Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Gardner Dozois leaving Asimov's

I interrupt my absence to point out that editor Gardner Dozois is leaving Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. Dozois has been at the magazine for something like 20 years and has won 14 Best Editor Hugos. He also does the annual Year's Best Science Fiction books.
Dozois' editing has had a profound effect on me. Asimov's was the first science fiction magazine I ever subscribed to and Dozois' introduced me to a wide range of authors and writing. I remember falling in love with Lucius Shepard's writing because of stories like "R&R" that were printed in Asimov's.
Dozois and Ellen Datlow (editor of Omni then, editor of Sci-Fiction now) are the two editors who have had the most influence over my reading. So it's something of a sea change to see Dozois leaving the magazine he's run for all these years.
Dozois has his own statement up at the Asimov's discussion boards.
Dozois leaves to “pursue other projects, including his own writing.” I don't think I've ever read a Dozois story. Well, hopefully that will change now.
(And Matt Cheney at The Mumpsimus does a much better job than I at looking back at Dozois' work at Asimov's. He also says: "At the moment, I can't think of any great magazine editor who has maintained the energy and excitement of their best years." I would just answer that Datlow is doing work today at Sci-Fiction that is just as good as what she did with Omni, and that's saying something.)

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