The gate creaked a strange welcome and I stepped through.
A smell ...
Rabies
As the lake retreats and rabid dogs gather at the shore, an ageing couple hold out on an island, finishing a children’s book for the daughter they lost.
What Are the Chances – Nicky Torode
On a hot South London afternoon, Nina’s small win on a scratch card leads her through old grief, old streets, and the fragile possibility of starting again.
Editor's Pick, Fiction, Litro #97: East London, Litro #97: East London, Print Issues, Story Sunday
Rio by Louise Stern
Two young women drift through Copacabana, caught between heat, danger, silence and spectacle in Louise Stern’s archive story “Rio.”
Fiction, Short Fiction, Tuesday Tales
“The World Expects” By Linda Coulby
A military widow prepares to lay a wreath one year after her husband’s death, holding herself together beneath the eyes of the public, the press, and a world that expects ...
Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Story Sunday
The Alphas of Minor Consequence
Ryo Whitefish fishes a depleted stretch, resents the system that fixed his life in place, and risks everything on illegal runs to Minor Consequence, a correctional moon where the descendants ...
Fiction, Flash Friday, flash-friday
“A Sandwich for Lunch” by Penny Pepper
An elderly disabled woman waits for lunch and care, but memory reveals a hidden life of espionage, desire, and danger in Penny Pepper’s flash fiction.
The Roulette Vending Machine
A station vending machine becomes a daily oracle: tea, soda, or corn soup — each one predicting whether someone will speak to the person they like.
AKALA AKA
A West African village grapples with algorithmic futures until the system fails and older wisdom returns. Rich cultural voice meets speculative premise.
In the town of Kijani, the future ...
Fiction, Flash Friday, Future Archives
Flash Friday: Systems Under Strain (Four New Stories)
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Fiction, Flash Friday, Future Archives, Story Sunday
The Cancellation of Michael Z
One morning, Michael Z. wakes to silence then to scandal. T.L. Huchu’s story is a cutting, darkly comic portrait of literary culture, AI authorship, and the speed of public ruin.
Fiction, Flash Friday, flash-friday
Jonesy’s Bones
A bone appears on the doormat. Then another. Then a skull. In Samuel Smith’s sly sci-fi flash, domestic routine gives way to something far stranger — and the family cat ...
Fiction, Flash Fiction Contest, Flash Friday, flash-friday
Chances Are
By John Brantingham
“Chances Are” was selected for Litro’s The Odds Are In shortlist through a blind editorial process. Shortly after submission, we were informed that its author, John ...
Arts & Culture, Books, Digital Culture, Editor's Pick, Fiction, Reviews
Small Presses, Big Nerve: Six Fiction Titles to Watch in 2026
A Litro guide to the best small-press fiction of 2026 so far, with six real titles from independent publishers including Cipher Press, Saqi, Cassava Republic, Moist and Conduit.
Editor's Pick, Fiction, Flash Friday
The Odds Are In — Winner Announced
From over 200 anonymous submissions, five stories were shortlisted for The Odds Are In. We’re pleased to announce AKALA AKA by Anselme Eme as the winner.
Editor's Pick, Fiction, Flash Friday
Doña Yola’s Algorithm
Before the system names a pattern, someone has already seen it. “Doña Yola’s Algorithm” is a story about prediction, authority, and who gets believed.
Editor's Pick, Fiction, Flash Friday
Six Months More
By Gull Ditta
A data gardener confronts the zero-sum ontology of prediction markets—brilliant speculative fiction that reads like philosophy.
Leo’s world was made of percentages and they were the ...
Editor's Pick, Fiction, Flash Friday
Perishables
A quiet, devastating story set at a grocery-store customer service desk, where cracked eggs, a warm rotisserie chicken, and a small act of rule-bending reveal the pressure of dignity, money, ...