I am glad to report that Fantasy & Science Fiction may not be dead after all. Locus Online is quoting publisher Gordan Van Gelder as saying, “Ongoing production problems have led us to skip the Spring issue and to switch to a quarterly schedule.” There is a link to the magazine’s page on Weightless Books, but there’s no quote from Van Gelder there.
I’m not sure where Gordan said this. Locus Online didn’t provide a source. Perhaps from an interview in an upcoming issue. He’s further quoted as saying that no subscribers will miss any issues.
This is good news. F&SF has been one of the mainstays of short fantasatic fiction for almost three quarters of a century. I wish Gordan and the magazine all the best.
However, I have some thoughts.
First, to be nitpickiing,, because it’s been that kind of day, If they skipped the Spring issue, doesn’t that mean they’ve already gone to a quarterly schedule. And by the way, does going to quarterly drop F&SF out of the professional market category, at least as far as SFWA and awards are concerned? (Not that I really care.)
Also, even though the temperature today was around ninety-four where I am, isn’t summemr over? What about fall?
Now, some more seriouis thoughts.
I’m glad subscriptions will be honored and no subscribers will miss any issues. I renewed my subscription for two years last spring. I should be good for a while.
The table of contents is posted on this issue’s page at Weightless Books. The only two names I recognize are Esther Friesner and Nina Kiriki Hoffman. Both are excellent writers. Their contributions are short stories. The remaining ten short stories and three novelettes are by people whose names I don’t recognize.
I’m all for publishing new authors. I’m not against publishing a wide array of writers from different backgrounds who might have unique voices. i get that.
But from a business perspective, in an industry in which margins are getting thinner and survival less of a certainty, shouldn’t there be more recognizable names on the cover, or at least on the table of contents?
I must admit I’ve been idsappointed in the issues I’ve managed to read in the last few years. I’m definitely going to try to read every story in this issue. I’m hoping to discover some new favorite authors (at least one). I’ll let you know what I think.
Hopefully, it will continue going…
I spent many an hour reading F&SF and Analog in our public library. It was a 2-mile bike ride, and the old brick building was always cool inside after peddling in the summer heat.
I used to enjoy their best of anthologies. It might not be dead, but it seems to be on life support.
Update: Unfortunately, it is dead at least as far as submissions are concerned.
Yes, it is. Hopefully that will change soon.
But I’m not going to hold my breath.
As of January 2025, the most recent issue still appears to be “Summer 2024.”
Unfortunately, the magazine appears to be dying a slow death like Fry’s Electronics.
Yeah, I’m afraid you’re right. I’ve got a subscription, and that was the last issue I received.
Hard to see how F&SF is going to survive. It was bad enough for the issues in winter to be late, no issues in spring, and then a “quarterly” summer issue much delayed. But it’s February 2025 now, and still nothing since the “summer” issue.
Which makes me sad. I’ve been reading F&SF since 1980; KKR is my all-time favorite editor for F&SF, but SRT has been a solid asset to the magazine as well. And this most recent “Summer 2024” issue has a couple of my all-time favorite stories: “Another Such Victory” by Albert Chu, but especially “What You Leave Behind” by Ken Altabef. There are a number of lesser, yet still high quality stories throughout. SRT is still doing a bang-up job, and on the question of established vs new writers, if we can’t have the former, at least there are quality offerings from the latter.
I can’t help wonder if the relative lack of the established writers is at least partly due to the business problems around the magazine. I’m sure over time some stop appearing because of their own professional arcs; perhaps they retire, or even pass away, or move to a different genre. But surely some look at the state of the magazine and decide it’s just too much trouble to get involved in the drama. I do know that there are a whole bunch of authors whose stories I loved and who used to appear regularly in the magazine, but who do not any more. 🙁
I agree, things don’t look good for the magazine.
I’ve been reading F&SF since 1983. KKR is also my favorite editor. I’m not as imporessed with SRT as you are, but I’ve also not been able to keep uo with my reading and maybe read stories that just weren’t to my taste.
I did read the story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman in the last issue. Not the best I’ve read by her, but still a solid story. I’ll try to read the rest of the stories soon.
You make excellent points about established writers passing away, changing genres, or moving on. Also, short fiction is more a labor of love these days. Most established authors who don’t write short fiction for the love of it will say their time is better spent workiing on a novel. I suspect most established authors have a grapevine that we general readers aren’t a part of where they talk about markets, and so your point about them not taking the trouble to submit is spot on.