Lightspeed, Apex Magazines Depart Semiprozine Hugo Category

Lightspeed Magazine, which won the Best Semiprozine Hugo in 2014 and 2015, and Apex Magazine, a three-time nominee, have announced they are no longer eligible in the category.

They announced the change in response to queries from Neil Clarke, who contacted the publishers while updating his Semiprozine Directory.

Clarke reports Nebula Rift (formerly eSciFi), and New Realm (formerly eFantasy) have also been confirmed as professional. He still has a query open about the eligibility of Albedo One,

Jason Sizemore shared his feelings about Apex Magazine’s accomplishment in a blog post titled “Matriculation.”

The other day I received an email from Neil Clarke. He owns Clarkesworld Magazine and he maintains the directory of Semiprozine publications for the edification of Hugo Award voters. With the recent ascendancy of Apex Magazine and my transition to full-time publisher/editor, he wanted to inquire regarding the magazine’s Semiprozine candidacy.

He made the observation that from the outside, it appeared ` was now a pro-zine. As it turned out, Neil was correct.

At first, I was bummed out. We’ve been Hugo Award-nominated three of the last four years in the Best Semiprozine category. We had a strong 2015 and had hopes of receiving a fourth nomination.

Then it occurred to me that matriculating from the ‘semiprozine’ level is itself an achievement and noteworthy. It’s 10+ years of work and tens of thousands of dollars of effort to reach this level. I’m proud that Apex Magazine now exists on the same plane as Clarkesworld, F&SF, and Locus.

Two Four titles have graduated from the category, however, the list of semiprozines continues to grow. Comparing Clarke’s current list with the directory from last April, I found these new additions:

Update 01/12/2016: Clarke wrote in a comment that Nebula Rift and New Realms have been confirmed as professional.

14 thoughts on “Lightspeed, Apex Magazines Depart Semiprozine Hugo Category

  1. I’ve got Uncanny on my list. I subscribe to it and participated in the Year Two Kickstarter, and I’m glad it can now be considered a semiprozine. I think it’s a worthy nominee.

  2. I’ve got Uncanny on my shortlist. I participated in their Kickstarter. I also subscribe online so I can do the tied-in social media stuff.

    I had Lightspeed on my list.

    This was my first year subscribing to magazines even if I supported their Kickstarter. Helps make sure they have the numbers so they don’t always have to do Kickstarter… Although I also support through Patreon if I see it. Keeping good fiction around is hard. The more I read and learn behind the scenes the more ways I find to help. Read, review, share, support…

  3. Nebula Rift and New Realms have been confirmed as professional. The question about Albedo One is whether or not they published any issues in 2015.

  4. Albedo One has online content (reviews) in 2015 – I’m not sure what the boundary is between a magazine and a website associated with a magazine when it comes to a nomination.

  5. Camestros Felapton: There has never been an attempt to treat as mutually exclusive things branded with the same serial title that appear in multiple media. For example, Starship Sofa (both a website and podcast), or File 770 (paper issues and a blog, with only some overlap in material).

    I’m not familiar with Albdeo One — is there a reason you think the two outputs would be problematic?

  6. You’re welcome Tasha.

    @Mike In 2013, SF Signal was nominated in Fanzine and Fancast. So the line isn’t always that clear. In A1’s case, they used to produce traditional issues. It’s unclear whether or not the website was in support of the magazine or continuation of the magazine in a new format. That’s something they can best answer. Too murky to say from the outside.

  7. Neil Clarke: I should have framed my example more carefully. When Starship Sofa won the Hugo in 2010, some tried to argue that its podcast didn’t qualify under Best Fanzine — however, it had a website with changing content which was clearly eligible. The Hugo Administrator never inquired of voters what version of Starship Sofa they were voting for, having no interest in making a ruling. But that “King Log” approach leads to the result I am describing.

    Once fancast was created, StarShip Sofa’s podcast had to compete in that category — as did SF Signal’s.

    But for periodicals with both paper and online versions, even if different, the precedent is still good.

  8. Mike Glyer on January 12, 2016 at 6:59 pm said:

    Camestros Felapton: There has never been an attempt to treat as mutually exclusive things branded with the same serial title that appear in multiple media. For example, Starship Sofa (both a website and podcast), or File 770 (paper issues and a blog, with only some overlap in material).

    Thanks. Yeah, I couldn’t imagine how anybody would go about making rules about that would make sense.

    I’m not familiar with Albdeo One — is there a reason you think the two outputs would be problematic?

    I didn’t read one of their issues (I see I wrote to myself that I’d read an issue over Christmas – ah, those happy optimistic days of early November). Their website is quite active and has some interesting reviews. But I’m a semiprozine neophyte 🙂

  9. Congratulations to Lightspeed and Apex, I think this goes in the category of “nice problem to have.” And of course, their editors are still eligible.

    Of the new arrivals listed Uncanny is the standout for me. I also have Interzone, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Gigantosaurus, Shimmer, and Strange Horizons penciled in, so actually this makes my decisions easier for once.

    @Neil Clarke

    +1ing Tasha – the semiprozine directory is an excellent resource, thank you for putting it together.

  10. Haven’t reached ‘U’ yet but from what I’ve already read previously in Uncanny it is likely to be on my final list. Gigantosaurus is a treasure trove too.

    @Neil Clarke
    +1ing Tasha & Mark. The directory is really useful

  11. Also a big fan of Uncanny thus far. Thanks for the additional semiprozine suggestions!
    (*waves* yep still around, trying to do more reading and less internetting.)

  12. Ooof. Luckily, I already had “Uncanny”, but that still puts me down one.

    Isn’t it “Giganotosaurus”? I want to get spelling right on my ballot. Might be “GigaNotoSaurus” for all I know, but there’s an extra O innit.

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