Semiprozine.org

The fate of the Best Semiprozine Hugo will be determined next week at Worldcon. In preparation for the vote, I’m been spending some extra time  reading what the opponents of the award have to say. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting some quotes, their sources, and my responses. By all means, consider this an open discussion. Use the comments, make your case, but remain civil. I know that passions have run high in some corners. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Please be respectful of that.

First off, a couple of statements made during last year’s business meeting:

“Reason we have categories is that we like to honour work. Locus has done a marvelous job. But we like to have categories where it’s an honour to be nominated.”  –Ben Yalow, 2008 WSFS Business Meeting Minutes

Locus has done an incredible job over the years and has won its stack of Hugos courtesy of the voter’s recognition of their accomplishments. While Locus Magazine can be quite proud of this accomplishment, we (the other nominees) feel no less proud for being nominated. This nod from Hugo voters is an incredible honor. Given the number of nominations the category received this year (nearly as many as the Campbell Award and more than several non-endangered categories), these nominations have meaning to more than just those who receive them.

“We don’t seem to have any nominees for this category apart from the five who get nominated each year. It’s a weak category.” –Ben Yalow, 2008 WSFS Business Meeting Minutes

There are over 25 semiprozines listed on this site. They represent a broad range of fiction and non-fiction, online and print, and new and well-established magazines. They’ve won awards, received honorable mentions and Year’s Best citations, introduced new authors, published  established authors, lead the way in online publishing, and have made valuable contributions to the community. They are anything but weak and it is my hope that we have opened more than few eyes to both the quality and quantity of semiprozines through this website.

Furthermore, I direct your attention to some recent calculations by Warren Buff (posted at File770).  He has discovered that over the last ten years,  the level of venue diversity on the semiprozine ballots has been very similar to that of Best Fanzine, Best Fan Writer, Best Fan Artist and Best Professional Artist. No one is suggesting those Hugos be eliminated, nor should they.

Greater representation of the field on the ballot is a worthy goal in any category and I’m happy to see people looking at it. How would you go about educating people about the alternatives? Has anything been tried in the past?

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #24 is now available in print and PDF.

“This zine was made in the spring and summer of 2009 by Gavin J. Grant, Kelly Link, Jedediah Berry, Michael J. DeLuca, Sara Majka, Paul Bozzo, Kristen Evans, and Faune Albert, and put back from June to July by the best reason Gavin & Kelly have ever had: Ursula Annabel Link Grant, born February 23rd, 2009. Our deepest thanks go to everyone at Baystate Medical Center and the Ronald McDonald House in Springfield, Mass.”  — Source: LCRW website

Fiction
“Eleven Orchid Street” by Alexander Lamb
“Dusking” by Liz Williams
“Tornado Juice” by Jasmine Hammer
“Superfather” by J. W. M. Morgan
“The Magician’s Umbrella” by Dicky Murphy
“Leave the Dead to the Living” by Alissa Nutting
“A Story Like Mine” by Eve Tushnet
“The Broken Dream Factory” by Dennis Danvers
“The Magician’s Keeper” by Anya Groner

Nonfiction
“Dear Aunt Gwenda” by Gwenda Bond

Poetry
“Machrie Moore” by Neile Graham
“Bordeaux, And Other Mysteries” by Marina Rubin

Comics
“Heady’s Crush” by Abby Denson

Cover
Matthew Kirby

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #39 is now available as a PDF download.

Contents:

Fiction
“Luxembourg” by Rob Shearman
“Snake-Eater” by Linda Steele
“The Dissolution of Blue” by James Targett
“The Colonel’s Character Flaw” by Paul Kennebeck
“In the Blink of an Eye” by Dr Philip Edward Kaldon
“Dragon Bones”  by Joanne Anderton

Regular Features
Contributor Biographies
Acknowledgements

Also available in print.

The results from the annual Locus Magazine poll are detailed in the July issue and highlights the accomplishments of many semiprozines:

Best Magazine

• #6 Interzone
• #7 Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
• #8 The New York Review of Science Fiction
• #9 Clarkesworld Magazine
• #10 Strange Horizons
• #11 Weird Tales
• #14 Ansible
• #15 Postscripts
• #19 Fantasy Magazine
• #20 Black Gate
• #21 Internet Review of Science Fiction

Best Novelette

• #7 “Crystal Nights” by Greg Egan, Interzone 4/08
• #19 “The Tale of Junko and Sayuri” by Peter S. Beagle, InterGalactic Medicine Show 7/08

Best Short Story

• #11 “A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antartica” by Catherynne M. Valente, Clarkesworld Magazine, 5/08
• #12 “The Thought War” by Paul McAuley, Postscripts Summer ’08
• #15 “The Sky that Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and Into the Black” by Jay Lake, Clarkesworld Magazine, 3/08
• #25 “Snatch Me Another” by Mercurio D. Rivera, Abyss & Apex 1Q/08

Beneath Ceaseless Skies #21, just released on July 16th, has a novelette by Sunburst Award-winning author Holly Phillips. BCS #22 on July 30 will have a new story by Campbell Award finalist Aliette de Bodard, and subsequent issues will have new stories from past BCS authors Michael J. DeLuca and Erin Cashier.

Interzone has recently published its 223rd issue,  making it the longest-running British science fiction magazine (if counted by issues). The previous record-holder was New Worlds, which ran to 222 issues.

Source: Fictionmags mailing list.

Sad news reported in Locus Magazine this morning:

Locus publisher, editor, and co-founder Charles N. Brown, 72, died peacefully in his sleep July 12, 2009 on his way home from Readercon.

Details here.

From the Brain Harvest website:

As writers, we’re warned constantly against resorting to tried-and-true tropes, usually for very good reason. In fact, our colleagues at Strange Horizons have assembled a very smart list of contrived plots seen too many times (http://strangehorizons.com/guidelines/fiction-common.shtml).

But here at Brain Harvest, we’d actually like to see if you can untrope the tropes, and create something interesting, solid, and, well, bad ass from these overly familiar clichés. In fact, we’re willing to stake the first annual Brain Harvest Mega Challenge on the fact that one of you out there can… in 750 words or less.

Your entries will be read by the Brain Harvest editors, and the winners chosen by our celebrity guest judge, the amazing, award-winning writer and editor, Jeff VanderMeer.

The winning entry will receive $100, publication in Brain Harvest, a hand-knitted mustache, 1 Fresh Eyes crit (up to 10,000 words) to be used on the piece of their choice, and the accolades of their peers, friends, and family.

The second place winner will receive $25, publication in Brain Harvest, and a hand-knitted mustache.

Details available here.

The July 2009 issue is Apex’s first since their brief hiatus. It includes:

FICTION:

• “She Called Me Sweetie” by Glenn Lewis Gillette
• “…That Has Such People in It” by Jennifer Pelland
• “The Frozen Sky” by Jeff Carlson

AUDIO FICTION:

• “Foiled” by Alethea Kontis

NON-FICTION:

• BEAUTY AND DYNAMITE: “Here Lies an Era” by Alethea Kontis
• Interview with Nate Kenyon
• Interview with J.M. McDermott
• Editorial: I Just Can’t Help Myself by Jason Sizemore

It can be found online here.

Issue #20 of  Beneath Ceaseless Skies is now available: