Science Fiction Quarterly is an online magazine of science and speculative fiction, published four times a year in March, June, September, and December.

The original Science Fiction Quarterly, edited first by Charles D. Hornig and then by Robert W. Lowndes, was published in two separate runs, from Summer 1940 to Spring 1943 and from Spring 1951 to Winter 1958.

The magazine, which never cost more than 38 cents, published 10 issues in its first run and 28 in its second. Its history was short, its influence more or less forgotten. 

This magazine which you are now reading -- which currently is published exclusively online -- bears no relation, aside from its general spirit, to its printed historical predecessor. But our choice of title is by no means an arbitrary one. The science fiction genre was born, learned to walk, and occasionally even proved transcendent in the story-filled pulpy pages of periodicals like the original Science Fiction Quarterly -- the kinds of magazines which we have been told grown men yearned to write for while young boys hid them between their mattresses and bedsprings, away from the watchful eyes of those who might know better. 

Those early magazines, and the stories they published, were admittedly often silly and even more often poorly written and edited -- and we gesture here more toward the amateur fanzines, not John Campbell's Astounding or H.L. Gold's Galaxy. But what was shared amongst the science fiction magazines, good and bad -- and we will ask you to forgive us if in our nostalgia we generalize too greatly -- was a shared moral sentiment, a sense of right and wrong articulated through man's interaction with and mastery of technology in the face of danger, adventure, risk, and romance. 

We believe that in the last several decades, science fiction has fallen astray from its short story roots; and while we cannot ourselves resurrect them, we can at least provide an outlet in which they may be explored. And while certainly there remain great and storied science fiction publications -- Analog and Asimov's, among others -- we believe not only that there is room for more, but also that there is room for difference, for something that simply is new rather than old.

In keeping with our focus on the short story tradition, we bring an intense dedication to editing, to getting stories right by working directly with our authors until together we agree that a story has been written as best as it possibly can be. We intend to look for new authors who we may introduce to the world in our pages, as well as older, more recognizable names who have long worked within (and without) the conventions of the science and speculative fiction genres. 

Theodore Sturgeon, in our estimation the greatest science fiction short story writer to have lived -- and no stranger himself to the pulps -- once famously said that "a science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content." We see our mission here at Science Fiction Quarterly within the framework of Sturgeon's claim. We want, first and foremost, to publish the best collection of science fiction essays and stories that we possibly can every three months; but additionally we want to publish work that in exploring the possibilities of technology retains a human -- and, dare we say, a moral -- core.

We look forward to your readership and welcome your This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and suggestions in the months ahead.