by Bogi Takács
TOBY MACNUTT is a multidisciplinary artist and educator, with a passion for social justice and community work. MacNutt is based in Burlington, VT. Their poetry has recently appeared in places like Through the Gate, Goblin Fruit, inkscrawl, and The Future Fire. They are working on being the best, sparkliest mutant they can be. You can find them online at tobymacnutt.com.
AN OWOMOYELA is a web application developer by profession and a writer by vocation, lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, weaves chain maille, and laughs often at XKCD. Se’s fiction has been published in Clarkesworld, Fantasy, and Lightspeed, among many print and online magazines, Se’s website, an.owomoyela.net, offers more details.
A. MERC RUSTAD is a queer transmasculine non-binary writer and filmmaker who likes dinosaurs, robots, monsters, and cookies. Their fiction has appeared in nifty places like Lightspeed, Cicada, Uncanny, Fireside, Apex, and many others. Rustad’s work has been featured in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy several times. Rustad’s first collection, So You Want to be a Robot, released from Lethe Press.
ROANNA SYLVER writes unusually hopeful dystopian stories about marginalized heroes actually surviving, triumphing, and rocking really hard. RoAnna is also a singer, blogger, voice actor and artist who lives with family and a small snorking dog, and probably spends too much time playing videogames. The next amazing adventure RoAnna would like is a nap in a pile of bunnies.
SONYA TAAFFE is a Massachusetts-based author of short fiction and poetry. She grew up in Arlington and Lexington, MA, and graduated from Brandeis University, where she received a BA and MA in Classical Studies. She also received an MA in Classical Studies from Yale University. Taaffe’s poem “Matlacihuatl’s Gift” won the Rhysling Award.
A hybrid cyborg and Philadelphia native, M EIGHTEEN TÉLLEZ writes and performs speculative fiction about bodies/objectification, intimacy/class, neighborhood/land/community, and the violence in relying on binaries to order the world. A founding member of METROPOLARITY sci-fi collective, M is frustrated/pissed with institutional distinction, empire and white supremacy, and fixed rather than fluid treatment of language and identity. They consider the spoken and written word handy and inexpensive tools for deconstructing oppressive world-ordering narratives.
JEANNE THORNTON is the author of The Dream of Doctor Bantam (a Lambda Literary Award finalist) and The Black Emerald, as well as the co-publisher of Instar Books and a sometimes cartoonist. She lives in Brooklyn. More information is available at http://fictioncircus.com/Jeanne.
GILLIAN YBABEZ was born and lives in South Texas. She writes sci-fi and fantasy stories with women and LGBT characters. She has previously been published in An Anthology of Fiction by Trans Women of Color. Her first ebook, Love and Comets and Other Stories, collects short stories from her website and is available on Gumroad and Amazon. All of her fiction can be found on her website Gillian-Ybabez.com.
About the Editor
BOGI TAKÁCS (e/em/eir/emself or they pronouns) is a Hungarian Jewish agender trans person and a resident alien in the United States. E writes, edits and reviews speculative fiction, nonfiction and poetry. You can find eir work in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons and Uncanny, among other places; e also had a story reprinted in the previous Transcendent anthology, edited by K.M. Szpara. Bogi lives in Kansas with eir cheerful neuroatypical family. You can find Bogi online at prezzey.net or read eir book reviews at bogireadstheworld.com, or eir QUILTBAG space opera webserial at iwunen.net. Bogi is @bogiperson on Twitter, Instagram and Patreon.
Publication Credits
“Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy” copyright © 2016 by Charlie Jane Anders, first appeared in Drowned Worlds: Tales From the Anthropocene and Beyond (ed. by Jonathan Strahan, Solaris) / “Transitions” copyright © 2016 Gwen Benaway, first appeared in Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time: An LGBT and Two-Spirit Sci-fi Anthology (ed. by Hope Nicholson, Bedside Press) / “Rhizomatic Diplomacy” copyright © 2016 Vajra Chandrasekera, first appeared in An Alphabet of Embers: An Anthology of Unclassifiables (ed. by Rose Lemberg, Stone Bird Press) / “Sky and Dew” copyright © 2016 Holly Heisey, first appeared as self-published work on Amazon Kindle / “The Nothing Spots Where Nobody Wants to Stay” copyright © 2016 Julian K. Jarboe, first appeared in Procyon Science Fiction Anthology 2016 (ed. by Jeanne Thornton, Taylen Lane Publishing) / “The Road, and the Valley, and the Beasts” copyright © 2016 Keffy R. M. Kehrli, first appeared in Clockwork Phoenix 5 (ed. by Mike Allen, Mythic Delirium Books) / “Her Sacred Spirit Soars” copyright © 2016 S. Qiouyi Lu, first appeared in Strange Horizons, July 18, 2016 / “The Way You Say Good-Night” copyright © 2016 Toby MacNutt, first appeared in Ligature Works, Issue One, September 2016 / “The Pigeon Summer” copyright © 2016 Brit Mandelo, first appeared in Tor.com, May 11, 2016 / “Three Points Masculine” copyright © 2016 An Owomoyela, first appeared in Lightspeed, Issue 72 / “This is Not a Wardrobe Door” copyright © A. Merc Rustad, first appeared in Fireside Fiction, Issue 29 / “Happy REGARDS” copyright © 2016 RoAnna Sylver, first appeared in the Chameleon Moon short story collection Life Within Parole / “Skerry-Bride” copyright © 2016 Sonya Taaffe, first appeared in Devilfish Review, #16 / “About a Woman and a Kid” copyright © 2016 M Eighteen Téllez, first appeared in Procyon Science Fiction Anthology 2016 (ed. by Jeanne Thornton, Taylen Lane Publishing) / “The L7 Gene” copyright © 2016 Jeanne Thornton, first appeared in Wired, 12.13.16 / “Lisa’s Story: Zombie Apocalypse” copyright © 2016 Gillian Ybabez, first appeared in An Anthology of Fiction by Trans Women of Color (ed. by Ellyn Peña and Jamie Berrout)
Transcendent 2
Compilation copyright © 2017 Lethe Press, Inc. Introduction copyright © 2017 Bogi Takács. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm, and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in 2017 by Lethe Press, Inc. at Smashwords.com
www.lethepressbooks.com • [email protected]
ISBN: 978-1-59021-662-0 / 1-59021-662-8
Credits for previous publication appear here which constitutes an extension of this copyright page.
These stories are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover art: Ari Utria.
Cover design: Inkspiral Design.