At midnight tonight Barrack Obama will end his term as the 44th President of the United States. He is, in my opinion, unquestionably the greatest president of my lifetime. I have no real memory of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency. I do recall Richard Nixon’s fall from grace, which I consider the most damaging thing done to the office. Ford and Carter are a blur. Reagan was a cartoon nightmare, and then there was Bush 1, Bush 2, and Bubba Clinton with all of his flaws. Obama has been relentlessly intelligent, classy and, damn it, presidential. He is a wonderful orator, and seems smart and decent and all you could hope for in a world leader. It’s been incredible to be alive for his presidency.

But, when midnight strikes and we begin our march towards the dead of night, Donald J. Trump will assume office as the 45th president. For all that there are many, many things surrounding his presidency that are deeply concerning – even from here in Australia – it’s probably fair to say the most stressful thing about it right now is the unknown. No one really knows what he will do, how we will attempt to do it, or what affect it will have. I confess that I am deeply pessimistic. I feel that he will leave the US and its allies fundamentally worse off than how he now finds it. I think people I care about, and many people I’ll never meet, will suffer as a result of his ascending to office, and that Australia’s economy will likely suffer too. We shall see. I earnestly hope I’m wrong.

In the meantime, strictly by coincidence, my own first act of the Trump Presidency will be to go to the Perth Arena on Sunday evening and watch Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live in concert for just the seventh time. I’m pretty excited about. How about you? What will you be doing?

Friday morning. Up at 4.30am and out for a 5km walk before breakfast and heading in to work. Construction on the nearby freeway continues to make the local neighbourhood foreign and noisier. No coffee with mum this morning, because she has to get ready for some tests, so instead coffee and bagel at Max while reading a new novella submission for Tor.com. Copyedits bounced on to one writer, while making plans for more edits and getting ready to send out invitations for a new book project.

With three Bruce Springsteen shows coming up this week (Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday), all with Stephen and one with him and Jessica, the week ahead looks full. Exciting even! It’s also Marianne and my eighteenth wedding anniversary on Tuesday, so we’ll be out for dinner that night. What else? A Fringe show tonight with M (Jewish-ish), and some other commitments ahead. May even spend some time with mum setting up her new phone.

With the week ahead away from the day job include editing and writer invites, holiday planning(!), and more. Busy times. Oh and I should be reading.

I edit The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year anthology series for Solaris Books. The eleventh volume in the series will be published in April 2017, and the twelfth volume will appear in March 2018.

I am currently reading for the 2017 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 for the first time between 1 January and 31 December 2017 to be considered.

Deadline

The submission deadline for this year’s book is:

1 November 2017

Anything sent after this deadline will reach me too late, as I  deliver the final book to the publisher in late December. If a magazine, anthology, or collection you are in or you edit is coming out before 31 December 2016 please send galleys or manuscripts so that I can consider the stories in time.

Publication date

The twelfth volume of the series is scheduled for publication in March 2018.

Format

Where possible, I prefer to receive book-length works in print (especially anthologies), but this is optional.  Books, stories etc can be sent to me via email. I prefer ePub, .mobi, .rtf or .doc files. PDFs are not accepted. 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
P.O. 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 2017.

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, Asimov’s, 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.