Editorial
Editor's Desk: Readers' Poll Winners, Nebulas, and Forever
Our annual readers’ poll wrapped up late February and I am pleased to announce our 2014 winners!
Best 2014 Clarkesworld Story
We’ve had some close races in the past, but this year only ten points separated the top third of the ballot. Throughout the month, several stories temporarily held the top spot, but when we closed the winners revealed themselves to be:
1st Place
“The Clockwork Soldier” by Ken Liu
2nd Place (tie)
“Passage of Earth” by Michael Swanwick
“The Eleven Holy Numbers of the Mechanical Soul” by Natalia Theodoridou
3rd Place (tie)
“Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Refundable” by Cat Rambo
“Patterns of a Murmuration, In Billions of Data Points” by JY Yang
Best 2014 Clarkesworld Cover Art
While almost every piece of cover art found praise from some segment of our community, the top three places established themselves very early and held their place through the entire month. The winners are:
1st Place
“Slumbering Naiad” by Julie Dillon
2nd Place
“Space Sirens” by Julie Dillon
3rd Place
“Hollow” by Matt Dixon
Congratulations to all our winners and a big thank you to everyone that participated in this year’s poll.
While we’re recognizing the accomplishments of some of our authors, I’d like to toss a few more congratulations to this year’s Nebula Award nominees. SFWA announced the final slate in February and I’m very happy to see two Clarkesworld stories and one from Upgraded on the ballot.
Short Story Nominee
“The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye” by Matthew Kressel
Novelette Nominee
“The Magician and Laplace’s Demon” by Tom Crosshill
Novella Nominee
“The Regular” by Ken Liu (from Upgraded)
Speaking of “The Regular,” you can also read this novella in the debut issue of Forever, a new all-reprint science fiction magazine that will feature a novella and two short stories in each monthly issue. You won’t find Forever online or in print, but you can get the ebook editions of the first issue available for free on my blog. Please download and give our first issue a try. If you enjoy it, I hope you’ll consider subscribing at Amazon, Weightless, or direct from our website.
In last month’s editorial, I outlined several of our goals for the next six months. All of these things were tied to being able to increase subscriptions, Patreon and Joyride support, and advertising. None of these things are easy, but I’m pleased to say that last month we reached a new Patreon goal, unlocking three more original stories for the 2015 calendar. With luck, we can build upon that success and continue to move this publication forward.
Thank you and have a great month!
Neil Clarke is the editor of Clarkesworld Magazine, Forever Magazine, and several anthologies, including the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. He is a ten-time finalist and current winner of the Hugo Award for Best Editor (Short Form), has won the Chesley Award for Best Art Director three times, and received the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award from SFWA in 2019. His latest anthology, New Voices in Chinese Science Fiction (co-edited with Xia Jia and Regina Kanyu Wang), is now available from Clarkesworld Books. He currently lives in NJ with his wife and two sons.
