I’m delighted to announce the official release date for issue two of See the Elephant, Love & War in the Slipstream, May 1, 2016!
The term slipstream was coined by Bruce Sterling and refers to fiction that weaves elements of literary, fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres, in both serious and humorous ways. This streaming weave blurs the lines between consensus and non-consensus reality. It enables us to slip through the cracks into new ways of thinking and feeling.
As you might expect, the stories in this issue cover a lot of ground. Some offer the merest whiff of the strange, others mix the real and unreal in equal proportions, still others jump feet-first into bizarre worlds that bear only a passing resemblance to ours. These stories also represent a diversity in authorship, and include women and men, straight and LGBTQ, and authors from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We have stories from seasoned authors, and three stories by the winners of our 2015 New Voices contest.
We believe that diversity in authorship should be part of slipstream, for there is nothing more potentially disorienting or enlightening than looking through the eyes of someone who has vastly different life experiences and perspectives than one’s own. We need that now, more than ever. To paraphrase the old Chinese curse, we do live in interesting times—and interesting times require interesting solutions.
Many thanks to the authors and artists who have contributed their fine work to this issue. Thanks to everyone who worked on it at Metaphysical Circus Press: Mary Boyes, Nicholas Shipman, Lauren Colie, Vanessa Del Fabbro, Cassidy Sheehan, Victoria Shampine, Casey Leon, Isabel Lee, and Abby Edwards.
Most of all, thanks to our readers. See the Elephant is a labor of love dedicated to serving writers and readers of slipstream, weird, metaphysical and visionary fiction. If you like what we are doing, please continue to support us through word of mouth, by signing up for our newsletter (if you haven’t already) and by following Metaphysical Circus Press on Facebook and Twitter @metacircuspress.
It’s a noisy world. Adding your voice to ours, even in ways that might seem small, could be of great help to this magazine, and the writers and artists within.
Yours Truly in the Love of the Strange and the War against the Mundane,
Melanie Lamaga