Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons
The title of this editorial is borrowed from a Marilyn Hacker
sonnet sequence, referring to an older comment that all poetry is
about love, death, and the changing of the seasons. Award season
is upon us, too. We are still eligible for the Hugo Award as Best
Semiprozine, and we hope that you nominate us and vote for us.
It has taken a few years to recenter and recast that Hugo category,
and it is now sort of settled down, pending a confirming vote at
Worldcon this August, and we’re happy to be part of it.
As I write in January 2012, the December issue of NYRSF has
not yet been mailed to subscribers from our new printer, though
they promise to finish the January issue and mail it “in a couple of
weeks.” It is our sincere hope that you will receive this February
issue before the end of February. The whole back-story is recounted
in the December editorial, which we hope you will have read before
you are reading this one (it’s available at <www.nyrsf.com>).
You will note that we have new subscription terms as of the
January issue (see page three of this issue for the full info). We will
include them in our renewal letters too. This is going to be a hard
year, and we will survive it only substantially transformed.
And now, news of fresh disasters, if I may be unabashedly
hyperbolic: the Monday after the last work weekend, we discovered
that the company that owns the storage facility where the NYRSF
back issues have been stored for 15 or more years was closing that
facility at the end of December, 2011, and so we had to vacate. Jen
Gunnels is the hero of this story. She spent five half-days the next
week with me, sorting and recycling thousands of back issues. Those
issues are a part of us, and we hate to lose them rather than put them
before the eyes of avid readers. We had been moving slowly for two
years on this, but now we are a downhill freight train.
We are keeping a small supply in Westport, and a slightly larger
supply in Pleasantville temporarily, to fill orders this year. We
are still sorting the cartons in Pleasantville that were not in the
locker and recycling more. In the event you want back issues, let
us know now and we’ll make you a deal. Of course our standard
offer of 40 issues for $20 and 80 for $40 (our choice) stands. But
if you want to choose your issues, you’d better consider doing so
soon. (A full index of the magazine is available in Excel format
at bit.ly.x5KnYc.)
We believe we have complete files available, but now less
than 50 copies of many issues. Some of the issues will not last.
In the end, we hope to scan our early issues and preserve them
for sale in PDF format.
—David G. Hartwell
& the Editors
