This is all so very hard.
As most of you know, our daughter Caitlin passed away on April 17, and we are still very raw and in pain. We wrote about our feelings on Black Gate. Caitlin was the absolute best of us. We love her so very much. The Thomases are still living through a series of firsts without her, and it breaks our hearts a bit every time we experience things without her there: smiling, laughing, and letting her opinions be known.
There is a hole at the center of our universe.
We are pushing through each day the best we can with the support and love of our friends, family, and community.
The universe isn’t making things much easier for us, though. The world is on fire, and bad news fills our feeds every day.
BUT! There is also good news! We’re writing this during the final days of the Uncanny Magazine Year 11: This One Goes to ELEVEN! Kickstarter! We are overwhelmed by the generous support of the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps. You not only secured a Year 11 of Uncanny Magazine, you helped us reach every stretch goal! PLUS, you gave us a bit of a cushion to navigate all the ongoing and upcoming publishing problems with lost income from the Big Online Retailer, AI nonsense, the splintering of social media, and the loss of advertising income.
We believe our mission is important, especially at a time when the kinds of things we publish are under attack from authoritarians looking to eliminate marginalized voices. Because of folks giving us financial support, Uncanny Magazine will remain free online and available to all who need it, wherever they live. That is so fucking important.
Thank you, Space Unicorns. You are the very, very best.
Wonderful news, Space Unicorns! “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer won the Best Novelette Hugo Award!! Congratulations to Naomi!!
Once again, congratulations to all of the Uncanny stories that were finalists: “One Man’s Treasure” by Sarah Pinsker was a finalist for the Best Novelette Hugo Award, “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark was a finalist for the Best Short Story Hugo Award, and “The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard was a finalist for the Best Short Story Hugo Award.
Congratulations also to our colleagues at Strange Horizons who won the Best Semiprozine Hugo Award and to Neil Clarke who won the Best Editor Short Form Hugo Award.
It was an amazing list of Hugo Award finalists and winners, many of whom are Uncanny authors and friends. CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYBODY!!! Thank you to everyone who nominated these works, and to the hard-working Glasgow Worldcon staff.
Stupendous news, Space Unicorns! “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark won the Locus Award for Best Short Story!!! Congratulations to P. Djèlí Clark and to all of the finalists!
Once again, congratulations to the other Uncanny Magazine stories that were finalists: “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer (which was a Best Novelette Locus Award finalist), “One Man’s Treasure” by Sarah Pinsker (which was a Best Novelette Locus Award finalist), “Six Versions of My Brother Found Under a Bridge” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (which was a Best Novelette Locus Award finalist), “A Soul in the World” by Charlie Jane Anders (which was a Best Short Story Locus Award finalist), and “The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard (which was a Best Short Story Locus Award finalist)! Congratulations to everyone!!!
But that is not all! Uncanny Magazine won the Locus Award for Best Magazine!!!!!! WE ARE SO EXCITED AND HONORED!!!
Here is the video of Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas’s acceptance speech!
Excellent award news, Space Unicorns!
The World Fantasy Award finalists have been announced! “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark and “Waystation City” by A. T. Greenblatt are finalists for the Best Short Fiction World Fantasy Award! Also, Editors-in-Chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas are finalists for the Special Award–Non-Professional World Fantasy Award for their Uncanny Magazine work! We are thrilled and honored! Congratulations to all of the finalists!
From the press release:
The nominees and lifetime achievement recipients will be honored at the upcoming World Fantasy Convention, to be held in Niagara Falls October 17-20. Winners of the 2023 World Fantasy Awards will be announced at a ceremony hosted by the WFC 2024 committee following an award banquet on Sunday, October 20th. For more information, or to register for the convention, visit WFC2024.org .
Fabulous news, Space Unicorns! “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia and “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer are both finalists for the 2024 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction!!!! Congratulations to Rhonda, Naomi, and to all of the finalists!
From their website:
The Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction ( or Eugie Award) celebrates the best in innovative fiction. This annual award is presented at Dragon Con, the nation’s largest fan-run convention. Starting with the 2020, we will add a video presentation of the award online, along with a reading of a section of each finalist.
The Eugie Award honors stories that are irreplaceable, that inspire, enlighten, and entertain. We will be looking for stories that are beautiful, thoughtful, and passionate, and change us and the field. The recipient is a story that is unique and will become essential to speculative fiction readers.
Tremendous news, Space Unicorns! “Six Versions of My Brother Found Under the Bridge” by Eugenia Triantafyllou won the Best Novelette Shirley Jackson Award! Congratulations to Eugenia, and to all of the phenomenal finalists!
From the Shirley Jackson Awards website:
Boston, MA (June 2024)— In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, The Shirley Jackson Awards, Inc. has been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.
The Shirley Jackson Awards are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics.
Spectacular news, Space Unicorns! “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia and “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer are Sturgeon Memorial Award finalists!!! Congratulations to Rhonda, Naomi, and to all of the finalists!
From Locus Magazine:
Established in 1987 by James Gunn and the heirs of Theodore Sturgeon, including his partner Jayne Engelhart Tannehill and Sturgeon’s children, the Sturgeon Award is “a memorial to one of the great short-story writers in a field distinguished by its short fiction.”
The winner, who will be announced later this summer, will receive a cash prize as guest of honor at the third annual Sturgeon Symposium , October 24-25, 2024. For more information, see the Gunn Center’s website .
Fabulous news, Space Unicorns! “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia is a finalist for a Best Short Story Ignyte Award! Congratulations to R.S.A. Garcia!!
Also, congratulations to Uncanny Magazine Assistant Editor Tania Chen! Tania’s essay “Symmetry, Horror, and Identity” is an Ignyte Award finalist for Outstanding Creative Nonfiction!!
It is a fabulous ballot! Congratulations to all of the finalists!
From the Ignyte Award website:
Voting for the 2024 awards will close August 31st, 2024 at 11:59PM EDT.
The short list is derived from 20 BIPOC+ voters made up of SFF community members and previous award winners, of varying genders, sexualities, cultures, disabilities, and locations throughout the world. They are referred to as the Ignyte Awards Committee. The kidlit categories (Young Adult and Middle Grade) each had an additional 5 judges from the age demographics ideally targeted by each of those categories. We thank those kids and their guardians for participation in this process. No active staff members of FIYAH Literary Magazine work with or administer the Ignyte Awards.
The Committee was not limited to selections authored or otherwise created by BIPOC. Public voting on the shortlist does not permit write-in nominations. Each year, we ask winners to be part of the subsequent year’s committee to ensure fresh perspectives and to help prevent repeated nominations of the same popular authors as recognized in many other genre awards.
This year’s winners will be announced on November 6th.
And now the contents of Uncanny Magazine Issue 60! Our amazing cover is La Musica by John Picacio. Our fabulous new fiction includes “Cursed Moon Queers” by Natalia Theodoridou, “The 6% Squeeze” by Eddie Robson, “Another Girl Under the Iron Bell” by Angela Liu, “A Stranger Knocks” by Tananarive Due, “¡Sangronas! Un Lista de Terror” by M. M. Olivas, “A Menu of First Favorite Meals” by Jo Miles, and “The Wrong Time Travel Story” by Marissa Lingen.
Our provocative and compelling essays this month include “It’s a Wonderful (Doctor Who) Life” by Sophie Aldred, “Growing Up in Fiction” by Yamile Saied Méndez, “Scalzi on Film: 20th Century Cinematic Science Fiction Starter Pack” by John Scalzi, and “The Liminality of Community Loss” by LaShawn M. Wanak. Our gorgeous and evocative poetry includes “The Witch Recalls Her Craft” by Angel Leal, “To Hunt a Chimera” by Mikal Wix, “Dreams On A Tamarind Road” by Prosper C. Ìféányí, and “Festival of Scales and Teeth” by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga. Finally, Caroline M. Yoachim interviews Angela Liu and M. M. Olivas about their stories.
The Uncanny Magazine Podcast episode 60A features “Cursed Moon Queers” by Natalia Theodoridou, as read by Erika Ensign, “The 6% Squeeze” by Eddie Robson, as read by Matt Peters, “The Wrong Time Travel Story” by Marissa Lingen, as read by Erika Ensign, “Dreams on a Tamarind Road” by Prosper C. Ìféányí, as read by Matt Peters, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Eddie Robson. The Uncanny Magazine Podcast episode 60B features “A Stranger Knocks” by Tananarive Due, as read by Matt Peters, “The Witch Recalls Her Craft” by Angel Leal, as read by Erika Ensign, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Tananarive Due.
As always, we are deeply grateful for your support of Uncanny Magazine. Shine on, Space Unicorns!
© 2024 Uncanny Magazine
Lynne and Michael are the Publishers/Editors-in-Chief of Uncanny Magazine.
Ten-time Hugo, British Fantasy, and 2-time Parsec Award-winner Lynne M. Thomas was the Editor-in-Chief of Apex Magazine (2011-2013). She co-edited the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords (with Tara O’Shea) and Hugo Award-finalist Chicks Dig Comics (with Sigrid Ellis).
Seven-time Hugo, British Fantasy, and Parsec Award-winner Michael Damian Thomas was the former Managing Editor of Apex Magazine (2012-2013), co-edited the Hugo-finalist Queers Dig Time Lords (with Sigrid Ellis), and co-edited Glitter & Mayhem (with John Klima and Lynne M. Thomas).
Together, they solve mysteries.