Original-Anthology series begun in 1964 by JohnCarnell after he relinquished the editorship ofNew Worlds andScience Fantasy, though planned several months before he announced his departure, when Carnell believed the day of the fiction magazine was over in Britain and the future was in the paperback book. The UK paperback editions (all published by Corgi) sometimes preceded hardcover publication, and in the case of #30, the last in the series, there was no hardcover. The hardcover editions were published by Dennis Dobson to #20, then by Sidgwick and Jackson.New Writings in SF carried on the tradition of Carnell'sNew Worlds: predominantly middle-of-the-road sf, leavened with occasional more adventurous pieces and saved from staleness by his willingness to publish new writers. Regular contributors included not only ColinKapp (chiefly with hisUnorthodox Engineers series), Douglas RMason (under his own name and as John Rankine), John Rackham (J TPhillifent) and JamesWhite (including several stories in hisSector General series), but also KeithRoberts, while M JohnHarrison and ChristopherPriest both published early short stories in its pages and DamienBroderick made his first sale here.New Writings in SF was intended to be a quarterly, but later its appearances became erratic.New Writings in SF 1 (anth1964) was followed byNew Writings in SF 2 (anth1964), and so on toNew Writings in SF 21 (anth1972), this last being published after Carnell's death. Nine volumes of this series were published in the USA byBantam Books 1966-1972, with some difference in contents after the first 6: the US #7 drew from the UK #7, #8 and #9; US #8 drew from UK #10, #11 and #12; US #9 drew from UK #12, #13, #14 and #15.
The series remained alive after Carnell's death, its editorship being taken over by KennethBulmer fromNew Writings in SF 22 (anth1973). This brought about no substantial change in policy, although one feature of Bulmer'sNew Writings in SF was Brian WAldiss'sThree Enigmas series of offbeat triptychs. New authors to debut in the later issues included DavidLangford, CharlesPartington (seeNew Worlds;Something Else) and CherryWilder, and there were early stories by Robert PHoldstock and IanWatson. Bulmer continued to edited the series fromNew Writings in SF 23 (anth1973) toNew Writings in SF 30 (anth1978). At this point the market forAnthologies was looking even gloomier than usual in the UK, and the series ended.
Seldom groundbreaking but always reliable,New Writings in SF had many UK devotees but failed to achieve a genre impact comparable to the major original-anthology series in the US (e.g.,Orbit,Universe), which mostly began somewhat later. Associated anthologies areThe Best from New Writings in SF: First Selection (anth1971) edited by Carnell and three omnibus volumes:New Writings in SF: Special 1 (anth1975), containing #21 and #23;New Writings in SF: Special 2 (anth1978), containing #26 and #29; andNew Writings in SF: Special 3 (anth1978), containing #27 and #28. [MJE/PN/MA/DRL]