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It seems like only days ago that I was announcing the results of the 2010 Readers' Poll, and yet here we are with the results for the 2011 poll already. Last year was a busy one for Strange Horizons. We welcomed an array of new regular columnists, including Robyn Fleming, Mark Plummer, Vandana Singh, and Genevieve Valentine, and published special issues celebrating the work of Nisi Shawl, Carol Emshwiller and Pat Cadigan. We also said farewell to poetry editor Mark Rudolph and fiction editor Karen Meisner, both of whom contributed an astounding amount to the magazine during their time here. And we began work on a major redesign that should come to fruition later this year—but more about that in due course.

The Readers' Poll is your chance to tell us what you thought the highlights of the magazine's year were We asked you to vote for your favorite works from the fiction, poetry, and articles departments, and your favorite columnists and reviewers. The poll was open from 13.00 PST on 6th February 2012 until 23.59 PST on 19th February 2012. The scoring system was the same as last year. Each person could vote for up to five works or nominees, ranking them 1 (first place) to 5 (fifth place). Each first-place vote was worth five points, each second-place vote was worth four points, and so on. It was not compulsory to vote in every category, nor to use all five slots in a given category. Multiple votes on one ballot for the same item were discarded, and we required a unique email address for the ballot to be submitted. Those addresses were only used to verify the validity of ballots, and were only saved for the duration of the poll.

As ever, many thanks to everyone who participated. And so to this year's winners; congratulations to them all!

The Results

Best Story

Best Poem

Best Article

Best Columnist

  • First place: Genevieve Valentine
  • Second place: Nisi Shawl
  • Third place: Karen Joy Fowler
  • Fourth place: Vandana Singh
  • Fifth place: Matthew Cheney

Best Reviewer

  • First place: Liz Bourke
  • Second place: L. Timmel Duchamp
  • Third equal: Sofia Samatar
  • Third equal: Nic Clarke
  • Fifth place: Niall Harrison



Niall Harrison is an independent critic based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He is a former editor of Strange Horizons, and his writing has also appeared in The New York Review of Science FictionFoundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, The Los Angeles Review of Books and others. He has been a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and a Guest of Honor at the 2023 British National Science Fiction Convention. His collection All These Worlds: Reviews and Essays is forthcoming from Briardene Books.
Current Issue
29 May 2023

We are touched and encouraged to see an overwhelming response from writers from the Sino diaspora as well as BIPOC creators in various parts of the world. And such diverse and daring takes of wuxia and xianxia, from contemporary to the far reaches of space!
By: L Chan
The air was redolent with machine oil; rich and unctuous, and synthesised alcohol, sharper than a knife on the tongue.
“Leaping Crane don’t want me to tell you this,” Poppy continued, “but I’m the most dangerous thing in the West. We’ll get you to your brother safe before you know it.”
Many eons ago, when the first dawn broke over the newborn mortal world, the children of the Heavenly Realm assembled at the Golden Sky Palace.
Winter storm: lightning flashes old ghosts on my blade.
transplanted from your temple and missing the persimmons in bloom
immigrant daughters dodge sharp barbs thrown in ambush 十面埋伏 from all directions
Many trans and marginalised people in our world can do the exact same things that everyone else has done to overcome challenges and find happiness, only for others to come in and do what they want as Ren Woxing did, and probably, when asked why, they would simply say Xiang Wentian: to ask the heavens. And perhaps we the readers, who are told this story from Linghu Chong’s point of view, should do more to question the actions of people before blindly following along to cause harm.
Before the Occupation, righteousness might have meant taking overt stands against the distant invaders of their ancestral homelands through donating money, labour, or expertise to Chinese wartime efforts. Yet during the Occupation, such behaviour would get one killed or suspected of treason; one might find it better to remain discreet and fade into the background, or leave for safer shores. Could one uphold justice and righteousness quietly, subtly, and effectively within such a world of harshness and deprivation?
Issue 22 May 2023
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Issue 27 Mar 2023
Issue 20 Mar 2023
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