Douglas Cohen has been named editor at Realms of Fantasy. Cohen has served the magazine as a slush reader, assistant editor, non-fiction editor, and art director. This promotion consolidates his titles. Shawna McCarthy, who has been the magazine’s editor since the first issue will retain her role at the magazine.
Prime Books has announced plans to launch a new on-line magazine, Lightspeed, in June of 2010. The magazine will be edited by John Joseph Adams, who will be leaving his position as assistant editor at F&SF at the end of the year. Andrea Kail will edit the magazine’s non-fiction. Issues will include four stories (generally two original and two reprints), as well as original non-fiction.
Rose Fox has announced that Publisher’s Weekly is relaunching its Genreville blog to discuss genre fiction and events. Fox will be joined by Fantasy Magazine director of marketing Josh Jasper. According to Fox and Jasper, the relaunch will include more opinions and contain more controversial essays.
On-line zine Strange Horizons has announced its 2009 Fund Drive. They hope to raise $7,000 during the month of August to help pay for the costs of running the magazine. Everyone who donates will be entered into a raffle to receive on of several prizes. Strange Horizons is a 501(c)3 organization, which means that donations are tax-deductable.
Eric Flint, the editor of Baen’s Universe has announced that the on-line magazine will close following the April 2010 issue, signifying a four-year run for the magazine. Baen is offering a plan for subcribers to receive back issues. According to Flint, Baen was “never able to get and retain enough subscribers to put us on a sales plateau that would allow us to continue publishing.”
Publisher Charles N. Brown (b.1937) died peacefully in his sleep on July 12 on his way home from Readercon. Brown, along with Ed Meskys and Dave Vanderwerf, founded Locus as a fanzine in support of a Boston Worldcon bid. When the ‘zine received a Hugo nomination, Brown continued to publish it, eventually turning it into the news magazine of the science fiction field. Locus has won 29 Hugo Awards over the years. In addition, Brown contributed book reviews to Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and year in review articles to Terry Carr’s anthology series.
After a hiatus, Tangent Online has been relaunched by publisher Dave Truesdale. Tangent was founded in 1993 as a print-zine with the goal of reviewing every short story published in the science fiction field. Eventually the magazine moved on line, where it was successful for several years. Truesdale has now restarted the ‘zine with eleven reviewers and an initial focus on print short story venues, although he hopes to add webzines as he increases the number of reviewers on staff.
Steampunk Publishing has announced the release of the first original pulp magazine created specifically for the iPhone and iTouch. Steampunk Tales #1 contains six short stories from authors including Jay Lake and Catherynne M. Valente. The magazine is intended to provide pulp-style adventure stories.
Chris Cevasco has announced that Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction will be closing following the publication of issue #13. The magazine is closed to submissions, although Cevasco hopes to publish some anthologies in the future and notes that at some point in the future, the magazine may re-emerge with an on-line presence.
The winners of the Asimov’s Readers’ Awards and Analog’s Analog Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Awards were announced by Asimov’s editor Sheila Williams during the Nebula Weekend in Los Angeles.
Asimov’s Readers’ Awards
Analog’s Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Awards