This subversive debut short-fiction collection from one of the hottest talents in speculative fiction: 2025 Compton Crook Award winner and World Fantasy and Pushcart Prize nominee Samantha Mills (The Wings Upon Her Back).
This subversive debut short-fiction collection from one of the hottest talents in speculative fiction: 2025 Compton Crook Award winner and World Fantasy and Pushcart Prize nominee Samantha Mills (The Wings Upon Her Back). The cornerstone of the collection is Mills’ pivotal Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon award-winning story “Rabbit Test,” which interrogates the past, present, and future of abortion rights in America.
Introduction by Meg Elison
A time-traveling fisherwoman keeps landing on the right shore, but at the wrong time. A pair of witches fight over the gate between life and death. A new consciousness, intent upon seeing all the wonders of the universe, visits a floating library. A rock-and-roll legend squares off against a town full of devils. Humanity makes first contact, but falters when put in charge of selecting the world’s representatives.
These riveting stories run the gamut of the genre, transitioning from fantasy to contemporary, then into the farthest reaches of space. They take place in strange and emotional worlds, with stakes ranging from the epic to the personal, with ample room for humor and hope amidst tragedy.
Praise for the debut novel The Wings Upon Her Back
2025 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel Finalist
Compton Crook Award Winner
British Science Fiction Award Longlist
Goodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Selection Booklist Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror Debuts Parade Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books Washington Post 11 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
Samantha Mills is a multiple award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy. Her critically acclaimed first novel, The Wings Upon Her Back, won the Compton Crook Award for year’s best SFF debut. In 2023, she received the Nebula, Locus, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards for her short story, “Rabbit Test.” Her short fiction has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, and others, and was included in the best-of anthologies The New Voices of Science Fiction from Tachyon Publications and The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023.
A graduate of the University of Santa Cruz with a BA in Pre- and Early Modern Literature, Mills also received a Master’s in Information and Library Science from San José State University. In the other half of her life, she is a trained archivist specializing in primary documents.
Mills grew up in Southern California, where she still lives with her family and cats. When she isn’t working, writing, or taking care of children, she’s watching B movies, binding books, and crocheting stuffed animals. You can find more, including social media handles and a full list of her published work, at www.samtasticbooks.com.
Praise for the debut novel The Wings Upon Her Back
2025 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel Finalist
Compton Crook Award Winner
British Science Fiction Award LonglistGoodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Selection Booklist Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror Debuts Parade Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books Washington Post 11 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
Rabbit Test and Other Stories
Samantha Mills
This subversive debut short-fiction collection from one of the hottest talents in speculative fiction: 2025 Compton Crook Award winner and World Fantasy and Pushcart Prize nominee Samantha Mills (The Wings Upon Her Back).
Rabbit Test and Other Stories
by Samantha Mills
ISBN: 978-1-61696-451-1 (print); 978-1-61696-453-5 (digital)
Published: 21 April 2026
Available Format(s): trade paperback, digital
This subversive debut short-fiction collection from one of the hottest talents in speculative fiction: 2025 Compton Crook Award winner and World Fantasy and Pushcart Prize nominee Samantha Mills (The Wings Upon Her Back). The cornerstone of the collection is Mills’ pivotal Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon award-winning story “Rabbit Test,” which interrogates the past, present, and future of abortion rights in America.
Introduction by Meg Elison
A time-traveling fisherwoman keeps landing on the right shore, but at the wrong time. A pair of witches fight over the gate between life and death. A new consciousness, intent upon seeing all the wonders of the universe, visits a floating library. A rock-and-roll legend squares off against a town full of devils. Humanity makes first contact, but falters when put in charge of selecting the world’s representatives.
These riveting stories run the gamut of the genre, transitioning from fantasy to contemporary, then into the farthest reaches of space. They take place in strange and emotional worlds, with stakes ranging from the epic to the personal, with ample room for humor and hope amidst tragedy.
Praise for the debut novel The Wings Upon Her Back
2025 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel Finalist
Compton Crook Award Winner
British Science Fiction Award Longlist
Goodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Selection
Booklist Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror Debuts
Parade Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books
Washington Post 11 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
[STARRED REVIEW] “A triumphant debut novel.” —Booklist
[STARRED REVIEW] “An absolute must-read.” —Kirkus
[STARRED REVIEW] “Intricate and intriguing.” —Publishers Weekly
[STARRED REVIEW] “Complex and haunting.” —Library Journal
Samantha Mills is a multiple award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy. Her critically acclaimed first novel, The Wings Upon Her Back, won the Compton Crook Award for year’s best SFF debut. In 2023, she received the Nebula, Locus, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards for her short story, “Rabbit Test.” Her short fiction has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, and others, and was included in the best-of anthologies The New Voices of Science Fiction from Tachyon Publications and The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023.
A graduate of the University of Santa Cruz with a BA in Pre- and Early Modern Literature, Mills also received a Master’s in Information and Library Science from San José State University. In the other half of her life, she is a trained archivist specializing in primary documents.
Mills grew up in Southern California, where she still lives with her family and cats. When she isn’t working, writing, or taking care of children, she’s watching B movies, binding books, and crocheting stuffed animals. You can find more, including social media handles and a full list of her published work, at www.samtasticbooks.com.
Praise for the debut novel The Wings Upon Her Back
2025 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel Finalist
Compton Crook Award Winner
British Science Fiction Award LonglistGoodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Selection
Booklist Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror Debuts
Parade Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books
Washington Post 11 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
[STARRED REVIEW] “A triumphant debut novel.” —Booklist
[STARRED REVIEW] “An absolute must-read.” —Kirkus
[STARRED REVIEW] “Intricate and intriguing.” —Publishers Weekly
[STARRED REVIEW] “Complex and haunting.” —Library Journal
www.samtasticbooks.com