CY: It’s fall, which is my favorite time of year. Here in the Midwest, the leaves are changing color, the nights are getting chilly, and the urge to curl up with a cup of tea and a good story is strong. The year is almost over—I haven’t come close to hitting my reading goals, but I’ve enjoyed exploring new authors both in the short form and in novels.

AS: For last year’s November issue we talked about gratitude. This issue is our second anniversary issue—we launched this iteration of Fantasy Magazine with the November 2020 issue! It’s been a really challenging year for me, in terms of my personal life, but when I look at the issues we’ve put out and the work we’ve been able to showcase, I feel so lucky to get to do this.

CY: Is there ever a wrong time to talk about gratitude? Life has been absolutely relentless, but somehow we’ve managed to pull this off for two full years. We both made huge moves, took on a lot of new work, and invited new four-legged family members into our lives. Fantasy has been maybe the one constant for both of us, and we have our readers, writers, staff, and industry supporters to thank for that.

AS: I wish I’d had a magazine like this when I was a teen, to be honest. I would have loved to have my mind opened up by the work we publish, to see such a range of voices and perspectives, so much tremendous creativity! And to occasionally see characters that are more like me than I actually saw back in those days. Back then, it was a lot of reading between the lines, at best . . .

CY: I love how the genre has grown and changed to be more inclusive over the years; that change has really accelerated over the past decade or so. It’s not perfect—nothing ever is—but it feels like, as a community, we’re sure aspiring to it.

AS: I’m sure every editor feels this way, but I believe that the magazine we’re putting out is unique, that the stories and even the nonfiction stand out in a certain way, and that readers can find wonderful things here that they won’t find anywhere else. I love what we’ve put together, I’m grateful to be able to showcase the pieces we’ve published, and I hope readers connect with the work as much as we do.

• • • •

In this issue’s short fiction, Z.K. Abraham’s protagonist finds a strange allure in the sounds coming from next door in “The Typewriter,” and Aimee Ogden’s “SOC 301: Apian Gender Studies (Cross-Listed with ZOL 301)” explores a different kind of dorm life. In flash fiction, Simo Srinivas takes us on an unusual quest in “Plum Century” while Kelsea Yu’s “Harvest of the Deep” takes us on a harrowing journey underwater. For poetry, we have “The Space Between Seconds” by Kelsey Hutton and “The Werewolf and the Fox Spirit Are Neighbors” by Amy Johnson. Plus an interview with A Phoenix First Must Burn and Eternally Yours editor Patrice Caldwell. Enjoy!