Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
Entry updated 27 June 2022. Tagged: Publication.
Australian Semiprozine, usually abbreviated as ASIM though with no connection to Asimov's. It is published by Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Co-op, initially at Glenn Innes, New South Wales, but the publishing and editorial responsibilities shift irregularly among a consortium that includes, but is not limited to, Zara Baxter, Tom Dullemond, Andrew Finch, Robbie Matthews, Ian Nichols, Ben Payne, Simon Petrie, Joel Schanke, Tehani Wessely and Monissa Whiteley. Printed in A5 format, side-stapled, 128 pages, with colour covers and some black-and-white interior illustrations. First issue, June/July 2002, bimonthly, with occasional delays, but shifting to quarterly from #51 (May 2011). All issues to #53 (March 2016) were available in print, and from issue #50 (March 2011) in downloadable form; from #54 (September 2016) the name changed to Andromeda Spaceways Magazine and the format to ebook only.
The magazine generally has a light-hearted tone, posing in its first incarnation as a future journal presenting material for people who are on a short- or long-haul Space Flight and don't want anything too serious. However there are the occasional stories of deep emotion and sensitivity which helps make the contents unpredictable and gives the infrequent serious story added power. Although ASIM publishes stories by writers from the UK and USA (Tom Holt, Jeff VanderMeer and Liz Williams are examples) most of the contents are by Australian or New Zealand writers and despite the low payment rate ASIM has been able to attract several major names, including Lee Battersby, Stephen Dedman, Robert Hood, Sean McMullen and Tansy Rayner Roberts. One of the triumphs of ASIM, though, has been in the number of new writers it has encouraged, both from Australia and New Zealand, notably Cat Sparks in the first issue. Several, such as Peter Friend, Kevin Maclean, Barbara Robson and Kevin Veale have been nominated for or won local awards.
Several anthologies have been drawn from the magazine, in the same A5 format. The first three of these, focusing in turn on each main genre, are The Best of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Fantasy (anth 2010), The Best of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Horror (anth 2010) and The Best of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine SciFi (anth 2010). [MA]
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