As we wind down 2014, we're saying goodbye to a few familiar faces, and hello to a few new ones, with changes in the reviews, poetry, and fiction departments, as well as an expansion of the art department.
It's been a busy autumn for Strange Horizons. This year's fund drive turned out to be one of our best ever, raising just over $15,500, funding the fifteenth year of the magazine and allowing us to raise our maximum length for submissions to 10,000 words. We're now well into the post fund drive admin, the most important bit of which is of course the prize draw—we're pulling names out of the metaphorical fund drive hat every day, but still have about thirty prizes to be claimed, so do keep an eye on your inbox!
On top of the fund drive, we're delighted to say that we have received a grant from SF3 to increase our pay rate for original artwork. We added artwork for one story per month after last year's fund drive, and based on our initial research, set our pay rate at $80. However, based on our experience this year we decided that needed to be raised; and we're very grateful to SF3 for enabling us to announce a new rate of $200 (tell your artist friends!).
Meanwhile, the reviews department has been completing its transitionary period, as the new team gets settled in. We said a couple of months ago that we were looking for a Media Reviews Editor to join the department, and we got an amazing response to that call—thanks to everyone who applied. I'm delighted to announce that Cassandra Khaw will be taking up that role, so you can look forward to spruced up coverage of film, TV and games in the near future. We're also following up with those who volunteered as reviewers (with apologies for the delay at our end).
We're also looking to hire for two more roles today: Poetry Editors, and an Art Director. The deadline for both is Sunday 21st December.
The Art Director one is a new role for SH, again based on our experiences over the last year. We want someone who can work with the fiction department to commission and schedule artwork, and we're keen to showcase as much diversity in our artwork as we do in our stories. More details on the jobs page.
In the poetry department, we're recruiting to replace, as sadly Romie Stott has decided that it's time to move on. Since she joined the magazine in mid-2012, Romie has both provided a strong editorial voice and been a pleasure to work with; the department will miss her. (Although you don't have to: you can keep up with her daily SF microfiction at Postorbital.) However, we're actually looking to recruit two editors this time, bringing the poetry department up to four. If you're interested, again, details on the jobs page.
Finally, in the fiction department we're saying goodbye to Brit Mandelo. Since joining in early 2012—when she was the first of the new guard, which is now the established guard—Brit has put an immense amount of time and energy into Strange Horizons, from which the magazine has benefitted enormously and for which we are deeply grateful; we'll all be on the lookout for whatever comes next. You can read a separate goodbye from Brit on the blog.
But also on the blog, you will find a hello from Catherine Krahe, who is joining Julia Rios and An Owomoyela as a fiction editor, effective immediately. For us, she's been around for a while already: Catherine has been part of the editorial team at SH since 2011, when she joined as a First Reader, and has done tireless work sifting through our slush. In her copious spare time, she's also published stories in Nature, Ideomancer, Daily Science Fiction and elsewhere, and she works each year with the Alpha Young Writers Workshop. For you, she'll be a new voice in the magazine, but—I think— an exciting and welcome one.
So that's all our news! It's a lot, all bundled up like that; a busy autumn, as I said. But it should make for an exciting new year—and in the meantime, feel free to ask any questions in the comments.