First of all, a new-staff announcement. Just before Christmas, we advertised for an Art Director to join Strange Horizons, looking at how we use art throughout the site, and helping to ensure that we're showcasing a diversity of work. We received an extremely strong set of applications—it's always a little humbling to see the quality of people willing to volunteer their time for SH—and after no little deliberation we're delighted to announce that Tory Hoke and Heather McDougal are joining the magazine. Tory is a writer, illustrator and programmer with a background in filmmaking, some of whose work will already be familiar to you—she illustrated Ann Leckie's story "She Commands Me and I Obey" last autumn, as well as her own story Lysistrata of Mars." Heather, meanwhile, is an artist and writer with an MFA in sculpture and an interest in art and graphic design in digital environments. I'm very excited to see what they both bring to the magazine over the coming years! (And of course if you're an artist, you can send them your portfolio for consideration.)
And second, with a drum roll—here are the results of this year's Readers' Poll!
Earlier this month, we asked you to vote for your favourite works published by SH in 2014. The poll was open from 13.00 PST on 5th January 2015 until 23.59 PST on 16th January 2015. Each person could vote for up to five works or nominees in each department, 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 ballots required a unique email address to be submitted. Email addresses were only used to verify the validity of ballots.
As ever, we are grateful to those of you who voted in the poll—we always appreciate it, and any other feedback you send us. Congratulations to this year's winners, and thanks as ever to all of our contributors for submitting their work.
Fiction
- First place: "Santos de Sampaguitas" by Alyssa Wong (podcast one, podcast two)
- Second place: "Kenneth: A User's Manual" by Sam J. Miller (podcast)
- Third place: "21 Steps to Enlightenment (Minus One)" by LaShawn M. Wanak (podcast)
- Fourth place: "Storytelling for the Night Clerk" by J. Y. Yang (podcast)
- Fifth place: "Resurrection Points" by Usman T. Malik (podcast)
Poetry
- First place: "You Are Here" by Bogi Takács
- Second place: "Salamander Song" by Rose Lemberg and Emily Jiang
- Third place: "Seeds" by M. Sereno
- Fourth equal: "Una Canción de Keys" by Lisa M. Bradley
- Fourth equal: "The rivers, the birchgroves, all the receding earth" by Rose Lemberg
Articles
- First place: "Reviewing the Other: Like Dancing about Architecture" by Nisi Shawl
- Second place: "Inclusive Reviewing: A Discussion" by Samuel R. Delany, L. Timmel Duchamp, Fabio Fernandes, Andrea Hairston, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Sofia Samatar, and Aishwarya Subramanian
- Third place: "The Diverse Editors List: A Post-Production Essay" by Bogi Takács
- Fourth place: "Defining Speculative Poetry: A Conversation and Three Manifestos" by AJ Odasso, Romie Stott, and Sonya Taaffe
- Fifth place: "The State of British SF and Fantasy: A Symposium" by Juliet E. McKenna, Kari Sperring, Nina Allan, Dan Hartland, Martin Lewis, and Maureen Kincaid Speller
Columns (see the archives for individual columns)
- First place: Genevieve Valentine
- Second place: Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
- Third place: Jaymee Goh
- Fourth place: Cassandra Khaw
- Fifth place: John Clute
Reviews (see the archives for individual reviews)
- First place: Sofia Samatar
- Second place: Carmen Maria Machado
- Third place: Aishwarya Subramanian
- Fourth place: Chris Kammerud
- Fifth place: Alix E. Harrow
Previous years: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.