What’s in the Hole?

Hello everyone and a Happy New Year!

We have so much to celebrate- New Year, New Me, and so on- but before we launch into 2026 (I know we’re already there, but I am very predictably writing this on the last day before it is due,) I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you.

(serious voice) I often get reflective at the start of the year, both because of endings past and new beginnings to come. As writers, we the board are so privileged and thrilled to have an audience to read our (sometimes very bad, always very sincere) words. This December marks a year and a half of WYRMHOLE, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

As we move on to yet another year of editorials, recs, covers, and questionable WILDCARDS, I also wanted to take a moment to celebrate everyone’s work and accomplishments. And this means you as well, reader! My life this year has had plenty unexpected moments, for better or for worse, and as you read this editorial, I hope you’re able to step back and look at the year in full and acknowledge the challenges you’ve faced and overcome, the unexpected delights you’ve enjoyed, and of course, the many gifts in our lives that we can be grateful for. And if you’ve had a hard year, there’s no shame in that either. I hope that you’re able to rest and recover as best you can, and to take care of yourself and loved ones as you need.

Further, while I’m grateful to count plenty of friends and mentors in our readership (Hi! You know who you are,) I also wanted to extend that goodwill to all our readers and supporters in WYRMHOLE. If you are ever in NYC, feel free to reach out with an email or DM me for a chat! I’ve met so many friends by simply asking to meet up, and if you reach out to me first (and the other Editors, I’m sure,) we’ll always be thrilled to meet you.

My email: [email protected] 

My Discord: cwz326

Simply try me :)

And finally— we have some major events for the Editors coming up this year! Please keep reading for big announcements in our professional lives! As with last year, we’re doing a roundup of our publications and resolutions, so we hope you’ll take a look.

Here’s to 2026, WYRMS! And it’s going to be a good one. 

Carolyn Zhao / January 2026 Editor in Chief / New York, NY

Resolutions and Publications

Carolyn

Grateful bits:

Hello!! Welcome! Instead of individual NY Resolutions this year, I’ve decided to share some cool facts and celebrations for our Editors, all of whom have become my very good friends over the last 18 months or so. Who would’ve thought? Strange to kick it off with me (this is just how our sequence shook out,) but I guess you can have a friendship with yourself too? I’m not going to think too hard about it. Let’s begin!

I, Carolyn, am happy that I wrote two of my dream stories that have been percolating through my head for 6 mos or so, resulting in an ambiguously gay squid attack neuralink story (the guys are gay, not the squid,) and a story where if you break your heart you go to Pluto (there is no explanation for this one just accept it.) Stay tuned for more next year: a plot twist story I can’t talk more about because, well. The plot twist.

Publications:

• SYMBIOTIC

  Carolyn Zhao, Clarkesworld. 2025. 10k words.

• The Heartbreak Hotel on Plutonic Planet

  Carolyn Zhao, Strange Horizons. 2025. 4.1k words.

• Polyrhythms (pay to read but lmk if you want a link!)

  Carolyn Zhao, Roxane Gay’s the Audacity. 2025. 2k words.

H.H.

Grateful bits:

Have I mentioned that HH got into MED SCHOOL this year? Have I mentioned that they’re a talented artist too and drew everything that WYRMHOLE is, has, will be, and- in the span of two short years- have published incredible works ranging from the heartbreaking Never Eaten Vegetables and the very funny and surreal interspace crab rave story, Crabs Don’t Scream? Well. Let me tell you. I love our artist-writer guy.

Publications:

• Never Eaten Vegetables

  H.H. Pak, Clarkesworld. 2025 15.2k words.

• The Significance Cofactor

  H.H. Pak, khoreo. 2025. 5k words.

• Crabs Don’t Scream

  H.H. Pak, Clarkesworld. 2025. 7.8k words.

Tia

Grateful bits:

Tia is such a gem. There is no better person to DM at 3 am at night and say, “hey i need feedback on this really bad idea and can I get edits (pretty please) by like. a week later.” and Tia will say, “Absolutely! No problem! I hope you’re doing well, btw :)” and then in a critique swap she’ll send you the most intricately plotted mosaic of a story ever. It’s humbling! Inspiring! A little scary since she’s in a neuroscience graduate program in France at the same time! Wow!!!

Publications:

• The Temporary Murder of Thomas Munroe

  Tia Tashiro, Clarkesworld. 2025. 11.9k words.

• Missing Helen

  Tia Tashiro, Clarkesworld. 2025. 5.8k words.

• For Whom the Hair Grows

  Tia Tashiro, Uncanny. 2025. 5.4k words.

• When Eve Chose Us

  Tia Tashiro, Diabolical Plots. 2025. 2.4k words.

Tina

Grateful bits:

Tina, our tech whiz, has been hard at work doing things that keep the newsletter running!! What precisely are those things? I’m going to be so real, I do not have the technological expertise to understand them. Tina, Iz, and I actually frequently got together for co-working sessions in NYC earlier on this year! We have been driven apart by the Snowstorms and the Cold, but soon… we shall resume our meetings…

Publications:

• How to Build a Homecoming Queen: A Guide by a Bad Asian Girl

  Tina S. Zhu, Lightspeed. 2025. 5.7k words.

• At the Dentist’s in Arlington Heights

  Tina S. Zhu, Centaur. 2025. 500 words.

• The Old Crooner Makes the Pop Star an Offer

  Tina S. Zhu Hex Literary. 2025. 500 words.

• In a Meadow of Pop Stars

  Tina S. Zhu, Hex Literary. 2025. 900 words.

Iz

Grateful bits:

And finally, Isabel J. Kim, who has become one of my closest friends over the last 2-3 years ever since we met on [REDACTED!] What is [REDACTED?] Well. In the words of IJK, “simply don’t worry about it.” Anyways, this is a BIG YEAR for Iz with SUBLIMATION coming out in June, so make sure!!! To pre-order that Book!!! RIGHT HERE!!! If you click on any link in this newsletter make it this one!

Publications:

• Human Voices

  Isabel J. Kim, Lightspeed. 2025. 8.4k words.

• Wire Mother

  Isabel J. Kim, Clarkesworld. 2025. 3.1k words.

• Freediver

  Isabel J. Kim, Reactor. 2025. 6.9k words.

Thank You to Our Patrons:

Thank You to Our Amazing Readers! Without You, the HOLE would just be a HOLE and not a WYRMHOLE. Have we kept this joke up for 18 month straight? You bet we have. Are we going to keep on talking about HOLES. You bet we are.

(sometimes i think about internet footprints and shudder)

A parting song from the Editors…

La Wally: Ebben? N’andro lontana: Maria Callas

That’s it! That’s all we got! If you liked our stuff a HOLE lot, share us with a friend! 

All the warm wishes, wyrms. We’ll see you in the coming year :)