Histories Within Us

2025 Locus Recommended Reading List

An old man is forced to leave his ancestral home and migrate to a new Earth. A long-dead woman is recreated by an all-consuming evil menace in the distant future. The last surviving humans hope to escape a decimated galaxy through a collapsing black hole. Two orphans must play a game against monsters to save the world.

In these mind-blowing, tragic, and often touching stories, multiple Nebula, World Fantasy, and Eugie Award-nominated author Matthew Kressel takes the reader on adventures through time and space, love and loss, and what it means to be human.

Praise for Histories Within Us

"A dazzling collection that explores distant worlds and hits close to home. Kressel's stories will open your mind, occasionally break your heart, and offer you hope in the end." – A.C. Wise, Sunburst Award-winning author of Wendy, Darling and The Ghost Sequences

"Kressel weaves together beautifully imaginative tales that span time and galaxies, that are full of love, betrayal, heartbreak, and triumph. This is a collection about what it's like to be human in the face of despair and they are stories we all need right now." – A. T. Greenblatt, Nebula-Award Winning Author of "Give the Family My Love"

"Explores the essence of memory, identity, and the intertwining threads of humanity's past with the vastness of the cosmos. Each story is an intense and soulful journey into the heart of the still undiscovered territories of what it means to be human." –Christopher Barzak, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of Before and Afterlives

"The stories in this collection are breathtaking, and after a few of them you feel the universe pressing in on you or—and this is worse—observing you. [A] great collection... Highly recommended." –Karen Heuler, O. Henry Award-winning author of A Slice of the Dark and Other Stories

Praise for Matthew Kressel's Short Fiction

"Excellent...definitely worth reading." -Tangent Online

"[His story] blew me away. As soon as I read it, I knew I had something." -Ellen Datlow

"['The Sounds of Old Earth'] is a powerful story that is both tragic & hopeful - unexpectedly. And beautifully written. Thank you for sharing it." -Joyce Carol Oates

"One of my very favorite stories out this year...this story had me in tears reading it." - SFSignal

"A powerful story that deals with technology's deeper value and our rush to have it." -Edge of Infinity