Bewildering Stories
Entry updated 18 February 2021. Tagged: Publication.
US Online Magazine published weekly since 15 July 2002 with commendable regularity, missing only Christmas week until 2006 and then missing other major holidays so that it averaged 47 or 48 issues per year. Originally published by Jerry Wright (1946-2013) at Moses Lake, Washington and edited by Don Webb (credited as "Managing Editor; founder and originator of the Bewildering concept"), who continues with the help of a host of assistants and an editorial board. It reached its 500th issue on 29 October 2012 and its 800th on 11 March 2019.
An Amateur Magazine, Bewildering publishes experimental, surreal and unusual fiction, whether science fiction, Fantasy or mainstream, though the emphasis is on science fiction. It has very few limitations, meaning that it will publish reprints, translations (including comparative texts in English and the native language), and stories of any lengths, its weekly schedule lending itself to longer stories that can be serialized, but it also publishes Flash Fiction and poetry. Almost anything goes, provided it is not obscene, profane or racist, and not part of any commercially based fan fiction; otherwise the more unusual the better. The nature of the site means that it attracts a huge number of contributors, many of them amateur, but some better known names cannot withstand the lure. They include Lou Antonelli, Antonio Bellomi, Colin P Davies, Bertil Falk, Richard K Lyon, Albert J Manachino, David Redd, Robert N Stephenson, Steven Utley and Don Webb (not the same person as the editor). Its reprints have included works by Ray Cummings, Cyrano de Bergerac and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Its website has every possible index to explore all its material, at present approaching 7000 items. [MA]
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