Science fiction and fantasy have long offered young writers a space to dream beyond boundaries. To ask: What if the world were different? What if we were different? Whether you're drawn to the stars or enchanted by ancient spells, these genres invite us to imagine bold futures and magical pasts. And they ask big questions: about power and progress, love and justice, memory and time. Above all, they remain grounded in what makes us human.
Some of these stories are quiet. Others pulse with adventure. The questions posed by the best sci-fi and fantasy stories are not so easily answered by our own reality, and the answers given shed new light on what we owe each other, what we choose to remember, and how we survive in the face of the unknown.
Here are some of our favorite reads, chosen for the way they ignite our imagination and challenge us to see our own reality with fresh eyes. After you peruse them, write your own story for this month’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Competition, judged by Ryan La Sala!
“There Will Come Soft Rains,” by Ray Bradbury
“The Last Question,” by Isaac Asimov
“The Paper Menagerie,” by Ken Liu
“Exhalation,” by Ted Chiang
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” by Ursula K. Le Guin
“The Nine Billion Names of God,” by Arthur C. Clarke
“Selkie Stories Are for Losers,” by Sofia Samatar
“EPICAC,” by Kurt Vonnegut
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Dune by Frank Herbert
Reverie by Ryan La Sala