New issue! Moyer, Backer, Phillips, reviews

Hi all,

New issue time! This week, our story is "The Beef" by J. D. Moyer:

What's changed is the moral zeitgeist. People don't want to eat animals anymore—at least not animals like us (those that care for their young, comfort each other). They're too much like people. It's not enough that our animals live full lives, enjoying the fine outdoors and hot California sunshine, grazing on sweet clover and fresh grass. When they've put on enough muscle and fat, the steers are slaughtered, butchered, and turned into steaks. The old cows and bulls are sold as stew meat and high-end pet food. That's the reality of ranching. But it's no longer a reality that people will accept.

We also have Sara Backer's poem "Godmotherless", Andrea Phillips's latest Metagames column, reviews of books by Helen Oyeyemi, Victor LaValle, and Ursula K. Le Guin, and this month's poetry podcast. All for your perusal here.

Meanwhile, preparations are underway for our tea party at Wiscon, which this year will be on Sunday afternoon, at 3pm. I won't be at the convention myself, but several other staff -- I think we've got a fiction editor, an articles editor, and an art editor at last count, as well as numerous former staff -- so if you're at the con, do take the opportunity to go along and have a chat.

Next week, of course, we'll have the May ebook for you, plus our regular issue will be a special focusing on the work of Nalo Hopkinson. It should be good: see you then.

-- Niall

P.S. As I type, thanks to a couple of new patrons today (hi!), we have lovely neat numbers on our Patreon page: 229 patrons, supporting us to the tune of $229 per issue. I have no deep thoughts about this, except that it seems a good opportunity to thank you all again: when we launched this last autumn, my secret fear was that we'd get a burst of support that would gradually tail off over the course of the year, leaving us with a hole in our budget. Instead, the total number of patrons has crept upwards. It's reassuring! So: thanks.