World SF Blog to merge with The Portal; Expand Operations

The World Fantasy Award nominated World SF Blog has joined forces with online review site The Portal. The Portal, edited by Val Grimm, focuses on short fiction reviews and author interviews, with an extensive focus on international writing. The Portal will be merged into the World SF Blog, incorporating its backlog of original material while continuing to offer new features as part of the WSB.

WSB Editor-in-Chief Lavie Tidhar said, “I’ve admired what Val and her team have been doing since founding the Portal. It has quickly become one of the two or three most important sites anywhere in the world to cover international genre fiction, and I am honoured that they have chosen to incorporate their hard work, passion and dedication into the World SF Blog.”

The Portal Editor-in-Chief Val Grimm said, “Lavie and Charles have done a tremendous amount to help foster a new era of crosspollination and cooperation between genre fiction writers and editors from around the world. I feel that it will further our shared goals to combine our efforts, and am honoured that they have chosen to join forces.”

In addition, the World SF Blog plans to restart its fiction publishing programme, again focusing on international writers. Debbie Moorhouse will join the WSB as fiction editor with immediate effect. Debbie is a former editor of GUD Magazine, managed submissions at NFG and was an assistant editor at Strange Horizons. Lavie Tidhar said, “Debbie is a great addition to our growing team, and will bring a keen editorial eye and an appreciation of international fiction to our relaunched fiction programme.”

Since the founding of the World SF Blog in early 2009,World SF has become something of a phenomenon, with international genre fiction increasingly getting coverage in the genre media and international authors appearing on bookshelves and in short story magazines, and with genre conventions increasingly incorporating the topic into their programming. Tidhar’s The Apex Book of World SF anthology was the first English-language collection of international genre stories in the 21st century, and is set to be followed by The Apex Book of World SF 2 in early 2012.

“This is a very exciting time to be a reader,” Tidhar said. “With more choice than ever before. There are wonderful writers all around the world, and our mission is to bring their work to the attention of a wider audience. With Charles Tan remaining as contributing editor, and with the help of Val and Debbie, I believe the WSB will not only remain the premier source of information on international SF/F, but continue to grow and expand in serving the global community.”

Past contributors to the anthologies or to the WSB have included Lauren Beukes, Aliette de Bodard, Anil Menon, Hannu Rajaniemi, Ekaterina Sedia, Zoran Živković, and many others.

For more information please e-mail worldsfblog@gmail.com