Sheree Renée Thomas Is F&SF’s New Editor

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Sheree Renée Thomas

Sheree Renée Thomas has been named the new editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, taking over with the March/April 2021 issue. She replaces C.C. Finlay, who will be stepping down to devote more time to writing. Gordon Van Gelder remains the magazine’s publisher.

Fantasy & Science Fiction closed its online submissions form in early October in preparation for this editorial transition. The few remaining stories in queue will receive replies shortly. Thomas plans to re-open F&SF to submissions in January 2021.

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction was launched in 1949, and has been one of the leading magazines in the field for more than seventy years. For more on the history of F&SF, see its entry in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction or Wikipedia.

Sheree Renée Thomas is the award-winning writer and editor of Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (2000) and Dark Matter: Reading the Bones (2004), which earned the 2001 and 2005 World Fantasy Awards for Year’s Best Anthology. She has also edited for Random House and for magazines like Apex, Obsidian, and Strange Horizons. She is a member of SFWA, HWA, SFPA, and Cave Canem. Thomas is an author and poet with three collections, Nine Bar Blues: Stories from an Ancient Future (Third Man Books, 2020), Sleeping Under the Tree of Life (Aqueduct Press, 2016) and Shotgun Lullabies: Stories & Poems (Aqueduct Press, 2011). Widely anthologized, her work also appears in The Big Book of Modern Fantasy and The New York Times. She was honored as a 2020 World Fantasy Award Finalist for her contributions to the genre. Thomas will be the tenth editor in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction‘s history. Her first appearance on the masthead will be in the March/April 2021 issue.

C.C. Finlay’s writing career began with frequent appearances in Fantasy & Science Fiction, publishing more than twenty stories in the magazine between 2001 and 2014, earning Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, and Sidewise Award nominations, along with four novels, a collection, and stories in numerous other magazines and anthologies. He guest-edited the July/August 2014 issue of F&SF, which included Alaya Dawn Johnson’s Nebula-winning novelet “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i.” In January 2015, he was announced as the new editor of the magazine and took over officially with the March/April issue. His tenure as editor is the fourth longest in the magazine’s history, following Ed Ferman, Gordon Van Gelder, and Anthony Boucher. He was a Hugo finalist for Best Editor Short Form in 2020, a finalist for the Locus Award for Best Editor in 2020, and a finalist for the World Fantasy Award for editing F&SF in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. The January/February 2021 issue will be his last.

[Based on a press release.]

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7 thoughts on “Sheree Renée Thomas Is F&SF’s New Editor”

  1. Well, I am sure as heck going to miss Charlie. But i have a feeling, though images on line might be misleading, that Sharee might be better looking. Wait, that should not be a consideration. But she may prove as kind and congenial, that would be appropriate.

  2. Looking forward to this. I’ve enjoyed the guest edited issues Sheree Renée Thomas has done at other magazines in recent years as well as her own short fiction.

    I have really liked C.C Finlay’s time at F&SF and was very happy to see him get nominated for the short form Hugo this year. Will look forward to more of his own writing though.

  3. A few years ago I started subscribing to F&SF if only because we should be supporting the field. Then I found out I really like it. The quality of the stories is excellent. The editorial direction seems to be very open to new things. It’s always interesting. So, this announcement has me feeling that F&SF is moving from strength to strength. Thomas is obviously highly qualified. It will be fun to see what she does.

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  6. Sheree Renée Thomas is interviewed in the December 2020 Locus. It’s great.

    After describing meeting Gordon Van Gelder at Clarion West, she says:

    “I never imagined that I would go on to edit F&SF. When I shared the news with my mom, who purchased the magazine for me all those years ago… I just want you to imagine that moment.

    Awww. Next she says

    “So what do I plan to do? I’m being asked that question with a kind of wonder, as if I suddenly arrived from Sun Ra’s entourage or landed in George Clinton’s mothership.”

    Then she explains how she will maintain editorial continuity at F&SF. But in my opinion, Sun Ra and George Clinton are awesome. On to the mothership! Space is the place!

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