Version 1.0.0

Before I start this post, I want to point out that the title ends in a question mark. It is not intended to be a statement of fact.

But it is a valid question.  The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF) hasn’t had a new issue in over six months.  Questions aren’t being answered. Last year some authors claimed they hadn’t been paid for their stories.
The  question has come up over the last week.

I saw a post from Sean CW Korsgaard on Sunday saying his enjoyment of GenCon had been dampened a little when he saw the news about F&SF and SFWA. (There seems to be some drama going on behind the scenes at SFWA, but I’m not going to address that here. I’m not a member. Not my circus, not my monkeys.)

Sean didn’t elaborate or answer any questions about what was going on.

So I used my Google-Fu. Without much success, I might add. I found one post and one video about it, but I’m not going to link to them. The individuals were, well, less say, less than neutral about the prospect of F&SF ceasing publication.

I certainly hope that Gordan Van Gelder, the owner and publisher, can get things back on track. Personally, I wish he would resume editing the magazine. I liked what he published when he was also the editor.

I haven’t read much of the magazine in the last few years, although I have a subscription. (One I wouldn’t have renewed if I had known how things would be this year. I would have picked up the issues on the newstand.)

The last issue published was labeled Winter 2024 and was two weeks late. That’s it above. Someone on ebay is asking thirty bucks for it. The last issue from 2023, the November/December issue is at the top of the post.

One thing I had noticed about two years ago was that I didn’t recognize many of the author names. There would be one name that had some recognitioin, perhaps two. The rest were unfamiliar. So I did an informal survey. I read each story intorduction. Most werer first published stories, at least in F&SF.  Some were a second story in the magazine. the only exception would be the name author, whose story usually had the cover.

The current edidtor Sheree Rene Thomas seemed to have a policy of only publishing stories by new authors. I have no problem with that. On the other hand, you need recognizable names, and I would argue more than one, to make sales to readers who are occasional readers and don’t have a subscription.

Whether this had a  impact on sales, I don’t  know. I suspect it might.

I started picking up F&SF in the early eighties when the local Eckerds (precurser to CVS, and probably spelled wrong) carried it. (I got Anaolg and Asimov’s at the locally owned drugstore across the street, which still had a soda fountain.) A second hand bookstore had an almsot complete run from the mid-seventies to about a year before I started buying them. I later filled in the gaps and extended my run to the early seventies. I got a subscription when I went to college.

I certianly hope the hiatus is only temporary. Fantasy and Science Fiction has been a staple of the field for years. There aren’t enough short fiction markets. I don’t want to see this one go.

If anyone has any further information, please post it in the comments.