I’ve been writing speculative fiction stories and have finally started to venture out with them and try to publish them. I’m a staunch believer that reading is essential to writing, and I’ve been devouring speculative fictions stories over the past few years.
I’m writing to share a list of 10 current writers whose work I’m loving. The writers below are in no particular order. This list focuses on short stories, although several of the authors below have also written novels.
Stories are often underappreciated, living in the shadow of novels. When I began writing, I was focused on writing a novel, but I’ve now come to appreciate the power and magic of stories.
I’m just beginning on my fiction writing journey, and my first published stories are here if you’re interested. With some luck, hopefully I’ll publish more soon (the ones I consider my best are still unpublished). Besides the story submission process, which is a form of medieval torture, I’m enjoying every minute of fiction writing.
A big part of that journey is learning from others, and the writers below each bring something unique and genuine and have a lot to teach. Even if you’re not a writer, if you love speculative fiction, these writers should be on your list.
There are many more I could list, but to keep the length of this post reasonable, I’ve limited the list to 10. Please share your favorite speculative fiction short story writers in the comments.
Kelly Link
Kelly Link’s tales are bizarre, twisted, dark, funny, and ominous. Her work is an eclectic mash-up of fantasy, speculative, slipstream, sci-fi, and fairy tales. I particularly enjoyed “I Can See Right Through You” (in Get in Trouble) which has a kind of dark-decayed-Hollywood vibe like Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. Her recent collection, White Cat, Black Dog (2023), is a wonderfully whimsical set of twisted fairy tales. Link is weird in fun and fascinating ways. Other great collections include Magic for Beginners (2005) and Stranger Things Happen (2001).
Thomas Ha
Thomas Ha’s stories are often brooding and soulful. His recent story collection, Uncertain Sons (2026), is superb. And a more recent story, “In My Country,” is a beautifully-told dark fable about authoritarianism. It immerses us in a society that seems less oppressive than Big Brother but has darkness that hangs in the air yet goes ignored and unnoticed until it’s too late. Ha captures the mood of modern authoritarianism, which is less overt than Big Brother but that grows increasingly malignant, like a cancer. Ha is especially adept at creating rich alternative worlds in the most economical ways, without info dumps.
P.A. Cornell
P.A. Cornell writes moving and warm stories brimming with feeling and charm. Her recent collection is The Astronaut Among the Flowers (2026). I particularly enjoyed “Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont,” a time travel story that is nostalgic, poignant, and filled with warmth and feeling. “Splits” explores fractured identity and the tough choice to reunite it. A particularly thought-provoking story, not included in the collection, is “And I Will Read to You About Butterflies.” It involves a griefbot of a deceased son that malfunctions and the only repair wipes out data about his memories and personality. As with many of her stories, a recurring theme is how technology twists relationships and identity into knots that can’t be untied.
Ted Chiang
Ted Chiang is a short story master, and his hard sci-fi stories are highly philosophical. Chiang is especially interested in language. He has two story collections, both of which are essential reading. In Stories of Your Life (2002), the titular story was made into the superb movie, Arrival. His second collection, Exhalation (2019), contains “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling,” which explores issues of digital memory and the way our memories are often not accurate depictions of what actually happened. The titular story is also superb, but all stories are good. His story notes about each story at the end are also insightful. Chiang is magnificent!
Ken Liu
Ken Liu’s stories are wonderful and thought-provoking, and many deal with privacy and AI issues. In his collection, The Hidden Girl (2020), “Thoughts and Prayers” chronicles how the digital memory of a loved one is marred by online trolling. In The Paper Menagerie (2016), I recommend “The Perfect Match” and the wonderful titular story, “The Paper Menagerie,” which is magical and richly dense; it packs a devastating emotional punch. I also enjoyed his story “The Caretaker,” an interesting twist on the Mechanical Turk. I read it in Simon Ings’ superb anthology, We, Robots: Artificial Intelligence in 100 Stories (2020).
N.K. Jemisin
N.K. Jemisin’s writing is brilliant, powerful, and lyrical. Her stories are imaginative and thought-provoking. Her collection, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? (2018) has some great ones. “The Ones Who Stay and Fight” is inspired by Ursula LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and is a terrific companion piece, raising challenging and stimulating issues about equality. “The Elevator Dancer” is a very short tale involving a surveillance camera watcher in an oppressive authoritarian society who becomes mesmerized by a woman who dances in an elevator. It reminds me of the movie, The Lives of Others. Another interesting tale is “Cuisine des Mémoires,” which involves a restaurant that can prepare any meal from the past.
Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich’s stories are wide-ranging, beautifully written, and intense. I particularly enjoyed “Domain,” a story in her collection, Python’s Kiss (2026). It’s about a woman who seeks revenge in a digital afterlife. The story is searing and vivid.
Julia Elliot
Carmen Maria Machado described Julia Elliott’s stories as “lush” and “feral” and this is the most fitting description for them. Her story “All the Other Demons” from her collection, Hellions (2025) crackles, drips, and oozes with sensory details, and it’s wickedly funny. It’s about a group of children watching the Exorcist, but also a bizarre slice of life that is truly unforgettable. The writing is amazingly immersive. She also has an earlier story collection, The Wilds (2014).
Kate Folk
Kate Folk’s story collection Out There (2022) has whimsical tales, including ones about robots and dating that are hilarious and poignant. These stories, “Out There” and “Big Sur,” bookend the collection. Folk writes with a fresh honest voice, a young person in a cynical world overrun with tech and AI. I especially loved “Big Sur,” which involves a woman who falls in love with a robot programmed to defraud her.
Isabelle Kim
Isabelle Kim often explores issues of identity and immigration but from a sci-fi angle and her stories have an edgy satirical style. She hasn’t published a collection of stories yet, but she has written many stories, which you can find here on her site. She recently published a novel called Sublimation (2026), which is getting great reviews. Particularly notable is her story, “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole,” a take on LeGuin’s famous story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”—one of my favorite stories and one I teach in my Law & Literature class. As I mentioned earlier, N.K. Jemison also has a twist on this tale.
* * * *
Daniel J. Solove is the Bernard Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the George Washington University Law School. He is the founder of TeachPrivacy, a company that provides workforce privacy, cybersecurity security, and AI training to companies and organizations around the world. He is the author of 10+ books and 100+ articles.
You can follow his events, writings, training, cartoons, and resources by subscribing to his free weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to Solove’s Free Substack
A supplement to Solove’s regular newsletter with more in-depth discussions
