Jennifer Marie Brissett » Short Stories
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Apex Magazine
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The Healer
Apex Magazine, Issue 134 (2022)
How do you heal from an intolerable crime? A brother tries to figure that out for his sister, and for himself.

This story was published due the successful funding of Apex Magazine's 2022 Kickstarter

"Oh my goodness. This story winds and loops and did an absolute number on my brain, and my heart, as I read it." — Maria Haskins, Short Fiction Roundup
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A Song for You (reprint)
Terraform: Watch/Worlds/Burn (MCD x FSG Originals, 2022)
The idea for this story came to me after I read a news article about the giant Styrofoam head caught floating down the Hudson River that looked forever like it came from a Greek or Roman statue. For some reason that image made me think: What if Orpheus was an android? I have no idea why I thought that, but I did. Anyway, I think it made a pretty good story. Edited by Claire L. Evans and Brian Merchant. Published by MCD x FSG Originals.
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NewCon Press
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Secrets of the Sea (reprint)
Vital Signals: Virtual Fictions, Near-Future Fictions (Newcon Press, 2022)
I read this story at a Virtual Futures event at the New School in NYC in 2018. I am very pleased that they have also chosen to reprint it in their second anthology.
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Lightspeed
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The Executioner (reprint)
Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 127 (2020)
This is the fourth reprinting of this story. It still amazes me that this was the very first story that I ever published! I'm pretty proud of it, and hopefully with this republishing it will reach an even wider audience.
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Uncanny
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Through the Veil
Uncanny Magazine, Issue 34 (2020)
An inventor makes an important discovery that opens her mind to another world and changes her life forever. A story inspired by the feeling of being dismissed at work, self-isolation, stress and/or work related hair loss, and that endless search for redemption, joy, and peace. This piece was solicited by Uncanny Magazine for their Year Six Kickstarter fundraiser.
"...it’s a beautiful piece that’s definitely worth spending some time with!"
Quick Sip Reviews
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Rosarium Publ.
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The Executioner (reprint)
Sunspot Jungle: The Ever-Expanding Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy (Rosarium Publishing, 2019)
Inspired by the documentary At the Death House Door, this may be the most important story that I've written thus far. I am extremely pleased to have it selected to be in this anthology in celebration of Rosarium's 5th Anniversary which was fully funded by a Kickstarter campaign. Here is a video of the Launch Party for the anthology at NYRSF Reading Series where I read my story.
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OR Books
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Audible (Audio)
Newsletter
Welcome to Dystopia: 45 Visions Of What Lies Ahead (OR Books, 2017)
I put my memories of being a bookseller to use in this flash fiction story for this anthology of visions of a dystopic future. Edited by Gordon Van Gelder.
"Fahrenheit 451 in flash format." — Strange Horizons
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FIYAH Magazine
The Breeze in the Boughs
FIYAH Magazine, Issue 3 (2017)
A fabulist short story about life in gentrifying Brooklyn as well as a bit of a parody of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. The three songs I chose for the issue's playlist were "Brooklyn Soul" by The Mango Room, "Freddie Freeloader" by Miles Davis, and "Rats" by Pearl Jam.
"For a story about talking animals living in a sleepy little residential area, the parody and satire of this piece is fucking sharp." — Quick Sip Reviews
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The Executioner (reprint)
Fantastic Stories of the Imagination (2017)
Nisi Shawl edited this special issue called People of Color Take Over Fantastic Stories of the Imagination Magazine
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Uncanny
Weightless Books
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Kamanti's Child
Uncanny Magazine, Issue 13 (2016)
A science fiction short story inspired by Toni Morrison's Beloved. This issue also includes an interview with me about the story.
"It's a story about overcoming prejudice and violence and reaching for understanding, and it's a fun and fascinating read." — Quick Sip Reviews
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Lightspeed
Weightless Books
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Breathe Deep, Breathe Free
Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 73 (2016)
Two young people keep each company by texting during an environmental disaster. A flash fiction story for Lightspeed's special issue People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction.

This issue is the Winner of the 2017 British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology
"The conversation in the story is natural but also a sort of poetry, broken by prose sections that reveal the landscape and the situation...An amazing story!" — Quick Sip Reviews

"... both hopeful and so very disappointingly true to life, and that’s a fantastic balance to strike." — Sunday Shorts

"brilliant and scarily prescient" — Elizabeth Hand

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The Future Fire
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Nasmina's Black Box (reprint)
TFF-X: Ten Years of The Future Fire (2015)
The Future Fire has been publishing for 10 years and to celebrate they've created an anthology of stories that they've published and have chosen to include one of mine.
"The story combines a vivid setting and cast of characters with a brutality only a child can present, a world of monsters and wonders, death and life and everything in between."
Nerds of a Feather
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Rosarium Publ.
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Innocent Bystanders
APB: Artists Against Police Brutality (Rosarium Publishing, 2015)
I wrote a very personal flash fiction story for this anthology that confronts the many persistent problems plaguing the American criminal justice system. All of the proceeds generated from this project are donated to The Innocence Project.
A Song for You
Terraform - VICE Magazine (2015)
A story about an android, a little girl, loneliness, longing, forgiveness, and the power of music. It was inspired by the Donny Hathaway song of the same name, and the myth of Orpheus. Gustavo Torres made this amazing animated illustration for it. Vice Magazine considers this one of the best stories they published in 2015!
"... a phenomenal story." — Fred Coppersmith, Kaleidotrope

"...taught me something invaluable, which is that colonialist science fiction and apocalyptic science fiction are two perspectives of the same story."
Manic Pixie Dream Worlds

"We are just astonishingly lucky to exist in a world that has Brissett's writing in it."
Marooned Off Vesta

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N/A
The Executioner (reprint)
Unconventional Fantasy, Vol. 1 (2014)
My story was selected to be a part of this six volume collection of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art and photographs celebrating forty years of World Fantasy Conventions distributed only to members of the 2014 WFC via a flash drive. Published by the Baltimore Washington Area Worldcon Association, Inc..
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FREE (ebook)
Secrets of the Sea
The Future Fire, Issue 24 (2012)
A father teaches his young son about fishing and other important lessons about the world in this eco-science fantasy story for issue 2012.24.

A Finalist for the 2013 storySouth Million Writers Award
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Lulu
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Clone
Morpheus Tales (2012)
A flash fiction story for Ripped Genes: The Biopunk Special issue of Morpheus Tales.
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FREE
Ashes
Halfway Down the Stairs (2010)
A flash fiction story for the Beginnings and Ends issue, and is dedicated to someone who is sorely missed. It was selected to be included in The Best of Halfway Down the Stairs, 2005-2010.

Nominated for the Dzanc Best of the Web Series
"...as fine and restrained a portrait of an ending as I can imagine."
Alison Stedman, editor of HDtS
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Falling into the Sun
Thaumatrope (2009)
A twitter story (a story 140 characters or less)
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FREE (pdf)
Nasmina's Black Box
The Future Fire, Issue 18 (2009)
This is the cover story for Issue 18. On a small Caribbean island, a little girl receives a very special gift that helps her face the harsh realities of life.
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Amazon
Abebooks
Albris
Norilana Books
The Executioner
Warrior Wisewoman 2 (Norilana Books, 2009)
This was my very first published story and I was honored to find that it was also selected to be the opening story of the anthology. Edited by Roby James.
"...pulls at the heartstrings in a way reminiscent of Judith Merril's classic tale 'That Only a Mother.'" — Analog Magazine

"...a powerful way to start off this anthology." — SF Crowsnest

"The power of the piece is in its demonstration that even this soft, sanitized execution is a traumatic experience. By imagining the very best an execution could possibly be, 'The Executioner' makes painfully clear where the more common variety must stand."
— The Fix, August 2009

"...was oddly reminded of Shirley Jackson's famous short story 'The Lottery.'"
The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf

"... an eerie tale ..." — Library Journal

"If there's one story that stood out the most for me, it's The Executioner ... After reading this one, the majority of the stories in this anthology paled in signficance... We see that the death-dealer is very much a woman, a nurturer, who is forced to take a life. A gritty, shocking tale, it caused a pause for thought."
Nerine Dorman