AS: I conduct a lot of interviews. I love asking authors and editors about genre, because the answers can really vary, and I think you learn a lot about the individual by seeing their perspective on something. So, here we are, running this magazine called “Fantasy.” What is fantasy fiction to you, why is it important, how is it different from any other kind of writing?

CY: What I love about fantasy as a genre is that the “What if . . . ?” possibilities are virtually unlimited. This comes up in my book club a lot. They’re all strictly science fiction readers and some of them get irritated if the “science” in their fiction isn’t closely grounded in known reality. Personally I find that really limiting; I don’t mind going way out there into the impossible to explore an idea or a relationship. My suspension of disbelief more often hangs on the actions of the characters than the nature or plausibility of the speculative element, which allows me to enjoy a wide range of stories.

AS: I feel like, to a degree, all fiction is a type of fantasy. It’s an individual imagining something that didn’t happen, probably isn’t going to happen, and creating a narrative out of that imagining. But for me, the power of fantasy fiction is in its versatility. You can do so many things with it, from just throwing together fun ideas to exploring difficult, important topics. It can look like so many things, from something that you’re not even sure involves the fantastic, to wildly imaginative scenarios. Some of my favorite pieces of fantasy point at truths or explore reality utilizing cool concepts, such as N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became. But because fantasy can be so many things, it can be a wonderful way for people who are quite different from each other to come together.

CY: Agreed. There are times when I desperately want to convince people that just as science fiction isn’t limited to rockets and robots, fantasy isn’t all dragons and wizards. The stories that we seem to gravitate toward are using a fantasy framework to examine race, class, gender, climate, trauma, justice–some are deeply personal, some are timely and topical, and of course some are just sheer fun, which is just as valid an application of literature as any!

AS: I think that the work we publish approaches or utilizes the fantastic in a variety of ways. You can find all kinds of fantasy in our pages. But whatever the story or poem or even essay, if we’re publishing it, then you can count on it being interesting.

• • • •

In this issue’s short fiction, Eliza Chan explores gender and power across generations in “The Tails That Make You,” and P H Lee’s  “A True and Certain Proof of the Messianic Age, with two lemmas” brings us folklore through an algorithmic lens; for flash fiction, Mary Soon Lee explores classic fairy tales through a different lens in “Introduction to Couture 101,” and M. H. Ayinde grows something new in “Girlfriend Material”; for poetry, we have “The God’s Wife” by Nana Afadua Ofori-Atta and “The Himba Destroyer” by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu. Plus! A collective interview (part one of two) with several of the Top Ten Finalists for this year’s Locus Awards, from the Best Fantasy Novel category! Enjoy!