Fiyah
Entry updated 20 December 2021. Tagged: Publication.
US semiprofessional quarterly Online Magazine, subtitled "Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction" and also available as an ebook; published by the Niggerati Space Station, a virtual community of writers established by Troy L Wiggins.
Fiyah began in January (Winter) 2017 and is devoted to stories "by and about the Black People of the African diaspora". It was founded by Phenderson Djèlí Clark and Troy L Wiggins along with the author Justina Ireland, who helped finance the project and served as the initial Executive Editor. DaVaun Saunders joined the team as co-editor from issue #9 (Winter 2019) and continued as sole editor from issue #14 (Spring 2020). The magazine was inspired by the BlackSpecFic Review conducted by Fireside Magazine. Fiyah conducted its own survey to identify the reasons why black writers had problems finding markets amongst sf magazines and developed as part of its research a score card of PoB (Presence of Blackness) to alert writers to sympathetic markets.
Fiyah is itself a market and has published a range of sf and fantasy highlighting concerns and hopes by black writers. Examples include "Revival" by Wendi Dunlop, which led the first issue and envisages a new colony world where the old prejudices resurface, and "Bondye Bon" (#5, Winter 2018) by Monique L Desir, where a new black nation is built in the southern states. Each issue is themed, starting with "Rebirth" and including "Roots" (#4, Autumn 2017), "Historical Blackness" (#5, Winter 2018), which includes an essay by Djèlí Clark on George S Schuyler, "Pilgrimage" (#8, Autumn 2018) and "Chains" (#12, Autumn 2019).
The significance of Fiyah was immediately noticed and the magazine won a World Fantasy Award in the special non-professional category in 2018. This success was followed by a Hugo win as best semiprozine in 2021. [MA]
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