Merganser Magazine

08/10/2026

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07/21/2026

MERGANSER 1 RELEASES JULY 24. ☄️👾🐦

PRE-ORDER NOW AT: mergansermagazine.com/store/

07/20/2026

"This Is How You Breathe Fire" by Larina Warnock, (excerpt):

Hold your tongue between your teeth
every time you hear the slightest
slight, each night you feel unwanted
touches from unhaunted spaces, each
apology ringing more hollow than bone
burning like shame smeared across
your face, a handprint made by hands
that should know how to love
but don’t...

Read the full poem at the link below!

mergansermagazine.com/story/this-is-how-you-breathe-fire/

07/15/2026

INTRODUCING... MERGANSER 1 🚀🦆🔥

MERGANSER 1 is Merganser Magazine’s first paperback anthology! It includes ALL short stories and poems from the first year of Merganser Magazine (2025).

Available for pre-order now at mergansermagazine.com/store !!

(Official release date: July 24, 2026 ⏳)

07/02/2026

"To The Falls" by Jon Raimon (excerpt)

***

we’re all water in the end
sinking and staying
my first dog’s brindled bark
absorbed below the

falls. my old sweetheart’s awful
perfect bowl cut, locks eddying down

stream. the poem I wrote for my
lost son, all ink splotches

now. my country awash in ugly
back currents of

bile and want. today i grieve, Ophelia-like:
pockets of despair, dead

weight.

***

Read the full poem at mergansermagazine.com.

07/01/2026

"Babel Apartments Incorporated" by Alistair Robinson 📞🏢 (excerpt)

***

“I just wanted to say welcome, on behalf of Babel Apartments Incorporated, to your new life in the Tower.”

William paused again, unsure how to respond.

“Thanks.”

He hung up. The dead silence from the speaker remained in the air.

“It’s only a machine,” a woman’s voice muttered. William turned and saw her, leaning against the door frame of his apartment. He casually straightened his polo shirt, brushing away its subtle creases.

“A machine?”

“Nimrod,” she sighed. Her eyes remained on his brand-new carpet. “He’s not real. You can hang up on him mid-sentence, he doesn’t care. I do it all the time.”

***

Read the full story at mergansermagazine.com!

mergansermagazine.com/story/babel-apartments-incorporated/

06/25/2026

"The Sea Hears, Rán Takes" by Dakria (excerpt)

The storm had already torn the night apart. The deck shook beneath me, ropes screamed, water struck hard against the hull. I stood there, soaked through, staring into the waves.

One of the men shouted from across the deck, his voice cracking through the wind.

“Go back to your cabin, Miss!”

***

read the full story at mergansermagazine.com!

mergansermagazine.com/story/the-sea-hears-ran-takes/

06/24/2026

"Regrets of an Immortal" by Steve Rasnic Tem (excerpt)

You have lived past your Sell Buy Date. There are consequences. You cannot remember everywhere you have been, or everyone. And you still haven’t decided whether you want to go or stay...

read the full story at mergansermagazine.com!

https://mergansermagazine.com/story/regrets-of-an-immortal/

06/18/2026

🌞 "Dream Log" by Shannon Guglielmo 🌑

----- (excerpt) -----

The sun is jelly-red & my body alights with the heat. I scoop out what I trust is sunscreen with cupped hands, trying to rub it into my arm-skin. I turn around into a room with two large windows. I can see stacks of furniture outside – from my childhood bedroom & my college dorm & my current apartment – swaying in the plangent wind. I try to lower the blinds but they snag, then get twisted & caught in a heap of lopsided mess. I continue lining my skin & wrapping myself with anything I can grab: blankets, towels, cake frosting, cling film. I build this cocoon, my temporary sepulchre, until I cannot see the windows & my mind fades like when the surgeon says to count backwards from 100. Soon it’s purple-black & I know that when I wake from my metamorphosis, the windows will be clear & the furniture will be gone & my consecrated undoing will be over....

Read the full poem at mergansermagazine.com!

https://mergansermagazine.com/story/dream-log/

04/14/2026

A KISS AND A KEY by Justin Ocelot 🗝️😶‍🌫️

"King Peridor stepped out of the dream and closed the door behind him.

A thief he was, stealing from his own daughter’s mind. He ought to feel ashamed, but he didn’t. His parents, after all, had done the same to him..."

Read the full story at the link below!

mergansermagazine.com/story/a-kiss-and-a-key/

And find more of Justin's work at justinocelot.com!