Strange Horizons Fund Drive

This year has been whistling past at a frightening rate, and a large part of why is Strange Horizons: and now I can't quite believe it's fund drive time again, but it is. SH, as most of you reading this will remember, is staffed entirely by unpaid volunteers, and primarily funded by reader donations, which means that every year, at about this time of year, we ask you to consider giving us some money. So that's what this post is about. It's also about asking you to spread the word, because with only a couple of weeks left to run, we have currently raised 26% of our goal.

So if you've been meaning to donate, now's the time to do it; and if you've been meaning to post about the fund drive, today's the day! We really appreciate people spreading the word about the fund drive. If you do, be sure to point out that everyone who donates gets entered into our prize draw -- prizes this year include signed books by Ursula Le Guin and L. Timmel Duchamp, artwork by Alastair Reynolds, a complete set of the Twelve Planets series from Twelfth Planet Press, and an awful lot more -- but even better, if you think people should support us, please tell them why: link to your favourite stories or reviews or poems or articles or columns.

What has the magazine been doing this year?

• We've published author focus issues showcasing the work of Nisi Shawl, Carol Emshwiller, and Pat Cadigan


• We've added new columnists Vandana Singh, Genevieve Valentine, Robyn Fleming, and Mark Plummer


• We've had a more active blog, featuring biweekly Horizontal Connections link round-ups, plus The SF Count (following which we've gained some great new reviewers)


• We brought back our Readers' Poll


• We've increased our pay rate for fiction


• And, of course, we've published a new issue each week, featuring great stories, poems, articles, reviews and columns

What are we doing next? Our big ongoing project is upgrading and revamping our website, which we're in the middle of right now (it takes a long time to check eleven years' worth of content when you're moving to a new system). We'd like to raise our rates in other departments, although that's obviously dependent on this fund drive being a success. But mostly we'd like to keep working at our stated goal: "In the twenty-first century, speculative fiction must be a global, inclusive tradition. We aim to showcase work that challenges us and delights us, by new and established writers from diverse backgrounds and with diverse concerns."

It's up to you to decide how well we're doing at that, of course. But if you like what you've been reading at Strange Horizons, and can afford to donate, please do consider sending some money our way. And if you do put up a post about us, let me know! I'll be collecting links on the blog all day. Thanks.

Fund drive update

Further to my earlier post -- a huge thank-you to everyone who's posted today, or said they will post this week! We've had a good day, fund drive-wise; I've been rounding up posts at the SH blog as promised, in four batches so far: one, two, three, four. Or if you want specific posts, some of my favourites are by Matt Denault, Sarah Kanning, and Maria Deira.

P.S. New prizes this week include Nick Harkaway's next novel, an anthology of Mexican sf, a classic novel by Suzee McKee Charnas, Lydia Millet's new eco-fantasy YA, and more. We've had a good day, but there's still some way to go to hit the target, so please do consider donating!