I recently finished reading my contributor’s copy of Aoife’s Kiss, which features my story “The Kiss of the Blood-Red Pomegranate”. My favorite story was Rachel Zakuta’s “Memory of Snow”, an urban fantasy retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. I’ve always found “The Snow Queen” the most compelling of Andersen’s stories, and I thought Zakuta’s version worked both as an homage and as its own story, with Gerda having to rescue her younger brother from under the spell of their magically-gifted mother in Canada.
Aoife’s Kiss also published poetry. I’m not sure I read enough poetry to be a good judge, but I loved V. Shirley Valencia’s poem “The Stray They Brought Inside”, printed on the back cover of the magazine. It’s a beautifully written poem, the speculative element both subtle and integral to the piece.
I also enjoyed  “Wolves”, by Laura DeHaan, a retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood” with a clever twist; and Chris Ward’s “Happy Shopping”, a satirical science fiction piece about the future of consumerism (you can read Chris Ward’s story and V. Shirley Valencia’s poem for free at the Aoife’s Kiss website).
I really like the diversity of fiction Aoife’s Kiss publishes, everything from steampunk to historical romantic fantasy, to hard science fiction. They have great cover art, too, this month’s by April Bullard.
Aoife’s Kiss is also the only magazine that both Donald and I have appeared in, so far. Donald’s story “A Stranger in the Library” appeared back in Issue 23, December 2007.
The magazine comes out in print four times a year, in March, June, September, and December.