ABOUT SPACE AND TIME

1966 – Space and Time Magazine begins when high school student Gordon Linzner pools resources with friends to purchase a mimeograph machine. The first readers were fellow students. Linzner had so much fun, he published another issue the same year. Space and Time Magazine was born.

1980 – By now Space and Time Magazine had evolved from some stapled pages distributed at school to a professional magazine. The publication had continued to improve through the years. By the fifth issue Linzner had moved to side staples and two color covers—black and white printed on colored paper. “Not full color, but like a yellow cover with black and white on it,” Linzner laughs. “I had no money. It was a small press.”

1990 – By the 90s Linzner was no longer a solo act. There was a point around issue 80 or so Linzner was approached by Samuel Post who offered to finance the magazine. While the partnership ended amicably after just a few years, by then Linzner had a staff of dedicated readers and editors.

2009 – Around the 100th issue Space and Time, Linzner passed the reins of the magazine to new publisher Hildy Silverman. Linzner has remained on staff as editor emeritus where he remains an active part of the magazine.

2016 – Space and Time Magazine celebrated its fiftieth anniversary of continuous publication at an event hosted by the New York Review of Science Fiction reading series at the Brooklyn Commons. Barbara Krasnoff interviewed founding editor/publisher Gordon Linzner and current editor/publisher Hildy Silverman. Readings were provided by S&T contributors Jack Ketchum, Daniel Braum, Katherine Hasell, and poetry editor Linda Addison, along with an art display by cover artist Alan Beck. The event was recorded live ― click here to watch in its entirety.

2018 – In late 2018, Silverman made the difficult decision to close Space and Time after 52 years of continuous publication. She made the announcement on the Space and Time website citing higher print and postage costs as part of the reason for closing. The notice was seen by Angela Yuriko Smith, author and former publisher of a monthly publication with a background in newspapers. After some debate, Smith agreed to take on the magazine and continue the legacy.

2019 – On January 1, 2019 Angela Yuriko Smith officially took ownership of the magazine with her husband and co-publisher Ryan Aussie Smith. Under their care, the website was rebuilt by Kyra Starr and the social media was updated and expanded. An audio edition of each magazine was produced and voiced by Ryan with issues #133 and #135 available during the year. The magazine reached out to the community it now called home to promote the speculative genre and local literacy. This included mentoring fresh, new writer voices and establishing an open mic event in conjunction with the Mid-Continent Public Library system. To celebrate the rich heritage, a display of letters, magazines and other items of interest was created as a traveling display to tour libraries.

2020 – The most challenging year many of us will ever experience, the magazine was not immune. The Spring #136 issue was sent out as COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and many of our issues never made it to their destination. The Summer #137 issue pivoted to print-on-demand and was the largest yet with nearly double the content purchased as Space and Time tried to take as many acceptances as they could afford. After experiencing the same issues with mailing, the magazine was in a financial crisis as the burden of sending large numbers of replacement issues began to take its toll. By Fall the magazine had ceased mailing and instead invited subscribers to purchase their issue online from Amazon, going around the postal issues. This worked well, and by the final issue the magazine refunded unfulfilled subscriptions and planned to continue as a POD publication for the foreseeable future. The end of the year found the magazine disorganized from all the pivots, but still standing. We never missed an issue.

2021 — Space and Time magazine plans to publish four print, digital and audio editions in March, June, September and December. Plans are to introduce organized competitive writing for both teams and single writers by June. In addition, we plan to organize and start the process to begin an award for our best stories, art and poetry called the Linzners in honor of the magazine’s founder, Gordon Linzner. The exquisite corpse, an interactive feature introduced in 2020, will take a much bigger role to engage with our enthusiastic poet community.