NEW WRITINGS IN SF

   ORIGINAL-ANTHOLOGY series begun 1964 by John CARNELL after he relinquished the editorship of NEW WORLDS and SCIENCE FANTASY; it was published by Dennis Dobson to \#20, then by Sidgwick \& Jackson. 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. NWISF carried on the tradition of Carnell's New 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 Colin KAPP (chiefly with his Unorthodox Engineers series), Douglas R. MASON (under his own name and as John Rankine), John Rackham (J.T. PHILLIFENT) and James WHITE (including stories in his Sector General series), but also Keith ROBERTS,while M. John HARRISON and Christopher PRIEST both published early short stories in its pages. NWISF was intended to be a quarterly, but later its appearances became erratic. NEW WRITINGS IN SF 1 (anth 1964) was followed by \#2 (anth 1964), \#3 (anth 1965), \#4 (anth 1965), \#5 (anth 1965), \#6 (anth 1965), \#7 (anth 1966), \#8 (anth 1966), \#9 (anth 1966), \#10 (anth1967), \#11 (anth 1967), \#12 (anth 1968), \#13 (anth 1968), \#14 (anth 1969), \#15 (anth 1969), \#16 (anth 1970), \#17 (anth 1970), \#18 (anth 1971), \#19 (anth 1971), \#20 (anth 1972) and \#21 (anth 1972), this last being published after Carnell's death. 9 vols of this series were published in the USA by BANTAM BOOKS 1966-72, 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 seriesremained alive after Carnell's death, its editorship being taken over by Kenneth BULMER from \#22 (anth 1973). This brought about no substantialchange in policy, although one feature of Bulmer's NWISF was Brian W. ALDISS's Enigmas series. New authors to debut in the later issues includedDavid LANGFORD, Charles Partington (NEW WORLDS; SOMETHING ELSE) and Cherry WILDER, and early stories by Robert P. HOLDSTOCK and Ian WATSON also appeared around this time. Bulmer edited \#23 (anth 1973), \#24 (anth 1974), \#25 (anth 1975), \#26 (anth 1975), \#27 (anth 1976), \#28 (anth 1976),\#29 (anth 1976) and \#30 (anth 1978). At this point the market for ANTHOLOGIES was looking even gloomier than usual in the UK, and the series ended.Seldom groundbreaking but always reliable, NWISF did not have any impact comparable to the major original-anthology series in the US (e.g., ORBIT, UNIVERSE), which mostly began somewhat later. Associatedanthologies are The Best from NEW WRITINGS IN SF: First Selection (anth 1971) ed Carnell and 3 omnibus volumes: NEW WRITINGS IN SF: Special 1(anth 1975), containing \#21 and \#23; \#2 (anth 1978), containing \#26 and \#29; and \#3 (anth 1978), containing \#27 and \#28.

   MJE/PN