http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/submission-guidelines/

So here’s what’s going on:

The first Weird Tales issue by our company, Nth Dimension media, has gone to press, and will be in your mailboxes by the end of February. It’s edited by Ann VanderMeer, has art direction by Stephen H. Segal, and is quite beautiful. Here’s the cover.

Stephen worked with our artist, Dave Buchwald (known in the graphic design world for creating the covers of 2600 Magazine), to create this cover, and we think it represents a style we will use for the near future. It features the new/old logo, an intriguing symbol by Jeff Wong (www.JeffWong.com), and a stunning piece of art by Aurielien Police.  The layout achieved what was most important to me – an emphasis on art, while keeping the writer in the forefront.

Did your subscription lapse? Well, you will not escape this issue. As a thank you to our passionate supporters, we are extending everyone’s subscription for TWO issues. So watch your mailbox, and let me know what you think.

I’d like to say a enormous thank you to Ann, Stephen, Paula and John and Carla from Wildeside for their help during this transition, and for taking this magazine as far as they did. I am very grateful that Ann is staying on as a contributing editor, and Stephen and John have made themselves available as consultants.

Now we must take the next step.

I’ll be responding to comments, so comment away, and check this space for more updates in the next few days.

Kaye is the latest in a series of distinguished editors who have guided “The Unique Magazine” through nearly nine decades. Under the direction of current editor-in-chief Ann VanderMeer the publication earned a Hugo Award, the most prestigious honor in the sci-fi world.

Publisher Harlacher plans to have VanderMeer edit one final issue before turning over the reins to Kaye in early 2012. Kaye says he is “interested in continuing and expanding the splendid work” of VanderMeer. “When I take over the helm,” he adds, “I hope Ann will continue her involvement as a consulting and contributing editor.”

Kaye describes his own vision for Weird Tales as “Janus-faced,” honoring the long history of the publication while continuing its legacy of discovering new and unusual fiction. Content will feature works of well-known, midlist and new writers, and a few reprints of classic stories.

Beginning in February 2012 each issue will have a theme, though Kaye states, “the usual assortment of stories and poetry will be included along with tales that fit the governing conceit.”

The new Weird Tales will be open to nearly all sorts of genre fiction, including absurdist humor, fantasy, horror, mystery and surrealism. “The only kind of story that probably won’t fit would be neo-realism,” says Kaye, “though even there I’m willing to be convinced otherwise.”

Kaye, the author of sixteen novels and editor of over 30 genre fiction anthologies, has a long personal history with Weird Tales. Fascinated by the “creepy-looking” magazine that his sister Dorothy brought into their Philadelphia home, he was an avid fan by the age of nine. He edited two anthologies celebrating the magazine’s distinctive brand of fiction: “Weird Tales: the Magazine That Never Dies,” published in 1988, and “The Best of Weird Tales: 1923,” published in 1997. Kaye also edited H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, which will remain an ongoing portion of Weird Tales.

No novice to the world of fantasy and horror, Harlacher is the co-director of “Nightmare,” an interactive theatre experience widely recognized as New York’s most horrifying haunted house. This year’s motif, a creepy rendition of familiar fairy tales, has been described by Fangoria horror magazine as “entirely spooky and full of nasty, nasty fun…imaginative, and yes, hilarious and repulsive.”

Weird Tales was launched in 1923 as a showcase for writers of speculative and alternative fiction – in other words, stories that were too bizarre to be published anywhere else. It launched the careers of such authors as H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, and Robert E. Howard; even Tennessee Williams made his first sale to Weird Tales. The original magazine folded in 1954, but resurfaced over the years in the form of reprint anthologies, original magazines and paperback editions. Weird Tales has been printed regularly since 1988, when it was resurrected by editor-publishers John Gregory Betancourt, Darrell Schweitzer and George H. Scithers.

For more information, contact Terry Kaye at (818) 694-3016 or weirdtalespr(at)gmail(dot)com.

I also helped with tables selling WT at many conventions over the last few years. I was privileged to meet some contributors and talk to many readers and subscribers. “I can’t afford them all,” a customer might say, looking at the array of eye-catching Segal-designed covers. “Which do you recommend?” Or “Really, should I subscribe? Small press is so…iffy…but…” Or we might just chat about Weird Talesoverall.

I also got to hear, firsthand, how delighted folks were with the new look, the new approach to “weird”, the whole “coolth” exuded by the most recent incarnation of the magazine. I know there were those who wanted the old “red W logo” and the older style of fiction…but enthusiasm is all I ever heard directly from readers. I recall one dealer complaining the new issues did not sell as well as the “red W logo”; it seems the collectors didn’t want them. Well, wahoo! Who wants to be collected? No publication’s value should gauged by the numbers of copies being slid, unopened, into a protective Mylar bag in hopes of accruing worth. The value of Weird Tales came from being read and enjoyed and influencing the genre. Under Ann and Stephen, it did just that.

I am a huge fan of the original pulp version of Weird Tales. Its true value came from being read and enjoyed and and not only influencing the genre, but creating several genres. What we all owe Farnsworth Wright who published H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E, Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Seabury Quinn, and others is incalculable. Dorothy McIlwraith published the “young guns” of the day, including Ray Bradbury, Manly Wade Wellman, Fritz Leiber, Henry Kuttner, C. L. Moore, and Theodore Sturgeon.

Another innovation for a pulp magazine was WT‘s use of interior graphic art and atention to design. (This tradition was renewed and refreshed by Stephen and then continued by Mary Robinette Kowal.) The pulps as a whole paid little attention to illustration, but beginning in 1926, artists like Hugh Rankin, Vincent Napoli, Harold DeLay, the incredible Virgil Finlay, Hannes Bok, Harry Ferman, and Boris Dolgrov create indelibly weird images. Farnsworth Wright created a unique interior design for “the unique magazine” in a an era when layout (I think it was called “make-up”) of such a magazine was rarely considered.

And then there was the cover art—most memorably that of Margaret Brundage. When I was assigned to do an article on her for the “Uncanny Beauty” issue, I felt I made a discovery. Outside of my personal feelings about her art, it seems everything ever written about Brundage’s work was written by guys (yup, all males) viewing it through eyes clouded by youthful libidos and/or later prejudices both good and bad. Looking back at all of her covers, I felt I found a new way to appreciate her work. (You can download a PDF of that article, if you wish. Sorry, I think this version is minus proofreading, so forgive the errors!)

Just as with the stories, not all of the illustrations or covers were great. Some were downright bad, of course. But what we remember in the end is the good stuff. And that’s what I will remember about my small role in the ongoing history of Weird Tales—the good stuff. (And if you’d like to know more about the past history of WT, read Robert Weinberg’s The Weird Tales Story.

For the present history, thanks must go to to John Betancourt of Wildside who revived the magazine with George H. Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer in 1988, then re-revived it in 2005. Without his love of WT , his investment in it, and support of Stephen and Ann, there would never have been the chance to make it into the magazine it became.

As for myself, like Ann, I’ll still be involved in the weird in a variety of ways. One project of particular interest to you may be a forthcoming anthology: New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird. It presents some of the best of twenty-first century Lovecraftian fiction. (It’s dedicated to Ann, by the way.)

Meanwhile, I look forward to the eventual publication of the last issue we put together—the book reviews may be a bit outdated, but, oh well—and offer my best wishes and hopes for success to Marvin Kaye and his partner. Marvin Kaye loves Weird Tales and I’m sure he will serve it well in his own fashion, just as we’ve all tried to do in ours.

If you are interested in keeping up with future weirdness from me, check the Prime Books site and sign up for the mailing list, RSS, and Twitter feed there.

Paula Guran

THE WEIRD: A Compendium of Dark & Strange Stories
Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

Pub Date: Mid-October; Publisher: Atlantic, Corvus imprint (UK edition)

Foreword: Michael Moorcock
Introduction by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
Afterword: China Mieville

Over one hundred years of weird fiction collected in a single volume of 750,000 words. More than 20 nationalities are represented and seven new translations were commissioned for the book, most notably definitive translations of Julio Cortazar’s “Axolotl” and Michel Bernanos’ short novel “The Other Side of the Mountain” (the first translations of these classics in many decades). Other highlights include the short novels / long novellas “The Beak Doctor” by Eric Basso, “Tainaron” by Leena Krohn, and “The Brotherhood of Mutilation” by Brian Evenson. This is among the largest collections of weird fiction ever housed between the covers of one book.

A compendium is neither as complete as an encyclopedia nor as baggy as a treasury. Although the backbone of the book reflects the immense influence of both Kafka and Lovecraft, we have ventured from that basic focus to provide different traditions of weird fiction and outliers that are perhaps open to debate. The anthology is meant to be both an interrogation of weird fiction and a conversation with it. We hope that readers will be delighted by the classics included and by the unexpected discoveries found within its pages.

TOC—in Book Order

Story order is chronological except for a couple of exceptions transposed for thematic reasons. Stories translated into English are largely positioned by date of first publication in their original language. Authors are North American or from the United Kingdom unless otherwise indicated.

Alfred Kubin, “The Other Side” (excerpt), 1908 (translation, Austria)
F. Marion Crawford, “The Screaming Skull,” 1908
Algernon Blackwood, “The Willows,” 1907
Saki, “Sredni Vashtar,” 1910
M.R. James, “Casting the Runes,” 1911
Lord Dunsany, “How Nuth Would Have Practiced his Art,” 1912
Gustav Meyrink, “The Man in the Bottle,” 1912 (translation, Austria)
Georg Heym, “The Dissection,” 1913 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Germany)
Hanns Heinz Ewers, “The Spider,” 1915 (translation, Germany)
Rabindranath Tagore, “The Hungry Stones,” 1916 (India)
Luigi Ugolini, “The Vegetable Man,” 1917 (new translation by Anna and Brendan Connell, Italy; first translation into English)
A. Merritt, “The People of the Pit,” 1918
Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “The Hell Screen,” 1918 (new translation, Japan)
Francis Stevens (Gertrude Barrows Bennett), “Unseen—Unfeared,” 1919
Franz Kafka, “In the Penal Colony,” 1919 (translation, German/Czech)
Stefan Grabinski, “The White Weyrak,” 1921 (translation, Poland)
H.F. Arnold, “The Night Wire,” 1926
H.P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929
Margaret Irwin, “The Book,” 1930
Jean Ray, “The Mainz Psalter,” 1930 (translation, Belgium)
Jean Ray, “The Shadowy Street,” 1931 (translation, Belgium)
Clark Ashton Smith, “Genius Loci,” 1933
Hagiwara Sakutoro, “The Town of Cats,” 1935 (translation, Japan)
Hugh Walpole, “The Tarn,” 1936
Bruno Schulz, “Sanatorium at the Sign of the Hourglass,” 1937 (translation, Poland)
Robert Barbour Johnson, “Far Below,” 1939
Fritz Leiber, “Smoke Ghost,” 1941
Leonora Carrington, “White Rabbits,” 1941
Donald Wollheim, “Mimic,” 1942
Ray Bradbury, “The Crowd,” 1943
William Sansom, “The Long Sheet,” 1944
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Aleph,” 1945 (translation, Argentina)
Olympe Bhely-Quenum, “A Child in the Bush of Ghosts,” 1949 (Benin)
Shirley Jackson, “The Summer People,” 1950
Margaret St. Clair, “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles,” 1951
Robert Bloch, “The Hungry House,” 1951
Augusto Monterroso, “Mister Taylor,” 1952 (new translation by Larry Nolen, Guatemala)
Amos Tutuola, “The Complete Gentleman,” 1952 (Nigeria)
Jerome Bixby, “It’s a Good Life,” 1953
Julio Cortazar, “Axolotl,” 1956 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Argentina)
William Sansom, “A Woman Seldom Found,” 1956
Charles Beaumont, “The Howling Man,” 1959
Mervyn Peake, “Same Time, Same Place,” 1963
Dino Buzzati, “The Colomber,” 1966 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Italy)
Michel Bernanos, “The Other Side of the Mountain,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)
Merce Rodoreda, “The Salamander,” 1967 (translation, Catalan)
Claude Seignolle, “The Ghoulbird,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)
Gahan Wilson, “The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be,” 1967
Daphne Du Maurier, “Don’t Look Now,” 1971
Robert Aickman, “The Hospice,” 1975
Dennis Etchison, “It Only Comes Out at Night,” 1976
James Tiptree Jr., “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats,” 1976
Eric Basso, “The Beak Doctor,” 1977
Jamaica Kincaid, “Mother,” 1978 (Antigua and Barbuda/US)
George R.R. Martin, “Sandkings,” 1979
Bob Leman, “Window,” 1980
Ramsey Campbell, “The Brood,” 1980
Michael Shea, “The Autopsy,” 1980
William Gibson/John Shirley, “The Belonging Kind,” 1981
M. John Harrison, “Egnaro,” 1981
Joanna Russ, “The Little Dirty Girl,” 1982
M. John Harrison, “The New Rays,” 1982
Premendra Mitra, “The Discovery of Telenapota,” 1984 (translation, India)
F. Paul Wilson, “Soft,” 1984
Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild,” 1984
Clive Barker, “In the Hills, the Cities,” 1984
Leena Krohn, “Tainaron,” 1985 (translation, Finland)
Garry Kilworth, “Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands,” 1987
Lucius Shepard, “Shades,” 1987
Harlan Ellison, “The Function of Dream Sleep,” 1988
Ben Okri, “Worlds That Flourish,” 1988 (Nigeria)
Elizabeth Hand, “The Boy in the Tree,” 1989
Joyce Carol Oates, “Family,” 1989
Poppy Z Brite, “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood,” 1990
Michal Ajvaz, “The End of the Garden,” 1991 (translation, Czech)
Karen Joy Fowler, “The Dark,” 1991
Kathe Koja, “Angels in Love,” 1991
Haruki Murakami, “The Ice Man,” 1991 (translation, Japan)
Lisa Tuttle, “Replacements,” 1992
Marc Laidlaw, “The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio,” 1993
Steven Utley, “The Country Doctor,” 1993
William Browning Spenser, “The Ocean and All Its Devices,” 1994
Jeffrey Ford, “The Delicate,” 1994
Martin Simpson, “Last Rites and Resurrections,” 1994
Stephen King, “The Man in the Black Suit,” 1994
Angela Carter, “The Snow Pavilion,” 1995
Craig Padawer, “The Meat Garden,” 1996
Stepan Chapman, “The Stiff and the Stile,” 1997
Tanith Lee, “Yellow and Red,” 1998
Kelly Link, “The Specialist’s Hat,” 1998
Caitlin R. Kiernan, “A Redress for Andromeda,” 2000
Michael Chabon, “The God of Dark Laughter,” 2001
China Mieville, “Details,” 2002
Michael Cisco, “The Genius of Assassins,” 2002
Neil Gaiman, “Feeders and Eaters,” 2002
Jeff VanderMeer, “The Cage,” 2002
Jeffrey Ford, “The Beautiful Gelreesh,” 2003
Thomas Ligotti, “The Town Manager,” 2003
Brian Evenson, “The Brotherhood of Mutilation,” 2003
Mark Samuels, “The White Hands,” 2003
Daniel Abraham, “Flat Diana,” 2004
Margo Lanagan, “Singing My Sister Down,” 2005 (Australia)
T.M. Wright, “The People on the Island,” 2005
Laird Barron, “The Forest,” 2007
Liz Williams, “The Hide,” 2007
Reza Negarestani, “The Dust Enforcer,” 2008 (Iran)
Micaela Morrissette, “The Familiars,” 2009
Steve Duffy, “In the Lion’s Den,” 2009
Stephen Graham Jones, “Little Lambs,” 2009
K.J. Bishop, “Saving the Gleeful Horse,” 2010 (Australia)

I have had very positive meetings with the new publishers of Weird Tales and I have good expectations for the future of the magazine. I am happy to announce that Issue #359, (with fiction from Conrad Williams, Joel Lane, Tamsyn Muir, Tom Underberg, Leena Likitalo, Stephen Graham Jones and Evan Peterson – and an interview with & artwork from Richard A. Kirk), will be published; however there are no firm dates yet. And I plan on adding my own editorial to welcome the new editors. We continue to talk and spectacular things are sure to come out of these discussions – this can only be good for the Weird Tales audience and community.

Again, many thanks. Please stay tuned for more news soon.

[Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcIbrz3tLmY

The past five years reading fiction for Weird Tales magazine has been an honor for me. I had a blast doing this but I have also contributed to the canon of “the weird tale”—a responsibility I take seriously, not only for the readers of today, but for the readers of tomorrow. This iconic magazine originally blazed a trail for new approaches to dark fantastical fiction, and I did my best to return to that legacy. In addition to bringing home the first Hugo Award win in the history of Weird Tales, I was also only the second female editor of the magazine, and presided over the only all-female staff ever for the magazine.

My current plans include final work on THE WEIRD: A Compendium of Dark and Strange Stories out from Atlantic in October. This huge reprint anthology, perhaps the largest ever published for this kind of fiction, includes 116 stories from the last one hundred years and totals 750,000 words. I will also be shepherding the anthology ODD? to completion through my and my husband’s e-book imprint Cheeky Frawg, along with completing several other anthology projects. In addition, I will continue to talk about and promote weird fiction through a new blog associated with THE WEIRD that will act as a repository of information and features, as well as providing a home for a new slate of “one-minute Weird Tales,” although they will of course be called something else. Beyond that I am considering this a chance to explore new and exciting opportunities.

If you have questions about this announcement, or interview requests, please direct them to my publicist, Matt Staggs, at mattormeg@gmail.com. Thank you for your support.

Because I will not have the opportunity to write a final editorial for the magazine, I would like to say a few additional things as part of this announcement.

First, I would like to thank all my readers for coming along on this adventure at Weird Tales with me, and trusting me to find the kind of stories that you love. Thanks also to the writers and artists for trusting me to take good care of your work and to present that work to the world. I had the opportunity to bring to your attention some great short fiction while also helping further the careers of a lot of up-and-coming writers.

I also want to thank the talented people I’ve worked with: Stephen Segal, Paula Guran, Mary Robinette Kowal, Tessa Kum, Dominik Parisien and Alan Swirsky. You all are the best.

I am proud of what I have accomplished these past five years. I worked hard to publish a wide variety of weird fiction. In addition to work from Weird Tales’ stalwarts like Tanith Lee and Darrell Schweitzer, I published a new Elric novella by Michael Moorcock, and new fiction from brilliant writers like Kathe Koja, Jeffrey Ford, Michael Bishop, Norman Spinrad, J. Robert Lennon, Ian MacLeod, Felix Gilman, Sarah Monette, along with forthcoming work by Conrad Williams, Joel Lane, and Stephen Graham Jones.

With the aid of Weird Tales creative director Stephen Segal during my first couple of years, we ran many memorable theme issues, including the “85 Weirdest Storytellers” issue to celebrate 85 years of publication, an Uncanny Beauty issue, a steampunk issue and an International Fiction issue. In fact I published work by contributors from 21 countries during my five years with the magazine, more than any prior editor—including from New Zealand, Canada, Spain, Bulgaria, Philippines, Israel, Serbia, Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, France, The Netherlands, Brazil, Finland, Singapore, and Sweden.

I also published many, many new or up-and-coming writers, including: Ramsey Shehadeh, Jeff Johnson, Matthew Pridham, Karin Tidbeck, Leena Likitalo, Tamsyn Muir, Tom Underberg, Rachel Swirsky, Peter Atwood, L.L. Hannett, Alistair Rennie, Kelly Barnhill, Micaela Morrissette, Jonathan Wood, Gio Clairval, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Amanda Downum, Catherine Cheek, and N.K. Jemisin.

During my tenure, Weird Tales also truly entered the twenty-first century, by establishing a submissions portal and regularly producing the One-Minute Weird Tales videos, in the context of a newly revamped website.

It was a great ride, but now it’s over. I am still dedicated to seeking out the best of weird fiction wherever it is and bringing it to you. I just won’t be doing that under the Weird Tales masthead anymore.