Arley Sorg is an associate literary agent at kt literary. He is a two-time World Fantasy Award Finalist and a two-time Locus Award Finalist for his work as co-Editor-in-Chief at Fantasy Magazine. Arley is also a SFWA Solstice Award Recipient, a Space Cowboy Award Recipient, and a finalist for two Ignyte Awards, for his work as a critic as well as his creative nonfiction. Arley is senior editor at Locus, associate editor at both Lightspeed and Nightmare, a columnist for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and an interviewer for Clarkesworld. He takes on multiple roles, including slush reader, movie reviewer, and book reviewer, and ran a series of interviews on his site: arleysorg.com. He has been a guest instructor or speaker at a range of events—and for a variety of audiences—from Worldcons to WisCons, from elementary students to PhD candidates. He was a guest critiquer for the 2023 Odyssey Writing Workshop and the week five instructor for the 2023 Clarion West Workshop. Arley grew up in England, Hawaii, and Colorado, and studied Asian Religions at Pitzer College. He lives in the SF Bay Area and writes in local coffee shops when he can. Arley is a 2014 Odyssey Writing Workshop graduate.
In this issue of Fantasy Magazine: Short fiction by Simo Srinivas (“Bozpo Witch-Bane”) and Margaret Jordan (“Blue”); flash fiction by Kimberly Terasaki (“The World is Ending Tomorrow”) and Catherine Yu (“The Dancer”); poetry by H.B. Asari (“After the Pyre”) and Julia August (“The End of Little Dreams”); and an interview with the finalists for the Nebula Award for Short Fiction.
AS: Last year in June, we talked about conventions! Where we were at with attending, as well as what some
First, we love horror, and it’s what we’d watch by choice, even if we weren’t writing about it. Second, as previously mentioned, horror is particularly revealing about the nation’s fears and anxieties, and America has plenty of that when it comes to race. Third, while Black people have historically experienced marginalization in other genres, horror stands out because marginalization typically equates to death, a fate that is so blunt and dismissive that it draws attention and generates discussion—thus the well-known trope that gave us the name of the book.
In this issue’s short fiction, Anya Ow’s “God of the River” wades into family legends and survival, and “The Body Fate” by Avi Burton explores role, identity, and expectation; in flash fiction, Anne E.G. Nydam pieces together a new kind of narrative in “Some Assembly Required,” and “It’s What’s Inside That Counts” by Warren Benedetto delivers a slice of hard truth;; for poetry, we have “1960s With a Glass Harp” by Chinedu Gospel and “Legacy” by Anjali Patel. Plus an interview with Mark H. Harris about nonfiction book The Black Guy Dies First, co-authored with Robin R. Means Coleman. Enjoy!
In this issue’s short fiction, we have “Children of Earth” by K.A. Wiggins, and “Nairuko” by Dennis Mugaa; flash fiction “Trading With Monsters” by Miguel O. Mitchell, and Keech Ballard’s “The UFO’s New Clothes”; in poetry, “The Frumious Jubjub” by C.H. Lindsay and “Sleeping With the Fishes” by Shreejita Majumder. Plus essay “What Language Do You Think In: On Being Lost in Translation” by Linghun author Ai Jiang. Enjoy!
I like for my fantastical work to feel deeply grounded in the real world before I introduce the weird or impossible elements. In The Changeling I wanted New York City to feel lived in, tangible; I wanted the marriage of the two leads, Apollo and Emma, to be believable, and I wanted the trials of being new parents to be utterly grounded. And then—SMACK—here comes the strange stuff.
In this issue’s short fiction, P.H. Low takes craft to the extreme in “The Will of the God of Music,” and Effie Sieberg’s “There’s Magic in Bread” connects lessons of the past to the problems of the present; in flash fiction, Mari Ness takes a hard-hitting look at current magical trends in “Enchanted Mirrors Are Making a Comeback. That’s Not Necessarily a Good Thing,” and in Aimee Ogden’s “Moments of Doubt” an absence of evidence leaves us guessing about the fate of the evidently absent; in poetry, we have “The Distance Between Us” by Rati Mehrotra and “Possession” by Tonya Liburd. Plus an interview with the author of The Changeling, The Ballad of Black Tom, and Lone Women, Victor LaValle. Enjoy!
tkIn this issue’s short fiction, Lowry Poletti’s “The Dead Return in Strange Shapes” explores what binds us to the past, and Malda Marlys takes us east of the sun and west of the moon in “A Princess With a Nose Three Ells Long”; in flash fiction, Cynthia Gómez wants us to know that “The Books Would Like a Word,” and in “Secondhand” S.L. Harris revisits a different fairytale adventure from an unusual perspective; for poetry, we have “The Mermaids of Magonia” by Carina Bissett and “Food for Thought” by Lisbeth Coiman. Plus essay “The Societal Cost of Magic” by Moses Ose Utomi, author of The Lies of The Ajungo and “The Mirror Test”. Enjoy!
When I was a kid I adored Tolkien—I remember in 4th or 5th grade taking the time to draw out fifty individual stars for a school poster about favorite books. I’m rereading it now and while some of it holds up—the worldbuilding, for example—so much of it does not. It’s not just the classism, racism, sexism; there are also a lot of weird clunky plot choices and bent-over-backwards justifications for what are presented as unassailable principles and long descriptions that I mostly skimmed as a kid.
In this issue’s short fiction, Erin Brown grows a little hope in “Skyscrapers That Twist to the Sun,” and “Broodmare” by Flossie Arend gives us a dark glimpse into the future; in flash fiction, Ruth Joffre turns the lens on us in “A Brief Catalog of Humans, as Observed by the Cryptids of Encante,” and “Monsters” by Liz Colter peels away some uncomfortable layers; for poetry, we have “As the Witch Burns” by Marisca Pichette and “I Should Have Been A Pair of Ragged Claws” by Alice Towey. Plus an interview with Infomocracy, And Other Disasters, and The Mimicking of Known Successes author Malka Older. Enjoy!
In this issue’s short fiction, Victor Forna takes us on a search for home in “Parebul of the Mother, Asked in Moonlight,” and something allures from beyond in Jennifer R. Donohue’s “Into the Dark”; in flash fiction, Jennifer Hudak gives a taste of preserved magic in “Sturgeon Moon Jam,” and Sam Kyung Yoo draws a daring, imaginative escape in “The End of a Painted World”; for poetry, we have “Luminous” by Timmi Sanni and “What Chimerae Read” by Mary Soon Lee. Plus essay “All the King’s Women: Annie Wilkes is the Mother Goddess of Cocaine” by Big Girl (PM Press) and Number One Fan (Mira) author Meg Elison. Enjoy!
I love getting to explore new worlds, to fall in love with characters who become real to me, and be moved by the words on the page. Genre fiction got me through the height of the pandemic, and it’s also gotten me through so many times when I felt unmoored. Just being able to dive into a world, to for a moment be somewhere else, it’s the best gift.
