The June 2025 issue of Orion's Belt is now available for everyone! First we have our cover, which I have called "Dreamer," providing the gateway to the enticing issue of cosmic scopes and personal stakes. orions-belt.net/issues

For our story, we have "The Wind is Waiting" by Stefan A. Slater, an exhilarating urban story of ecstasy and destruction and the overlap between the two. orions-belt.net/archives/the-w…

And this month's essay is "Star Trek Utopianism" by me (Joshua Fagan), regarding the importance of Star Trek not just as a media franchise but as emblematic of a particular spec-fic ideal worthy of being reclaimed. orions-belt.net/archives/star-…

Every time you write, you are creating something new. It doesn't mean if the idea is original or not, really--what you do with it is. You always bring your own ideals and preferences to your writing, and that makes all the difference.

Storytelling is a way of getting to truth--the kind of truth that can't be said any other way. We write because we want to get to that truth: hold it in our hands before it slips away, and hopefully show it to others as well.

Writing is always about conducting and experiment. The truth is never just going to appear to you. Rather, you have to figure it out for yourself: what is right for this story and why.

Note that Orion's Belt is only open for submissions until August 31st! Please submit your poignant and mysteriously lyrical poems and stories to our publication before that point. We can't wait to receive them!

Starting in 2026, Orion's Belt will have a new Editor in Chief. Our fantastically talented and committed Fiction Editor, Gessica S. Martini (Gessica Sakamoto M.) will become Editor in Chief, and I am incredibly proud of her. There is no one I trust more to lead our starship.

Just to be clear after the last announcement, I (Joshua Fagan) am going to be stepping away from Orion's Belt after the end of this year. Gessica will take over for me in all respects. Leaving the publication I created is very bittersweet, but it was my choice. Take care.

All of you who have reached out to me are very sweet. Your words are touching. I will forever treasure these last five years I have spent building Orion's Belt into the kind of literary-speculative fiction publication I always wanted to see. I must move on, but I have no regrets.