I edit The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year anthology series for Solaris Books. The ninth volume in the series will be published in May 2015, and the tenth will appear in May 2016.

I am currently reading for the 2015 volume, and am looking for stories from all branches of science fiction and fantasy: space opera to cyberpunk, fairy tales to the slipstream, or anything else that might qualify. If in doubt, please send it.

Eligibility

This is a reprint anthology. Stories must have been published between 1 January and 31 December 2015 to be considered.

Deadline

The submission deadline for this year’s book is:

 1 October 2015

Anything sent after this deadline will reach me too late. If a magazine, anthology, or collection you are in or you edit is coming out before 31 December 2014 please send galleys or manuscripts so that I can consider the stories in time.

Publication date

The tenth volume of the series is tentatively scheduled for publication in May 2016.

Format

Where possible, I prefer to receive book-length works in print., but this is optional.  Books, stories etc can be sent to me via email. I prefer ePub, .mobi, .rtf or .doc files. PDFs are acceptable but inconvenient. I strongly suggest that authors check with their publishers that they are sending review copies out to me, as I don’t have the resources to follow-up every publisher to get material.

Postal address

When sending material please put “Best SF/F of the Year” on the envelope.

Jonathan Strahan
PO Box 544
Mt Lawley WA 6929
Australia

Email submissions, recommendations, or information on publications can be sent to me via email at:

jonathan.strahan (at) gmail (dot) com

For publishers

• I am eager to consider work you are publishing. If you produce a magazine, chapbook, collection or anthology with any original stories in it please let me know. I am happy to accept email submissions. The most important thing is to make sure that I get to consider the best science fiction and fantasy published during 2015.
• If you are publishing online please email copies of stories to jonathan.strahan (at) gmail (dot) com as early as possible. This is particularly important for stories published between October and December which may otherwise be overlooked.

For writers

• I do not need to receive manuscripts from authors of stories from venues that it’s likely I already receive regularly (I get , Analog, F&SF, Interzone, Black Static, Postscripts etc, but not many of the smaller ‘zines and publications).
• Please do not send an SASE. This is not a submission, and I’m unable to return manuscripts or respond directly to stories sent to me.
• If I am considering your story for inclusion in  The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, I will be acquiring non-exclusive World anthology rights in English and foreign languages in print, audio and ebook.

Note: Edited to correct some stupid date errors on my behalf caused by my repurposing last year’s post.  The new book is for stories published during 2015 and is due out in 2016. Apologies for muddleheadedness.

It was a busy year.  In addition to travelling to England to attend Loncon 3 and Washington DC to attend World Fantasy Convention 2014, I managed to guest edit an issue of Subterranean magazine, co-edit a collection of stories, and edit three anthologies of my own.  I’m pretty proud of them, and delighted that my friend and colleague Gardner Dozois has been so kind when talking about Reach for Infinity and Fearsome Magics.

My 2014 projects were:

1. Special issue of Subterranean Online, Subterranean Press, January 2014
2. Minding the Stars: The Early Jack Vance Volume 4, Terry Dowling & Jonathan Strahan eds., Subterranean Press, May, hc
3. The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 8, Jonathan Strahan ed., Solaris Books, April 2014, tp
4. Reach for Infinity, Jonathan Strahan ed., Solaris Books, London, June 2014, tpb.
5. Fearsome Magics: The New Solaris Book of Fantasy Vol. 2, Jonathan Strahan ed. Solaris Books, London, October 2014, tp

I was also fortunate enough to be nominated for some awards during the year.  I was deeply honoured to be presented with the Aurealis Peter McNamara Award for Professional Achievement, and to be nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, Aurealis, Ditmar, and Locus Awards. Along the way, Gary and I also snuck out 40 episodes of the podcast! Oh, and I edited and curated the reviews section for another 12 monthly issues of Locus and compiled their Short Fiction Recommended Reading List. I would have done more, had it not been for the day job.

I’ll be a little quieter in 2015 than I was in 2014. Personal issues kept me occupied when I wasn’t working, and I frankly didn’t spend enough time pitching books (which I  need to work on quite furiously at the moment). This means 2015 will only see two anthologies and a collection I’ve worked on come out.  Those books will be:

1. Grand Crusades The Early Jack Vance Volume 5, Terry Dowling & Jonathan Strahan eds., Subterranean Press, 2015, hc
2. The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 9, Jonathan Strahan ed., Solaris Books, April 2015, tp
3. Meeting Infinity, Jonathan Strahan ed., Solaris Books, London, September 2015, tpb.

I really wish I’d been able to fit in another fantasy book in the Fearsome series, but that wasn’t to be.  I’m also a little saddened that Grand Crusades will almost certainly be the final Jack Vance book I do (only, I should add, because we’ve done them all!).

I expect to deliver The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Nine on time at the end of January and Meeting Infinity in March.  I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with two great publishers – Solaris Books and Subterranean Press – on most of these projects and look forward to doing many more (if only Bill would bring back the magazine!) While I hope to work with additional publishers in 2015 and 2016, I’m very happy and grateful for what I do get to do in the field.

My thanks to all of the writers who wrote for me on the projects above (it was a pleasure and honour to deal with all of you and I hope to work with you all again soon) and a privilege to work with  Jonathan Oliver and  Ben Smith at Solaris, Bill Schafer and Yanni Kuznia at Subterranean, and Liza at Locus.

While the New Year has begun, I’d like to wish everyone in the field the best of 2015s where everyone has books coming out and they all do brilliantly!