Editorials are currently very hard to write when your default is usually optimism and joy.
Our daughter Caitlin’s palliative care continues. She remains happy, but her health is not improving. Caitlin’s hospital is currently experiencing a cybersecurity attack, which means everything is more complicated without the ability to access her records or call and email her doctors easily. We have been trying to get some home nursing help, but insurance denied it. As for the appeal, see the above cybersecurity attack…
The magazine industry and publishing as a whole offer about the same amount of solace. For the last year, many magazines have been screaming from the rooftops about losing Am*zon subscriptions, the fracturing of social media, dwindling advertising revenue, and AI submissions. Unfortunately, not much has happened to fix any of these issues. What is left of social media is engulfed in global tragedies and controversies with awards, conventions, and organizations.
Will this be the end of the SF/F short fiction industry? No. But if we don’t find more solutions and come together to make sure our magazine markets remain healthy and find readers and income, it is very likely that a large contraction is coming over the next few years.
If you are reading this editorial, THANK YOU. You, Space Unicorn, are the reason why we haven’t lost hope. You clearly love SF/F stories. You support Uncanny Magazine. You are probably either financially supporting the work we do, or you’re most definitely spreading the word about the things you love. YOU ARE THE VERY BEST!!!
FABULOUS NEWS, SPACE UNICORNS! HAPPIEST OF DAYS!!!
ELEVEN Uncanny Magazine stories are on the prestigious 2023 Locus Recommended Reading List! WE ARE SO THRILLED! Congratulations to all of the authors!
Best Novelette:
“The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer
“One Man’s Treasure” by Sarah Pinsker
“Six Versions of My Brother Found Under a Bridge” by Eugenia Triantafyllou
“SuperMAX” by Daniel H. Wilson
Best Short Story:
“A Soul in the World” by Charlie Jane Anders
“Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride” by Christopher Caldwell
“How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark
“The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard
“Waystation City” by A.T. Greenblatt
“Flower, Daughter, Soil, Seed” by Eugenia Triantafyllou
“The Rain Remembers What the Sky Forgets” by Fran Wilde
This means you can vote for these stories in the 2023 Locus Poll and Survey which determines the Locus Awards! Voting is FREE TO ALL! Along with these stories, Uncanny Magazine is also eligible for a Locus Award in the Best Magazine or Fanzine category, and Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas are eligible in the Best Editor—Pro or Fan category! Vote for the things you liked, and you can even write in things that didn’t make the 2022 Locus Recommended Reading List! YOUR VOTE ALWAYS COUNTS!
Space Unicorns! It is time to announce the TOP STORY in our Uncanny Magazine 2023 Favorite Fiction Reader Poll! It is…. *drumroll*
The short story “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia!
Congratulations to R.S.A. Garcia! A SNAZZY CERTIFICATE will soon be on the way!
The rest of the Top Five are:
2- The novelette “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer!
3- The novelette “Six Versions of My Brother Found Under the Bridge” by Eugenia Triantafyllou!
4- The novelette “The Curing” by Kristina Ten!
5- IS A TIE!
The short story “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark!
The short story “A Piece of the Continent” by Marissa Lingen!
Congratulations to everyone!
Thank you to everybody who voted!
And now the contents of Uncanny Magazine Issue 57! The wonderful cover is Forever Traveler by Antonio Javier Caparo. Our fabulous new fiction includes “Stitched to Skin like Family Is” by Nghi Vo, “The Robot” by Lavie Tidhar, “Afflictions of the New Age” by Katherine Ewell, “The Best-Ever Cosplay of Whistle and Midnight” by Annalee Newitz, “A Magical Correspondence, to the Tune of Heartstrings” by Valerie Valdes, “Redshift ||| Shiftred” by Parlei Rivière, and “The God, Descendant” by Amanda Helms.
Our provocative and compelling essays this month include “Rick Bowes Remembrances,” “Orcs” by G. Willow Wilson, “Pseudotranslation and the Art of Made-Up Words” by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko, “Scalzi on Film: The Godzilla Beeper” by John Scalzi and “Like Father, Like Son: Evangelion, Shin Kamen Rider, and Masculinity” by Brandon O’Brien. Our gorgeous and evocative poetry includes “pockets full of stones” by Jennifer Mace, “An Open Letter to Creatures” by Zaynab Iliyasu Bobi, “The Sea-Witches at Nightfall” by Tiffany Morris, and “In blue sight” by Eva Papasoulioti. Finally, Caroline M. Yoachim interviews Nghi Vo and Valerie Valdes about their stories.
The Uncanny Magazine Podcast Episode 57A features “The Robot” by Lavie Tidhar, as read by Matt Peters, “pockets full of stones” by Jennifer Mace, as read by Erika Ensign, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Lavie Tidhar. The Uncanny Magazine Podcast Episode 57B features “The Best-Ever Cosplay of Whistle and Midnight” by Annalee Newitz, as read by Erika Ensign, “The Sea-Witches at Nightfall” by Tiffany Morris, as read by Matt Peters, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Annalee Newitz.
As always, we are deeply grateful for your support of Uncanny Magazine. Shine on, Space Unicorns!
© 2024 Uncanny Magazine
