It’s the spring issue of Uncanny Magazine! Flowers! Trees! Wicker Men! Please feel free to read this outside in a park—unless it’s raining because that would be bad for your tech. Since this is a time of growth and renewal, we should lead with our super exciting news. Most of you will know this already from our blog and social media, but we can’t announce it enough.
The fabulous Julia Rios will be the new Uncanny Magazine Reprint/Poetry Editor starting with Issue 10! Julia Rios is a Hugo Award–nominated editor and podcaster, plus a writer and narrator. She was a fiction editor for Strange Horizons from 2012 to 2015, and is co–editor with Alisa Krasnostein of Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories, and the Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction series. She is also a co–host of the Hugo–nominated podcast, The Skiffy and Fanty Show. These are just some of her epic accomplishments! We’ve known Julia for years and have always admired her work. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be adding Julia to Team Uncanny.
In other Uncanny Magazine news you probably know, we have tabulated the results of the Uncanny Magazine 2015 Favorite Short Story Poll, and “Pockets” by Amal El–Mohtar came in FIRST PLACE! Congratulations, Amal! Amal will be receiving a FANCY CERTIFICATE suitable for framing. Second Place went to “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu, and Third Place went to “Wooden Feathers” by Ursula Vernon. Congratulations, everybody! Thank you, Space Unicorns, for participating!
We will have the results of the 2015 polls for other Uncanny content in our next issue.
At this point, Hugo Award nominating season is in full swing. As a reminder, Uncanny Magazine is eligible in the (sometimes confusing) Best Semiprozine category. Congratulations to Apex Magazine and Lightspeed Magazine for losing their eligibility by becoming professional as defined by the Hugo rules. Here is a list of all of the Semiprozines.
As a reminder, here is where you can find a list of all of the 2015 Uncanny Magazine stories divided by whether they qualify in the Best Novelette or Best Short Story categories.
Have fun if you’re nominating!
The Thomases have returned from a magnificent ConFusion convention and an excellent Capricon convention. We saw friends and colleagues, went to a Hamilton sing–along, and basically committed all the shenanigans. Our next convention is the gigantic C2E2 convention in Chicago. If you want to meet us and Managing Editor Michi Trota, that is a place to find us.
And now, behold, the contents of this marvelous issue! Our cover is by the designer of the universally famous Space Unicorn logo, the fantastic Katy Shuttleworth, and is called “Strange Companions.” Our new fiction this month features a gorgeous and intricate examination of love and obsession by Rachel Swirsky, “Love Is Never Still,” a haunting and passionate story by Shveta Thakrar, “The Shadow Collector,” Max Gladstone’s fantastic and fun yarn “Big Thrull and the Askin’ Man,” Kelly Sandoval’s heart–wrenching and beautiful “The Wolf and the Tower Unwoven,” and finally Simon Guerrier’s cheeky and bittersweet “The Artificial Bees.” As we write this, David Bowie passed away only a few weeks ago. In memory of Bowie and how his work affected many of us, our reprint this month is Daryl Gregory’s surreal Bowie examination “Just Another Future Song,” originally published in Glitter & Mayhem, the SF/F nightlife/roller derby anthology we co–edited with John Klima.
Our essays this month feature Jim C. Hines poking holes in a tired defense of racism by historical figures, Kyell Gold introducing us to the fabulous world of furry fandom, an examination of the “Phildickian” existence of author George R. R. Martin by Javier Grillo–Marxuach, and finally a fascinating discussion about the increasingly blurred lines between “fan” and “pro” by Mark Oshiro. Our poetry this month features C. S. E. Cooney’s fierce “Foxgirl Cycle 1,” Jennifer Crow’s powerful “The Book of Forgetting,” and Brandon O’Brien’s darkly playful “god–date.” Finally, Deborah Stanish interviews Rachel Swirsky and Simon Guerrier about their stories.
Podcast 9A features Amal El–Mohtar reading Shveta Thakrar’s “The Shadow Collector,” Erika Ensign reading C. S. E. Cooney’s “Foxgirl Cycle 1,” and Deborah Stanish interviewing Shveta Thakrar. Podcast 9B features Heath Miller reading Max Gladstone’s “Big Thrull and the Askin’ Man,” Erika Ensign reading Jennifer Crow’s “The Book of Forgetting,” and Deborah Stanish interviewing Max Gladstone.
Please enjoy the latest issue of Uncanny Magazine, and thank you all so much for your continued support.
© 2016 by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
