Wednesday Editorial: Looking Back on 2009, by Lavie Tidhar

Editorial: Looking Back on 2009 Lavie Tidhar I started the World SF News Blog in February this year, on Livejournal; in many ways, it was intended to be a companion of sorts for The Apex Book of World SF. It has quickly evolved beyond that, though, and in October I made the decision to move...

Gender debate

Over at Rebellious Jezebel, blogger Jha takes Nuno Fonseca (for his editorial here this week) and Luis Filipe Silva (for his response) to task on their treatment of gender, saying in part: Well, yes, of course arguing the lack of representation in spec fic is a goddamn personal thing. Fuck the male privilege horse you...

Monday Original Content: An Interview with Richard Calder

Richard Calder SF News Blog Interview With Charles Tan Today, Charles Tan talks to Richard Calder about his work, living in Thailand, and his collaboration with Filipino artist Leonardo M. Giron on the Dead Girls graphic novel. What made you decide to pursue writing as a career? The notion that books and writing were going...

New Review for The Apex Book of World SF

Responding in part to Jetse de Vries "Should SF Die?" essay, Val's Random Comments Blog responds, including a long review of The Apex Book of World SF - calling Nir Yaniv's Cinderers "the collection's most disturbing story by far" and Kristin Mandigma's Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-Realist Aswang "absolutely hilarious". One argument in...

Jetse de Vries on “Should SF Die?”

Dutch editor and writer Jetse de Vries discusses the future (and present) of science fiction in Should SF Die? over at the Shine Anthology blog. Jetse addresses issues of race, international SF, commercial concerns and much more in this thoughtful essay. My viewpoint is that SF is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and that lack of relevance...

Luis Filipe Silva on SF in Portugal and Fonseca’s Editorial

Over at his blog, Luis Filipe Silva has a thoughtful response to the Nuno Fonseca editorial we published yesterday. This season’s highlight on the Portuguese SF must be the publication of what we hope is the first article by Nuno Fonseca for the World SF blog, thus kicking off the Portuguese-speaking contribution to the general...

Wednesday Editorial: Having It All, by Nuno Fonseca

Editorial: Having it all By Nuno Fonseca We have it all. Seriously. Bear with me a little while I digress. “We” is a strong word. As a species, we managed to obtain some proeminence through brute darwinian force and relentless acculturation. As people, we gained sufficient aplomb to be able to communicate globally. As SF...

Short Fiction Highlight: “Bophuthatswana” by Lavie Tidhar

Lavie Tidhar's South African-set story, "Bophuthatswana", is now available as a podcast on Pseudopod, read by Elan Ressel. 'You know what they call people like us in America?' I say. Wez looks at me sideways. His pupils are large, his dark hair falling over a delicate oval face. 'I don't know, bru. Super-heroes?' 'No, asshole,'...

Apex Book of World SF reviewed on Strange Horizons

Over at Strange Horizons, Andy Sawyer has a wonderfully thoughtful, in-depth review of The Apex Book of World SF, calling Anil Menon's story Into the Night "by far the best story I have read all year" and the book as a whole "the most exciting anthology I have read since the SFWA European Hall of...

Monday Original Content: Australian SF Round Table

Monday Original Content: A Round Table on Australian SF with Gillian Polack, Simon Brown, Yaritji Green and Tessa Kum. By Kaaron Warren Australians have a long history of Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. May Gibbs’ wrote Snugglepot and Cuddlepie in 1918. These famous gumnut babies and their mortal enemies the Banksia men are part of...