KICKSTARTER

AE is seeking people who love science fiction as much as we do.

Without science fiction magazines, science fiction as we know it wouldn't exist. Isaac Asimov once said that, if it weren't for Astounding Science Fiction, he might never have written in the genre at all. Science fiction literature is uniquely suited to the magazine stand. It's a genre that thrives in short stories and novellas. Science fiction magazines have always been the breeding ground of talent and the launching pad of careers.

Our mission is to carry on the great tradition of periodicals like Analog, Asimov's, and Solaris. A.E. Van Vogt, William Gibson, and Spider Robinson are just a few of the great Canadian writers of science fiction who got their start in magazine pages, but there is currently no publication in Canada which meets the professional standards of the SFWA. Help us change that.

AE is dedicated to cultivating tomorrow's stars.

We need your support to attract the best talent and to produce a lasting, quality publication. We want you not only to look forward to reading each issue, but also to be proud of having helped us get our start.

We are committed to paying our contributors a professional rate according to the standards of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, the leading professional organization for writers of speculative fiction and presenters of the prestigious Nebula Award. We will pay SFWA rates from the very beginning. And if we are ever unable to continue that level of compensation, we will shut our doors rather than pay a lower rate.

AE is going to make great writing freely available.

To paraphrase Tim O'Reilly, we believe that one of the greatest threats to authors is obscurity. So in addition to ensuring that our contributors are compensated at professional rates, we will publish all our editorial content under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives license, and we encourage our contributors to allow us to release their stories under the same terms. We want you, our readers, to be able share the stories you find within our pages. To be able to pass on to others the stories that move you, inspire you, or change the way you look at the world.

The rewards for backers that you see here feature printed copies of our magazine, because we want you to have a tangible souvenir of your participation in this project, a physical object that you helped bring into being. However, for those of you who prefer pixels to ink, we will also produce a digital edition that will be available at no additional cost to any of our backers who receive a copy of the print edition.

Join our movement.

As a backer, you'll have the opportunity to:

* Witness the birth of a new literary magazine. * Become one of our inaugural subscribers. * Commission a story from one of our founders. * Be part of a literary revolution. * Meet the people who made all this possible.

AE is ...

Duff (Editor) is an author and general creative malcontent from rural Ontario. He knows how to slaughter and dress a chicken when it's needful; he knows the fastest way from any point in Toronto to any other; he knows when to draw to an inside straight and when to fold with two pair; and he knows a good story when he hears it.

Adam (Art Director) loves ligatures and science fiction but hates writing bios.

Helen (Editorial Director) spent ten years in the trenches of book publishing, where she wrote things longhand, wrestled with fax machines, and learned the true meaning of "cut and paste." As a writer, editor, and all-around person-who-builds-things-with-words, she now works on the future at a small software company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is not Canadian, but nevertheless hopes you can forgive her.

... and all of you, our Acronymic Enthusiasts.

RECENT UPDATES: See the results of our Microfiction Contest! Who Are You? We want to know.