It is my pleasure to announce that Cheryl Morgan (of Hugo-winning site Emerald City fame) has joined the staff of Clarkesworld Magazine as Non-Fiction Editor. Cheryl brings with her years of valuable experience and I look forward to working with her in the months ahead. At this time, I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to Ekaterina Sedia, who so graciously served as our interim editor since late summer. It is my hope that we will have the opportunity to work together again soon.
Tag: non-fiction
In July, I surveyed readers of this blog to find out what people were looking for in an online magazine. At that point, I was secretly considering moving Clarkesworld to a weekly format that spread an issue out over a few weeks. I changed my mind when only 15% of those surveyed wanted something more frequent than monthly. (Monthly took nearly 30% of the votes.) Two other categories in this poll probably skewed those numbers: “Doesn’t matter, I’ll read on my own schedule” and “Give me RSS and I’ll read as posted”.
End result: Clarkesworld will stay a monthly publication and now has an RSS feed.
The next question was about content. No big surprise that the overwhelming majority of people wanted new fiction. Interviews and reviews ran neck in neck with nearly 2/3rds of the responders expressing interest in these. Commentary came in next with 42% of the vote. All the other categories interested less than one third.
End result: Clarkesworld is expanding beyond its two pieces of fiction. The first part of that expansion is online now. We’ve added interviews and commentary. This month:
Dangerous Offspring: An Interview with Steph Swainston by Jeff Vandermeer
Making Science Fictionistas by Chris Garcia
Making Science Fictionistas by Chris Garcia
All non-fiction columns will allow for reader response in a typical blog-like fashion. I’m still tweaking this, so feedback is welcome. I haven’t decided whether or not to do this with the fiction. Opinions?
I’ve also made a few cosmetic changes to the site. Now that we have a year’s worth of content on the site, the navigation needed to be tweaked a bit. I’ve also added a cover art gallery since people seem to really get a kick out of the pieces we’ve selected.
And that’s just the beginning…
If you have trouble reaching Clarkesworld Magazine over the next couple of days, it’s due to some changes I’ve had to do with the DNS entries for the website. It should be resolved by the end of the weekend. It might even be working for you now.
If everything looks like it’s working properly, I’ll make a few more updates on Sunday so we can start running the non-fiction pieces on the site.
-Neil
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The first issue of our second year is now available… or at least the part you’ve come to expect is. Later this month, we’ll be adding some non-fiction to our lineup. I had planned to make everything available tonight, but this past week tossed a few obstacles at me. The non-fiction side of Clarkesworld will allow for reader response, much like a blog. The way I see it, there isn’t much point in doing an online magazine with non-fiction unless people can respond to it. So, give me a couple of weeks and you’ll see the first of a few changes in place.
For now you can run off and enjoy… A Dance Across Embers
by Lisa Mantchev and Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-realist Aswang by Kristen Mandigma |