Realms of Fantasy Closing

Realms of Fantasy will be shutting down operations after publication of the April 2009 issue, which is already at the printer. Managing editor Laura Cleveland told Locus she found out last night, saying, “I’m really upset by the whole thing.” She had hoped to get in touch with editor Shawna McCarthy, on vacation in Italy, and the writers and artists before the announcement was made public, but the news broke today on the blogosphere. “I told one writer, and next thing you know… Now I really understand how the Internet works.”

The closure is primarily due to plummeting newsstand sales, the problem currently faced by all of the fiction magazines. “We’re shelved in the back of the bookstores. Nobody can even find us.”

Realms of Fantasy started in 1994, and had been looking forward to publishing its 100th issue this year.