Just announced over on the Weird Tales website is that editor Ann VanderMeer is becoming editor-in-chief of Weird Tales. Additionally, Paula Guran—editor of Pocket Books Juno line—will be taking over as the magazine’s nonfiction editor, Campbell Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal will be the magazine’s art director, while former creative director Stephen H. Segal is leaving the magazine to become acquisitions editor at Quirk Books, the people who brought you Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. To quote from the site:
“Ann has done an outstanding job since joining the Weird Tales editorial team three years ago,” said publisher John Betancourt. “For two decades she’s been one of the most talented, cutting-edge editors in the business, so we’ve been thrilled to see her finally burst onto SF’s center stage, both with Weird Tales and with her recent run of high-profile anthologies. We could not be more pleased to have Ann representing the proud tradition of the world’s oldest fantasy magazine.”
I can’t believe it’s already been three years since Ann took over as editor. I think she and Stephen did a phenomenal job on re-inventing an institutional magazine and making it fresh and new. I think Stephen will do a great things over at Quirk Books, and I look forward to seeing what the new staff does at Weird Tales.
Now if only these Weird Tales promotions came along with some promotions like reduced subscription rates or a free coffee Cthulhu mug with a new subscription or something, right?
John Klima is the editor of the Hugo Award winning Electric Velocipede. The magazine is going quarterly in 2010.
