In October,
Clarkesworld will celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of its very first issue, but for those of us behind-the-scenes, July (the seventh, to be precise) is where it all began. I was set on this path after a late-night conversation about the state of online fiction with Sean Wallace at Readercon. If you know your history, the state of things at that time could be best summarized as “in disarray.” There was very little respect for the medium and even less stability as markets came and went with high frequency. The closest thing to a success story,
SciFiction (edited by Ellen Datlow), had recently announced that it was ending.
Pakistanis are hungry for new kinds of fiction and their response to recent stories show that they really want it. Author Usman T Malik, author of Midnight Doorways and the only Pakistani to have won a Bram Stoker Award, said this at a webinar titled Discussion on Pakistan Science Fiction on Tuesday. It was organised by American Pakistan Foundation and moderated by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, editor of the Islam and Sci-Fi project. “Pakistani science fiction has been historically non-existent, except for a few writers,” Usman said. “Ismat Chughtai’s Roshni Ka Safar, which is sort of a time travel story, is a good example of early science fiction. Whereas, writers like Manto and Mumta.
‘Urdu has not been conducive to sci-fi literature’
Author discusses future of science fiction in Pakistan SAMAA | Samaa Life&Style Editors - Posted: Mar 4, 2021 | Last Updated: 4 weeks ago Editing & Writing | Usman Shahid
Photo: Islam and Sci-Fi
Pakistanis
are hungry for new kinds of fiction and their response to recent stories show
that they really want it.
Author Usman T Malik, author of
Midnight Doorways and the only Pakistani to have won a Bram Stoker Award, said this at a webinar titled
Discussion on Pakistan Science Fiction on Tuesday. It was organised by American Pakistan Foundation and moderated by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, editor of the Islam and Sci-Fi project.