Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field, founded in 1968, is an American magazine published monthly inOakland, California. It is the news organ and trade journal for the English-language science fiction andfantasy fields.[1] It also publishes comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genres (excluding self-published).[2] The magazine also presents the annualLocus Awards.Locus Online was launched in April 1997, as a semi-autonomous web version ofLocus Magazine.
Charles N. Brown,Ed Meskys, and Dave Vanderwerf foundedLocus in 1968 as a newsfanzine to promote the (ultimately successful) bid to host the1971 World Science Fiction Convention inBoston, Massachusetts. Originally intended to run only until the site-selection vote was taken atSt. Louiscon, the 1969Worldcon inSt. Louis, Missouri, Brown decided to continue publishingLocus as amimeographed general science fiction and fantasy newszine.Locus succeeded the monthly newszineScience Fiction Times (formerlyFantasy Times, founded 1941), whenSFT ceased publication in 1970. Brown directedLocus as publisher and editor-in-chief for more than 40 years, from 1968 until his death at age 72 in July 2009.[1][3]
Locus announced that the magazine would continue operations, with then executive editor Liza Groen Trombi succeeding Brown as editor-in-chief in 2009.[4] The magazine is now owned by theLocus Science Fiction Foundation, a501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation.[5]
News about the science fiction, fantasy, and horror publishing field—stories about publishers, awards, and conferences—including "The Data File", "People & Publishing" (rights sold, books sold, books resold, books delivered, publishing news, promotions; people news and photos about vacations, weddings, and births), and obituaries
Interviews with well-known and up-and-coming writers (and sometimes editors and artists), usually two per issue
Reviews of new and forthcoming books, usually 20–25 per issue, by notable SF critics includingGary K. Wolfe, Faren Miller,Nick Gevers,Jonathan Strahan, Adrienne Martini, Russell Letson, Gwenda Bond, Stefan Dziemanowicz, Carolyn Cushman, Karen Burnham, andRichard Lupoff plus short fiction reviews byGardner Dozois and Rich Horton[8][9]
Locus Online (founded 1997)[11] is the online component ofLocus Magazine. It publishes news briefs related to the science fiction, fantasy andhorror publishing world, along with original reviews and feature articles, and excerpts of articles that appeared in the print edition.[3] Information for Locus Online is compiled and edited by Mark R. Kelly.[12] In 2002, Locus Online won the firstHugo Award for Best Web Site.[13] It was nominated again in 2005.[14]In January 2016, longtime short-fiction reviewerLois Tilton announced her resignation. She wrote, "Without consulting or informing me, they had begun deleting material they considered negative from my reviews. To me, this is censorship and completely unacceptable."[15] It was later clarified byLocus that the edits were not intended to be made to work already published, but rather going forward, to future reviews. None of her past columns were changed, she was paid for the unpublished work, and the relationship ended amicably.[16]
Awarded annually since 1971, theLocus Awards are voted on by the readership ofLocus magazine.[17] Developed initially as a reading list for theHugo Awards,[18] they have since come to be considered a prestigious prize in science fiction, fantasy and horror literature.[19][20]
Known previously as the Locus Index to SF Awards, theScience Fiction Awards Database (SFADB) is an index of science fiction, fantasy and horror awards compiled by Mark R. Kelly. It is often more up-to-date than the awards' own websites (according toThe Encyclopedia of Science Fiction),[3] and has received praise from editors and authors of SF.[21][22]
Locus has won many Hugo Awards, first theHugo Award for Best Fanzine, and then in 1984 when the new category "BestSemiprozine" was established. As of 2012[update],Locus won the award for "Best Fanzine" eight times and for "Best Semiprozine" 22 times during the category's first 29 years. In 2012 "Best Semiprozine" was redefined to exclude all small, independent genre magazines as "professional publications" if they had either "(1) provided at least a quarter the income of any one person or, (2) was owned or published by any entity which provided at least a quarter the income of any of its staff and/or owner."; this includedLocus.[23] There is no longer a "Professional Magazine" Hugo Award; that original category was replaced in 1973 by the current "Best Editor."[3][24]
^"2005 Hugo Awards".The Hugo Awards. World Science Fiction Society. July 24, 2007.Archived from the original on June 29, 2019. RetrievedNovember 25, 2019.
