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Announcing LIGHTSPEED, a New Science Fiction Magazine

Lightspeed

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be the fiction editor of a new science fiction online magazine called LIGHTSPEED, which will be published by Prime Books. I’ll be leaving F&SF at the end of the year to take on this new role. The press release below has all the pertinent details.

Prime Books Announces LIGHTSPEED, a New Science Fiction Magazine

ROCKVILLE, MD, OCT. 16 — Prime Books, the award-winning independent press and publisher of Fantasy Magazine, announced today that in June 2010 it will launch a new online magazine called LIGHTSPEED (www.lightspeedmagazine.com), which will publish four science fiction short stories every month, along with an assortment of non-fiction features. LIGHTSPEED will be edited by John Joseph Adams, the bestselling editor of anthologies such as Wastelands and The Living Dead, and Andrea Kail, a writer, critic, and television producer who worked for thirteen years on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Adams will select and edit the fiction, while Kail will handle the non-fiction.

LIGHTSPEED will focus exclusively on science fiction. It will feature all types of sf, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. No subject will be considered off-limits, and writers will be encouraged to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope. New content will be posted twice a week, including one piece of fiction, and one piece of non-fiction. The fiction selections each month will consist of two original stories and two reprints, except for the debut issue, which will feature four original pieces of fiction. All of the non-fiction will be original.

LIGHTSPEED will open to fiction submissions and non-fiction queries on January 1, 2010. Guidelines for fiction and non-fiction will be available on LIGHTSPEED’s website, www.lightspeedmagazine.com, by December 1, 2009.

About John Joseph Adams

John Joseph Adams (www.johnjosephadams.com) is the bestselling editor of many anthologies, such as By Blood We Live, Federations, The Living Dead (a World Fantasy Award finalist), and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. He has been called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble’s Unabashedly Bookish blog and his anthology The Living Dead was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly. In addition to his editorial work, he is also currently a reviewer for Audible.com and a blogger for Tor.com.

About Andrea Kail

Andrea Kail (www.andreakail.com) is a graduate of the Dramatic Writing Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and has spent the last two decades working from one end of New York’s television spectrum to the other: HBO, MTV, A&E, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, as well as thirteen years at NBC’s Emmy Award-winning Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Her fiction has appeared in Fantasy Magazine, and her novella, “The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom,” was a first-place winner in the Writers of the Future contest and appeared in Writers of the Future Vol. XXIII. Since 2005, Andrea has also been writing lively film criticism for such venues as Paradox Magazine and CinemaSpy.

About Prime Books

Prime Books (www.prime-books.com), edited and published by Hugo Award-nominee and World Fantasy Award-winner Sean Wallace, is an award-winning independent publishing house specializing in a mix of anthologies, collections, novels, and magazines. Some of its established and new authors/editors include John Joseph Adams, KJ Bishop, Philip K. Dick, Theodora Goss, Rich Horton, Nick Mamatas, Sarah Monette, Holly Phillips, Tim Pratt, Ekaterina Sedia, Catherynne M. Valente, and Jeff VanderMeer.

Contacts

Sean Wallace, publisher, sean@lightspeedmagazine.com

John Joseph Adams, fiction editor, john@lightspeedmagazine.com

Andrea Kail, non-fiction editor, andrea@lightspeedmagazine.com

Discussion

  • Rob Darnell

    11:36 pm Oct-15-2009 Reply

    Congratulations, are you still going to work at F&SF?

  • John Joseph Adams

    11:39 pm Oct-15-2009 Reply

    I’ll be leaving F&SF at the end of the year. Just edited the post to add that, since that’s the obvious question following my announcement.

    • JeremyT

      11:41 am Nov-24-2009 Reply

      Quick test of the reply feature.

      • JeremyT

        11:43 am Nov-24-2009 Reply

        Another test for another level of nesting.

        • JeremyT

          11:44 am Nov-24-2009

          Another Test!

  • Rob Darnell

    11:59 pm Oct-15-2009 Reply

    Thought you would be leaving soon, I’ve had that impression for a while now, since you’ve made a name for yourself and there’s been another slush reader in the office.

  • David Scholes

    3:57 am Oct-16-2009 Reply

    Excellent. Congratulations on your new appointment!

    As an Australian science fiction writer, I look forward to the new on line magazine.

    Cheers

    http://www.StrategicBookPublishing.com/ScienceFictionandAlternateHistory.html

  • [...] Joseph Adams is announcing that he’ll be editing a new online science fiction magazine called Lightspeed. “Prime [...]

  • Matt Kressel

    9:17 am Oct-16-2009 Reply

    This is fantastic news, John. It’s good to see you doing all these great things in the field. I wish you the best of luck with it!

  • Jetse

    10:00 am Oct-16-2009 Reply

    Great news, John, and congratulations!

    Looking forward to how Lightspeed Magazine will work out.

  • Mercurio Rivera

    10:18 am Oct-16-2009 Reply

    Congratulations on the big move, John. I’m sure your successes will continue.

  • adsistla

    11:10 am Oct-16-2009 Reply

    Congrats!

  • Michael A. Burstein

    12:42 pm Oct-16-2009 Reply

    Congratulations!

  • Grant Stone

    5:07 am Oct-18-2009 Reply

    Wow! Congratulations!
    Are you planning audio versions of the stories and articles as well as text?

  • Dr. Phil

    5:39 pm Oct-18-2009 Reply

    Great news, sir. I realize the Guidelines aren’t out yet, but any word as to whether this will be a pro-paying market yet?

    Dr. Phil

  • John Joseph Adams

    7:43 pm Oct-18-2009 Reply

    Hi Phil,

    Yes, it’ll be a pro-paying market.

  • John Joseph Adams

    7:45 pm Oct-18-2009 Reply

    Grant –

    Stay tuned for announcements on that front.

  • Graham Storrs

    5:01 pm Oct-21-2009 Reply

    Great news, congratulations. It’s especially good to see a new sci-fi magazine emerge. Can’t wait to see the details. I wish you the very best of luck with it.

  • Robert Billing

    1:51 pm Oct-25-2009 Reply

    Congratulations. The market needs am SF magazine.

    I’ll be submitting as soon as you open.

  • ET

    8:31 am Dec-2-2009 Reply

    Congratulations on the new position. What will Gordon do without you?

    I’ll be submitting as soon as I retire and the kids leave home, and I’ll go back to writing. That’d take, oh, 25 years give or take.

  • ET

    8:40 am Dec-2-2009 Reply

    BTW, having looked at the guidelines, I’m impressed that they include a contract template, and by the promised response times. I might just have to dig up a trunk story and submit it just to get the “it’s a piece of crap” (or a nicely phrased variation of this) rejection in 48 hours. (No, I probably won’t do it. Probably.)