ISAAC ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE

   US DIGEST-size magazine. Quarterly from Spring 1977, bimonthly from Jan/Feb 1978, monthly from Jan 1979, 4-weekly from Jan 1981. Published by Davis Publications; ed George H. SCITHERS Spring 1977-Feb 1982, Kathleen Moloney Mar 1982-Dec 1982, Shawna MCCARTHY Jan 1983-Feb 1986, Gardner DOZOIS Mar 1986 to date. IASFM was sold to Dell Magazines, part of the BANTAM/ DOUBLEDAY/Dell publishing group, early in 1992; the first redesigned version under the new management was Nov 1992, and the title became at that time Asimov's Science Fiction. (This Encyclopedia will continue to use the abbreviation IASFM, since ASFis already in use for ANALOG.) The magazine had reached \#231 (Vol 19, no 6) by May 1995.Asimovwas named as "Editorial Director" of this sf magazine, which was titled to take advantage of his popularity; the first 3 issues featured his photograph on the cover, and he contributed a great many chatty editorial articles. IASFM was commercially successful - at least relative to other sf magazines - from the outset, though its contents under Scithers's editorship were on the whole light and undemanding. However, it continued to mature, especially under McCarthy and then Dozois, until by the mid- and late 1980s it was clearly the most accomplished and vigorous magazine on the US market, with an extraordinarily high number of its stories nominated for, and winning, various awards. Through the 1980s its circulation was similar to, although in most years somewhat lower than, that of the market leader, its sister publication Analog (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION), which Davis Publications had bought in 1980. Thecirculations of sf magazines generally dropped steadily during the 1980s, and again in the 1990s, so even IASFM, by a long way the best of them, limped along with about 69,000 in 1994 (75,000 for Analog), down from almost 109,000 in 1978.IASFM is popular with fans. Scithers was awarded the HUGO for Best Professional Editor in 1978 and 1980, McCarthy in 1984, and Dozois in every year from 1988 to 1993; all of these are effectively awards for the magazine. New writers who have made their debuts in its pages, or at least had much of their early work published there, included, under Scithers alone, Barry B. LONGYEAR and S.P. SOMTOW, both of whom, in successive years, won the JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD for best new sf writer of the year. Hugo- and NEBULA-winning stories have been Longyear's Enemy Mine (1979; 1989 chap dos), "Fire Watch" (1982) by Connie WILLIS, "Hardfought"(1983) by Greg BEAR, "The Peacemaker" (1983) by Dozois, "Speech Sounds" (1983) by Octavia E. BUTLER, "PRESS ENTER" (1984) by John VARLEY, "Bloodchild" (1984) by Butler, "Twenty-four Views of Mount Fuji, by Hokusai" (1985) by Roger ZELAZNY, "Fermi and Frost" (1985) by Frederik POHL, "Sailing to Byzantium" (1985) by Robert SILVERBERG, "Portraits of His Children" (1985) by George R.R. MARTIN, "Gilgamesh in the Outback" (1986) by Silverberg, "R\&R" (1986) by Lucius SHEPARD, "The Girl who Fell into the Sky" (1986) by Kate WILHELM, "Eye for Eye" (1987) by Orson Scott CARD, "Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers" (1987) by LawrenceWATT-EVANS, "The Blind Geometer" (1987) by Kim Stanley ROBINSON, "Rachel in Love" (1987) by Pat MURPHY, "The Last of the Winnebagos" (1988) by Willis, "Ripples in the Dirac Sea" (1988) by Geoffrey A. Landis,"Enter aSoldier. Later: Enter Another" (1989) by Silverberg, "Boobs" (1989) by Suzy McKee CHARNAS, THE HEMINGWAY HOAX (1990) by Joe HALDEMAN, "The Manamouki" (1990) by Michael D. RESNICK, "Bears Discover Fire" (1990) by Terry BISSON, STATIONS OF THE TIDE (1991) by Michael SWANWICK,"Beggars in Spain" (1991) by Nancy KRESS, "A Walk in the Sun" (1991) by Geoffrey A. Landis,"Danny Goes to Mars" (1992) by Pamela SARGENT,"Even the Queen" (1992) by Connie Willis,"Barnacle Bill the Spacer" (1992) by Lucius Shepard and"The Nutcracker Coup" (1992) by Janet KAGAN. This density of award-winning is without precedent in sf-magazine publishing, and says much for Dozois's editorial discernment and skill. Indeed, if Dozois can be criticized at all, it is perhaps on the grounds that he chooses stories first for their literary quality and only second for their generic positioning: IAFSM may in the 1970s have been a HARD-SF magazine, but under Dozois it has on the whole been quite the reverse, with many of the stories being only marginally sf or fantasy (so that sometimes IASFM can look like The New Yorker), being as little bound by rigid generic expectations as was, say, NEW WORLDS under Michael MOORCOCK. In the case of Dozois, this does not seem to have brought about any substantial backlash from conservative readers, though the magazine's circulation cannot be said to be in rude health.The nonfiction features of IASFM have ranged through, inter alia, editorial musings by Isaac Asimov, an excellent mathematical column by Martin GARDNER, book reviews by Baird SEARLES - later joined by a separate and very energetic books column fromNorman SPINRAD - literary articles by James E. GUNN in earlier issues, poems by various hands, notably Robert FRAZIER, and a games column (GAMES AND TOYS) by Matthew J. Costello.

   PN .

   See also: JAPANA short-lived companion magazine in BEDSHEET format was Asimov's SF Adventure Magazine, designed to capture the feeling of the old-time sf adventure pulps. It ran for four quarterly issues Fall 1978-Fall 1979, with Winter 1979 omitted.