2009 summaries: Expanded Horizons

Expanded Horizons have just posted their list of 2009 stories by international writers – I’ll just quote from their post:

This list only includes people from non-Anglo-Saxon countries or people who immigrated to said countries (but not people whose parents did) either as adults or as children. American/UK/etc. expats are not included. People from Anglophonic but non-Anglo-Saxon countries, i.e., where English is one of the official languages (such as the Philippines or India), are also included.

We present 17 stories overall, 6 of those by immigrants to Anglo-Saxon countries. 13 separate authors (5 of them immigrants to Anglo-Saxon countries). These make up approximately 35% of our published stories this year. As you can see, you need not be US- or UK-based to successfully submit to us!

We published the most stories by authors from the Philippines (4 stories, 3 authors) and India (4 stories, 3 authors), followed by Israel and Mexico (2-2 stories, by one author). We’ve received a lot of links and mentions from the Philippines blogosphere – we’d like to thank everyone who linked to us, and we will always remain open to great Filipino/a stories!

Stories are listed in the order of appearance.

Only the Song by Christine Lucas (Greek)

The Sun Diary by Lavie Tidhar (Israeli)

A Mother’s Dilemma by Jasmin Nanda (Indian)

Memories of my Sister by Aliette de Bodard (French-Vietnamese)

King of Sand and Stormy Seas by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican immigrant to the US)

Night Out by Eliza Victoria (Filipina)

Bhima by Ajay Vishwanathan (Indian)

Slip Road by Tade Thompson (Nigerian living in the UK)

Alienation and Love in the Hebrew Alphabet by Lavie Tidhar (Israeli)

Sinking Palaces by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican immigrant to the US)

The Second Mrs. Sharma by Bindia Persaud (Guyanese immigrant to Canada)

A Texture Beyond Dreams by Swapna Kishore (Indian)

Haunted Persuasion by Lilian Wu (Singaporean)

I Am the City by Eliza Victoria (Filipina)

A Memory of Ice by Bint Arab (Iraqi immigrant to the US)

Twin Cities by Catherine Batac Walder (Filipina immigrant to the UK)

The Ascension of our Lady Boy by Mia Tijam (Filipina)

Dreams by Jasmin Nanda (Indian)

Rumpelstiltskin Retellings: A Series of Poetic Blogs by Keyan Bowes (India)

Short fiction summaries, 2009: Asimov’s & F&SF

Prompted by a conversation with Jeff Ford, we thought we’d take a look at what stories have been published in 2009 from people who could be termed world SF writers. We’re focusing on people from outside of the traditional Anglophone world (so no US, UK, English-speaking Canada or Australia – all of whom have an obvious advantage), nor American/British/etc. ex-pats overseas – though we attempt to mention them, at least, as Charles and I tend to somewhat disagree on definitions. You can check out more summaries by clicking on the “2009 summaries” tag in our tag-cloud.

A double-post this time, as Charles had some free time…

First up, then, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. Charles went do check out the ToC’s and I was feeling quite optimistic, thinking there had been an S.P. Somtow story this year. There hadn’t, nor anyone we can identify as an international writer. Asimov’s for 2009 does include an American ex-pat in Dubai (Judith Berman, Feb. issue), one in Spain (Sara Genge, with two stories throughout the year) and an Australian (Damien Broderick, with three stories through the course of the year).

So, Asimov’s scores along with Analog: 0.

I’ve just been about to comment on it when Charles came back without finding any in F&SF either. So, F&SF also scores: 0.

That means all “big 3″ American SF magazines have published a total of zero stories from international writers in the whole of 2009.

0.

It seems like there’s an obvious divide here – the new pro online magazines (and many of the semi-pro and smaller) are publishing international writers and – at least for 2009 – the big 3 print magazines don’t. I suspect a lot of this has to do with the fact none of them  accept electronic submissions – whereas just about everyone else in the world, including the New Yorker (which did publish science fiction from an international author – Israeli Gail Har’even – this year) does.

I have to admit, while I didn’t honestly expect anything from Analog, I was surprised with the results for the other two. One of the stories in the Apex Book of World SF is reprinted from F&SF, after all, and two of the other contributors – S.P. Somtow and Aliette de Bodard – have been published in Asimov’s. Any way you look at it, though, it’s disheartening.

CORRECTION: Sean Wallace pointed out we missed a story, and I’m very glad to be able to correct that: Asimov’s did print a story by French writer Georges-Oliver Châteaureynaud: Icarus Saved from the Skies “Icare sauvé des cieux”, translated by Edward Gauvin. I’m also told we should be counting Sara Genge, so that makes a total of 2 stories for Asimov’s (though not, regrettably, for F&SF or Analog).

So… better, at least. I’ve posted some comments over at Jeff Vandermeer’s Ecstatic Days blog, if you’d like to follow them. Also,  Lawrence Schimel posted some thoughts on the issue of translations over at his blog a couple of days ago.

Short fiction summaries, 2009: Apex Magazine

Prompted by a conversation with Jeff Ford, we thought we’d take a look at what stories have been published in 2009 from people who could be termed world SF writers. We’re focusing on people from outside of the traditional Anglophone world (so no US, UK, English-speaking Canada or Australia – all of whom have an obvious advantage), nor American/British/etc. ex-pats overseas – though we attempt to mention them, at least, as Charles and I tend to somewhat disagree on definitions. You can check out more summaries by clicking on the “2009 summaries” tag in our tag-cloud.

Caveat: my name pops up in these lists.

This time it’s Apex Magazine. A diverse list of contributors – we have Americans overseas, like Ruth Nesvold (Germany) in the January issue and Gord Sellar (South Korea) in the February issue; Russian-American writer Ekaterina Sedia in the March issue (and again in the September issue); new Australian writer Peter M. Ball (who’s popping up a lot this year) in the May issue; the special World SF issue, of course – and the American list itself is quite diverse.

The stories:

• 59 Beads by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, December
• After the Fire by Aliette de Bodard, November (special World SF issue)
• Benjamin Schneider’s Little Greys by Nir Yaniv (special World SF issue)
• An Evening in the City Coffeehouse, With Lydia on My Mind by Alexsandar Žiljak (special World SF issue)
• Fungal Gardens by Ekaterina Sedia, September
• The Mind of a Pig, Ekaterina Sedia, March
• Dark Planet, Lavie Tidhar, February

So, 7 by my reckoning, more by Charles’ (see above) – any way you look at it a respectable offering. Apex, of course, are the publishers behind The Apex Book of World SF, but it’s nice to see the diversity on offer in the magazine itself.

Apex and Fantasy are currently ahead by a wide margin, with Clarkesworld ruling the roost in terms of artwork. Analog’s at the bottom…

We’d like to run more summaries but our time is limited. If you’d like to contribute drop us a line, especially if you’d like to cover some of the smaller publications.

Short Fiction Summaries, 2009: Fantasy Magazine

Prompted by a conversation with Jeff Ford, we thought we’d take a look at what stories have been published in 2009 from people who could be termed world SF writers. We’re focusing on people from outside of the traditional Anglophone world (so no US, UK, English-speaking Canada or Australia – all of whom have an obvious advantage), or American/British/etc. ex-pats overseas.

Caveat: my name pops up in these lists. Got to make a living somehow…

And next up is Fantasy Magazine (in descending order this time):

• Into the Monsoon, A.M. Muffaz (Malaysia), 18/11/09
• Lost for Words, Kenneth Yu (Philippines), 02/11/09 (winner of the Halloween Flash Contest)
• Jews in Antarctica, Lavie Tidhar (see?), 12/10/09
• Golden Lilies, Aliette de Bodard (France), 10/08/09 (also in audio)
• The Integrity of the Chain, Lavie Tidhar, 27/07/09
• The Most Dangerous Profession, Sergey Gerasimov (Ukraine), 06/04/09
• Birds, Jean-Claude Dunyach (France), 16/03/09 (translated by Cheryl Curtis)
• Teaching a Pink Elephant to Ski, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (Philippines/Netherlands), 02/02/09

So, 8 stories by my count, making Fantasy Magazine our top international publisher so far!

 

Short Fiction Summaries, 2009: Analog

Prompted by a conversation with Jeff Ford, we thought we’d take a look at what stories have been published in 2009 from people who could be termed world SF writers. And next up: Analog Magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that was fun!

Short Fiction Summaries, 2009: Clarkesworld

Charles here, stealing this blog while Lavie’s temporarily away. Unfortunately, in terms of fiction, according to Lavie’s definitions, only he qualifies.

Clarkesworld Magazine:

• The Dying World, Lavie Tidhar, Issue #31 April 2009.

However, in terms of cover art, there’s a couple of international artists that we’d like to highlight:

• Evil Snowman, Serj Iulian, Issue #28 January 2009.
• The Wish, Harout Demirchyan, Issue #30 March 2009.
• Torturing Poor Mushroom, Blaz Porenta, Issue #31 April 2009.
• Handbark Academy, Alexander Nanitchkov, Issue #33 June 2009.
• Don’t Be Afraid, Kim Kyoung Hwan, Issue #35 August 2009.
• Repairshop, Andreas Rocha, Issue #36 September 2009.
• Brain Tower, Kazuhiko Nakamura, Issue #38 November 2009.

And my personal feud with Lavie on writers who should also be mentioned include Desirina Boskovich, Ekaterina Sedia, Nnedi Okorafor, Tobias S. Buckell, Lisa Hannett, and Gord Sellar.

Short Fiction Summaries, 2009: Strange Horizons

Prompted by a conversation with Jeff Ford, we thought we’d take a look at what stories have been published in 2009 from people who could be termed world SF writers (as vague as that term is, yes, Charles!). We still can’t quite figure it out, so, to make life easier, let’s focus on people from outside of the traditional Anglophone world (so no US, UK, English-speaking Canada or Australia – all of whom have an obvious advantage), nor will we be looking at American/British/etc. ex-pats overseas (sorry!). If it’s a border-land case, let’s use our discretion – Charles’ definitions are a little different than mine.

If we miss anything – give us a shout in the comments! We’re going to try and cover prominent magazines and anthologies. We’d also like to look at novels published this year. Recommendations welcome!

A caveat: my name’s going to pop up in a lot of these lists, but there you have it.

Strange Horizons:

• The Shangri-La Affair, Lavie Tidhar, 19/01/09 (see? told you)
• Nira and I, Shweta Narayan, 16/03/09
• Charms, Shweta Narayan, 24/08/09
• And This Also Has Been One of the Dark Places of the Earth, Anna Feruglio Dal Dan, 21/09/09

And Charles adds: there are also stories by Amal El-Mohtar, Nadia Bulkin, Rachel Manija Brown and Angela Ambroz. And to which I’d add Australian Peter M. Ball, who’s popping up everywhere these days.

So, Strange Horizons: 4 stories by my count, a few more by Charles’s, and plenty of reading material. Up next, we’ll try and look at Clarkesworld and Fantasy.