Fantasy Magazine to Close

Fantasy Magazine will close later this year, as announced in their August 2023 editorial:

This is the editorial we’ve been dreading having to write. We’ve been trying not to think about it too much, but we can’t put it off any longer.

We relaunched Fantasy Magazine in November of 2020 – what a weird thing to do at an exceptionally weird time! – and we did it with high hopes, but realistic expectations based on our many years of experience in this field.

It is with real sadness that we have to announce that October 2023 will be our last issue. People will want to know why, of course, and the answer is the expected one: Unfortunately Fantasy never reached a point of paying for itself, and with the Kindle Periodicals mess it’s just not sustainable. We’ve actually carried on a little longer than we originally anticipated, because ending on our third anniversary made sense.

We accomplished what we set out to do, which was to make something special, to offer something distinctive, and to contribute to the landscape of genre in meaningful ways. There were a number of fantastic accolades along the way, including being finalists for two Locus Awards and two World Fantasy Awards, not to mention the work of our contributors landing in Best Of anthologies and various awards lists. Fantasy was driven by our vision, but it wouldn’t exist without our contributors. And we can’t forget the amazing individuals helping behind the scenes, who you’ll learn more about next month. They were all instrumental in Fantasy’s success.

Finally, we couldn’t have done this without you, dear readers. Thank you for joining us in celebrating these wonderful works.

Christie Yant & Arley Sorg

For more information specific to the closure, current subscriptions, and similar, contact the Lightspeed editorial staff.

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