Today is publication day for my final issue as part of Uncanny Magazine‘s editorial staff. The previous installment, Issue 30/Disabled People Destroy Fantasy! was my last issue as Managing Editor; today’s Issue 31 is my final issue as Nonfiction Editor, and features brilliant essays by Ms. Marvel creator G. Willow Wilson, SF/F writer and political pundit Alexandra Erin, FIYAH Literary Magazine poetry editor Brandon O’Brien, 2019 Astounding Award for Best New Writer winner Jeannette Ng, and The Learned Fangirl media founder/EIC Keidra Chaney. Please read them all, I can’t imagine a better set of essays to conclude my time with at Uncanny — as well as the stellar collection of short fiction by Elizabeth Bear (who gave us a whole novella!), D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Laura Anne Gilman, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, and Jenn Reese, poetry by Hal Y. Zhang, Sonya Taaffe, Annie Neugebauer, and Sylvia Santiago, with Caroline M. Yoachim interviewing Elizabeth Bear and Jenn Reese. Also thank to artist John Picacio for allowing us to reprint his absolutely stunning La Palma–part of his Loteria deck series–as the issue cover. I really need this as a piece of art to hang at home (she’ll go right next to my print of John’s La Valiente, also part of the Loteria deck, that was the cover for Issue 25 and also one of my favorite pieces of cover art from the last five years of Uncanny).
And please be sure to listen to the Uncanny Magazine Podcast: Episode 31A which is live today with the Editors’ intro, “Nutrition Facts”by D.A. Xiaolin Spires as read by Joy Piedmont, “Without a Prayer or the Place in the Forest”by Sonya Taaffe as read by Erika Ensign, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing D.A. Xiaolin Spires. (Episode 31B goes live on Tuesday, December 3, 2019).
You can read my goodbye editorial for the issue online, and you can be sure I’ll be having further thoughts (and FEELINGS!!!) about it on Twitter (already had a few tweets after seeing this beautiful thread by new Assistant Editor Angel Cruz).
I again want to thank Editors-in-Chief/Publishers Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas for giving me what will always be one of the most incredible opportunities of my life. Thank you to podcast extraordinares Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky, Caroline M. Yoachim, Joy Piedmont, Chimedum Ohaegbu, the amazing roster of Submissions Editors, and to all the former Uncanny staff–all of you have been an inspiration and source of joy for the last five years, and I’m so lucky to have known and worked with you all. I can’t imagine where I’d be without Team Uncanny, and I’m grateful to have learned from everyone’s professionalism and passion, and for the gift of your friendships.
A special thank you to my husband Jesse Lex, who was also part of Uncanny for the first three years as a Submissions Editor, and who’s been my rock throughout countless late nights and endless cups of coffee and tea. I’m so glad I got to start my Uncanny journey with him on board as a Space Unicorn, and his support and love throughout helped make this whole experience possible for me.
I hope you’ll all join me in supporting Uncanny‘s team for Year Six, especially new Assistant Editor Angel Cruz, new Managing Editor Chimedum Ohaegbu, and new Nonfiction Editor Elsa Sjunneson-Henry (whose first issue will be Jan/Feb 2020/Issue 32). I’m so sad to be leaving the team but so excited to see what you’ll all do next, because it’ll be AMAZING. Maraming salamat, you fabulous, stupendous, cosmically-awesome Space Unicorns!