Strange Horizons is delighted to present our Brazilian special issue: five new stories and three poems by fantasy and science fiction authors from Brazil and its diaspora.
The year of 2019 was difficult for the entire planet, and Brazil especially so. We have seen political persecution, the rise of far right, and political chaos. The Amazon is still burning, but artists keep creating in spite of it.
When I began following the short fiction market in 2016, it was rare to find published Latin American writers, let alone South Americans and Brazilians. Our own scene was restricted: we had Trasgo as the only paid magazine, self-published stories on Amazon.com, and a couple of anthologies here and there. Now the market is flourishing with new magazines and ideas, as Jana Bianchi covers in her state of play article.
Our presence in international magazines is still scarce. According to my own research, only four Brazilians were present in English-speaking SFF magazines in 2019 so far. We are happy to expand this number a little bit, with new fiction by Isa Prospero, Heitor Zen, Sérgio Motta, H. Pueyo, and Kali de los Santos, and poetry by Jarid Arraes and Woody Dismukes. The fiction podcasts of these stories were read by Solaine Chioro, Julia Quandt, Sérgio Motta, and Anaea Lay, and the stunning artwork was done by Juliana Pinho.
We hope you are as passionate about this issue as we are, and that it can help open the door for other Brazilians and Latin Americans to publish their work worldwide.