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 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 F. Beck.

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 with a background in newspapers. With the support of the current editors, Smith agreed to take on the responsibility with husband Ryan Aussie Smith and continue the legacy.

2019 – On January 1, 2019 the Smiths officially took ownership of the magazine. Their goal was to update things without changing the spirit of Space and Time. To this end, 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 magazine’s history, a display of letters, magazines and other items of interest was created as a traveling display to tour local libraries. The Smiths began cataloguing the historic materials and prepared to open up a museum. Some of the magazine’s illustrators such as Shikhar Dixit and Anthony R. Rhodes contributed original art to this purpose.

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 the mailed issues never made it to their destination. The cost of replacement issues paired with reduced income nearly put the magazine on hold. Thanks to new print-on-demand technology, the Summer #137 issue pivoted to this format to minimize print and lost shipment costs. The money saved with this change was put toward the artists, poets and prosers with nearly double the content purchased. By Fall #138 the magazine ceased mailing, refunded subscriptions and invited subscribers to purchase online from Amazon. This worked well. The end of the year found the magazine disorganized from all the pivots, but still standing. Space and Time never missed an issue throughout 2020.

2021 — Space and Time magazine plans to publish four issues in March, July, September and December. Iron Writer competitions begin in June to give writers a monthly opportunity to show off their skills, get name recognition and connect with readers. In addition, plans have been made for The Linzner Awards to recognize the best stories, art, poetry and non-fiction published the previous year. The first awards show is planned for June 3, 2022. The Space and Time community has grown with the exquisite corpse, an interactive feature introduced in 2020, to highlight speculative poetry.