Check the links below for samples from our longer pieces. If you want to dig in now, the full, designed issue is available now for purchase!
Augur Issue 7.3
The Physicality of Change
AUGUR ISSUE 7.3
Sometimes, to get to the futures you need, you have to get real about the past and present. Often, those realities are dark. This issue is about wading through it, standing in it, taking a look at how those truths can transform us bodily, sometimes in ways we desire, and often, against our wishes. Welcome to the dark side of Augur—contemporary Canadian gothic, body-horror, surrealism, sci-fi, and more—brimming with the physicality of transformation, slicing deep into the underbelly of language.
The Physicality of Change by Conyer Clayton
SHOTGUN WEDDING FOR BRAIN CORALS AND PARROT FISH by Cassandra Myers
One Becomes Two by A.D. Sui
Flesh and Blood by D.D. Miller
Seventh Sister by James X. Wang
The Water Doesn’t Want You by Rebecca Bennett
Roots that Abide by Fatima Abdullahi
Goose by David Barrick
Moth Lake by Erin MacNair
Confessions of a Mech Made of Flesh by KJ Sabourin
Mi Niña Hermosa by Yael Tobón
Logoptera by Diana Dima
report by the scientists who discover liquid water on mars by Natasha King
2024 Microfiction Contest Winners
TAKE A PASTWORLD TRIP TO THE LAST POLAR ICE CAP
by Emma Burnett
>>Oh no, you’ve run out of moves. Would you like to watch a video for a booster box?
>>Loading…
Are you longing for a holiday? A break from–
>>Eye contact lost. Please keep your eyes on the screen!
–the mundane everyday? Visit The Last Polar Ice Cap on a PASTWORLD VR holiday! Let our AIs recreate the mostly-frozen wasteland in an experience designed just for you! Ride the waves as chunks of blue ice crash into the waters, almost ‘feel’ the freezing wind on your face, go on a polar bear hunt–
>>Eye contact lost. Please keep your eyes on the screen!
–on its mission to escape extinction! Affordable, all up close and personal, each journey curated just for you. Other PASTWORLD visitors have rated it:
***** Dis cool u shud deffo do dis.
***** 27/5 stars would recommend.
***** Kind of weird to see crying aboriginal people out on the ice but I guess the AI knows what it’s doing?
* Be prepared to have your soul ripped out of your chest at the sight of this place. The AI makes it sound like the ice caps just went and melted by themselves, instead of being hone– [review edited]
***** Whateva yeh.
***** Makes you wonder what real cold actually feels like, yaknow?
***** Düde it’s just 2 get büst
>>You have lost eye contact lost too many times. To get your Booster Box you can
[restart this video] or [write a positive rating for the experience]
OMI O'LOTA
by Abu Ibrahim
Fela said “omi o l’ota.” So we gave the ocean a wide berth. For we know first-hand never to trust
any entity that’s friends with everyone. Nothing ever stays neutral. The sea was the slave traders’
porch, and so was it our backyard. Water was the border between our home and the plantation.
For centuries the ocean waded her waves, strange men trickled in, and being close to the shore
was how one got dissolved into history. How generations got swept away by the tide of human
trade. How black bodies became anchors — thrown into the belly of the sea to steady ships. So
it’s never for surf when my people go close to the water — only for survival. Fishing is how we
try to cleanse our minds of the trauma. Swimming is how we relive the experience.
Translation: “Omi o l’ota” is a Yoruba saying which simply means water has no enemies.
EMMA BURNETT is a researcher and writer. She has had stories in Mythaxis, Northern Gravy, Apex, Radon, Utopia, MetaStellar, Milk Candy Review, Elegant Literature, Roi Fainéant, The Sunlight Press, Rejection Letters, and more. You can find her @slashnburnett, @slashnburnett.bsky.social, or emmaburnett.uk.
ABU IBRAHIM popularly known as IB is a Nigerian poet whose work has caused tremendous influence and change. His debut poetry album “Music Has Failed Us” was considered for a Grammy nomination at the 2022 awards. This body of work is available on all major streaming platforms. Some of his works have also been published in literary outfits in Nigeria, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and more. He has performed at the Pa Gya Literary Festival in Ghana, Lagos International Poetry Festival, Say It Out, Lagos Talks Town Hall Meetings, Nigeria National Chess Championship, Quramo Festival of Words, Global Poetry Meet organized by Poets of Bangalore, India, and more. He is the winner of the 2024 Poetry Journal Prize, recipient of the Lagos State University (LASU) Debate Society Impact Maker Award for Storytelling and Outstanding Impact, and the 2023 winner of the Port Harcourt Poetry Festival Poetry/Spoken Word Poetry Album of the Year.
2023 Microfiction Contest Winners
WE, THE SLOW GODS
by Ai Jiang
We, the slow gods, with gnarl limbs curling in weathers humans made—slow
gods with souls immortal but bodies of dying worlds. We call ourselves
prophets of the next generation, but humans gave us a different name: trees;
and our name for them: closed eyed destroyers.
THE BIRTH OF AN APOCALYPSE
The chrysalis hums. Midwives gather around it, hands clasped together as
they chant their birthing prayers. A crack stretches across the thin, brittle skin.
As its feet break through its encasement, touching the ground, a prophecy
begins its fullfilment. With its wings beating, the destroyer takes to the sky.
AS I DRINK MY MORNING COFFEE
by Kate Ravenna
As I drink my morning coffee, lavender latte sending wisps of steam swirling, a dark shadow dims the teahouse. A dragon gliding interrupts my dreaming, shining scales gleaming golden as the sun cuts through the coastal fog. I smile brightly, quickly boarding the 7:16 commuter dragon towards the town.
PICK-UP-STICKS
by Mae Tang
She showed the God her pick-up-sticks. Its
moon face grinned as she teased the pile
apart. “Father taught me to play,” she
confided. “Before his arthritis.” She didn’t
voice a wish. But later her father flexed his
hands with ease, for one final game together.
ABU IBRAHIM popularly known as IB is a Nigerian poet whose work has caused tremendous influence and change. His debut poetry album “Music Has Failed Us” was considered for a Grammy nomination at the 2022 awards. This body of work is available on all major streaming platforms. Some of his works have also been published in literary outfits in Nigeria, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and more. He has performed at the Pa Gya Literary Festival in Ghana, Lagos International Poetry Festival, Say It Out, Lagos Talks Town Hall Meetings, Nigeria National Chess Championship, Quramo Festival of Words, Global Poetry Meet organized by Poets of Bangalore, India, and more. He is the winner of the 2024 Poetry Journal Prize, recipient of the Lagos State University (LASU) Debate Society Impact Maker Award for Storytelling and Outstanding Impact, and the 2023 winner of the Port Harcourt Poetry Festival Poetry/Spoken Word Poetry Album of the Year.
AI JIANG is a Chinese-Canadian writer and an immigrant from Fujian. She is a member of HWA, SFWA, and Codex. Her work can be found in F&SF, The Dark, Uncanny, The Puritan, Prairie Fire, The Masters Review. Her debut novella Linghun (April 2023) is forthcoming with Dark Matter INK. Find her on Twitter (@AiJiang_) and online (http://aijianAI JIANGg.ca).
MADELINE ROSSELL is an up-and-coming writer from Barrie, Ontario. She’s been published in Press Record: A CW&P Video Anthology, as well as IntroSPECtion, and in a Poetry Institute of Canada’s Young Writers’ anthology. She also helped co-write the song “Water” by Sydney Riley which is available on all streaming platforms. In addition to winning Augur Magazine's 2023 Popular Choice Microfiction Award, she was also shortlisted for the 2023 Robert Beardsley award for young playwrights.
KATE RAVENNA lives in Los Angeles with her husband and contemplates apocalypses. Her two cats, Merry and Pippin, have thoroughly inspected and bitten this story. You can find her at www.StoriesFantastical.com or on Twitter or Bluesky as @FantasticalKate
MAE TANG (She/Her) is a Chinese Singaporean immigrant living in the north of England. After studying literature at the University of York, she undertook psychotherapy training, subsequently working and volunteering with mental health charities in her local area. Mae is currently working on a fantasy novel set in York. When not writing, she enjoys books, films, cooking, video games, nature and animals, and watching baseball with her partner.
