Uncanny Magazine is a shiny new magazine from the uber creative team  Lynne M. Thomas (Three-time Hugo Award-winner, Apex Magazine, Chicks Dig Time Lords, Glitter & Mayhem) and  Michael Damian Thomas (three-time Hugo Award nominee, Apex Magazine, Queers Dig Time Lords). I love their vision of what fiction can be and it’s exciting to see what they’ll do with an ongoing magazine that is entirely theirs (bahahahahahahahaah). Michi Trota will be the managing editor and while I have not had the pleasure of meeting her in meat space all my online interactions with her have led me to conclude that she’s one of those hella capable, smart, thoughtful and funny ladies who knows her way around a sword and sets fire to things (literally). What’s not to love?

From everything I have gathered it will be a magazine with gorgeous art, stories and poems that speculate, explore and have fun within and running over genre lines (who wants to colour in within the lines ALL the time?). They’ve deliberately structured it to make sure there’s space to discover amazing new voices as well as provide certainty (and a feel for the creative vibe of the magazine) with a nifty range of creators committed to contributing to the first year. This list has some very impressive names.

This list also has ME on it! I am on this list! I LOVE working with Lynne and Michael and I love creating in service of something I believe in.  They want to publish stories that make you feel and linger on the palate. All I want from a story is to fall in love and be transformed, I think we share the same values.

To make Uncanny Magazine come to life they’ve created a Kickstarter. This is exciting for me as well, as it gives me an opportunity to give people unusual gifts. I offered two tangible gifts, a pack of kind things and a pack of even kinder things. Both have sold out! There are still dinners at conventions and google hangouts available , but things are selling out pretty fast. This too is exciting, to see all the good will and care flowing around.

24 hours into the Kickstarter and Uncanny is half way to it’s goal! Many of the higher tier awards have already sold, so if you want a pair of handcrafted earrings made by Rachel Swirsky or a manuscript critique or go to dinner with folks or tell Amal El-Mohtar what to blog about it’s probably good to move sooner rather than later. Let’s keep up the momentum through this mid-section of the campaign, get us to some stretch rewards and such!

Check out these authors!

• Charlie Jane Anders (“Six Months, Three Days”)
• Liz Argall (“Mermaid’s Hook”)
• Paul Cornell (Doctor Who, London Falling)
• Amal El-Mohtar (“The Green Book”)
• Maria Dahvana Headley (Queen of Kings)
• Kat Howard (“Breaking the Frame”)
• Hao Jingfang (Ken Liu, translator)
• Mary Robinette Kowal (Glamourist Histories series)
• Ken Liu (“Paper Menagerie”)
• Scott Lynch (Gentlemen Bastards series)
• Sofia Samatar (A Stranger in Olondria)
• Rachel Swirsky (“If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love”)
• Catherynne M. Valente (Deathless)
• E. Lily Yu (“The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”)

Showcasing original poetry by

• Neil Gaiman
• Emily Jiang
• Rose Lemberg
• Mari Ness
• Sonya Taaffe
• and Bryan Thao Worra

… and essays by

• Jim C. Hines
• Kameron Hurley
• Sarah Kuhn
• Julia Rios
• Diana Pho
• and Tansy Rayner Roberts.

Uncanny will also feature cover art by

• Carrie Ann Baade
• Julie Dillon
• Galen Dara
• Tran Nguyen
• Matthew Dow Smith.
• Special thanks to Katy Shuttleworth, who created Uncanny’s logo.