I’m a bit late with December’s lineup of monthly issues of online magazines, which are:

• Words without Borders features “The Fantastic”.

In this month’s main feature we travel into the realm of the fantastic, where routine situations turn surreal and the otherworldly becomes the norm. The journey begins on a bus with its own itinerary in Natsuki Ikezawa’s “Navidad Incident.” Serbian Ranko Trifkovic writes a cookbook for sprites, while French Surrealist Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues finds a man the size of a bug in a loaf the size of a mountain. Nazli Eray finds the complete guide to life in a Turkish bookshop. Urdu master Naiyer Masud’s wanderer confronts family history in a swirling dust storm. Slovenia’s Maja Novak visits a Scottish castle haunted by the Bosnian conflict. In Malta, Pierre Mejlak’s dreamy child creates her own universe. And Manuel Miguel de Unamuno sees a man witness his own death.

There is stuff from Iran and a new feature in which established writers recommend new and emerging writers.

• The Center for the Art of Translations offers two short stories, one from Taiwan and the other from Croatis
• Pank Magazine’ December 2011,  features work by Lisa Lim, Neelanjana Banerjee and Katie Assef and others.
• Open Letters Monthly: An Art and Literature Review offers more reviews and looks back at a year in reading.
• Issue 26 of The Quarterly Conversation   looks at Andrei Bely’s Petersburg, a retrospective on Michel Houellebecq, reviews of the new Iliad and other books by Aira and Tulli plus lots more.

This is not the usual full lineup given that it’s December but there is plenty to read here if you are so inclined over this holiday period.