Celebrating 25 Years with The Strange Horizons Editorial Collective
In this special episode of Strange Horizons at 25, Senior Podcast Editor Kat Kourbeti and Editor Michael Ireland welcome current members of the Strange Horizons Editorial Collective for a series of interviews to give you a glimpse behind the curtain of each department and to celebrate 25 years of this pioneering speculative fiction magazine.
Read the full transcript on our website.
A big thank you to Arturo Serrano, Proofreader; Dan Hartland and Aisha Subramanian, Senior Reviews Editors and hosts of Critical Friends; Hebe Stanton, Senior Fiction Editor; Romie Stott, Administrative Editor and Senior Poetry Editor; and Gautam Bhatia, Co-Ordinating Editor and Senior Articles Editor, for joining us for these interviews.
Happy 25 years, one and all, and here's to many more!
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Dan Hartland is joined by the outgoing editor of Foundation, Paul March-Russell, and the founding editor of the Harare Review of Books, Jacqueline Nyathi. They discuss speculative fiction’s approach to hope and optimism. Where has it gone? How do writers express it? And what are its pitfalls?
Paul's review of When There Are Wolves Again by E. J. Swift
Jacqui's review of The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed
Jacqui's essay, "Collective Dreaming: The Schrödinger's Cat Approach to Framing Futures"
In this special episode of Writing While Disabled's second season, hosts Kristy Anne Cox and Kate Johnston speculate about the impact of a space army made up of various species of dinosaurs, and make connections to disability and accommodations as they relate to the real life of disabled people.
If you prefer, you can watch the full episode with close-caption subtitles here, or read the transcript here.
Show notes:
In this episode of Strange Horizons at 25, Tim Melody Pratt walks Podcast Editor Kat Kourbeti through their extensive oeuvre in the SH archives, recounts meeting their life partner through the magazine, and explains how it all intertwined together into a life and career bursting with magic.
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In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, editor Michael Ireland presents Diana Dima's 'City Grown From Seed' read by Emmie Christie.
You can read the full text of the story, and more about Diana Dima here.
Content Warning:
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Dan Hartland is joined by the novelist and critic Redfern Jon Barrett and the reader and reviewer Nileena Sunil. They discuss those novels that feel too short or not long enough: what's behind that feeling we have that a text is lacking something, or that it's overstretched? And how can we meet works of fiction on their own ground?
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Malda Marlys' 'Of Flowing Stone, of Liquid Gold, of Justice, Ash, and Battle' read by Emmie Christie.
You can read the full text of the story, and more about Malda Marlys here.
Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: Spotify
Content Warning:
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Dan Hartland is joined by the literary reviewer Sneha Pathak and the host of the Going Rogue podcast, Tansy Gardam. They discuss the kinds of text which many don’t find worthy of criticism at all: books or movies or TikTok reels that might be termed popular, populist, or popcorn. What are we doing when we spend time with a text which—perhaps only at first—exhibits few pretensions?
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Dan Hartland speaks with writers and critics Octavia Cade and M. L. Clark about writing in hard times. How and why is speculative friction written in contexts of defeat, despair, or decay? They discuss climate change and artificial intelligence, systems political, biological, and economic—and how SF might be, and yet sometimes isn't, a key tool in opening up new modes of understanding during a time that Octavia suggests might best be termed the Necrocene.
M. L. Clark's review of Ray Nayler's Where The Axe is Buried.
In this episode of Strange Horizons at 25, editor Kat Kourbeti chats to author Debbie Urbanski about her 2018 Strange Horizons publication and the 13 years of submissions it took to get accepted, writing in the gray areas between genres, and what it means to be artistically honest in your work.
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In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Angela Liu's 'Time is an Ocean' read by Emmie Christie.
You can read the full text of the story, and more about Angela Liu here.
Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: Spotify
In this episode of Strange Horizons at 25, editor Kat Kourbeti talks to Mary Robinette Kowal about the fractal nature of story structure, , and writing to please the teenaged version of you.
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In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Dan Hartland speaks with reviewers and critics Rachel Cordasco and Will McMahon about science fiction in translation (SFT), and specifically about those books appearing from small presses based in the US. They discuss recent news on NEA grants to these publishers, the SFT ecosystem in general, and how the literature might reach wider a wider readership.
A transcript of this episode is available at the Strange Horizons website.
Episode Links
Publisher's Weekly article about the NEA funding withdrawal
Rachel Cordasco's list of SFT from Small American Presses
In the third episode of Writing While Disabled, Kristy Anne Cox and Kate Johnston sit down with author Donyae Coles for a frank and candid discussion around adjusting one's life and writing processes around one's disability, finding support to help with the tasks that become difficult, and how genre can lend itself to telling disabled stories authentically.
Show notes:
Our fund drive for 2026 is now live!
Vote for Strange Horizons in the Hugo Awards!
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Ariel Marken Jack's 'Sister, Silkie, Siren, Shark' read by Emmie Christie.
You can read the full text of the story, and more about Ariel Marken Jack here.
Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: Spotify
Content Warnings:
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents R.B. Lemberg's A City on It's Tentacles' read by Jenna Hanchey.
You can read the full text of the story, and more about R.B. Lemberg here.
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Content Warnings:
In this episode of Strange Horizons at 25, editor Kat Kourbeti talks to Nghi Vo about how Strange Horizons kickstarted her publishing journey, her weird and interesting life before writing took off, and the fearlessness it takes to make a writing career happen.
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In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Elle Engel's 'Half Sick of Shadows' read by Emmie Christie
You can read the full text of the story, and more about Elle Engel here.
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Content Warnings:
In this episode of Strange Horizons at 25, editor Kat Kourbeti talks to Naomi Kritzer about her non-linear writing journey, imagining positive futures, and how to deal with the world catching up to your near-future specfic.
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In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Kat Kourbeti reads Premee Mohamed's Hugo Finalist Novelette 'By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars'.
You can read the full text of the story, and more about Premee Mohamed here.
Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: Spotify
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