Recently a press release popped into my inbox for a new online magazine called Dark Fiction, which specializes in audio short stories for portable enjoyment of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
I thought it would be a handy resource to pull together all those online magazines (whether free readin’ or not) so that we can A) support them and B) go and find lots of lovely fiction and articles to read!
Here is my list—it is far from exhaustive… In the comments it would be awesome if you lovely lot could feedback as to the quality of the magazines listed, and provide links to any that I might have missed.
(All magazine descriptions come from their respective websites.)
Salon Futura
An online non-fiction magazine devoted to the discussion of science fiction, fantasy, and related literature.
Clarkesworld
A monthly science fiction and fantasy magazine, with at least two pieces of original fiction from new and established authors.
Hub Magazine
A weekly (ish) genre short fiction ezine, with reviews, and occasional features and interviews.
Bull Spec
A quarterly magazine for speculative fiction.
Strange Horizons
A weekly web-based magazine of and about speculative fiction: publishes short fiction, poetry, reviews and articles of interest each week on a Monday.
Apex Magazine
This one is a subscription magazine, with short fiction and articles. The last issue was Arab/Muslim themed.
Innsmouth Free Press
Innsmouth Free Press is a Canadian micro-publisher dedicated to horror and dark fiction. The website provides daily non-fiction and free tri-annual short fiction.
Escape Pod
The premier science fiction podcast magazine.
Stone Telling
A new literary speculative poetry quarterly.
Pseudopod
The premier horror fiction podcast.
Which can you recommend?
Amanda Rutter contributes reviews and a regular World Wide Wednesday post to fantasyliterature.com, as well as reviews for her own site floortoceilingbooks.com (covering more genres than just speculative), Vector Reviews and Hub magazine.
Lightspeed : “Lightspeed is an online magazine focusing exclusively on science fiction. Here you can expect to see all types of science fiction, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between.”
Crossed Genres – http://crossedgenres.com
GUD – http://gudmagazine.com
M-Brane SF – http://www.mbranesf.com
Fnatasy Magazine – http://www.fantasy-magazine.com
There’s so many more out there!
Take a look through the bios at the end of posts and you’ll find more online magazines. John Joseph Adams runs Lightspeed Magazine, John Klima runs Electric Velocipede, and Rene Walling is involved with fps magazine. (The latter is involved with animation, but is still neat.) I am almost certainly forgetting others, so hopefully they will chime in.
Could be useful to say whether those are US or UK based zines?
Don’t forget Beneath Ceaseless Skies!
Thanks very much for mentioning Bull Spec! And to answer JamesB on that one, it’s US based.
this is great, thanks!
a paid site, but a favorite author (Orson Scott Card) & contributors
http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/
Is it possible to get a writing assignment from any of the above? I’d be more interested in a report on that.
I really like Salon Futura. They had a fantastic podcast about LGBT in SFF with Cheryl Morgan interviewing Nicola Griffith, Hal Duncan and Catherynne M. Valente. And their interview with China Mieville from their first issue was excellent as well.
Good list so far!
Flash Fiction Online: http://www.flashfictiononline.com
Podcastle: http://www.podcastle.org
Drabblecast: http://www.drabblecast.org
Brain Harvest: http://www.brainharvestmag.com
Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show (I don’t have the URL handy–you can google it)
Phase 5 publishes Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and related fiction, art, audio & video. Short/serialized fiction and art are available in the Phase 5 Monthly Review or for individual download – excerpts and freebies available. Primary formats are electronic; novels and podcasts are forthcoming. http://www.phase5publishing.com
Redstone: http://redstonesciencefiction.com/
There’s a fairly new one at http://www.prinkipria.com, which I write fantasy reviews for :)
And The Portal was just launched this past weekend at the World Fantasy Convention. It focuses on reviews of short fiction and foreign language works.
(Yes, I’m kind of involved with it too)
Over here in the Philippines, we have a new podcast called “Pakinggan Pilipinas” (Listen, Philippines) “a monthly podcast site which features short fiction by Filipino authors.” It’s not limited to spec fic or English stories, but for the moment the vast majority of content is spec fic and in English.
http://pakingganpilipinas.blogspot.com/
I also run the irregular Usok webzine – we just launched our second issue a few days ago. We publish spec fic in English by Filipino authors, and each of the stories has a digital painting by a talented Filipino artist.
http://www.rocketkapre.com/usok/
A few others that haven’t been mentioned:
Expanded Horizons: “The mission of this webzine is to increase diversity in the field of speculative fiction, both in the authors who contribute and in the perspectives presented. We feature speculative fiction stories and artwork, as well as essays about speculative fiction and fandom from diverse points of view.”
Ray Gun Revival: Relaunching in Febuary 2011, but the past issues are still online. “Ray Gun Revival (RGR) is an online magazine dedicated to fun stories, grand escapism, and good old sensawunda. Ray Gun Revival provides just that, a throwback publication that revisits space opera and golden age sci-fi. Our stories focus more on character development than hard science and sail all the wide-open waters between science fantasy and harder SF.”
A few for the Steampunk crowd: Steampunk Tales and SteamPunk Magazine.
The World SF News Blog also has a fiction section.
Well, we’re ceasing fiction publication for a little while due to being short of funds, but Futurismic has been a paying venue for near-future sf for many years, plus we blog about the fuzzy line that spearates us from the unevenly distributed future, plus we have regulars columns and our own weekly webcomic Personal Information, courtesy the tireless and excellent Ms Sarah Ennals. So come visit; free-to-read, always has been, always will be. :)
Daily Science Fiction
From their Web site: “Science Fiction means—to us—everything found in the science fiction section of a bookstore, or at a science fiction convention, or amongst the winners of the Hugo awards given by the World Science Fiction Society. This includes the genres of science fiction (or sci-fi), fantasy, slipstream, alternative history, and even stories with lighter speculative elements. We hope you enjoy the broad range that SF has to offer.”
Pays pro rates, too….
http://www.flurb.net/
A Webzine of Astonishing Tales
is edited by Rudy Rucker and the last issue has a great line up with Bruce Sterling, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Carter Scholz, John Shirley, Ian Watson, Marc Laidlaw and more.
Also, what about
http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall-2010
or is that already too professional and not ‘zine enough?
Abyss & Apex: http://www.abyssandapex.com
OG’s Speculative Fiction:
http://theopinionguy.com/ogs-speculative-fiction/
Short-Story.Me!: http://www.short-story.me
Golden Visions Magazine:
http://www.goldenvisionsmagazine.biz/
On the Premises: http://www.onthepremises.com (general fiction magazine that publishes all genres)
TTA Press podcasts stories from their printzines once or twice a month (I forget which).
And I suppose someone ought to mention StarShip Sofa.
Absolutely, definitely worth the Hugo Award winning Starship Sofa by Tony C. Smith. It’s a fantastic podcast ezine dedicated to Science Fiction. Available all over iTunes and the Internet
http://www.starshipsofa.com/
Let me throw in the Fanzine thing, ’cause that’s my thing. eFanzines.com has an amazing array of zines of all sorts. I’d say that eI is one of the best things out there in any area. Not a lot of fiction, but htere’s a lot of good writing and wonderful art.
I’ll put in a plug for three of my zines –
Journey Planet (
http://www.efanzines.com/JourneyPlanet/index.htm)
is a zine I do with Claire Brialey and James Bacon and sometimes Pete Young. It’s got a great list of contributors (like Mike Perschon, Alastair Reynolds, Joh nHertz, Cheryl Morgan, John Scalzi, Paul McAuley, Claire, James, me and a bunch of others. it’s a really fun zine.
The Drink Tank with James Bacon. I’d say it was eclectic, but more likely it’s just unfocused. Some of the issues, like the Clarke Awards and Hugo issues have been really fun.
http://www.efanzines.com/DrinkTank/index.htm
There’s the Steampunk zine Exhibition Hall (with James Bacon and Ariane Wolfe) . Lots of good stuff. Unlike Steampunk Magazine and Gatehouse Gazette (as well as the Dominon Dispatch, another great zine, though I think it’s print-only).
http://www.efanzines.com/ExhibHall/index.htm
Also, Jean Martin, Espana Sheriff, Rina Weisman and Tom Becker kick ass with Science Fiction San Francisco.
http://www.efanzines.com/SFSF/index.htm
Meh; I’d like Starship Sofa better if I could excise the obnoxious Mr. Smith altogether. The stories are good; some of the articles are decent, but his campaign for the Hugo was rude beyond belief, and he has some of the worst verbal tics I’ve ever heard.
Redstone Science Fiction
http://redstonesciencefiction.com/
monthly short science fiction
Flying Island Press has three imprints available that provide a mix of free and premium content. Flagship (http://flyingislandpress.com/flagship/) is the first ‘zine we produced, delievered every other month in both e-pub and audio formats. There you’ll find classic science fiction and fantasy with a modern twist. Pirates Cove (http://flyingislandpress.com/cove/) is a high adventure and fantasy imprint that offers both free web based and audio fiction as well as an on-going serial available to monthly subscribers. Abattoir (www.flyingislandpress.com/abattoir) is our home for psychological horror. We also do special projects like our upcoming Autism Speaks benefit issue (http://flyingislandpress.com/autism/).
You’ve missed us out! We’re a new zine with an open call for submissions for our first issue; SFF, slipstream and horror
Sorry, should have put these in
emptyoakszine.blogspot.co.uk
@emptyoakszine
This may be an old article but we at Discworldmonthly.co.uk have now been running for 21 years. Terry Pratchett may be long gone, but we are busier than ever. Our recent issue was Issue 253
For any copywriters or creatives interested in a free zine, I’ve recently started a publication named ‘Creative Rehab.’
It’s a DIY-Punk print and digital zine filled with tonnes of unique and irreverent content.
Check it out here – CreativeRehab.Club