I’m so honored to have won my fifth (!!!) Hugo Award as part of Uncanny Magazine‘s team, especially with once again, as the entire Semiprozine finalists slate is very, very strong. FIYAH in particular has done a phenomenal amount of work and will only continue to grow stronger and stronger. I can’t articulate what it means to have each of my five years with the magazine marked with a Hugo Award win, but this is such a fantastic way to cap my time with the team. I’m especially thrilled for my teammate Chimedum Ohaegbu, for whom this was her first time as a finalist, and who is now the FIRST Black woman editor to win a Hugo Award. Chimie is a powerhouse and Uncanny has been so fortunate that she chose to work with us — I can’t wait to see how she’ll continue to grow and shape the genre with her vision and voice.

I’m also especially heartened by Booksmugglers‘ win for Best Fanzine, making Ana Grilo the first Brazilian Hugo Award winner, and Thea James the third Filipina to win a Hugo Award. Jeannette Ng’s Best Related Work win for her 2019 acceptance speech for the then-John W. Campbell, now Astounding Award for Best New Writer is delicious schadenfreude after all the handwringing over her daring to speak the truth and call Campbell a “fucking fascist” at the awards podium last year. And R.F. Kuang’s speech for winning the Astounding Award was a heartbreaking and genuine condemnation of how unwelcoming our industry still is to those like her — and as it turned out, rather horribly prescient about this year’s ceremony regarding her point about how often people will mangle your name.

I’ve already said a lot about the complete and total train wreck the Hugo Awards Ceremony was elsewhere (there’s far too many entries for me to link to but they’re pretty easy to find on my Twitter timeline). But I’m still furious. From the constant tech issues to George R.R. Martin’s embarrassing and insulting mispronunciation of finalists’ names,–including FIYAH, several white folks, and nearly every single BIPOC–to the near complete erasure of New Zealand’s own SF/F community and Indigenous people, to the needlessly punishing run time of over three and a half hours–more than half of which can be attributed to the self-aggrandizing racist sexist transphobic ramblings of GRRM and Robert Silverberg–the one night of the year that was meant to honor the finalists as some of the best and brightest of SF/F was instead a dull backward-looking sloppy affair that in no way reflected the actual professionalism, vitality, and bright future of our field.

This is on top of the fact that CoNZealand itself was plagued with inconsistent communications to attendees and finalists, badly arranged and often whitewashed programming, mistreatment of BIPOC and other marginalized folks, and a host of other problems. While the pandemic has made event running more complicated, so many of these problems could have been avoided because we’ve been here before.

(And no, “professionalism” is not mutually exclusive with “fan/volunteer-run” events.)

This was the first Worldcon for a lot of folks. This was the first time a lot of people were finalists. And instead of joyous welcome and basic standards of consideration and respect, they got condescension and dismissal. We all deserved so much better.

Suffice to say, there’s more than enough blame to go around. As a professional for whom none of this is new, GRRM could have asked the ceremony organizers for a pronunciation guide for everyone’s names–I don’t recall being asked to provide pronunciation for my name, but even if I had been, it apparently wouldn’t have mattered because the con only provided guidance on a few names. It’s tempting to put all the blame on one person, but there were a lot of poor choices based on ill-considered priorities by those with decision-making powers. They could have asked for re-recordings with people’s names pronounced correctly. They could’ve provided GRRM and Silverberg with scripts and time limits–and if they’d said no, thanked them for their time and gone with someone else. Instead the organizers chose to prioritize not inconveniencing two old white men at the expense of all the people who their ceremony was supposed to honor. This was another in a disappointingly long line of systemic failures within Worldcon organization and culture, which is an extension of the systemic failures in SF/F itself.

Every person who poured their energy and good will into volunteering for this con, who offered advice and assistance that was ignored and dismissed, who went out of their way to try to patch holes and fix fuck ups so the con wasn’t a complete disaster, is owed a huge apology. We all are (and no, that “statement” CoNZealand put out isn’t anything close to an actual apology).

In my acceptance speech, I said this:

I really hope that the organizers for Discon III, Chicon 8, and every other Worldcon bid take a good long look at who Worldcons have actually been prioritizing and how those choices have consequences, because if they don’t, this is just going to keep happening again and again, until fans and creators throw up their hands and turn elsewhere. These repeated fuck ups aren’t from any lack of trying by folks who can see these oncoming wrecks and try desperately to change tracks; they’re from a continued refusal by those in position of power to listen or do anything that constitutes real change that would be upsetting to the folks they actually prioritize (read: not marginalized folks, no matter how many awards and critical acclaim we may garner ourselves). Conrunners (and other folks with privilege and visibility in SF/F) have power, and with it comes a responsibility to be aware of how their choices can change everything.

I don’t think I can end on a better note than Jeannette’s acceptance speech this year. The entire speech is brilliant, but these portions in particular resonate strongly:

And for those who’d like to see all the delightful moments from the awards (because they were there! I promise! They were just sandwiched between the bloviating dusty reminiscing of old men desperately trying to reassert their primacy), an enterprising soul created a cut of the ceremony “When the Toastmaster Talks Less.”

Transcript:

Thank you to everyone who voted for and has supported Uncanny! It’s an honor to share this category with the teams behind Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, Fireside, FIYAH, and Strange Horizons, who are all doing stellar and inspiring work in SF/F. This Hugo Award is especially meaningful because 2019 was my last year of eligibility as part of Uncanny’s staff. I can’t express how grateful I am to have this award as an end cap to my time with Uncanny. 

To all my 2019 Uncanny teammates, thank you for everything. I’m so proud of the work that we did together, and thankful to have contributed to such an amazing publication and community alongside you all. I’m especially excited to see how Chimie is now making the role of Managing Editor her own, and am so lucky to have gotten the chance to know her while we were on staff together. 

Being Uncanny’s Managing and Nonfiction Editor was life changing, and while I took many lessons from my time on staff, the most meaningful one to me is this: when you have the means to widen the doorway & bring others up with you, especially if you have power and privilege: DO IT. We have a responsibility to be aware of the power we have and how we choose to use it because those choices can change everything. Keep choosing wisely, Space Unicorns. I will always believe in you. Thank you so much.

My portion of the speech begins at 2:43, but please listen to Chimie’s speech preceding mine. She’s part of the future of SF/F and her speech is important.

Thank you again, everyone.

Imagining Revolutionary Worlds
Friday, February 28, 2:00-3:00pm, S503
Description: What does it mean for stories to feature new worlds and possibilities, rather than glorified replicas of a past or present we already know? A panel of scifi/fantasy authors dive into what it takes to create revolutionary visions and why it matters to have stories that inspire us to imagine worlds beyond the boundaries of our own experiences and realities.

I’ll be joined by panelists:

Maurice Broaddus: A community organizer and teacher, his work has appeared in magazines like Lightspeed Magazine, Weird Tales, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Asimov’s, Cemetery Dance, Uncanny Magazine, with some of his stories having been collected in The Voices of Martyrs. His books include the urban fantasy trilogy, The Knights of Breton Court, the steampunk novella, Buffalo Soldier, the steampunk novel, Pimp My Airship, and the middle grade detective novel, The Usual Suspects. As an editor, he’s worked on Dark Faith, Dark Faith: Invocations, Streets of Shadows, People of Colo(u)r Destroy Horror, and Apex Magazine. Learn more at MauriceBroaddus.com.

Nino Cipri: Nino Cipri is a queer and trans/nonbinary writer, editor, and educator. They are a graduate of the 2014 Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and earned their MFA in fiction from the University of Kansas in 2019. A multidisciplinary artist, Nino has also written plays, screenplays, and radio features; performed as a dancer, actor, and puppeteer; and worked as a stagehand, bookseller, bike mechanic, and labor organizer.

Ada Palmer: Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series (Tor Books) explores a future of borderless nations and globally commixing populations. The first volume Too Like the Lightning was a Best Novel Hugo finalist, and won the Compton Crook Award, while Ada received the Campbell Award. She teaches history at the University of Chicago, studying the Renaissance, Enlightenment, heresy, atheism, and censorship. She composes music including the Viking mythology cycle Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok, and performs with the group Sassafrass. She studies anime/manga, especially Osamu Tezuka, post-WWII manga and feminist manga, and consults for anime and manga publishers. She blogs at ExUrbe.com.

Gabriel D Vidrine: Gabriel D Vidrine is a transmasculine writer, dancer, scientist, and software engineer. They’ve written multiple essays and have published their first novel, On a Summer Night with Nine Star Press, as well as winning “Editor’s Choice” in The Dark Crystal prequel competition. They manage to squeeze in writing between dancing with Raks Geek, traveling the country to teach belly dance, and the day job.

Suzanne Walker: Suzanne Walker is a Chicago-based writer and editor. She is co-creator of the graphic novel Mooncakes (Lion Forge, October 2019) with artist Wendy Xu. Her short fiction has been published in Clarkesworld, and she has published nonfiction articles with Uncanny Magazine, StarTrek.com, Women Write About Comics, and the anthology Barriers and Belonging: Personal Narratives of Disability. She has spoken at numerous conventions on a variety of topics ranging from disability representation in sci-fi/fantasy to the importance of fair compensation for marginalized SF/F creators. You can find her posting pictures of her cat and occasionally yelling about baseball on Twitter: @suzusaur.

These Geeks Fight Fascism
Friday, February 28, 4:30-5:30pm, S405B
Description: Bigotry should have no place in fandom, but that hasn’t stopped various hate movements from taking root in our spaces. So what can fans do to combat hate and bigotry in this current political climate? Professionals from across geek media will talk about how we can protect fandom spaces while also celebrating the geeky things we love.

I’ll be joined by panelists:

Meha Ahmad: Meha Ahmad is a producer for WBEZ’s The Morning Shift. Before making the switch to radio and coming to WBEZ, Meha worked for the international news outlet Al Jazeera in Washington, D.C. as a news and field producer. There she covered everything from arts and entertainment to U.S. foreign policy to race relations in America. After five years of covering Washington politics, Meha joined the Morning Shift team to help foster conversations that affect her hometown.

Keidra Chaney: Keidra Chaney is the co-founder and publisher of pop culture web publication The Learned Fangirl which has amplified marginalized voices in fandom critical writing and scholarship since 2008. She has written about pop culture, fan culture and social technology issues for Chicago Sun Times, Paste, Bitch Media, The Organization for Transformative Works, and Uncanny Magazine. She has been interviewed about media and pop culture for Chicago Public Radio, WGN Radio – Chicago and  KPCC Radio – Southern California, and spoken at conferences including Pop Culture Association of the South Annual Conference, Experience Music Project Pop Conference, Experience Music Project Pop Conference, and the Media in Transition conference at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mariella Colon: Mariella Colon is a librarian in the Adult Services department of the Chicago Public Library. Born in Chicago, she grew up in a large family in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. She is a co-chair of the Games Team, a group of library staff focused on utilizing design thinking to appeal to an emerging adult audience. She also launched the Community Cinema project, a program that helps libraries highlight films starring people of color. She is an avid reader, film watcher, traveler and gamer.

Karlyn Meyer: Karlyn Meyer is a former singer-songwriter with a career in legal education. You can find her writing in Lady Science, Uncanny Magazine, legal publications, and small video games. She spends her dwindling free time as a community organizer, volunteer, and speaker. Other passions include friendship and learning new things with her endlessly curious kid. She tweets @karlyn_darlin.

Dawn Xiana Moon: Dawn Xiana Moon is the Founder/Director of Raks Geek, a nerd-themed bellydance and fire company that’s been featured on MSN, UK Channel 4 TV, and more. She herself was just named “Best Stage Performer” and “Best Dancer” by the Chicago Reader, as well as runner-up for “Best Singer-Songwriter.” She is also a UX designer and writer.

Since both my panels are on Friday, I’m looking forward to having all of Saturday and Sunday to wander the con and catch up with friends and colleagues! Looking forward to see everyone there!

I’m proud to announce that I’ve accepted a position with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as their Editor-in-Chief! Here’s the official announcement:

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) is pleased to announce that Michi Trota will be the new SFWA Editor-in-Chief. The position was previously held by Neil Clarke, who stepped down earlier this year. SFWA thanks Clarke for his efforts guiding The Bulletin since joining SFWA’s staff in 2016.

Trota is a four-time Hugo Award winner, British Fantasy Award winner, and the first Filipina to win a Hugo Award. She is co-editor of the upcoming WisCon Chronicles Vol. 12 with Isabel Schechter (May 2020) and served as Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy’s Managing Editor (2014-2019) and Nonfiction Editor (2019). Her nonfiction has been published in The Book Smugglers, Invisible: An Anthology of Representation in SF/F, and Chicago Magazine, and she was the exhibit text writer of Worlds Beyond Here: Expanding the Universe of APA Science Fiction (2018-2019) at the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle, WA. She’s spoken at C2E2, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and on NPR. Trota is a firespinner with the Raks Geek Fire+Bellydance troupe, past president of the Chicago Nerd Social Club Board of Organizers, and lives in Chicago with her spouse and their two cats.

SFWA President, Mary Robinette Kowal said, “After a candidate search, the board selected Michi Trota to head our publications. We were all impressed with her vision and understanding of how the magazine could serve, not just the SFWA members, but the larger science-fiction and fantasy community. I am very much looking forward to working with her as we revitalize the Bulletin.”

The Editor-in-Chief is the official publisher of one of SFWA’s key communications vehicles, The Bulletin, and provides oversight and direction regarding SFWA publications and communications that help shape and maintain the organization’s reputation. This critical position is responsible to help facilitate SFWA’s goals and mission statement of informing, supporting, promoting, defending and advocating for its members.

“I’m thrilled by this incredible opportunity to take the helm of SFWA’s publications,” Trota said. “It’s an honor to step into the role of SFWA Editor-in-Chief and I look forward to working with Mary Robinette Kowal and the rest of the SFWA Board and staff.”

Trota will be the 20th Editor-in-Chief in SFWA’s 54-year history, and is the first Person of Color to serve as the organization’s Editor-in-Chief. Aside from her considerable work within SF/F, Trota also brings over 25 years of editorial and production experience in publishing and communications, particularly working with associations, educational institutions, and the arts community.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. was founded in 1965 by the American science fiction author Damon Knight and was originally named Science Fiction Writers of America. In 1991, the name of the organization was changed to Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, although the acronym SFWA was not changed. In 2013, the members of the organization voted to reincorporate in California, effectively beginning a new 501(c)3 public charity. Activities of the old Massachusetts corporation officially merged into the new California corporation as of July 1st, 2014. Today, SFWA is home to nearly 1900 authors, artists, and allied professionals, and is widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers’ organizations in existence. Learn more about SFWA at sfwa.org; you can also follow SFWA on Facebook and Twitter.

I’d like to again thank Mary Robinette and the SFWA Board & Staff for their confidence in my abilities and for giving me this phenomenal opportunity. And I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the many people who have helped me grow and evolve not just as an editor and professional in SF/F, but also shared their experiences and knowledge that’s helped me to be a better, more thoughtful, and aware person. I hope I do you all proud.

SFWA provides a lot of vital resources for SF/F writers, and I’m so very excited to take on this new challenge! 2020 is going to be far busier than I anticipated, but I’m determined to do my best. It’s going to be a hell of a new adventure!

(Yes, I can hear those of you in the back who are remembering what I said about taking a break before diving into something new, go ahead and say “I told you so.” I was wrong, my dance card filled up again far faster than I thought it would!)

In many ways, 2019 was a year of transition for me in SF/F. Early in the year, I announced that 2019 would be my last year on Uncanny Magazine‘s editorial staff, and much of the year was spent setting things in place for that change. I’m so pleased with how I was able to spend this last year on Uncanny and am excited to see what Elsa Sjunneson-Henry (Nonfiction Editor), Chimedum Ohaegbu (Managing Editor), and Angel Cruz (Assistant Editor) will do in Year 6 of the magazine.

Uncanny continues to be a project that I’m incredibly thankful to have been part of, so I’m pleased to share that Uncanny is once again eligible for the Best Semiprozine Hugo Award. Uncanny had a fantastic Year Five, with phenomenal cover art and more gorgeous, passionate, experimental fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including the special Disabled People Destroy Fantasy issue (#30), guest edited by Katharine Duckett (Fiction Editor), Nicolette Barischoff (Nonfiction Editor), and Lisa Bradley (Poetry Editor). I couldn’t have asked for a better year of incredible SF/F to end my time with the magazine.

I’m particularly proud of the nonfiction we published in 2019, which was my first year of holding the official title of Nonfiction Editor at Uncanny. As I was Nonfiction Editor for five out of six issues in 2019, this makes me eligible for consideration in the Best Editor (Short Form) Hugo Award category as well.

The original essays I edited for Uncanny in the 2019 issues 26, 27, 28, 29, and 31 include:

• “How to Make a Paper Crane” by Elsa Sjunneson-Henry
• “What It Feels Like for a Fangirl in the Age of Late Capitalism” by Keidra Chaney
• “The Most Powerful Force” by Alec Nevala-Lee
• “Courage to the Sticking Place: Connecting SF/F Students With Creators” by Tracy Townsend
• “All in Good Fun: How Fanfiction Reignited My Passion for Writing” by Briana Lawrence
• “‘We Are What They Grow Beyond’: Star Wars and the Extended Universe” by Suzanne Walker
• “That Never Happened: Misplaced Skepticism and the Mechanisms of Suspension of Disbelief” by Marissa Lingen
• “Black Horror Rising” by Tananarive Due
• “Everyone’s World Is Ending All the Time: notes on becoming a climate resilience planner at the edge of the anthropocene” by Arkady Martine
• “Toy Stories” by Gwenda Bond
• “‘You Have Only Your Trust in Me’: Star Trek and the Power of Mutual Belief” by Nicasio Andres Reed
• “The Gang’s All Here: Writing Lessons from The Good Place“ by Tansy Rayner Roberts
• “The Better Place” by Karlyn Ruth Meyer
• “Was Trials of Mana Worth Growing Up For?” by Aidan Moher
• “Sir Elsa of Tortall, Knight of the Realm” by Elsa Sjunneson-Henry
• “Beware the Lifeboat” by Marissa Lingen
• “If You’ve Heard This One Before” by Brandon O’Brien
• “The Science, Fiction, and Fantasy of Genre” by Alexandra Erin
• “The Page and the Panel: Writing Between Prose and Comics” by G. Willow Wilson
• “As You Know, Bob…” by Jeannette Ng
• “Confessions of an Adjacent Geek” by Keidra Chaney

This is a total of 21 original essays over the span of five issues, and I’m so very proud of them all. I should note that each of these essays is also eligible for the Best Related Work Hugo Award, and counts toward the authors’ eligibility for the Best Fan Writer Hugo Award. Please give them a read, this is some stellar nonfiction writing by some amazing creators.

I’m admittedly disappointed in myself that I didn’t do much writing this year outside of editorials (although I did have my first piece of food writing published, which was my first piece of non-SF/F work in a very long time), but there’s no denying 2019 was a busy year! There’s always next year, but for now, I’m going to take my own advice and say that I’m very, very proud of what I was able to accomplish in 2019, I’m thrilled I did work that is eligible for the next Hugo Awards, and I deeply appreciate your consideration. Thank you.

And please be sure to listen to the Uncanny Magazine Podcast: Episode 31A which is live today with the Editors’ intro, “Nutrition Facts”by D.A. Xiaolin Spires as read by Joy Piedmont, “Without a Prayer or the Place in the Forest”by Sonya Taaffe as read by Erika Ensign, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing D.A. Xiaolin Spires. (Episode 31B goes live on Tuesday, December 3, 2019).

You can read my goodbye editorial for the issue online, and you can be sure I’ll be having further thoughts (and FEELINGS!!!) about it on Twitter (already had a few tweets after seeing this beautiful thread by new Assistant Editor Angel Cruz).

I again want to thank Editors-in-Chief/Publishers Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas for giving me what will always be one of the most incredible opportunities of my life. Thank you to podcast extraordinares Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky, Caroline M. Yoachim, Joy Piedmont, Chimedum Ohaegbu, the amazing roster of Submissions Editors, and to all the former Uncanny staff–all of you have been an inspiration and source of joy for the last five years, and I’m so lucky to have known and worked with you all. I can’t imagine where I’d be without Team Uncanny, and I’m grateful to have learned from everyone’s professionalism and passion, and for the gift of your friendships.

A special thank you to my husband Jesse Lex, who was also part of Uncanny for the first three years as a Submissions Editor, and who’s been my rock throughout countless late nights and endless cups of coffee and tea. I’m so glad I got to start my Uncanny journey with him on board as a Space Unicorn, and his support and love throughout helped make this whole experience possible for me.

I hope you’ll all join me in supporting Uncanny‘s team for Year Six, especially new Assistant Editor Angel Cruz, new Managing Editor Chimedum Ohaegbu, and new Nonfiction Editor Elsa Sjunneson-Henry (whose first issue will be Jan/Feb 2020/Issue 32). I’m so sad to be leaving the team but so excited to see what you’ll all do next, because it’ll be AMAZING. Maraming salamat, you fabulous, stupendous, cosmically-awesome Space Unicorns!

Dublin 2019, the 77th World Science Fiction Convention, is in two weeks! I’m so excited to go, as this will be the first trip to Dublin for myself and Jesse, and the first time we’ll have visited Europe together. If you’ll be at the convention, you can find me on the following program items:

Friday, August 16, 2019

How creators and fans respond to political unrest
11:30am-12:20pm | Point Square: Odeon 2
The political climate has always influenced creators and their output – for better and for worse – and fans have responded accordingly. Have the ways in which political influences are felt changed over the years? Are creators’ responses ever at odds with their fans, or vice versa?
John R. Douglas (M), Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Michi Trota, David Cartwright, Julia Rios

Cultural appropriation: a product of a shrinking world?
2:00-2:50pm | CCD: Liffey Hall-2
White SFF authors have historically appropriated other cultures to add depth and excitement to their characters: The Wheel of Time takes the culture of POC and gives it to the Aiel, and Frank Herbert appropriates Islam and applies it to the Fremen. With relatively easy access to travel and digital information these days, how can we make use of a range of influences while avoiding cultural appropriation?
Dr Wanda Kurtçu (M), Michi Trota, Fulvio Gatti

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Kaffeeklatsch: Michi Trota
2:00-2:50pm | CCD: Level 3 Foyer

Creating healthy fannish communities
3:00-3:50pm | CCD: Wicklow Room-3
Gatekeeping and other toxic behaviours are easy to slip into and unfortunately have become entrenched in some fan communities. What can we do to combat these and, more importantly, prevent them from becoming dominant in the first place? Our panelists will strategise ways to keep these behaviours from taking root, so that we can have the positive, accepting, and diverse fan cultures that we deserve.
Meg Frank (M), Elio García Jr., Bruno Puelles, Michi Trota

(Alas! This panel is scheduled against the Asian fans/creators meet up so I’m quite sorry I’m going to miss it this year.)

Hugo Awards Reception
6:00-8:00pm |The Convention Centre Dublin

Hugo Awards Ceremony
8:00-10:00pm |The Convention Centre Dublin

You can view the complete Dublin 2019 schedule here.

I look forward to seeing my friends, colleagues, and fellow finalists, and being able to celebrate our accomplishments together. Come by and say hello!

And now THE KICKSTARTER for UNCANNY YEAR 6: RAISE THE ROOF, RAISE THE RATES!

Over the last few years, Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas ran Kickstarters for the three-time Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine Years One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. We promised to bring you stunning cover art, passionate science fiction and fantasy fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, and provocative nonfiction by writers from every conceivable background. Not to mention a fantastic award-winning podcast featuring exclusive content. 

Through the hard work of our exceptional staff and contributors, Uncanny Magazine delivered on that promise every single year. Stories from Uncanny Magazine have been finalists or winners of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards! 

The Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, our name for the Uncanny Magazine community, made it possible for our remarkable staff and contributors to create this wonderful art for all of our readers via the web or as eBooks. THANK YOU, SPACE UNICORNS, FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to join or re-up with the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, now’s your chance! We need your help to continue this mission for another year. This is your magazine, Space Unicorns! Let’s make Year Six happen! 

This year, we’re also back with a new mission for the ranger corps: RAISING OUR PAY RATES! We’ve been running Uncanny Magazine for five years with basically the exact same pay rates for all of our creators and staff. We think it’s time to pay all of these fabulous people a little bit more for their amazing creations.

Though Uncanny continues to have multiple ways to support us, we still need the help of the Space Unicorn Kickstarter community to keep bringing you this amazing content. 

YOUR support specifically makes it possible for us to make our fiction freely available on our website. 

We have put together a fabulous lineup of solicited contributors for Year Six!

ORIGINAL SHORT FICTION

• Elizabeth Bear
• Aliette de Bodard
• Jennifer Marie Brissett
• Tina Connolly
• Paul Cornell
• A. T.  Greenblatt
• Cassandra Khaw
• Ken Liu
• Vina Jie-Min Prasad
• Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam 
• Ursula Vernon

POETRY CONTRIBUTORS

• Betsy Aoki
• Leah Bobet
• Beth Cato
• Ada Hoffmann
• Annie Neugebauer
• D.A. Xiaolin Spires
• Hal Y. Zhang

ESSAYS

• Meg Elison
• Hillary Monahan
• Brandon O’Brien
• Malka Older
• Ada Palmer
• Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
• Fran Wilde 

There will also be slots for unsolicited submissions (we reopen soon after we reach our first funding milestone).  We remain deeply committed to finding and showcasing new voices in our genre from around the world.  We at Uncanny think we’re doing important work, and we’d like to continue. Please consider supporting Uncanny Magazine Year Six!  

How We’ll Use the Funding: 

Our funding goal ($18,700) is for the current version of Uncanny.This goal pays for the six issues of Uncanny Year Six, including (at minimum) per issue:

• 25,000 words of new fiction (5-6 stories, depending on length)
• A reprint story
• Reprint cover art
• 4 new poems
• 4 new nonfiction essays
• 2 new interviews  

This is the size the magazine has grown to thanks to ongoing community support. Our Year Six budget for this Kickstarter reflects our current content levels. We currently pay our writers $.08 per word for original fiction, our poets $30 per poem, our essayists $60 per essay, and our artists $100 per reprinted artwork.   In addition to paying our content contributors (upon acceptance!), our initial Year Six budget includes: 

• Paying our staff (Editors-in Chief, Managing Editor, Nonfiction Editor, Podcast Producers and Readers, Interviewer, and our Assistant Editor)
• Podcast production and hosting costs
• Office costs (accounting & layout software, hardware, promotion, etc.)
• Website hosting and maintenance costs
• Backer rewards production & mailing
• ​Kickstarter fees and taxes

Our Year One, Two, Three, Four, and Five backers were so generous we reached all our stretch goals! Our awesome backers also sponsored several pieces of original cover art last year. 

Year Six Stretch Goals:

• $19,700- Original cover art from Galen Dara
• $22,000- Original cover art from Nilah Magruder
• $25,000- Original cover art from Kirbi Fagan
• $26,000- Increase Essay Pay Rate to $75 per essay
• $27,000- Increase Poetry Pay Rate to $40 per poem
• $30,000- Increase Original Short Story Pay Rate to $.09 per word
• $31,000- Increase Reprint Short Story Pay Rate to $.02 per word
• $34,000- Increase Staff Payments   

Uncanny Magazine Year 6 Staff:

• Publishers & Editors-in-Chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
• Managing Editor Chimedum “Chimie” Ohaegbu
• Nonfiction Editor Michi Trota 
• Nonfiction Editor Elsa Sjunneson-Henry 
• Podcast Producers Steven Schapansky & Erika Ensign 
• Podcast Reader Joy Piedmont 
• Interviewer Caroline M. Yoachim
• Assistant Editor Angel Cruz

We have many fabulous Rewards available! Please check them out! 

We hope you’ll rejoin the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps. Let’s spread more art and kindness throughout the galaxy! 

I made it a point to have a light (for me) schedule at the convention this year, so hopefully I’ll have much more time to socialize and catch up with my friends and colleagues, many of whom I only get to see at WisCon.

On Friday, May 24, I’m excited for Uncanny’s Space Unicorn Party, which runs from 8:45-11:30pm in Room 627. I’ll be joined by Uncanny‘s Assistant Editor Chimedum Ohaegbu, who will be taking over for me next year as Managing Editor. We’ll have snacks, sparkling fruit punch, and of course, the now-famous ube unicorn cakes courtesy of Jennivee’s Bakery. Come raise a toast with me to celebrate what’s been an amazing and wonderful journey as part of Uncanny, and to welcome Chimie, who I know will be a phenomenal successor.

I’m also scheduled for two panels on Saturday, May 25:

• 1-2:15pm: I Loved This Book, What Happened???, Assembly
• 4-5:15pm: THE FANFIC OF THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF THE MOVIE REVIVAL OF THE ACCLAIMED MUSICAL OF THE NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL, Wisconsin

See you this weekend, WisCon!

While I’m excited, I’m also aware that I’m now on a countdown to my final issue as Uncanny‘s Managing Editor & Nonfiction Editor — after Issue 28, I only have two issues left (as Issue 30 for September/October is our special Disabled People Destroy Fantasy issue, with Nicolette Barischoff as Guest Nonfiction Editor). I’m really proud of my time with the magazine, and while I’ve been deeply involved with the nonfiction since day one, 2019 was when I officially took the title of Nonfiction Editor, so I’m particularly excited about sharing the essay Uncanny has published this year and in this new issue.

I’d been meaning to highlight the nonfiction from Uncanny‘s 2019 issues starting in January, but of course life got away from me. So I’m starting with Issue 28 today and will go back in a couple of weeks to highlight the essays Issue 26 and Issue 27 in separate blog posts.

For Issue 28, I had the pleasure of working with Tananarive Due, Arkady Martine, Gwenda Bond, and Nicasio Andres Reed. Both Tananarive’s and Arkady’s essays are now available to read online, while Gwenda’s and Nicasio’s will be available next month on Tuesday, June 4th.

Horror isn’t a genre I’m as familiar with, so I was thrilled when Tananarive agreed to write her essay “Black Horror Rising.” Horror isn’t just about being scared, it can confront some of the most awful truths about our experiences and still provide catharsis and understanding. And what this means when seen and executed through the lens of Black storytellers can be extremely powerful:

“As fans defended the honor of horror in general, I saw echoes of what I believe is also the power of Black Horror—to visualize trauma. To fight back. To try to heal. To seek out survival behaviors in crisis. To face the worst and be able to walk away unscathed… because, unlike the demons in our real lives, it isn’t real. By comparison, in fact, sometimes the real-life demons don’t seem quite as bad. Or sometimes, horror is the only way to help others understand.”

How do you navigate the intersections of the enormity of climate change, planning urban environments that can withstand it, and still write science fiction where there’s still a future in the face of an overwhelming crisis? Arkady Martine’s essay “Everyone’s World Is Ending All the Time: notes on becoming a climate resilience planner at the edge of the anthropocene” argues for the necessity of hope over despair:

But this is what I mean about the apocalyptic being a form of denial. If climate change is so enormous and world-collapsing that it cannot be looked at without screaming in despair, or turning away—if there is only apocalypse, only and now we all die without the promise of and we will all be changed—the rational, self-protective response is to turn away.

But that is denial. And denial is a failure of imagination. And I’m a writer, and a city planner, and my business is imagining the history of the future.

Next month I’ll highlight Gwenda’s essay on writing IP tie-ins and Nicasio’s essay on why it matters that characters default to believing each other in Star Trek.

But if you won’t want to wait til then to read those essays and the rest of Issue 28 online, you can take advantage of Uncanny‘s subscription drive on Weightless Books, which goes through May 15th! For that limited time, you can receive a year’s worth of Uncanny for $2 off the regular price, plus giveaways for new and renewing subscribers as we hit milestones!

If you want to support the magazine and podcast but aren’t interested in an eBook subscription, you can also support us through the Uncanny Magazine Patreon! You can support us for as little as $1 per month, and you can get UNCANNY SWAG and eBooks at other levels!

You can also subscribe through Amazon Kindle! It’s simple and easy and every wonderful Uncanny eBook issue magically arrives on the day of release on your Kindle without any fuss!

As always, thanks for reading and supporting Uncanny!