Looking for the best Speculative fiction of 2014 in expected, and unexpected, places (#SFWApro)

It's that time of year again — people are beginning to compile lists of favorite stories for  "Best of" compilations for 2014. Selfishly, I hope people keep looking well into December since I have a story set to be published in early December ... but being the very impatient sort myself, here are some of the short stories (in a year with a bumper crop of incredible stories) that I love best.

In no particular order:

Lorca Green by Gina Ruiz (in Lowriting: Shots, Rides & Stories from the Chicano Soul, Jan. 8, 2014)

The Oud by Thoraiya Dyer (in Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, Jan. 30, 2014)

Collected Likenesses by Jamey Hatley (also from Long Hidden)

Lone Women by Victor LaValle (also from Long Hidden ... and let me say there are a lot of other great stories in there that fall just shy of making it onto my list — yes, it is that good a collection).

A Cup of Salt Tears by Isabel Yap (Tor.com, Aug. 27, 2014)

The Litany of Earth by Ruthanna Emrys (Tor.com, May 14, 2014)

Anyway, Angie by Daniel José Older (Tor.com, March 26, 2014)

Santos de Sampaguitas by Alyssa Wong (Strange Horizons, Oct. 6 & Oct. 13, 2014)

The Clockwork Soldier by Ken Liu (Clarkesworld, January 2014)

Shedding Skin by Angela Rega (Crossed Genres, April 2014)


I remembered the following favorites as being 2014 but, alas, they are 2013 and so not eligible for any awards ballots you may be compiling, but they are really worth reading:

La Santisima by Teresa Frohock

Maquech by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (from This Strange Way of Dying, 2013)

Baggage Check by Shay Darrach

Pancho Villa's Flying Circus by Ernesto Hogan (from We See a Different Frontier, 2013)

The History of Soul 2065 by Barbara Krasnoff (from Clockwork Phoenix 4, 2013)


Oh, I know I'm forgetting and leaving out so many worthwhile stories ...

Go to, read! Thank me later.