Happy New Year!

Here’s the last issue I edited of Mermaids Monthly. The full issue is available in web, ebook, and PDF format at mermaidsmonthly.com!

In this issue you'll find just over a dozen mermaids made up of gentleness and care; tails swift and sharp on the outside and hearts soft and full of song on the inside. Even those who accompany a sailor to the bottom of the sea do so with care and curiosity. You'll find three original short stories, four new poems, a comic and a quiz in this issue - all searching for something special on the horizon.

• The Rime of the Midwinter Mermaids - a poem by Kelly Jarvis
• What to Do After Receiving a Starlit Pearl -a story by Mari Ness
• Mermaid’s Hook a story by Liz Argall
• Which Inland Waterways Merfolk Are You? - an interactive quiz by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas and S.R. Mandel
• Mermaid Care - a story by Jonathan Crowe
• The Catfish Sisters -an epic story poem by Lisa M. Bradley
• The North American Wombat’s Guide to Random Sea Creatures: The Sea Hare -a comic by Ursula Vernon
• Merbraids - a poem in three voices by Amal El-Mohtar, Caitlyn Paxson and Jessica P. Wick
• Magdalena the Mermaid - a poem by Ana Merino, translation by Toshiya Kamei
• The Space Mermaid’s Garden - a story by Beth Goder
• How to Spot A Mermaid -a poem by Emily Fox

The Space Mermaid’s Garden in particular is a story I knew I needed to go into the last issue I edited. It’s about creating beautiful things, and the inevitable ephemerality of everything. It’s been a delight and an honor to edit Mermaids Monthly this year, and I’m a little sad my time there is at an end, but also happy to take a little break and regroup, and to leave things with such a beautiful end note.

All the best to you for 2022!