Fanzine (1979-1987 and 1991-current), the first sequence being 50 issues, UK quarto, 4-10pp, edited from Reading, UK, by David Langford. Ansible is a Newszine, a fanzine that carries news on sf and Fandom. It replaced the earlier UK newszine Checkpoint and was initially stencil-duplicated; most first-series issues have both offset and duplicated pages. Ansible's news items were given sparkle by Langford's witty delivery. In its early days it appeared roughly monthly, but in the later 1980s gaps between its issues grew ever longer, as did the wordage; there were long guest articles by Christopher Evans, Patrick Parrinder, Charles Platt, Terry Pratchett and others. In 1987, at the time of but not due to the appearance of a later newszine, Critical Wave, Langford – who had long expressed weariness with the labour of producing and especially distributing Ansible – folded it. However, he resumed publication with #51 in September 1991, the second sequence being a monthly A4 2pp photocopied newssheet with rare extra issues (given ½ numbers, such as Ansible 116½ dated Easter 1997). Online availability soon followed; email subscriptions, currently in the thousands, and website readership now greatly exceed the number of printed copies; the website archives all back issues since the 1979 launch. Ansible won the Hugo as Best Fanzine in 1987, 1995, 1996, 1999, and 2002, and as Best Semiprozine in 2005; its editor won Hugos as Best Fan Writer in 1985, 1987, and every year from 1989 to 2007. It continues to maintain its monthly schedule. [RH/DRL]
links
Previous versions of this entry