A brand new podcast project from the Strange Horizons team, SH@25 is a new, year-long interview and feature series that will delve into the archives, celebrate the work of past contributors and staff, and highlight the contributions of Strange Horizons to SFF publishing and the wider community.

Listen to our first episode, a short conversation with Podcast Editor Kat Kourbeti and Producer Michael Ireland, announcing the project and where we are going with it.

For the curious, the narrator recruitment form can be found on this page. Shoot us an email with any questions at podcasts (at) strangehorizons.com.

Click here to leave us an audio voicemail for our episodes or video message for our socials.

Michael Ireland and Kat Kourbeti sit at a table in Hall 4 of the Glasgow SEC, scheming plans for SH@25.

Transcript

Hello, Strangers, and welcome to SH at 25, a 25th anniversary celebration of Strange Horizons. I'm your host, Kat Kourbeti, and with me is my new producer and also your host, Michael Ireland.

Michael Ireland: Hello!

Kat Kourbeti: We have expanded the Podcast team. We've had a few ideas and seeing as we're in already our 25th year, we figured what better way to celebrate than to highlight all of the incredible work that Strange Horizons has done and is doing in the field. Welcome to the team, Michael.

Michael Ireland: Well, thank you very much, Kat. It's nice to be here, and it's nice to have been working with you for the last little while. Just bringing up all these ideas and overwhelming you with my ambitions. It's been welcoming. Thank you.

Kat Kourbeti: It took me ages to figure out that I could get more people involved, and not just kind of have it be a a solo thing for me and for Courtney, who has now left the team. And also we could do new things. How about it? The fabulous people over at the Reviews department, Dan and Aisha, have been doing like this great Critical Friends podcast that has taken off and it's really fun and it's not really what we used to do with this podcast feed. And that kind of gave us a bit of a nudge to like expand the formats, think differently. I mean, this SH at 25 thing kind of happened really organically while we were at Worldcon.

Michael Ireland: Yeah, luckily that was in my back garden in Glasgow. And it was nice to meet you for the first time after talking for the past year about what we're going to do with this podcast Alongside the normal episodes that we'll be doing which is now going to be more curated rather than just following the written format publication, we came up with Strange Horizons at 25.

Kat Kourbeti: Yeah, it was just fun to actually experience, like an idea really form in real time. Cause you said, "Oh, It's 25 years, we should do something." And I was like, " Oh yeah, and all of these people that we already know who like, are still in the field and they're still doing stuff, but they started at Strange Horizons, maybe we should talk to them... Yeah, let's email people and let's do stuff." And so it was just kind of like, yeah, I haven't felt that excited in a really long time about something, because specifically, I guess, of how important Strange Horizons is in the field. And this was before the Hugo win, by the way.

We were fully prepared to lose again. And that was fine. We're still just doing our thing. You know what I mean? We have been for 25 years. But in that moment it was like, "Oh yeah, like we should recognize that." And then also people recognized us, which was really nice. And thank you. It feels surreal to be Hugo Winners.

Michael Ireland: Yeah, it's still, it's still very surreal as well for me as I've—

Kat Kourbeti: You've just joined, haven't you?

Michael Ireland: Yeah, I'm part of it now, and I'm just like, okay, this is wild.

And with myself as well, joining the team, coming from a bit of an audio background but not necessarily in speculative fiction, it's been more of either audio fiction with my show, The Secret of St. Kilda, or I have done music production in the past and sound production for short films, and even directing wrestling TV shows back in the day as well.

So when joining this team and coming in to Worldcon for the first time, because that was also my first Worldcon, and meeting a lot of the team in all the different departments, it was really eye opening and welcoming to meet all these different people from all these different backgrounds and just how open and funny and affable everyone is. It's been really nice to join a team, especially with the ethos that Strange Horizons has as well.

Kat Kourbeti: Yeah. It really well and truly takes all of these different people from all these different backgrounds to make this sort of thing happen. We've been kind of looking back at some of the stuff that we have done to celebrate the magazine in the past. And about 10 years ago, there was an ebook that was the culmination of the first 15 years of Strange Horizons. And there were loads of bits and bobs in there, fiction, poetry, but also some bits of history on the magazine. And it's really been interesting to see how we have followed on in the ethos that Mary Anne Mohanraj started this magazine with, which is to highlight new voices, to bring up the parity within the publishing world of all of these voices that weren't in the foreground before, to try and change that. And 25 years later, we're still doing it. And from even more interesting perspectives, because we're more global now, and I really, truly think that like, because we're this global, we can make this happen. Because we have all these different perspectives and different experiences, we can think outside of the box that SFF publishing has been stuck in. We can expand that and we can make what we think is, well, kind of a global box, if you will.

I'm gutted that I had to leave Worldcon halfway through before the Strange Horizons team got together. So a bunch of those people that were at Glasgow, I never actually got to meet. But I caught COVID at the con, so I had to skedoodle. So it is what it is. And I'm sure that we'll cross paths again.

But I'm glad that you felt that welcoming spirit because honestly, when I think of Strange Horizons, that's, I think, the biggest element: that there's an open hug ready to receive anyone from anywhere. And If you want to volunteer with us, we're here for you. And if you want to write for us, our fiction submissions are open right now, actually. So maybe send us your story. Poetry, your reviews, it's super important to all of us that we open up that door to people. And yeah, it's just been great looking back all of that output and seeing the effect that it's had.

Michael Ireland: Yeah, and that was really visualized at Worldcon as well, because it wasn't just the Hugo win, it was having those conversations with people from all around the world who've came here. And then they see your little Strange Horizons ribbon and they tell you how much they love the magazine. And that goes from fans as well as peers within the industry as well. It was fascinating to be part of it. And to witness just how nice everyone is, because I've been to a fair amount of cons in the past. I've not felt as as you said, as welcoming on there. And I think Strange Horizons are a great leader in what the industry should be.

Kat Kourbeti: 100%.

Michael Ireland: And with Strange Horizons at 25, we're going to be looking at having these conversations with all these people from the past and the present, about the impact the magazine has had on them as well.

Kat Kourbeti: Yeah, we really want to hear from readers and listeners, too, to be honest, not just people who have contributed to the magazine in like a material form with their fiction or their art or their poetry, but also, to hear from people who have been reading us for however long, and to hear how this particular approach has impacted them as SF readers. If we've opened up your horizons into new and strange places, we will be leaving ways for you to send us perhaps like an email or a voicemail, and we'll be doing listener grab bags as well. Because we really want to hear from the wider community. Sometimes it's easy to think that we're just making something and putting it out into the void, and then moving on with our day. But it's cool to actually hear from the people who are connecting to that stuff, and who are enjoying that and what they're taking away from it. So we really want to hear from you.

Michael Ireland: And this is not just a one off, this is a year long celebration.

Kat Kourbeti: We will be at this for a while.

And we've got some great guests lined up. I put out a call on Blue Sky a little while ago and we've had some great guests who volunteered to talk to us. So we'll be hearing from them, and we'll also be reaching out to other past contributors and seeing if they want to talk to us as well.

We want to widen the net of people who have their first publication with us 23 years ago, and seeing where they're at now, and what they've done since, and where their career has taken them. But we'll also be sharing some fiction from those days, because the podcast didn't exist yet. So we have a new opportunity to bring some of that to life in a different way, and to give some old stories a second lease of life. Cause just because it's 20 years old, it doesn't mean that it's not good still. And we would love to take that opportunity and share it with a wider world.

Michael Ireland: And if anyone's listened, and they have been part of the magazine in the past, how can people get in touch with us?

Kat Kourbeti: Well, we do have an email which is podcasts at strangehorizons.com. So you can drop us an email there. You can also find the Strange Horizons social media, and you can reach out through there. And we'll get back in touch with you and we can set up a date, have a chat.

Michael Ireland: We're gonna have fun with this, Kat. I'm really looking forward to going back through those old stories, because as you said, it's not that they're not going to be good, but in some cases, it's the start of people's careers. Because we are focusing on those new writers, on a consistent basis.

I've looked through the archive just to have a look at some of the names and the faces that we've spoken to and, being able to elevate their stories to this space. It's so fascinating to see that, especially people who have went on and been able to continue work in the space. Or in some cases, they've done something adjacent, where they're still following the ethos of Strange Horizons, such as charities and things like that.

Kat Kourbeti: That's, well, that's the thing. Sometimes when you get involved, like in my case, for example, I didn't think, oh, I have some skills, but I don't think that they quite translate, and it's like, well, actually, yes, they do. And conversely, the things that you might learn from here can take you on to other planes in, perhaps a day job environment or whatever.

But those skills, it's so easy to overlook them, and to think that they're not relevant, but they are. And I say this for myself to hear it, because a lot of the time I'm very dismissive of my own skill sets and things that I've brought to the table, from just years of milling about on the Internet. And then suddenly all of that stuff becomes useful. So you just don't know.

But as you said, it's been great to kind of look back at that list of people and realize, just how pivotal Strange Horizons has been in giving some of these people their first publication. And we're still doing that. A lot of what we publish is people's first pro sale. And to watch those people then publish novels, and take off in their own way... I mean, our very own former fiction editor, Vajra Chandrasekera, was just up for a Hugo this year, with his novel. He was our fiction editor not that long ago, about a year and a half, maybe two years that he's left the team.

And it's just been wonderful to see people that we gave their career like maybe a slight nudge, and then look at them go.

Michael Ireland: Yeah, it's been real exciting to actually go back and read these stories for that second time, because you are looking at a museum, essentially, of all these amazing writers throughout the history. And it's not just the writers, it's the reviews team as well, the art that we've had, the poetry that came through. It's not just the fiction that we've been lucky to have. And I'm excited to see how the year turns out.

So, the format that we're going to look at taking is...?

Kat Kourbeti: It's kind of a mix.

Michael Ireland: Yeah, it's going to be a mix. Every second week we're looking to, if not have a guest, to feature a particular person or persons, and that will be interspersed with the relaunch of the curated fiction stories as well. So every other week will be one of those.

And if we do have any of those guests where they've got those stories, we might also have a back to back for the stories as well.

So, are you feeling about it, Kat? How have you been since we came up with this idea less than two months ago?

Kat Kourbeti: We really ran with it, is the thing. I have been flying on a renewed level of motivation and joy. I've been trying to get the podcast reorganized and reimagined for a little while, and since you came on the team about a year ago. And this idea was, I think, the push that I needed to see new potentials for what this podcast could be. We had this, let's say, synergy with the fiction team, but at the same time it was quite difficult to keep up, because the fiction team could very last minute have new edits and things, and we'd have to respond to that and do the podcast recording kind of really, really on the fly.

And it's been revitalizing to take a step back and say, okay. We've been responding to things, but what can we do in a more proactive, more intentional way? What do we want this to be? And the answer is, way too many things, and that's okay! We have so much good stuff waiting in the wings for everybody, and I'm really excited to share it all. Both the revitalized fiction side of things, where we'll be curating the stories, and there's a big 25 year old backlog that we can look at and draw from and share. And at the same time, start something new, this SH@25 series that will be a lot of things.

It will be interviews, it will be features, it will be listener messages and all sorts of stuff. To kind of really take a step back and look at, pun very much intended, the Strange Horizon that we have been part of, and to not just look at the past, but also kind of look ahead and see where the genre is going, how we've helped bring it to this stage where we are with short fiction publishing, and with art and with poetry, which is not very common in SF markets; there's only really a handful of places that publish science fiction and fantasy poetry at a pro level, and it's great to see that recognized. There's going to be a poetry Hugo next year in Seattle. And it's great to have been part of that tradition, and to see where that is going is very, very exciting.

So I'm, to answer your question in brief, super stoked. I'm stoked to get this going, and to see where it goes. It's going to be a very fun year, I think.

Michael Ireland: Yeah. it's going to be exciting. I like when I'm challenged, happen to be quite creative in how we approach a new project, and I think we've hit the nail on the head with this one, because I like to get ambitious with what I do. And I think that's why you brought me onto the team as well. Coming up with these different angles and trying to prod you about what can we do and what can't we do. And then, getting those different things not just okayed by you, but like, it's motivated you as well to be part of that, which is the best part of this because I like to talk to you and I like to go over these ideas with you and all the things that we've had to put in place so far over not just the last few months, but the last year as well about how we approach the podcast. I do love seeing the paper trail as it was of where the project's going, because it's never a standstill. And that's why we've got so many different documents and different templates and different things all ready to go at any given time.

Kat Kourbeti: Yeah. We were laughing before we started recording about just how many documents—I got a little overboard! "We need a document for this and we need a document for that. And let's format it this way." And like, yeah. I'm sorry, but also you're welcome.

Michael Ireland: It is great to help give you that motivation.

Kat Kourbeti: Yeah, no, it's been great expanding the podcast team, because it's not just you, we've got another producer in the wings working on the fiction side of things, our producer, Lauren. It's been great to have more people to bounce things off of. I certainly thrive in a collaborative environment where I can bounce things off of people and elevate each other's ideas where it's like, "oh, we should do this. Yes. And also, what if we had that?" We 'yes, and' each other quite a bit. And that's been great.

And I think that's really the spirit of Strange Horizons: let's bring a group of people together and just see what we can make. Let's see what we can bring forward into the world. And all the different departments, I think, do a fantastic job of that in their, perhaps little siloed ways.

We have a "flat anarchic structure" as our editor Gautam says, where we don't have a boss, and every department has the freedom to do what they want, and then we all come together and we make this magazine. And so it's anarchic, it's chaotic. But also it's liberating, because we have a house style that has evolved over 25 years of just aesthetically like what we want to raise up, in terms of voices and in terms of themes and things like that. We publish a lot of really introspective stuff from all around the world.

But, you know, what makes a Strange Horizons story? When people ask me what they should send us, you know, I always say that it has to have something from within your heart that resonates and that is true. The packaging doesn't matter: is it science fiction? Great. Is it fantasy? Great. Is it based on our real world with some flavoring of the speculative? Awesome. Is it in a different world entirely? Also great.

Really what it is about is that emotional core. And yeah, just watching all these different departments find their own way to do that, really motivated me to see what the podcast could be, not just a response to what the fiction and poetry departments do, but in its own way. What is the Strange Horizons podcast? And part of it is this, now.

Michael Ireland: Yep. I think that's one of the first questions I asked you as well when I joined. I'm like, what can we do? And you're like, yeah, we can do anything we want. I'm like, yeah, but, what can we do?

Kat Kourbeti: But what is that?

Michael Ireland: So there was a lot of questions that I was firing at you over the space of the last year. And the answer was usually a yes, or "no one's going to say no". And that's really freeing. Obviously it can be quite scary to just have that free reign.

Kat Kourbeti: And is this idea even going to work? I think it will, this one in particular, I have a really good feeling about it just because it's so all encompassing. And that freedom, as you said, is there a format that we're tied to? Not really. And therefore, you can expect a lot of different stuff every week. It's not going to be too formulaic.

Michael Ireland: That does kind of showcase as well what Strange Horizons is about, because as I said, we're not just looking at the past, we're looking at the past in a format that hasn't been done before. So we're treading new ground on old ground.

We want to be able to help tell those stories in an audio format. It's been interesting for me trying to curate which stories are going to be the focus, and things that I'm looking into when I am reading them, is how important the culture's been for each of those stories. So as you're saying, where it's got to come from within. You can see and you can feel that is with the culture that's surrounding that, and the person's personal experiences, and what I want to do when I am curating some of these stories, at least my workload is, I want to make sure that we are giving each story justice in an audio format, and working with the expectations of the rest of the magazine to put that forward, because we want to make sure that from the podcast perspective, we are helping provide that outlet for these people, to give them voices as well.

Kat Kourbeti: And we're adding new voices to the Fiction roster, so it's not just going to be you and me doing everything. We're bringing in loads of external narrators, some lovely voices to tell those stories more authentically than we could, and to also just jazz things up a little bit.

Thank you very much to all the people who have told me in the past that they've enjoyed my reading of the Strange Horizon stories. And I'll still be around, of course, and I'll still be doing some of the stories on the off weeks from SH @ 25. But you will also be hearing some new voices, and I'm very excited that we get to expand that.

Michael Ireland: Yeah. Are we opening up the narration?

Kat Kourbeti: I mean, it's never closed. Technically our call for narrators is always ongoing. So if you're hearing this and you're like, "hey, maybe I'd like to take a crack," there is a link which I will put in the show notes, and it's on one of the Azimuth pages, I think, and on the volunteer call page, where we have a form and you can fill that out, send us a sample of your recording, let us know what your tech setup is and so on and so forth. And we'll just get in touch and take it from there.

Michael Ireland: Yeah. And as I said, it's not just the new stories that we're looking at. It's also the old stories from the archive, the story from the featured guests that we've got over the next year as well. And if there's stories that you even like, and you are successful with putting in for the narration, we're always going to take into consideration what your favorites are that you resonate with.

Kat Kourbeti: If it hasn't been podcasted before, and you would like to help us do that, just let us know.

Michael Ireland: We have got this curated approach that we're taking, and everyone involved should be having a nice time.

Kat Kourbeti: Yeah, that's what it's about. It's about doing all of this fun, artistic work, but having it be a good time too, because otherwise, what are we doing?

Michael Ireland: What are we doing indeed?

Where are you going to be over the next couple of cons through this year, in case people want to say hello to us?

Kat Kourbeti: Well, I mean, yeah, we are attending a few over the next 365 days. I think my next one is definitely Eastercon in the UK in, I want to say mid April, it's in Belfast. But I think you're going to a couple, or at least one sooner than that, right?

Michael Ireland: I'm going to FantasyCon in Chester in the UK. That is October 11th through 13th. I think a couple of the narrators are going as well. So it'll be nice to catch up with them. But yeah, you'll be able to find us there. I will also be going to Eastercon and aiming for Worldcon next year.

We can get that done. It's far, far, far away.

Kat Kourbeti: It feels far away. It's going to zoom past, I think. Yeah, I'm also aiming for Seattle, so I should be there. If you see us, come ask us for a ribbon, we'll have all sorts of Strange Horizons goodies and stuff to give away. And we're excited to meet all of the people who listen because, I think it was Esther McCallum, who was the chair for Worldcon in Glasgow, who at an Eastercon a couple years back said, "Hey, I know your voice." And I was like, "Oh yeah, I read the stories for Strange Horizons," and she said, "I listened to that to fall asleep." And I was like, super moved by the idea that someone is actually falling asleep to my voice. So if that's you, dear listener, thank you. That's amazing. Yeah, so if you see us or you recognize our voices and you want to say hello, please, please do. We love to actually see the faces of the people who listen.

Michael Ireland: I'm lucky I don't fall asleep to your voice. Otherwise our meetings would be dozing off!

Kat Kourbeti: You would be asleep right now!

Michael Ireland: So I hope everyone is ready for the next year of anarchy with all these lovely guests that we've got on, who have given the time and the creative input to us over the years, and they are happy to do that for us once again. So really going to appreciate that, and I hope everyone has an amazing time listening to this project.

Please do get in touch, @ us on the socials, you'll be able to leave comments on Spotify now as well on the new episodes. So if there's any stories that have resonated with you, or any authors that have came through us in the past that you have enjoyed the work of, tell us when you got started listening to us, or when you started reading us, it'll be lovely to hear from you.

Kat Kourbeti: Absolutely. Let's kick this celebration off with a bang.

Michael Ireland: Oh, we got new music as well!

Kat Kourbeti: Oh yeah, which you composed, didn't you?

Michael Ireland: Yeah.

Kat Kourbeti: Tell us a little bit about that before we close off the episode.

Michael Ireland: Yeah, so I pitched to Kat, let's get some new music for this project as well, please. And her response was, who's doing it? And the answer was me. I've pitched it, so it's my responsibility to figure that out. So, one of my close friends Andrew Gorman, he has helped to create the sound of Strange Horizons @ 25, which you would have heard at the start of the show, and you'll also hear a different version of that at the end through the credits.

It's been fun to go through that creative journey about what we want the sound to be, and getting the feedback from Kat as well to see, is this good enough?

Kat Kourbeti: I think at every stage I was like, "oh my God. It sounds great." And then you'd bring in new iterations and new instruments and new layers to it. And I was like, "I don't know, man, it all sounds great." I have zero composing background, you know? So to me, it all sounds like magic, honestly.

Michael Ireland: I'm in the process of mastering that just now, so by the time this episode goes up, you will have heard it. So hope you enjoyed that as well. Any feedback on that, any criticism, please let me know.

Kat Kourbeti: Be kind, but let us know your comments.

Michael Ireland: I think that's our first episode down, Kat.

Kat Kourbeti: Yes, it is. It's just a little, a wee introduction into where we've been, what we've been thinking and what we're planning and how we're feeling about all of this, and about our 25th birthday, which is an astounding amount of time to have been around for a volunteer run magazine that relies on public donations. We have been this since the beginning and we're still going strong and dare I say, we have plans for even more amazing stuff over the next year certainly, and even further, just going by some internal conversations we've been having. Everyone just loves being a part of this.

We love making this magazine, and we hope that all the listeners will join in this big celebration.

Michael Ireland: Thank you.

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