Djibril al-Ayad

General editor

Djibril is the nom de guerre of an academic historian and futurist who has been editing speculative fiction for seven years, reading it for twenty, and writing it for over thirty. Some of his favourite authors include:

Ursula K. Le Guin: her classic science fiction and fantasy equally bold, socially relevant on so many levels, and written with beauty and imagination that take the breath away; Octavia Butler: one of the most delicious writers I have discovered recently; has an unflinching sensitivity for what it means to be human that enables her to paint us all as beautifully alien; Nalo Hopkinson is a magical writer, whether she turns her hand to science fiction or fantasy, historical tragedy or dreamlike utopia; Nisi Shawl is busy reinventing what speculative fiction can be and do.

Joanna Russ: angry, alienating, unforgiving, sometimes hard to read, but one of the most important authors of both fiction and non-fiction in the worlds of feminist and queer SFF; Samuel R. Delaney: beautiful fiction of the most innovative kind, including proto-cyberpunk, taking risks and ignoring no ugly political details, issues of race, sexuality or bigotry; Nicola Griffith writes strong SF and crime novels full of strong and safe women and lesbian characters; China Miéville is a controversial writer in several regards, but undeniably a competent penman, a passionate thinker, a fiercely political animal and a creative whirlwind; Richard Morgan: a fierce, energetic writer whose books are filled with politics, violence, sex, adventure, courage, humor and invention.

Franz Kafka's imagination and unrelenting darkness of vision captured the dystopian horrors of the twentieth century as few others ever have; Jorge Luis Borges was possibly the most mischievous writer in history, one of the inspirations for this magazine, and for taking up writing in the first place; Isabel Allende: sensual, caring, courageous epic fantasies full of astute social observation and horrifying political detail; Ben Okri writes some of the most moving, politically eye-opening, spiritually entertaining work I've seen; Salman Rushdie may be too clever for his own good, but he's still not afraid to shock, and writes gripping modern fantasy.

Philip K. Dick: paranoia, speculation, existentialism, social relevance, headfuck... everything that science fiction should be; William Gibson: stylish par excellence, kicked off the cyberpunk phenomenon; Marion Zimmer Bradley: a combination of spiritual, optimistic, social/feminist SF and fantasy; Clive Barker authors some of the darkest, sickest writing I've seen, a wonderful fantasist; H.P. Lovecraft: gloriously paranoid vision of a hostile, uncaring, amoral universe that would drive you mad if you recognised it; Julie Czerneda writes hard science fiction (in the technical sense) with evolutionary biology and polical cynicism coursing through its veins.

Regina de Búrca

Associate editor and reader

Regina de Búrca is a writer and editor from the West of Ireland. She is interested in feminist speculative fiction, especially the kind that's aimed at young adults. Her biggest influences are Ursula le Guin and Isabel Allende. Her favourite TFF story is 'Pianissimo'.

Regina blogs at theapprenticestoryteller.blogspot.com.

Lori Selke

Guest editor: Outlaw Bodies (2012)

Lori Selke has been published in Strange Horizons and Asimov’s. She’s been active in queer, sex radical and feminist activist circles for over two decades. She is also the former editor/publisher of the tiny lit zine Problem Child.

Fabio Fernandes

Guest editor: We See a Different Frontier (2012)

Fabio Fernandes is an SF writer living in São Paulo, Brazil. He has several stories published in online venues like Everyday Weirdness, The Nautilus Engine, StarShipSofa, Semaphore Magazine, Dr. Hurley's Snake-Oil Cure, and Kaleidotrope Magazine, and in anthologies like Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded and the upcoming The Apex World Book of SF, Vol. 2 (ed. by Lavie Tidhar). Two-time recipient of the Argos SF Award (Brazil), Fernandes co-edited with Jacques Barcia in 2008 the bilingual online magazine Terra Incognita, and translated to Brazilian Portuguese several SF works, such as Neuromancer, Foundation, Snow Crash, Boneshaker, and The Steampunk Bible.

Paul Wilks

Reader

Paul is a freelance writer, student and avid reader. He recently completed a degree in English Literature and Sociology and hopes to begin a Masters in sociology at the end of 2012. His primary literary interest lies in dystopian novels and his undergrad dissertation was titled "Rebellion, Neglect and Sex: Analysing women in early twentieth century dystopian fiction". His favourite authors include: Yevgeny Zamyatin, Jack London, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, George Orwell and Margaret Atwood.