Fantasy Magazine #62 has been very well-received—many thanks to all of our readers, old and new. Now we bring you issue #63 co-edited by Christie Yant & Arley Sorg. Hope you like it!

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CY: We did it! We survived 2020, and managed to get our first two issues out. We dove into this project together back in July and have been sort of feeling our way since. We’re still revising our workflow, trying new approaches to making our purchasing decisions—with such a wealth of great stories, those decisions are hard!—and of course working on getting caught up on slush reading.

AS: You’ve been doing this kind of work for much longer; I’ve been . . . adjacent for a while, but this is a new role for me. With each issue we put together, I learn more, see more. I’m discovering who I am as an editor, and we are discovering who we are as an editorial team. I am loving it!

As we break into 2021 I’m excited by the prospect of a new year, for what it means personally, as well as what it means for our adventure here. With the first issue (#61), we had the sheer newness, and everything was basically a wonderful experiment. The second issue (#62) we faced so many challenges behind the scenes: growing pains; but still featured absolutely lovely content. This issue, I feel like we are starting to hit our stride. I’m so proud of what we’ve done, and I am eager to see what hitting our stride means for us.

CY: We’re both still learning! But I’m confident that we’re hitting our stride as we enter the new year. One of the behind-the-scenes challenges we’ve had is poetry. We were both committed to including poetry from the start. It never occurred to us that it would be so challenging to format! Of course we’re having to work with multiple platforms, including our highly customized WordPress, ebooks, and ultimately Kindle. It’s been a steep learning curve and I’m not sure we’ve landed on the ultimate solution yet. In issue #61 the problem was new and the best solution we could come up with at that moment was to post the poems as images. Since then we’ve had more back-end work done and—fingers crossed—we hope we won’t have to do that again. One thing I know we agree on: We don’t want to pass on a piece that we both love just because of tricky formatting.

AS: For 2021, I am looking forward to reading more submissions from an amazing range of voices and perspectives. We’ve poured so much energy, time, and love into this magazine. Each issue is different from the last, and yet each carries our creative vision as editors. We send each issue out into the world, carried by our passion for genre and our hopes. However people transition into 2021, whether boisterous or quietly or anywhere between, my hope is that folks who read this issue find it the perfect way to start the New Year!

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In this issue we have original fiction from Tonya Liburd (“10 Steps to a Whole New You”) and C.E. McGill (“Things to Bring, Things to Burn, Things Best Left Behind”), along with flash fiction from Marissa Lingen (“The Billionaire Shapeshifter Ex-Wives Club”) and Megan Chee (“Incense”).

We also have poetry by Magaly Garcia (“Butterfly-Hummingbird”) and Maria Zoccola (“like the gator loves the snake”).

And finally, Arley interviews author N.K. Jemisin.

Thanks for reading!