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ladybusinessLast year I wrote an essay about cozy SFF. I started out writing a passionate defense of cozy SFF, then I wasn't quite happy with it and put it on the shelf for a while. When I got back to it, I realized there were some things about the current moment of cozy SFF that I don't really like. So I had to edit my piece. But even then I felt the conversation was getting away from me.
I've only become more frustrated with what's being marketed as cozy SFF and the discourse around it. I find the stuff being published isn't digging into the themes that I want to see. Meanwhile the discourse is both dismissive and full of moral panic. I think both that domestic labor and community building are important and worth telling stories about and shouldn’t be dismissed, and that it's ok to read soft comforting stories. I wish people would calm down a bit.
In my essay I defined cozy SFF this way: “Cozy SFF generally has small stakes, focusing on small moments, not the fate of the world. These lower stakes generally go along with much less on-screen violence in these stories. Another key aspect of cozy SFF is that it focuses on community-building. And finally, cozy SFF honors the importance of domestic labor and other undervalued jobs”. In retrospect I don’t think this definition was very helpful because it was more about what I want cozy SFF to be than about what cozy SFF actually is. And because I ignored the issue of feelings, but how cozy SFF makes people feel is important to the conversation even if people can have wildly different emotional reactions to the same work. I find the the subjectivity of emotional reactions leads to very frustrating conversations, and I wanted to ignore that, but it’s important to how people talk about cozy SFF whether I like it or not.
However my definition does make a good framework for a rec list. So here are some works that fit at least in part with the above definition, though most of them are not being discussed as cozy SFF. Many of these are short fiction, where there’s a lot of lovely work about these themes, but short works are generally not part of the discourse around cozy SFF. Others of these don’t get marketed as cozy because they have the wrong vibes, or big stakes, but still have themes of domestic labor and community building.
This is not intended as a complete survey of the field, just a few things that I like that include these themes. Also my ability to engage with new fiction has been sporadic since 2020 so there aren’t as many recent works as I’d like.
”The Witches of Athens” by Lara Elena Donnelly
This is a long-time comfort read of mine, a story with coffee shops, queer romance, and sisterhood. The stakes in this are very personal and there's a focus on maintaining and building relationships. Also I love that the central relationship here is the sisterhood between the witches!
“Fandom For Robots” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
This story about a robot making friends through transformative fandom is a great example of a story about building communities! It’s super charming. Online communities have been very important to me so I especially enjoyed that aspect.
A Half Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
This book perfectly fits the second two parts of my definition of cozy SFF, there is so much domestic labor and community building in here! But the stakes are huge, literally the fate of the planet Earth! This book really highlights why domestic labor and community building matter. Even when the world is at stake people have to eat, and eating together can help bring about solutions to very large problems.
Chalice by Robin McKinley
This is another book with bigger stakes but also a lot of domestic labor and community building. Mirasol, the main character, is a beekeeper who unexpectedly became the Chalice, a job with both practical and metaphysical components. I love all the descriptions of beekeeping and Marasol’s cottage!
“Panhumanism Hope and Pragmatics” by Jess Barber and Sara Saab
In the comments of my original post, people talked about wanting to read stories that are personal in scope and have positive outcomes even though they are set in worlds where things are terrible. This is a story along those lines. In a post-climate disaster two people meet as teens. This is the story of their relationship over time as they both try in their own ways to make the world a little bit better.
When The Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
This book is everything that I talked about in my definition of cozy, but I would still hesitate to call it cozy because tonally it's a bit darker, and there's some onscreen violence. But it's great! It's about an angel and a demon who leave their shtetl to help a young woman who has gone missing in the US. I love how Jewish this book is, and how it includes both Jewish religious traditions (The Angel and Demon are study buddies and argue about Torah all the time) and Jewish labor organizing (planning a strike is an important part of the story). It’s also a story about people gradually building connections to a wider community.
Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Iona Datt Sharma and Katherine Fabian
This is a contemporary fantasy novella about two people who have to go on a quest to save their mutual boyfriend. Along the way they met many members of the boyfriend’s community who they wouldn't have interacted with otherwise. It’s also full of domestic details, getting the kids places on time, serving dinner, silly mugs. None of these details are lingered on but they all build a picture of the characters. I love that this book makes me and so many other people feel seen for aspects of ourselves we rarely see reflected in fiction!
Please tell me about your favorite SFF that engages with themes of domestic labor and/or community building!
I've only become more frustrated with what's being marketed as cozy SFF and the discourse around it. I find the stuff being published isn't digging into the themes that I want to see. Meanwhile the discourse is both dismissive and full of moral panic. I think both that domestic labor and community building are important and worth telling stories about and shouldn’t be dismissed, and that it's ok to read soft comforting stories. I wish people would calm down a bit.
In my essay I defined cozy SFF this way: “Cozy SFF generally has small stakes, focusing on small moments, not the fate of the world. These lower stakes generally go along with much less on-screen violence in these stories. Another key aspect of cozy SFF is that it focuses on community-building. And finally, cozy SFF honors the importance of domestic labor and other undervalued jobs”. In retrospect I don’t think this definition was very helpful because it was more about what I want cozy SFF to be than about what cozy SFF actually is. And because I ignored the issue of feelings, but how cozy SFF makes people feel is important to the conversation even if people can have wildly different emotional reactions to the same work. I find the the subjectivity of emotional reactions leads to very frustrating conversations, and I wanted to ignore that, but it’s important to how people talk about cozy SFF whether I like it or not.
However my definition does make a good framework for a rec list. So here are some works that fit at least in part with the above definition, though most of them are not being discussed as cozy SFF. Many of these are short fiction, where there’s a lot of lovely work about these themes, but short works are generally not part of the discourse around cozy SFF. Others of these don’t get marketed as cozy because they have the wrong vibes, or big stakes, but still have themes of domestic labor and community building.
This is not intended as a complete survey of the field, just a few things that I like that include these themes. Also my ability to engage with new fiction has been sporadic since 2020 so there aren’t as many recent works as I’d like.
”The Witches of Athens” by Lara Elena Donnelly
This is a long-time comfort read of mine, a story with coffee shops, queer romance, and sisterhood. The stakes in this are very personal and there's a focus on maintaining and building relationships. Also I love that the central relationship here is the sisterhood between the witches!
“Fandom For Robots” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
This story about a robot making friends through transformative fandom is a great example of a story about building communities! It’s super charming. Online communities have been very important to me so I especially enjoyed that aspect.
A Half Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
This book perfectly fits the second two parts of my definition of cozy SFF, there is so much domestic labor and community building in here! But the stakes are huge, literally the fate of the planet Earth! This book really highlights why domestic labor and community building matter. Even when the world is at stake people have to eat, and eating together can help bring about solutions to very large problems.
Chalice by Robin McKinley
This is another book with bigger stakes but also a lot of domestic labor and community building. Mirasol, the main character, is a beekeeper who unexpectedly became the Chalice, a job with both practical and metaphysical components. I love all the descriptions of beekeeping and Marasol’s cottage!
“Panhumanism Hope and Pragmatics” by Jess Barber and Sara Saab
In the comments of my original post, people talked about wanting to read stories that are personal in scope and have positive outcomes even though they are set in worlds where things are terrible. This is a story along those lines. In a post-climate disaster two people meet as teens. This is the story of their relationship over time as they both try in their own ways to make the world a little bit better.
When The Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
This book is everything that I talked about in my definition of cozy, but I would still hesitate to call it cozy because tonally it's a bit darker, and there's some onscreen violence. But it's great! It's about an angel and a demon who leave their shtetl to help a young woman who has gone missing in the US. I love how Jewish this book is, and how it includes both Jewish religious traditions (The Angel and Demon are study buddies and argue about Torah all the time) and Jewish labor organizing (planning a strike is an important part of the story). It’s also a story about people gradually building connections to a wider community.
Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Iona Datt Sharma and Katherine Fabian
This is a contemporary fantasy novella about two people who have to go on a quest to save their mutual boyfriend. Along the way they met many members of the boyfriend’s community who they wouldn't have interacted with otherwise. It’s also full of domestic details, getting the kids places on time, serving dinner, silly mugs. None of these details are lingered on but they all build a picture of the characters. I love that this book makes me and so many other people feel seen for aspects of ourselves we rarely see reflected in fiction!
Please tell me about your favorite SFF that engages with themes of domestic labor and/or community building!
Cozy SFF from My Work
Date: 2025-05-30 04:43 am (UTC)This series is almost entirely about community building, among people who don't have the best social skills but are determined to try anyway. The level of onscreen violence is low, although it's set after a major war.
An Army of One: The Autistic Secession in Space
Once upon a time, there will be two galactic powers. One controls the Carina-Sagittarius Arm, and the other controls the Orion-Cygnus Arm.
They have a war. Then they have an armistice. Then they have a peace. So they decide to decommission their secret surveillance stations and send home all their collected specialists with odd traits and useful skills. But the specialists do not want to go home, and instead construct a new society to meet their own needs.
"Homekeeping"
Specialist Miles Cernan and the OCS-397 learn to make a home together.
I made this open-source fandom to evoke sense of wonder, because I was tired of how bleak commercial science fiction had gotten. It's a little about saving the world and a lot about the relationships of the crew.
The Blueshift Troupers">
"Slowly exploring space, humanity discovered remnants of an alien civilization: jump gates that opened the galaxy to colonists. Today hundreds of planets hold human settlers, some adapted to fit their new homes. When one of those worlds calls out for help, we are the ones who come. I am the Core of the hiveship Omphalos. These are the members of my crew. Together we are the Blueshift Troupers."
While the context is dark, the entries in this series typically describe how people survive by working together. It's one where domestic workers appear in multiple entries.
Daughters of the Apocalypse
This is post-apocalyptic hopepunk that takes place after natural disasters and warfare have cut the human population to a fraction of its former size. What remains is a world primarily populated by women, people of color, and queerfolk.
"Laundry, Liturgy, and Women's Work"
Story Date: Cold Moon 29, 15 A.E.
Summary: Maggot doesn't really fit in with the Clearwater Caravan.
Characters: Alma Mohamad, An Woodward, Catcher, Cleaner, Dibble, Digger, Doc Holly, Fan Woodward, Forager, Hunter, Maggot, Mother Mary Clara, Stitcher, Strawflower, Tevin Woodward, Travis Woodward, Trey Woodward, Wheeler
This is my biggest and most popular fanseries. It relies heavily on cozy family vibes to counter a pretty grim canon.
Love Is For Children (The Avengers)
In The Avengers, Natasha Romanova says "Love is for children." It's an expression of life as she knows it, and fits the harsh background most of the Avengers have experienced. Trouble is, people don't do very well without love. In particular it's impossible to form a good team if the members don't care about each other.
So Phil Coulson comes up with a teambuilding exercise to resolve that problem. If love is for children ... then he'll arrange that experience for them. The result is an exploration of nonsexual ageplay to allow a group of very powerful, very broken people to patch up some of the gaps in their lives.
"Love Is for Children"
Phil Coulson is SHIELD's best handler for a reason: he can deal with the broken people that nobody else can manage but desperately need anyway. So he comes up with an unusual teambuilding idea to shore up the Avengers.
This is mostly cozy fantasy romance with a few platonic entries and the occasional more edgy one.
Eloquent Souls
This series is fantasy romance about soulmates, soulmarks, and soulbonds. These features don't solve everything, but they do make life more interesting.
"Let It Grow"
Story Date: Saturday, February 15, 2014
Summary: Bryony meets someone new at a plant party.
Characters: Bryony Lane, Heath Clifford
This is a solidly domestic series of fairy tale fantasy.
Fiorenza the Wisewoman
This series began with "Can She Bake a Scary Pie?" in the October 5, 2010 Poetry Fishbowl, although "A Knot of Thyme" is chronologically earlier. Fiorenza is a young woman living in a village not far from Fermo in Italy, around 1600 CE. She is skilled in herbalism, gardening, and baking ... and dealing with paranormal problems, such as vampires. Most of the villagers look up to her most of the time, but sometimes authority figures get testy about her level of influence. But even Don Candido the priest knows that they need her!
"Winter Apples"
Fiorenza joins her relatives working in the orchard.
My readers describe this one as gothic fluff: classic horror motifs written in a much more positive light.
Frankenstein's Family
Here is the tale of an unconventional family. Victor Frankenstein, originally named Victoria, identifies as a man despite having a female body. His assistant Igor has a deformed back. They decide to make a family together, because women just aren't interested in either of them, although both of them are heterosexual. So they wind up in a queerplatonic relationship. They use their knowledge of science to create a son, Adam.
"The Proper Thermodynamics of a Warm and Happy Home"
Victor and Igor test the complicated woodstove in the kitchen.
This series is suburban fantasy, mostly fluff, focused on a family that includes human and nonhuman members.
Monster House
This series began as a criticism of the housing crisis in 2008, when many people faced foreclosure and eviction. In the first poem, not only was a human resident put on the street, but so were various paranormal residents. Eventually, they found a new home, a Victorian fixer-upper ... along with a new human housemate, who came with some "special" roommates of her own. From there, the family and adventures have grown.
"Restoration"
Old houses need a lot of work and a lot of love.
I got tired of how 99% of superhero content is crimefighting and people punching each other in the face. There's got to be more stories to tell then just committing and solving crimes -- all the ways that superpowers can change society. We've been completely fascinated to discover how many of the things that make this setting awesome do not actually require superpowers after all. It's my biggest and most popular original series with lots of subthreads.
Polychrome Heroics
Terramagne is my superhero setting. The first poems focused on Damask. Since then, fans have prompted for many other superheroes and side poems about their world in general.
"To Feel Safe and Warm"
This series is all about domestic fantasy.
Practical Magics
Jenina was introduced in the July 5, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl with its
"low fantasy" theme. She founded the Brown Tower of Practical
Magics. Other wizards focus on magical theory and sophisticated
spells. Jenina creates spells for everyday needs, and has customers from every class of society.
"Wipeout"
Jenina wanted to invent spells that everyone could use.
This series is fantasy set in a world where people generally solve problems with less violence than here, and which is a lot saner than average fantasy worlds.
Quixotic Ideas
Quixotic Ideas is a fantasy series in a world with fully integrated magic and a generally upbeat approach. Many problems that complicate other fantasy settings have been solved here, or at least buffered somewhat. This world is Quorth (aka quixotic-Earth, or Q-Earth) roughly similar to local-Earth in geography. It ranges from historic through modern times. Canon-typical violence is on the low side of average for fantasy, as people here tend to have better problem-solving methods.
"Affuage"
n 1753 -1847 right to cut wood in a forest for family fire