Before I let you loose on the slightly-extra-sized TWENTIETH issue of Luna Station Quarterly (did I mention it’s the twentieth issue?!?) I want to take a few moments and celebrate the changes that have happened this year, both within the LSQ family and in the greater speculative fiction community.
As a home for great speculative fiction, we grew considerably this year. In July, the first post of our new blog went live. A plethora of writers, some of them LSQ alumni and others brand new to the LSQ family, came on board and have given us all insightful, touching, challenging, and interesting essays and interviews to read. Never mind that growing to-read pile, courtesy the enthusiastic recommendations from the review contributors.
The staff grew even further when, a few months ago, I was able to gain the fabulous ladies now helping out with social media and the awesome special print projects I have planned for next year. All this growth meant that LSQ’s profile has grown and it showed in the number of submissions we’ve been receiving. To solve this wonderful problem, I put the call out for more editors and got two wonderful new additions to the staff.
The enthusiasm of the staff and authors has been lovely to witness. I’m grateful for their help.I’m also grateful for all of you readers, whether I know you’re there through your comments and reblogs, or just hearing from people I don’t even know that they have heard of LSQ.
This growing audience also speaks to the increasing visibility of women in speculative fiction, the sciences, and beyond. From “women in STEM” being covered by NPR, to the announcement of the Captain Marvel movie (squee), to Murph flexing her considerable STEM muscles in Interstellar, to the lovely, poised Emma Watson’s speech for the UN, women have a larger, and growing, voice in the world than we did a year ago
Is everything positive and uplifting? Nope. I would be stunned if it was, we still have a long way to go, after all. But every time violence, hatred, or simply “girls can’t do that” is leveled in our direction our voices are getting louder and stronger.
There is a discussion about women and our place in the world that did not exist a few years ago. We’re being supported and we’re being heard, change will follow. This becomes most obvious when the discussion becomes heated and someone tries to prevent basic discussion. To me, that means we are hitting home much of the time.
For Luna Station Quarterly, and my part as its leader, I hope that this time next year finds us all in a better, happier, safer place. I hope we bring you more stories that lift and affirm, that embrace and heal, that explore the edges of our imaginations, and bring it all back home again.