I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Clarkesworld, but I’m assuming a good number because it is a massively award-winning science fiction magazine and one of the few publishing quality science fiction online today. Today, Arwen Datnoid is wearing elf ears and reading aloud from The Things by Peter Watt. SF&F! This is a creepy and inspired SF story told from the point-of-view of The Thing. This story has been honored as a 2011 Hugo Award Nominee, 2010 BSFA Award Finalist, 2010 Shirley Jackson Award Winner, 2011 Finalist: the Locus Award for Best Short Story, and 2011 Theodore Sturgeon Award Nominee. Clarkesworld is doing a Kickstarter to translate stories from China’s Weixiang into English to expose an English-speaking audience to science fiction works they would otherwise never see. The Clarkesworld Kickstarter runs for another 3 days now.
Username: Arwen_Datnoid
Gender: Female
Body Type: Slim/Petite
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Weight: 105 pounds
Height: 65 inches
Age: 21
Sexual Preference: Bisexual
Smoke: Non Smoker
Drink: Occasional
Drugs: Experimented
Favorite Food: I just love food
Pets: Salt water tank. YOU try counting everything in there.
Automobile: Honda Civic! Yeh!
Tags: Smile, Blue eyes, Blond, Cosplay, Dancer, Gamer, Elf, Talkative, Friendly, Interactive, Intelligent, Food, Silly, Norwegian, Canadian, Paddle, Crop, Pussy hair, Natural body, Stuff Interests & Hobbies
Meaning of Life: Probably just to be happy, if you aren’t happy with life then nothing else has meaning.
Five Things I Can’t Live Without: Food, my eel, smoothies… And other things.
Favorite Books: I use to read a lot of fantasy books like Glass Dragons and the Dune books. But it has been a while since I have had the time to actually sit down and read a book sadly. I loved the book The Host by Stephanie Meyer even though her name is poisoned by Twilight. And I also loved the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. Really fantastic series but I am not up to date.
What I Like To Do For Fun:
Well I love feeding my eel!
Hobbies: Well I love taking care of my eel, he is amazing!
I also love going for walks when the weather permits it. I love being out on hikes or walks around the park, makes me feel good. Especially when I can find a nice patch of grass to lay in!
Talents: Well I can sort of sing but I am really out of practice :S
I can also dance apparently.
Turn Ons:
Being clean
Beards
long hair (I like having something to play with)
Tattoos (Good ones though)
Plays some sort of instrument
Loves video games
Also, loves sci fi and fantasy stuff
Likes animals
There’s a whole world of great science fiction published in other languages. Help us translate and publish them in Clarkesworld!
NOTE: Funding for our primary objective has been reached. Please see our stretch goals for a translation fund and more!
China has one of the largest science fiction reading populations in the world and has produced a significant body of work that has remained relatively unseen by English-speaking audiences. In recent years, a few stories and novels have made their way to English language publication, but we are unaware of any project to regularly feature Chinese works in a science fiction magazine.
Clarkesworld Magazine has always aspired to publish stories from a global pool. It’s our opinion that different perspectives make the genre stronger. We’ve published authors from all over the world, but quality translations have been few and far between. In recent years, thanks to the efforts of writer/translators Ken Liu and John Chu, it’s been our privilege to publish five. These stories include:
“The Fish of Lijiang” by Chen Qiufan (2013 Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards Winner)
“A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight” by Xia Jia (2013 Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards Honorable Mention, 2012 Locus Recommended Reading List selection, and reprinted in The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2013 Edition, Rich Horton ed.)
“Grave of the Fireflies” by Cheng Jingbo
“Pepe” by Tang Fei
“Spring Festival: Happiness, Anger, Love, Sorrow, Joy” by Xia Jiaand we’d like to bring you even more.
I’ve recently signed an agreement with Weixiang (Storycom International Culture Communication Co., Ltd.) to add a translated Chinese science fiction story to each issue of Clarkesworld. Each month, Storycom’s team of experts will send us a list of stories they think would work well for us—much like we use our slush pile to choose our current fiction offerings. I’ll select one from that pile and then work with the author and translator to get the story ready for publication. Every story will appear in all editions of Clarkesworld—our free online edition, podcast (audio fiction), ebook and digital subscriptions, print issues, and annual anthologies—and provide these authors with significant English language exposure. (They’ll be paid too.)
We believe that providing markets that actively publish translated fiction is good for readers, authors, translators, and the genre as a whole. Our past experience tells us this is something we are qualified to and should do.
Due to the enthusiastic response to our campaign, this first phase of our translation project is fully-funded! Thank you!
There’s a whole world of science fiction stories published in other languages. We never intended to stop with China, so now we’ve added stretch goals (below) to help us get started on the other languages!
I’d like this feature to be a supplement to the existing fiction we’re publishing at Clarkesworld. Our goal is to raise the funding we need to launch this feature for the first year: three stories in the first six months—our ramp-up period—and six stories in the following six months. This will provide us with the time we need to make this project self-sustaining through subscriptions and other avenues (such as advertising, ebooks, anthologies, Patreon, etc.)
$5800 to be paid to authors at our standard pay rates for original fiction.
$450 in increased costs related to creating the audio versions of these stories for our podcast.
The remaining amount covers the fees and overhead associated with this campaign (Kickstarter and Amazon fees, print reward costs).
Note: Translation costs have already been covered.Neil Clarke (neil-clarke.com) is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Clarkesworld Magazine. He’s a current and three-time Hugo Nominee for Best Editor (Short Form). In 2012, Neil suffered a near-fatal “widow-maker” heart attack which led to the installation of a defibrillator and a new life as a cyborg. Inspired by these events, he edited Upgraded, an all-original anthology of cyborg stories scheduled for publication this month and fully-funded by a Kickstarter campaign. He currently lives in NJ with his wife and two sons.
Clarkesworld (clarkesworldmagazine.com) is a monthly science fiction and fantasy magazine first published in October 2006. Each issue contains interviews, thought-provoking articles and at least three pieces of original fiction. Our fiction is also available in ebook editions/subscriptions, audio podcasts, print issues, and in our annual print/ebook anthologies. We are a three-time winner of the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine, winner of the 2014 British Fantasy Award for Best Magazine, and a four-time World Fantasy Award nominee. Our fiction has been nominated for or won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Locus, Shirley Jackson, Ditmar, WSFA Small Press and Stoker Awards.
The recommendation team at Storycom includes:
Liu Cixin: the most-famous science fiction writer in China and author of the THREE BODY TRILOGY
Yao Haijun: Editor-in-Chief of Science Fiction World
Zhang Zhilu: Scriptwriter at the China Film Group Corporation and one of the pioneering scriptwriters of science fiction movies in China
Wu Yan: a Doctoral Supervisor for the Science Fiction Literature major at Beijing Normal University and President of World Chinese Science Fiction Association
Ken Liu: Award-winning American science fiction writer and translatorStretch Goal #1: $7500-12500
The Clarkesworld Translation Fund: FictionWe will establish a special fund to help us seek out and translate stories from other regions of the world. Stories acquired through this fund will be published on an irregular schedule as extra content in Clarkesworld Magazine starting in 2015 and continue until the budget is depleted.
Stretch Goal #2a: $15,000
Digital anthologyWe will publish a digital anthology featuring all the stories funded through this campaign (Chinese and Translation Fund fiction). If we reach this goal, the ebook will be added to ALL reward levels. (Money will used to pay authors, cover artist, Kickstarter fees, and ebook design.)
Stretch Goal #2b: $21,000
Print anthologyWe will publish a print edition of the anthology in 2a. If we reach this goal the print edition will be added to all $40 and higher reward levels. Money will be used to pay authors, cover artist, Kickstarter fees, designer, shipping and printing. Note: Additional shipping will be required for international supporters to receive this book.
Stretch Goal #3: $21,000-23,500
The Clarkesworld Translation Fund: Non-FictionThe translation fund will expand to include translated non-fiction content.
All ebook rewards will be provided in DRM-free EPUB and MOBI/KINDLE formats.
Anyone contributing at the $10 or higher level in this campaign will be listed in the annual Clarkesworld Census as a citizen. This list is published in print and digital formats as an appendix in our annual anthology.
Our plan is to launch this new feature in January 2015, which will be our supersized 100th issue. All reward tiers will receive this issue in digital format.
Since we’re giving you issue 100, we’re starting all subscriptions rewards in February 2015, with issue 101. This way you’ll get all the stories supported by this campaign.
All trade paperbacks will be accompanied by the digital edition.
Signed books will be signed by Neil unless otherwise specified.
Shipping is included unless otherwise noted. International supporters: Please note the extra fees. Sorry, but international shipping is expensive.
The Clarkesworld anthologies that are currently available include Realms 1, Realms 2, Clarkesworld: Year Three, Clarkesworld: Year Four, Clarkesworld: Year Five, and Clarkesworld: Year Six. If Clarkesworld: Year Seven is published before this campaign ends, it will be added to the list of titles available as rewards.
Print and digital awards that are currently available will be delivered in late October. The dates on the rewards reflects when we expect to deliver the Tourist reward that all supporters receive.
Authors offering Tuckerizations reserve the right to alter names to conform to cultural aspects of their story. Be prepared. Anything can happen to that character.Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter
Clarkesworld has been publishing monthly issues since October 2006 and has never missed or been late with a new release.
Our agreement with Storycom has been structured to include a ramp-up period with generous margins for any delays in the translation process. That said, this is a new venture and unforeseen problems could crop up. In the event that a deadline is missed, the story will be pushed to the next issue.
