Variously known as a student of Linguistics, a web application developer, a graduate of the 2008 Clarion West class, a writer of speculative fiction, and a purveyor of medieval armor and fine baked goods, An Owomoyela mostly resides in places contrary to consensus reality but is compelled to list a university town in the American Midwest as home on most official documents. Fiction bearing the mark of this elusive author can be found in an increasing variety of “here”s and “there”s, and more general information can be found at an.owomoyela.net.
Susan Palwick’s publication credits include the novels Flying In Place, The Necessary Beggar, and Shelter. Much of her short fiction—which has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and elsewhere—was recently collected in the volume The Fate of Mice. Her work has been a finalist for the World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic awards, and Flying in Place won the Crawford Award for best first fantasy novel. She is Associate Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno, and lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada with her husband and three cats.
Cat Rambo writes in the Pacific Northwest. Her collection, Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight, appeared from Paper Golem Press in 2009, following her collaboration with Jeff VanderMeer, The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories in 2007. Among the places her work has appeared are Asimov’s, Weird Tales, and Clarkesworld.
Robert Reed is the author of more than two hundred works of short science fiction, with the occasional fantasy and odd horror thrown into the mix. He has also published various novels, including Marrow and The Well of Stars, two epic tales about a world-sized starship taking a lap around the galaxy. His novella, “A Billion Eves,” won the Hugo in 2007. Reed lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife and daughter, and a computer jammed with forgotten files.
Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry in 1966. He spent his early years in Cornwall, then returned to Wales for his primary and secondary school education. He completed a degree in astronomy at Newcastle, then a PhD in the same subject at St Andrews in Scotland. He left the UK in 1991 and spent the next sixteen years working in the Netherlands, mostly for the European Space Agency, although he also did a stint as a postdoctoral worker in Utrecht. He had been writing and selling science fiction since 1989, and published his first novel, Revelation Space, in 2000. He has recently completed his tenth novel and has continued to publish short fiction. His novel Chasm City won the British Science Fiction Award, and he has been shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke award three times. In 2004 he left scientific research to write full time. He married in 2005 and returned to Wales in 2008, where he lives in Rhondda Cynon Taff.
Hugo-award winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch publishes fiction in many genres under many names. Her novels have appeared in fifteen countries, and her short stories have appeared in many year’s best collections. Once upon a time, she edited The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, as well as Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, but she gave all that up for writing. Over the next three years, WMG Publishing will put her entire backlist into print, including all of her short stories (in electronic form). For more information on her work, visit kristinekathrynrusch.com.
Robert Silverberg—four-time Hugo Award-winner, five-time winner of the Nebula Award, SFWA Grand Master, SF Hall of Fame honoree—is the author of nearly five hundred short stories, nearly one hundred-and-fifty novels, and is the editor of in the neighborhood of one hundred anthologies. Among his most famous works are Lord Valentine’s Castle, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. Learn more at www.majipoor.com.
Bruce Sterling is the author of many novels, including Islands in the Net, Heavy Weather, Distraction, Holy Fire, The Zenith Angle, The Caryatids, and, with William Gibson, The Difference Engine. He is the winner of three Locus Awards, two Hugos, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He is also the editor of the seminal cyberpunk anthology Mirrorshades. Much of his short fiction, which has appeared in magazines such as F&SF and Omni, was recently collected in Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling.
David Tallerman is the author of around a hundred short stories, many of them published or forthcoming in markets such as Bull Spec, Andromeda Spaceways, Space and Time, Flash Fiction Online, and John Joseph Adams’s zombie best-of anthology The Living Dead. He’s also published poetry (in Chiaroscuro), film reviews (in Son and Foe) and a comic script (in the award-winning British comic Futurequake.) His first novel, tentatively known as Giant Thief, is currently seeking a good home, and he recently completed the first draft of his second. He can be found online at davidtallerman.net.
Born in the Pacific Northwest in 1979, Catherynne M. Valente is the author of over a dozen works of fiction and poetry, including Palimpsest, the Orphan’s Tales series, and the crowdfunded phenomenon The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Own Making. She is the winner of the Tiptree Award, the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Million Writers Award. She was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award in 2007 and 2009, and the Lambda and Hugo Awards in 2010. She lives on an island off the coast of Maine with her partner, two dogs, and an enormous cat. Learn more at catherynnemvalente.com.
Genevieve Valentine’s first novel, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, is forthcoming from Prime Books in 2011. Her short fiction has appeared in or is forthcoming from: Running with the Pack, The Living Dead 2, The Way of the Wizard, Teeth, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, and more. Her appetite for bad movies is insatiable, a tragedy she tracks on her blog, genevievevalentine.com.
Carrie Vaughn is the bestselling author of the Kitty Norville series. The eighth volume, Kitty Goes to War, is due out in July. She has also written a young adult novel, Voices of Dragons, and a stand-alone fantasy novel, Discord’s Apple. Her short fiction has appeared many times in Realms of Fantasy, and in a number of anthologies, such as Fast Ships, Black Sails and Warriors. She lives in Colorado with a fluffy attack dog. Learn more at carrievaughn.com.
Charles Yu received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award for his story collection, Third Class Superhero. He has also had work published in Alaska Quarterly Review, Eclectica, The Gettysburg Review, The Malahat Review, Oxford American, and Sou’wester. His first novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (Pantheon) was published in September. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks to the following:
Lightspeed’s publisher, Sean Wallace, for publishing Lightspeed and choosing me to edit it.
The brilliant and dedicated Lightspeed editorial team: Molly Tanzer, Esther Inglis-Arkell, Stefan Rudnicki, Christie Yant, Erin Stocks, Stacey Friedberg, and Robyn Lupo. I couldn’t edit the magazine without your support; although only my name goes on the cover and may be recognized by award committees, you guys are every bit as much a part of this as I am. Additionally, a huge thanks goes out to former team members Andrea Kail and Jordan Hamessley—both of whom were with us from the very start and were instrumental in getting Lightspeed off the ground.
Our amazing webmaster Jeremiah Tolbert, for creating such a beautiful design for the magazine, and making all of the behind-the-scenes coding and whatnot work without a hitch.
Our ever-vigilant slush readers: Kate Galey, Andrew Liptak, Shannon Rampe, Caleb Schulz, Moshe Siegel, and LaShawn Wanak.
Our nonfiction writers—including especially our most prolific contributor Genevieve Valentine—for balancing our fiction with some fact.
All of our wonderful artists who provided our covers.
Astronomers Mike Brotherton and Pamela Gay, for not only providing some of Lightspeed’s nonfiction content, but also advising on the astronomical science in some of our stories.
My intern, Rebecca McNulty, for her tireless devotion to the occasionally mundane tasks I assign her, and for always being there when I need her.
My agent, Joe Monti, for the incredible amoun
t of support he’s provided since taking me on as a client—he’s gone above and beyond the call of duty. To any writers reading this: you’d be lucky to have Joe in your corner.
Gordon Van Gelder, for mentoring me, and giving me my start in the field. None of my successes would have been possible without his tuteledge.
My mom, for her endless enthusiasm for all my new projects.
My dear friends Robert Bland, Desirina Boskovich, Christopher M. Cevasco, Douglas E. Cohen, David Barr Kirtley, and Matt London, for all of their support.
The readers and critics who have praised Lightspeed and made our first year such a huge success.
And last, but certainly not least: a big thanks to all of the authors who appear in Lightspeed and in this anthology.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IS MADE FOR PERMISSION TO PRINT THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL:
“Gossamer” by Stephen Baxter. © 1995 by Stephen Baxter. Originally published in Science Fiction Age. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Manumission” by Tobias Buckell. © 2008 by Tobias S. Buckell. Originally published in Jim Baen’s Universe. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Elephants of Poznan” by Orson Scott Card. © 2000 by Orson Scott Card. Originally published in Fantastyka. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Arvies” by Adam-Troy Castro. © 2010 by Adam-Troy Castro. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, August 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Saying the Names” by Maggie Clark. © 2011 by Maggie Clark. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, March 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son” by Tom Crosshill. © 2011 by Tom Crosshill. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, April 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Passenger” by Julie E. Czerneda. © 1999 by Julie E. Czerneda. Originally published in Treachery & Treason, edited by Laura Anne Gilman and Jennifer Heddle. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Patient Zero” by Tananarive Due. © 2000 by Tananarive Due. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“No Time Like the Present” by Carol Emshwiller. © 2010 by Carol Emshwiller. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, July 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Taste of Starlight” by John R. Fultz. © 2010 by John R. Fultz. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, October 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Harrowers” by Eric Gregory. © 2011 by Eric Gregory. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, May 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“More Than the Sum of His Parts” by Joe Haldeman. © 1985 by Joe Haldeman. Originally published in Playboy. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan. © 2010 by Vylar Kaftan. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, June 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Breakaway, Backdown” by James Patrick Kelly. © 1996 by James Patrick Kelly. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Faces in Revolving Souls” by Caitlín R. Kiernan. © 2005 by Caitlín R. Kiernan. Originally published in Outsiders, edited by Nancy Holder and Nancy Kilpatrick. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Hwang’s Billion Brilliant Daughters” by Alice Sola Kim. © 2010 by Alice Sola Kim. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, November 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Beachworld” by Stephen King. © 1984 by Stephen King. Originally published in Weird Tales. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley. © 2010 by David Barr Kirtley. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, June 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“In-Fall” by Ted Kosmatka. © 2010 by Ted Kosmatka. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, December 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Ej-Es” by Nancy Kress. © 2003 by Nancy Kress. Originally published in the anthology, Stars, edited by Janis Ian and Mike Resnick. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Eliot Wrote” by Nancy Kress. © 2011 by Nancy Kress. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, May 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Long Chase” by Geoffrey A. Landis. © 2002 by Geoffrey A. Landis. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Hindsight” by Sarah Langan. © 2010 by Sarah Langan. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, October 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” by Joe R. Lansdale. © 1986 Joe R. Lansdale. Originally published in Nukes edited by John MacLay. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Silence of the Asonu” by Ursula K. Le Guin. © 1998 by Ursula K. Le Guin. Originally published in Orion. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Black Fire” by Tanith Lee. © 2011 by Tanith Lee. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, January 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” by Yoon Ha Lee. © 2010 by Yoon Ha Lee. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, September 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Simulacrum” by Ken Liu. © 2011 by Ken Liu. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, February 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Postings from an Amorous Tomorrow” by Corey Joshua Mariani. © 2011 by Corey Joshua Mariani. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, January 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“ . . . for a single yesterday” by George R.R. Martin. © 1975 by George R.R. Martin. Originally published in Epoch. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Velvet Fields” by Anne McCaffrey. © 1973 by Anne McCaffrey. Originally published in Worlds of If. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, The Virginia Kidd Agency.
“The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt. © 2010 by Cryptic, Inc. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, June 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Bibi From Jupiter” by Tessa Mellas. © 2007 by Tessa Mellas. Originally published in StoryQuarterly. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Spider the Artist” by Nnedi Okorafor. © 2008 by Nnedi Okorafor. Originally published in Seeds of Change, edited by John Joseph Adams. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“All That Touches the Air” by An Owomoyela. © 2011 by An Owomoyela. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, April 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Cucumber Gravy” by Susan Palwick. © 2001 by Susan Palwick. Originally published in SCI FICTION. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Amid the Words of War” by Cat Rambo. © 2010 by Cat Rambo. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, September 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Long Enough and Just So Long” by Cat Rambo. © 2011 by Cat Rambo. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, February 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Woman Leaves Room” by Robert Reed. © 2011 by Robert Reed. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, March 2011. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Scales” by Alastair Reynolds. © 2009 by Alastair Reynolds. Originally published in The Guardian. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Observer” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. © 2008 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Originally published in Front Lines edited by Denise Little. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Travelers” by Robert Silverberg. © 1999 by Agberg, Ltd. Originally published in Amazing Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Maneki Neko” by Bruce Sterling. © 1998 by Bruce Sterling. Originally published in Hayakawa’s Science Fiction Magazine (Japanese language) and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (English language). Reprinted by permission of the author.
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sp; “Jenny’s Sick” by David Tallerman. © 2010 by David Tallerman. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, December 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“How to Become a Mars Overlord” by Catherynne Valente. © 2010 by Catherynne Valente. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, August 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Zeppelin Conductors’ Society Annual Gentlemen’s Ball” by Genevieve Valentine. © 2010 by Genevieve Valentine. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, July 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn. © 2010 by Carrie Vaughn, LLC. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, June 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Standard Loneliness Package” by Charles Yu. © 2010 by Charles Yu. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, November 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
John Joseph Adams (www.johnjosephadams.com) is the editor of Lightspeed Magazine and Fantasy Magazine. He is also the bestselling editor of many anthologies, such as Wastelands, The Living Dead, By Blood We Live, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Brave New Worlds, The Living Dead 2, and The Way of the Wizard. Forthcoming work includes Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom, Armored, and The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination. In 2011, he was a finalist for two Hugo Awards and two World Fantasy Awards. John is also the co-host of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, which airs on io9.com.
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