THE EDITOR’S WORD by Lezli Robyn

This issue of the magazine greets the world with a lot more hope than the previous one. With more Americans becoming vaccinated against Covid-19, we enter summer with science fiction conventions returning to “in person” venues, rather than just being the virtual events we have gotten used to over the past sixteen months. Galaxy’s Edge magazine’s publisher, Shahid Mahmud, and I will be attending Dragon Con in Atlanta, marking our first physical presence at a convention in over a year. And we are doing it for a purpose very close to our hearts.

We’ll be presenting the inaugural Mike Resnick Memorial Award for Short Fiction to the winner, for the best unpublished science fiction story by a new author. As I type this, the shortlisted entries are currently being assessed by our esteemed judges, Lois McMaster Bujold, Nancy Kress, Sheree Renée Thomas, Jody Lyn Nye and Bill Fawcett. While a majority of the submissions were from English-speaking populations, entries were received from nineteen different countries around the world, from nations as diverse as Lebanon, Japan, Slovenia and Brazil.

The finalists are being evaluated on a blind basis. This means the judges do not see the authors’ names or location details. We cannot wait to announce the top five entrants on July 15th. You can find out who they are on that date by going to the award website, www.resnickaward.com.

This issue we have some great stories from some authors new to the pages of our magazine. David Cleden’s story, “How does my Garden Grow?”, is a gripping tale about Elke’s fight to keep his garden alive within a community of five hundred humans who have to retain strict control over their resources in order to sustain centuries of flight within a closed spaceship. And Julie Frost’s piece, “Not All Treasure,” tells the tale of Ambrose and Deena’s trip to steal wealth from dragons to repay a debt. It doesn’t go according to plan (whenever does it?), but the unexpected ending will satisfy many a reader.

We also have the pleasure of publishing Carolyn Ives Gilman’s new historical fantasy piece, “Nanabojou and the Wise Men,” which shows us the impact of a God’s meddling on humanity. One of my favorite books is written by Carolyn, Halfway Human, so I am overjoyed to be featuring a new story of hers in our magazine.

Regular contributors, Tina Gower and Brian Trent also have new fiction in this issue. Tina’s “The Last Dentist” raises the question of how you get dental work after the apocalypse has decimated the world, and Brian Trent’s haunting and emotive “Shadow Walk in Obsidian” explores how far you would go to cheat death. Not for yourself, but for the one you love.

A frequent contributor to the pages of Galaxy’s Edge, Robert Silverberg appears in this issue with his story, “The Far Side of the Bell-Shaped Curve,” and we welcome Kristine Kathryn Rusch back to the magazine with her novelette, “Destiny,” a prequel to her popular Fey fantasy series which follows the Shapeshifter Solanda on Nye. The Black King wants her to use her special abilities on a job that will change the Fey forever, but Solanda wants to change the life of one child. Can she do both? Or should she do nothing at all?

Mike Resnick’s inclusion is the thought-provoking “Articles of Faith” about the robot who discovers an interest in religion, and our translated story from our sister magazine in China, “Hyperspace Partner,” is written by Bao Shu and translated by S. Qiouyi Lu, closing out our short fiction content for this issue. Bao’s fiction is best introduced by the editor of our Chinese counterpart, Yang Feng, at the start of their story, and it is a wonderful read.

Our serialization is a continuation of Harry Turtledove’s novel, Over the Wine-Dark Sea, and Jean Marie Ward joins our team as our new interviewer for the magazine. This issue she has a captivating conversation with the ever-popular Seanan McGuire, and I find it endlessly fascinating to discover what motivates or inspires our favorite authors to write the fiction we love so much.

Rounding out this issue are our regular columns by L. Penelope and Gregory Benford, with the former discussing the delicate and sensitive nature of creating or describing different cultures in fiction, and the later discussing the science behind twins versus cloning (something close to my heart as an identical twin myself). Richard Chwedyk also provides extra reading suggestions with his Recommended Books column,

As I finalize this editorial, a tropical storm is rumbling through the island, affecting cell service across the state. What a perfect excuse to unplug, and read even more wonderful submissions, destined to appear in future pages of Galaxy’s Edge.