Asimov's Science Fiction

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Image:IASFM.jpg Asimov's Science Fiction (ISSN 1065-2698) is an American magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy and perpetuates the name of author and biochemist Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Dell Magazines 10 times a year, with double issues in April/May and October/November.

Asimov's Science Fiction began life as the digest-sized Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (or IASFM for short) in 1977. Joel Davis of Davis Publications approached Asimov to lend his name to a new science fiction magazine, after the fashion of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine or Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Asimov refused to act as editor, but served instead as editorial director, writing editorials and replying to reader mail until his death in 1992.

Initially a quarterly, its first issue was dated Spring 1977. It changed to a bimonthly in 1978 and began publishing monthly in 1979. In the mid-1980s it was published once every four weeks, with an extra "mid-December" issue. Double issues were added in the early 1990s before the schedule was scaled back to the present 10 issues per year.

The magazine was sold to Bantam Doubleday Dell in January 1992, a few months before Asimov's death, and the title changed to Asimov's Science Fiction. Its parent company, Dell Magazines, has changed hands several times since then. In 1998, the magazine's size changed; it is now taller and slightly wider than the standard digest format (matching other magazines published by its newest corporate parent).

The magazine briefly became a figure of controversy in February 2004 when WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan ran a story alleging that it was an "adult" magazine being targeted towards children. A mother had purchased a subscription for her 13-year old daughter via a school fundraiser and, after looking through it, decided that the content was overtly sexual. The event became a minor cause celebre among many Internet sf fans.

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Editors

George H. Scithers, 1977-1982
Kathleen Moloney, 1982 [interim]
Shawna McCarthy, 1983-1985
Gardner Dozois, 1986-2004
Sheila Williams, 2004-present

Scithers was an editor whose taste in science fiction was similar to Asimov's, favoring traditional stories with a strong hero in a future setting. His successors made the magazine more "literary", until under Dozois it became the most influential magazine in the field since H. L. Gold's Galaxy. Many of the stories he published were set on Earth in the present day or near future, with ordinary people as protagonists.

Scithers left the magazine after five years, winning two Hugo awards as best editor, and was succeeded by Shawna McCarthy. McCarthy held the position for two years, winning one Hugo award. Gardner Dozois edited the magazine from 1985 to 2004, winning 15 Hugo awards, before stepping down and becoming its contributing editor. Sheila Williams is the current editor.

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