The writers who contribute to the evaporation of genre, who destabilize it by undermining our expectations and appropriating materials at will, with fiction shaped by individual vision rather than traditions or formulas, are the same writers who continually revitalize genre.
Swords, Sorcery, Sandals and Space was the first English-language academic conference of its kind. It invited papers on the relationship between classical antiquity and science fiction and fantasy across all media: a conference on reception studies, but a specialised one.
The last kiss behind / helmet visor, gleam of top-heavy head
In this episode of the Strange Horizons podcast, editor Anaea Lay presents poetry from the July issues of Strange Horizons.
"And yet sometimes I worry that fantasy—that stories in general—can also have a numbing effect. I have a tendency to cringe when people talk about fantasy as escapism; the fantasy I most enjoy is too unsettling and too questioning for that label, I think."
