The Fantasy Issue

Godmothers of Invention: The Enduring Power of the Cinderella Story

Illustration of Billy Porter, a thin, Black man, against a marble swirled background wearing a tiara with jewels around his eyes
by Noa Azulai
July 16, 2021 at 9:00am
There is no tale of Cinderella without her Fairy Godmother.
screenshot of a video game where two female anime characters are embracing each other about to kiss

In It Not to Win It: Indie Game Designers Queer Time, Space, and Play

by Nina St. Pierre
February 2, 2021 at 10:01am
Queering virtual worlds goes beyond including LGBTQ characters or storylines. Read more »
illustration of a nude, curvy, purple female figure wrapped in pink and green tentacles

Open Arms: The Fantastical Pull of Tentacle Porn

by Cameron Glover
November 18, 2020 at 9:00am
The experiences of those who embrace tentacle porn offer a larger lesson about how we come to understand our own sexual nuances. Read more »
Yola, a dark-skinned Black woman with a short, curly afro, poses against a pale purple and blue background, playing her guitar

Yola Is the Unconventional Queen of Country Soul

by Evette Dionne
October 13, 2020 at 10:30am
Black artists from all around the world are continuing the tradition of upending the expectation that country music is a genre reserved for white artists. Read more »
photo of a slender Black woman with long pink braids and a short-haired curvy Black woman sitting back-to-back in front of a waterfall in a lush, tropical setting wearing garments from the Chromat Spring 2019 Saturated collection

On the Mend: The Future of Fashion Is Sustainable

by Adwoa Afful
September 17, 2020 at 9:34am
While “sustainability” might sound like a trendy buzzword, it is actually a movement that brings together people committed to honoring what we love about clothes. Read more »
collage of a black woman in a wedding dress constructed in cotton, fashion magazines, slave notices and vintage slave photography

Begone with the Wind: How Hollywood Rewrites Slavery

by Ayanna Dozier
September 9, 2020 at 8:55am
If these cinematic perceptions of slavery are committed to memory, then we might accept the plantation as a mere backdrop to terror rather than the very site of it. Read more »
Black woman with white eyes wearing an African headdress in a pink futuristic collaged world

Smoke Signal: Building the Past, the Present, and the Afrofuture

by Mary Retta
July 13, 2020 at 9:38am
Today’s Afrofuturist art blurs the lines between present and future, fact and fiction, and fantasy and reality. Read more »
illustration of queer country artists (from left to right) Orville Peck, Patrick Haggerty, Amythyst Kiah, Karen Pittelman, and Lil Nas X along a fence in front of a rural scene with lavender stalks lining the ground

Sound Out: Coming Home to Lavender Country

by Kim Kelly
June 18, 2020 at 9:51am
Queer country artists have been making their voices known for decades. Read more »
painting of a warrior woman riding a lion about to shoot an arrow into a distant floating eye surrounded by a ring of fire

Gilead Is Now: For Feminist Authors, Dystopia Is Already Here

by Abby Neufeld
June 11, 2020 at 10:00am
In modern times, dystopian fiction is an outlet for authors to imagine the world as it already is. Read more »
mixed-media linocut on wood of Dawud Lee, a Philadelphia-based Black writer and mentor currently incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, standing with his hands clasped in front of him wearing a white t-shirt with a drawing of a Black child posing in

Beyond Bars: Prison Abolition Should Be the American Dream

by Reina Sultan
June 4, 2020 at 3:16pm
The possibilities are endless, if we allow ourselves to dream bigger than criminalization and bondage. Read more »
Photo of author Bethany C. Morrow wearing glasses and patterned headband sitting in a bookstore

Bethany C. Morrow Rewrites the Siren Song

by Evette Dionne
June 2, 2020 at 9:00am
There’s no way to opt out of oppression and dehumanization, and no way to opt in to the power majority. Read more »

Pages