This wasn’t my original plan for this guest post. The day before writing this, I was interviewed for the Functional Nerds podcast. During the interview, cohost Tracy Townsend brought up my recent Uncanny Magazine editorial where I said, “Nobody would call a yearly referendum about whether or not your business should exist a stress-free process.” Tracy wanted to know why I kept doing this if that’s the case.

So, why the hell am I running another Uncanny Magazine Kickstarter?

It’s an understandable question. The world is a lot right now. AI slop submissions. The big eBook retailer changing its terms and paying less and less. Award controversies. Fractured social media. Other SF/F magazines struggling and closing to little or no fanfare or acknowledgement. Inflation. Real world horrors.

Editing and publishing a magazine mean long hours and difficult work for almost no money, and most folks would understand if you gave it up and ran away to live in Disneyland or did just about anything else. And yet, here I am running the thirteenth Uncanny Magazine Kickstarter. I’m still here.

The answer to Tracy’s question amusingly also comes from her. Or more specifically, an opportunity she gave me many years ago. Tracy teaches at a residential gifted high school which I attended a long time ago. Tracy had Uncanny speak to her SF/F students, and a phenomenal thing happened. After the talk, many of the students came up to me to tell me how important Uncanny Magazine was to them.

Over and over, they explained how much it meant to see themselves in the stories. Some even told me how lifechanging it was to see a nonbinary editor (that’s me) in charge of Uncanny Magazine.

This has also happened when I’ve been privileged enough to meet Uncanny’s readers, writers, and artists out in the world of SF/F conventions and events. Stories mean something to people. The human soul craves art, beauty, empathy, comfort, and challenges. I get so giddy every time I open up a new Uncanny story and get lost in its world, characters, and emotions. There’s a magnificence in discovering a new author’s work or seeing what an author I know created next. I’ve lost none of my excitement through the years.

There is also another reason I keep going with Uncanny Magazine.

When my daughter Caitlin passed away, I wrote an essay here about how she was the Uncanny Magazine Space Unicorn. Caitlin loved and needed stories like all of us do. Caitlin was the kindest, strongest, most awesome person I ever knew. Caitlin made me better by being in my life, and like me, she loved Uncanny. She also adored meeting the readers, staff, and creators. Caitlin was there when I talked to Tracy’s classes. She sassed me during so many Kickstarters as I stressed about the lulls of the campaign. She gave me strength, and still does, along with the rest of my very supportive family. Caitlin would want me to keep the magazine running so that these phenomenal creators will always have a place for their amazing pieces.

Whether folks need to see a Twin Cities community coming together with kindness or a goat and robot becoming friends in Trinadad and Tobago or an expression of righteous anger about abortion laws, these Uncanny stories are needed by people, along with the art, essays, poetry, interviews, and podcasts And as long as they are needed, I will strive to make Uncanny Magazine happen each year, no matter how much stress I go through to make it so. It’s a joy to know that because Uncanny exists, these stories will find the readers who need them. (Also, Uncanny has the GREATEST STAFF IN THE UNIVERSE!)

So if you need the art, beauty, and kindness of Uncanny Magazine, now is your chance to join or rejoin the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps!

Uncanny Magazine is currently running the Uncanny Magazine Year 13: The Space Unicorn Believes in YOU! Kickstarter. We need your help, Space Unicorns! There are SO MANY awesome Backer Levels! (Hangouts! Critiques! Signed Books! Tuckerizations!) We also have something special planned this year, Space Unicorns. Along with it being Year 13, this year will feature our DIAMOND Issue 75! In celebration of this milestone, all of the solicited fiction contributors and two of the solicited essayists for Issue 75 have previously won an award for their Uncanny story or essay. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!? If you’ve already backed the Kickstarter, THANK YOU. If not, please consider helping us continue Uncanny’s mission. WE CAN DO THIS, SPACE UNICORNS!

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Michael Damian Thomas is the nine-time Hugo, British Fantasy, World Fantasy, and Parsec Award-winning Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Locus Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Michael was a Hugo Award finalist as the former Managing Editor of Apex Magazine (2012-2013), co-edited the Hugo Award finalist essay anthology Queers Dig Time Lords (Mad Norwegian Press, 2013) with Sigrid Ellis, and co-edited the anthology Glitter & Mayhem (Apex Publications, 2013) with John Klima and Lynne M. Thomas.
Michael was formerly the full-time caregiver of his late daughter, Caitlin. Caitlin had a rare congenital disorder called Aicardi syndrome.