hugos 2023! + volunteer for strange horizons
strange horizons is up for a hugo in chengdu! 😍 also we need your help!
just a quick one today to squeal at you: the hugo awards finalists were announced yesterday, and lookie who’s up for best semiprozine!!
it’s amazing to be in such good company once again; all these markets are doing incredible work showcasing diverse and interesting writing, and being even vaguely in their aura is awesome. i’ve narrated a few things for PodCastle, Escape Pod and khōréō, and have edited the SH podcast since late 2020—though as we’ve been on hiatus for a while, i feel a little removed from this nomination personally… still, happy to be on the team and working towards resetting and improving the podcast into its own thing! (see more below 😇)
SH had a great year in 2022, with the arrival of two new poetry editors, the start of a new, non-fiction podcast stream from our review editors, special issues on south east asia, extractivism, and music and sff, and several stories (1, 2!) by greek friends of the blog. more than that: we doubled down on our ethos of championing debut voices, of looking at sff critically and with care, and of banding together from our berths across the planet to bring exciting new fiction, poetry, and reviews to our readers, without relying on star power to garner attention; we let the work speak for itself. for that i don’t even think it’s selfish to ask you to put SH at the top of your hugo ballot—i just think we’re the best at what we do.
to vote in the hugos, you can nab a WSFS membership for $50, which entitles you to the full hugo voter packet including all nominated entries (and worth waaay more than the 50 bucks you’ll pay for it). voting opens on july 10th - remember, strange horizons at number 1!
speaking of strange horizons…
my vision for the SH podcast has always been to elevate what i was given and to leave it at a better place than where i found it (in terms of growth, listenership, and reach, as well as format), but the way we were doing things made it quite difficult to look ahead, as we were always struggling to keep up week to week.
so we’re looking to change how we do things from the ground up. to that end, we’re looking for a producer or two, plus narrators to help us tackle our backlog of beautiful sff stories.
the volunteer call will go out in next week’s issue officially, but as subscribers to my newsletter you get the inside scoop first. feel free to forward this to any friends who might be a good fit for either role.
podcast producer(s):
responsibilities:
project manage our backlog episodes from 2021-23
develop a sustainable workflow/pipeline for the department, taking into account the regular weekly episodes of our short fiction and poetry, the monthly review podcast Critical Friends, as well as the special issues we release on a quarterly basis
manage the production calendar, ensuring backlog, regular, and special issue episodes are efficiently handled from inception to publication, and are balanced well within the podcast feed
transfer story data from the Fiction and Poetry teams’ google docs onto our Airtable database, and keep information accurate and up-to-date
liaise with authors to create pronunciation guides for the narrators if required, or to get their recorded audio if they are reading their own story
create and maintain author pages for guest narrators on the SH website
coordinate any necessary pickups ahead of episodes releasing
person specification:
excellent communications skills
familiarity with Slack, Airtable, Google Suite and Dropbox is highly desired
some experience or familiarity with project management and content calendar management
experience with podcasting preferred but not essential
a minimum commitment of 12 months
applications will be open from monday 12th till the 31st july - check the SH website for links to the form.
podcast narrators
responsibilities:
narrate a number of stories from 2021-23
record and edit your narration for the stories assigned to you
deliver your finished audio to the Fiction Podcast Editors (that’s me!)
optionally, you can sign up to be added to our narrator database for future episodes
what we’re looking for:
essential:
must enjoy speculative fiction (if you are not familiar with Strange Horizons, read some of our issues to get an idea of what we publish)
must have some experience of reading aloud or performing for an audience
6 month commitment - or 3-5 stories minimum
quality setup (external USB or XLR mic, pop filter, sound dampening)
good communication skills - we use a combination of email, Slack, Dropbox and Airtable to manage the podcast, so some familiarity would be beneficial
desirable:
proficiency in non-English languages, or the capability to pronounce words and phrases from other languages (a pronunciation guide will be provided with each story)
basic audio editing skills (you’d only need to edit the content of your audio, ie. cutting out mistakes and re-takes into a cohesive whole) using whatever audio programme you choose (Audacity, Adobe Audition, etc)
what you can expect:
join a roster of talented and diverse people from all over the world who love speculative fiction
good and clear communication about what we need from you and by when
robust guidelines on how to get the best recording and how to do a basic edit of your audio
grow your narration/voice-over skills
build your audio portfolio - ideal for people in or looking to move into voice acting, narration, or podcasting
as above, applications will be open from monday 12th till the 31st july - check the SH website for links to the form.
important note:
as with all SH roles, both of these positions are on a volunteer basis. feel free to apply even if your time availability is limited; we will happily consider onboarding multiple people for both roles, as this is a major project.
please note you would be exempt from submitting fiction, poetry etc to SH during your volunteering period.
questions? caveats? hit me up by replying to this email. and until next time, here’s some non-fiction i’ve really enjoyed on SH over the last year:
my favourite subject! how music helps create sci-fi and fantasy worlds by mary fan
writing/realising disability + power by ada palmer
who’s afraid of the sff novel? lessons from the genre gap in mainstream reviews by m.l. clark
on belters, beijingers and rat-catchers: economies of labor and extraction in speculative fiction by mason wong
in memoriam: maureen kincaid speller by aishwarya subramanian and dan hartland
this sublime everything everywhere all at once review by s. qiouyi lu