Welcome to the TENTH YEAR of Uncanny Magazine, Space Unicorns!
As we write this, temperatures and leaves are falling. Hugo the Cat is buried under his blankets due to his great wisdom. The Thomas family is doing okay. Our daughter Caitlin has good days and bad days, but she’s still here. She turned 21 years old at the end of October. The palliative care is sometimes tough and overwhelming, but every extra day we get with Caitlin is an absolute treasure. Thank you all for the continued love and support for our entire family.
We’re repeating this message from our last issue. As you most of you know, a very large online eBook dealer, which has a stranglehold on many markets, ended its magazine subscriptions and moved Uncanny (along with many other SF/F magazines) to their streaming service. They’ve revealed to us that this will mean a 50% reduction of our subscription earnings. On top of that, fewer book publishers are buying advertising in this current publishing environment. We don’t actually know how bad the reductions in our income will be in Year 10.
On top of that, social media is collapsing. So much of the success of online magazines has been predicated on healthy social media channels. Much of what we told Jezebel last year is coming to pass. Twitter is dying. There are numerous alternatives, but none of them have emerged as a replacement. The SF/F community is fracturing, making it harder for pieces to be shared, and definitely having an impact on some of the short fiction fundraising efforts out there.
And to top it all off, AI stories are flooding submissions at magazines and filling up the very large online eBook dealer’s streaming service. You know, the one they are moving the magazines to against their will and judgement.
And this week, a beloved SF/F magazine closed while noting it was due to very large online eBook dealer’s BS. We are scared that many more magazines will be joining it.
So yeah, magazines are having a really rough time.
BUT! There is also good news! The Uncanny Magazine Year 10 Kickstarter was an amazing success. We are overwhelmed by the generosity of the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps. You not only secured a Year 10 of Uncanny Magazine, you helped us reach every stretch goal! PLUS, you gave us a bit of a cushion to navigate all of the ongoing and upcoming publishing problems.
We believe our mission is important, especially at a time when the kinds of things we publish are under attack from authoritarians looking to eliminate marginalized voices. Because of folks giving us financial support, Uncanny Magazine will remain free online and available to all who need it, wherever they live. That is so fucking important.
Thank you, Space Unicorns. You are the very, very best.
PHENOMENAL news, Space Unicorns! “Rabbit Test” by Samantha Mills won the Best Short Story Hugo Award! Congratulations to Sam!
Even more wonderful news! Uncanny Magazine (Publishers/Editors-in-Chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, Poetry/Managing Editor Chimedum Ohaegbu, Managing Editor Monte Lin, Nonfiction Editor Meg Elison, and Podcast Producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky) won the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine! THANK YOU, SPACE UNICORNS!!!
Once again, congratulations to the other Uncanny Magazine story that was a finalist: “If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You” by John Chu, which was a finalist for the Best Novelette Hugo Award! Congratulations to everybody!
It was an amazing list of Hugo Award winners and finalists, many of whom are Uncanny authors and friends. CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYBODY!!! Thank you to everyone who nominated and voted for these works, and to the hard-working Worldcon staff. We are honored, ecstatic, and overwhelmed.
Fabulous news, Space Unicorns! “If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You” by John Chu won the Best Novelette Ignyte Award! Congratulations to John!!!
Once again, congratulations to Terese Mason Pierre, whose poem “In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White” was a finalist for the Best in Speculative Poetry Ignyte Award!
Congratulations to all of the winners and finalists!
Wonderful news, Space Unicorns! “Rabbit Test” by Samantha Mills won the Sturgeon Memorial Award! Congratulations to Samantha and to all of the finalists!
Established in 1987 by James Gunn and the heirs of Theodore Sturgeon, including his partner Jayne Engelhart Tannehill and Sturgeon’s children, the Sturgeon Award is “a memorial to one of the great short-story writers in a field distinguished by its short fiction.” This year’s jurors were Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Pinsker, Noël Sturgeon, and Taryne Taylor.
The winner will be guest of honor at the second annual Sturgeon Symposium, to be held September 20–22, 2023. The ceremony will feature a reception, opening remarks, presentation of the award, a reading by Mills, and a Q&A session. The theme, “Fantastic Worlds, Fraught Futures,” coincides with the anniversary of the publication of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, KU’s 2023–24 Common Book.
For more information, see the Gunn Center’s website.
Spectacular news, Space Unicorns! “In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White” by Terese Mason Pierre won the SFPA 2023 Rhysling Award for Best Short Poem! (Tied with “Harold and the Blood-Red Crayon” by Jennifer Crow, Star*Line 45.1.)
Congratulations to Terese and to all of the winners and finalists!
Fabulous news, Space Unicorns! “At the Lighthouse, Out by the Othersea” by Juliet Kemp was a 2023 WSFA Small Press Award Finalist! Congratulations to Juliet and to all of the finalists!
The Thomases had a phenomenal time as Guests of Honor at ICON. We’re sorry that Caitlin’s palliative care and the ongoing COVID outbreak made it impossible for us to be there in person, but we greatly enjoyed our experiences of being there remotely. We want to thank the concom, members, and everyone who made it possible.
And now the contents of Uncanny Magazine Issue 55! The wonderful cover is The Lotus Flower Gift by Paul Lewin. Our fabulous new fiction includes “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer, “The Pandemonium Waltz” by Jeffrey Ford, “The Quiet of Drowning” by Kel Coleman, “We’re Looking for the Best” by Cecil Castellucci, “A Piece of the Continent” by Marissa Lingen, “End of Play” by Chelsea Sutton, and “Esqueleto” by Ana Hurtado.
Our provocative and compelling essays this month include “Scalzi on Film: Speed Racer’s Long Road” by John Scalzi, “Ncuti to The Moon” by Amanda-Rae Prescott, “The Telling Silence of A Ghost Story for Christmas” by Paul Cornell, and “Sweat and Skin” by Lee Mandelo. Our gorgeous and evocative poetry includes “yes, your reflection is screaming” by Carlie St. George, “Not Cricket” by Tehnuka, “How to Haunt a Northern Lake” by Lora Gray, and “Ferry to the Island of Ghosts” by Angela Liu. Finally, Caroline M. Yoachim interviews Jeffrey Ford and Marissa Lingen about their stories.
The Uncanny Magazine Podcast 55A features “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer, as read by Erika Ensign, “yes, your reflection is screaming” by Carlie St. George, as read by Matt Peters, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Naomi Kritzer. The Uncanny Magazine Podcast 55B features “We’re Looking for the Best” by Cecil Castellucci, as read by Erika Ensign, “Ferry to the Island of Ghosts” by Angela Liu, as read by Matt Peters, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Cecil Castellucci.
As always, we are deeply grateful for your support of Uncanny Magazine. Shine on, Space Unicorns!
© 2023 Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
