khōréō magazine
khōréō is a quarterly magazine of speculative fiction and migration. We publish fiction, non-fiction, and art by immigrant and diaspora authors and artists. Winner of the 2022 Ignyte Award for Best Fiction Podcast.
5.1 Cypress Teeth by Natasha King
An imprisoned god is bound to the trees of an ancient swamp, until one day someone comes looking.
Content warnings: Violence, body horror
Copyright khōréō magazine 2025. Story by Natasha King, edited by Zhui Ning Chang. Audio edition read by Suzie Rai and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
4.4 Kolumbo 1619: Choose Your Own Adventure by KÁNYIN Olorunnisola
In an RPG game, a Black avatar repeatedly attempts to survive an encounter with the police.
Content warnings: Violence, death, racism, hateful language, xenophobia
Copyright khōréō magazine 2025. Story by KÁNYIN Olorunnisola, edited by Isabella Kestermann. Audio edition read by Isabella Tugman and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
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Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
4.4 The Secret by Fumio Takano
In 2102, Michi goes undercover as a maid for a hacking job, while in 2030, Ryo sells his appearance to a tech company. Their lives intersect to expose the dirty laundry of neo-feudal futuristic Japanese elite society.
Content warnings: Classism, injustice
Copyright khōréō magazine 2025. Story by Fumio Takano, translated by Sharni Wilson, edited by Zhui Ning Chang. Audio edition read by Justine Leah Hince and Alex Bankier, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Sco...
4.4 The Tangle by Rae Mariz
A storyteller in the distant future shows the reader different vantage points, in hopes they might "see" the web of connections between past and future, reader and story, responsibility and joy.
Content warnings: Acknowledgement of genocide, animal harm
Copyright khōréō magazine 2025. Story by Rae Mariz, edited by Zhui Ning Chang. Audio edition read by Maria Corcobado and produced by Grayson Norman, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
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Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/sco...
4.4 AITA for telling my genetic double she cant be transgender? by Leon Tomova
In New Hope City, an indentured clone comes out as trans. People have opinions about it.
Content warnings: Transphobia (including misgendering), abuse, implied forced servitude, implied climate disaster
Copyright khōréō magazine 2025. Story by Leon Tomova, edited by Kanika Agrawal. Audio edition read by Swann Grey and produced by Evalyn Broderick, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
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Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
4.4 The Doll's Boy by Kawai Shen
A boy walks into an art exhibit and steals a sex doll on display. It doesn't go anywhere the doll expects.
Content warnings: Body horror described in detail
Copyright khōréō magazine 2025. Story by Kawai Shen, edited by Kanika Agrawal. Audio edition read by Vera Tan, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
4.4 The Trauma Tourist by Christos Callow Jr
Hollywood actor Hendrick lives through a curated trauma experience to become Greek enough for a role. But how much will it cost him?
Content warnings: Suicide, torture simulation, cultural appropriation
Copyright khōréō magazine 2025. Story by Christos Callow Jr, edited by Danai Christopoulou. Audio edition read by Kat Kourbeti and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY...
4.3 Nightskin's Landing by Chris Campbell
Aliens who share distant human ancestors with Earthlings arrive on Earth seeking refuge, and their African lineage run into issues with the US government.
Content warnings: Racism, genocide
Copyright khōréō magazine 2025. Story by Chris Campbell, edited by Isabella Kestermann. Audio edition read by Mike Castoro and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
4.3 The Universe & Miss Debbie by Cindy Phan
Deb is dead set on getting a pedicure, now, damn anyone else's time! But the Universe has its own plans, and she's not the only VIP to walk through the doors of SALON LA BELLE, eager to have her wish granted.
Content warnings: Blood, violence, death, racism
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Cindy Phan, edited by Kanika Agrawal. Audio edition read by Tricia Nguyen and Griffin Puatu, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
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Music: This Too Shall Pas...
4.3 The Last Flesh Figure Skaters by Claire Jia-Wen
Rival figure skaters use dangerous body modification technology to outperform each other in the rink.
Content warnings: Racism
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Claire Jia-Wen, edited by Zhui Ning Chang. Audio edition read by Lauren Choo and produced by Melissa Ren, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
4.3 A Little Like Sap, a Bit Like a Tree by Natalia Theodoridou
“A Little Like Sap, a Bit Like a Tree” by Natalia Theodoridou is a story about a transmasc nursing birds, based on true events.
Content warnings: Blood, breastfeeding, loss of a child (not shown)
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Natalia Theodoridou, edited by Danai Christopoulou. Audio edition read by Rue Dickey, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
4.3 In the Age of Fire by Ana Rüsche
“In the Age of Fire” by Ana Rüsche follows the journey of a boy from Panama to the United States, through the immigration crisis and the climate crisis, to meet creatures from future generations in the caldera of a volcano.
Content warnings: Discrimination and violence against immigrants (including children), mentions of death, climate change and eco-anxiety
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Ana Rüsche, edited by Kanika Agrawal. Audio edition read by Elissa Park and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
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4.3 Cuckoo by Esra Kahya, translated by Aysel K. Basci
Nuran struggles with her mental health and an abusive household. Is escape possible with a voice down the well?
Content warnings: Mental Illness, death
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Esra Kahya, translated from Turkish by Aysel K. Basci, edited by Zhui Ning Chang. Audio edition read by Shakyra Dunn and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
4.2 Mappamundi by Angelisa Fontaine-Wood
A Croat refugee comes to terms with his trauma through studying metaphorical maps to his own lostness.
Content warnings: Graphic wartime violence and implied torture, death of friends and strangers, hateful language directed at ethnic groups, mental illness
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Angelisa Fontaine-Wood, edited by Kanika Agrawal. Audio edition read by Goran Kramarić and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
4.2 Human Trials by Madeleine Vigneron
A young scientist struggles to find purpose in life after being left behind by those fleeing a post-apocalyptic Earth.
Content warnings: Suicide and suicidal ideation, death, and animal death
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Madeleine Vigneron, edited by Sachiko Ragosta. Audio edition read by Loretta Chang and produced by Melissa Ren, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
4.2 Ace of Knives by E. A. Xiong
Someone has to be the best at something, and when a new technology begets a new sport, it may as well be her.
Content warnings: Knife violence, blood, death
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by E. A. Xiong, edited by Isabella Kestermann. Audio edition read by Alexa Aguinaldo, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
4.2 High Performer by Jason Pangilinan
Peace (Filipino, Scorpio, middle child) encounters Leon, a shapeshifter. Leon's inability to commit to one form challenges Peace's concept of identity during a time when her professional reputation and cultural authenticity have come into question.
Content warnings: References to ICE/deportation
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Jason Pangilinan, edited by Zhui Ning Chang. Audio edition read by Angelita Esperanza, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
4.2 Wayback by Leslie What
A family vacation in the mountains takes a weird turn when they are forced to choose what to bring and what to leave behind.
Content warnings: Violence, war, animal cruelty, death, intergenerational trauma
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Leslie What, edited by Sachiko Ragosta. Audio edition read by Rebecca Jensen Uesugi and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Att...
4.1 Take Up Thy Mother's Song by Natasha King
A family living under oppression hides their magic in a song passed down the generations. Take Up Thy Mother's Song is a story about when to choose survival and when to fight back, and when these are one and the same.
Content warnings: Graphic violence, blood, death of a parent
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Natasha King, edited by Isabella Kestermann. Audio edition read by Danielle Baylor and produced by Melissa Ren, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: Thi...
4.1 Piroska and the Wolf by Varju Izzy
4.1 The Goddess of Loneliness and Misfortune by Anna Bendiy
What happens when you come home and home is in pieces, and everyone is gone? Here, unruly spirits and old memories are dredged up in this act of reclaiming and healing.
Content warnings: Depictions of the aftermath of war, indirect mentions of death
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Anna Bendiy, edited by Zhui Ning Chang. Audio edition read by Danielle Bryn, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://sou...
4.1 Child's Tongue by Monique Laban
After learning the true history of her land, a young woman returns to her isolated hometown to dispel the propaganda they were told. "Child's Tongue" interrogates our silences and complicity in colonial narratives.
Content warnings: Sexual harassment, discussion of war crimes, death of a parent, and heavily implied child abuse
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Monique Laban, edited by Zhui Ning Chang. Audio edition read by Roanna Cruz, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Sha...
4.1 Intersected Sky by Andrew Najberg
An endless beam of light arrives and splits the sky. In the turmoil following the resulting global EMP, aging immigrant Demetri's family collapses and he must grapple for a place in a shattered world.
Content warnings: References to the death of a child
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Andrew Najberg, edited by Kanika Agrawal. Audio edition read by Patrick Langner, and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
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Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buc...
3.4 Trees Can Have My Soul; in Return, Let Me Have My Grief by Rukman Ragas
"Trees Can Have My Soul; In Return, Let Me Have My Grief" asks what a mother tongue is when survival requires assimilation.
Content warnings: Mild body horror, grief, death of a parental figure, racism
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Rukman Ragas, edited by Isabella Kestermann. Audio edition read by Ahrreby Anandakumar and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Att...
3.4 The Ancestors Tell You What to Do When Your Teenage Daughter Is Given a Cursed Wolf Skin from God and Becomes a Mardagayl by Jolie Toomajan
In Armenian folklore, all werewolves are women. Cursed, punished, feared, shunned. But that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, does it, dear?
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Jolie Toomajan, edited by Aleksandra Hill. Audio edition read by Eva Roslin and produced by Melissa Ren, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
3.4 The Maiden Voyage of the Piranha Belle by L.M. Guay
A deluxe riverboat welcomes the galaxy's wealthiest tourists to the drought-ridden Amazon — but no one's seen her mysterious captain. "The Maiden Voyage of the Piranha Belle" is a flash exploration of colonization and survival.
Content warnings: Violence/death (offscreen), colonization, implied human trafficking
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by L.M. Guay, edited by Isabella Kestermann. Audio edition read by Aneli Rubio, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundc...
3.4 RAIN FIRE CLOUD by Caroline Hung
Come one, come all! Witness the fall of a despot alongside the glorious rebirth of one heavenly beast in "RAIN FIRE CLOUD" by Caroline Hung.
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Caroline Hung, edited by Zhui Ning Chang. Audio edition read by Sam Yeow, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
3.4 Rhythms of the Resonant Revolution by Rodrigo Culagovski
The defiant notes of a bass guitar ignite a city's fight against tyrants through the raw magic of music.
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Rodrigo Culagovski, edited by Zhui Ning Chang. Audio edition read by Sam Cavalcanti and produced by Lian Xia Rose, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
3.4 Pink Bird, War Sun by Tania Chen
The unsettling arrival of war and how hope in tales pass from generation to generation.
Content warnings: War, orphans, implied trauma due to armed conflict, death
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Tania Chen, edited by Aleksandra Hill. Audio edition read by Michelle Kelly and produced by Melissa Ren, with casting by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
3.4 Blue Cube by Prema Arasu
In the near future, the corpse inside the abandoned deep-sea submersible Blue Cube becomes another landmark of the Challenger Deep.
Content warning: Mentions of death
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Prema Arasu, edited by Kanika Agrawal. Audio edition read by Hira Pendleton, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
3.4 Ghost and the Piano by Sofia Ezdina
A ghost of the dead daughter visits the musician every night. Together, they compose their masterpiece of grief.
Content warning: Death of a child
Copyright khōréō magazine 2024. Story by Sofia Ezdina, edited by Kanika Agrawal. Audio edition read by Olga Tenyakova, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pass by Scott Buckley
https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported CC BY 3.0
3.4 Homeland in Verse by Naomi Day
An unnamed narrator takes an unusual journey home. "Homeland in Verse" by Naomi Day explores loss both, individual and diasporic, and what it means to arrive home when home is a concept you've forgotten.
3.4 Seven Recipes for the Crossing by Diana Dima
A daughter living overseas visits her mother. Their time is counted in recipes, familiar yet growing ever stranger.
3.4 Thank God Things Are Different Now by Desiree Winns
Years after the terrifying dictator of a small island nation has been deposed, a native bartender tells his side of history to an unsuspecting tourist.
3.4 When We Make it to Bet-Zelem by Louis Evans
"When We Make it to Bet-Zelem" is a profound meditation on hope and what it means to seek something that may no longer exist.
3.4 Mad Studies by [sarah] Cavar
Countryboy T loses their home after the deaths of their parents. Luckily, the cats have been in charge all along.
3.3 Dragonsworn (Part 2 of 2) by L. Chan
This is Part 2 of "Dragonsworn" by L. Chan, the first novelette that khōréō has published.
3.3 Dragonsworn (Part 1 of 2) by L. Chan
This is Part 1 of "Dragonsworn" by L. Chan, the first novelette that khōréō has published — stay tuned for Part 2 in two weeks!
3.3 The Cursing of Herman Willem Daendels by A.W. Prihandita
Ni Darti is determined to curse Herman Willem Daendels, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, for the death of her son. But a shaman cannot curse someone he does not know—and so, Ni Darti embarks on a quest to learn what she can of the colonizer.
Content warnings: Death of a son, a mother’s grief, colonization, slavery, violence
Copyright khōréō magazine 2023. Story by A.W. Prihandita, edited by Sachiko Ragosta. Audio edition read by Maya Fatheena, with casting and editing by Jenelle DeCosta and production assistance by Melissa Ren.
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3.3 The Blue Glow by Lisa Hosokawa
A standalone excerpt from a novel-in-progress, "The Blue Glow" is set in Hiroshima in 1945, in the aftermath of the atomic bomb. Sen, a sixteen-year-old suicide pilot who lived, returns to his home city, where gods now crouch disheveled among the survivors.
Content warnings: Descriptions of war, grief, and the dead
Copyright khōréō magazine 2023. Story by Lisa Hosokawa, edited by Kanika Agrawal. Audio edition read by Cary Kawamoto, with casting and production by Jenelle DeCosta.
Visit khoreomag.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @KhoreoMag.
Music: This Too Shall Pas...
