World SF
World SF is one of those quaint and little-used expressions in modern science fiction. It refers to the publication of SF in non-English languages and SF published outside of the English-language country markets (US/Canada, UK/Australia/NZ/South Africa). For a time, a group calling itself World SF would meet once a year in a various countries, comprising both English and non-English writers, but seemed to have left us little beyond enthusiasm.
The publication of non-English writers remains rare in the English world. There is a handful of anthologies, and occasionally a story appears in one of the magazines. Is there reason to suppose any of this has changed?
There is. Most likely, it was the Internet that acted as a catalyst. Perhaps the prevalent studies of English-as-a-foreign-language throughout the world was another. But what is happening, in small doses yet more and more, is two-fold: that writers for whom English is a second (or even third) language are beginning to utilise it for fiction in order to reach a wider (potentially global) audience; and second, that more translators (amateur and professional) are available for translation into English from a wide variety of languages.
Perhaps the best-known of the second category of writers is the Serbian writer Zoran Živković, many of whose books have been translated into English by Alice Copple-Tošić. Živković’s work won the (American) World Fantasy Award and been published in book form in both the US and UK.
Of the second category, Thai writer (and composer) S.P. Somtow (pen name of Somtow Sucharitkul), is another WFA winner and a winner of science fiction’s John W. Campbell Award (an ironic win, perhaps, considering Campbell’s well-known disposition to believe in the supremacy of Europeans). Writing in English, Somtow now resides in Bangkok, where he is artistic director of the Bangkok Opera House, and remains one of the most well-known of the global SF writers.
Do these two writers symbolise a change? Or are they outliers on a graph, the exception to the rule?
Once, perhaps. But not now. In compiling The Apex Book of World SF, my new anthology of science fiction, fantasy and horror from around the world, I was surprised to discover just how many writers from outside the “Anglo-Saxon world” (as the French call it) are now being published professionally in American and British anthologies and magazines. Dutch writer Jetse de Vries became one of the editors of Interzone, the prestigious British SF magazine, published short stories in English in half-a-dozen places, and currently edits a major SF anthology for British publishers Solaris. Aliette de Bodard – who lives in Paris, speaks French, yet writes in English – had quickly made a name for herself with short fiction and is currently nominated for a – you guessed it – John W. Campbell Award.
From India, Anil Menon and Vandana Singh have been regularly publishing short stories while Ashok Banker’s epic fantasy series based on the Ramayana has been selling all over the world. Israeli writers, for the first time, made their appearance in the long-running Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine (Eyal Teler, Vered Tochterman), and Israeli writer Nir Yaniv became the first Israeli ever to appear in the legendary Weird Tales – recently. The Philippines have become a hotbed of original science fiction and criticism, with Charles Tan becoming a vocal and lucid commentator on the field (not to mention editing the recent Philippines Fiction Sampler and the Nebula Awards Blog), Dean Francis Alfar making an appearance in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, wife Nikki Alfar, and new writer Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, both in Fantasy Magazine – the list goes on. Recent English book deals include those of Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, new Finnish writer Hannu Rajaniemi and French writer Pierre Pevel. Call it a renaissance.
In the short fiction field, two publications, in particular, have proven important recently in terms of World SF. Clarkesworld and Fantasy are two online publications that have – perhaps surprisingly – featured a higher number of international writers, including the above-mentioned de Vries and de Bodard, Ukranian writer Sergey Gerasimov and others. Print magazine Interzone has always published such stories occasionally and recent Mundane SF issue featured three. And the re-launched Weird Tales set aside one issue for International SF.
So it suddenly seems as if World SF is becoming a little more than an excuse for Western writers to get drunk in different countries on a yearly excursion. And it might be because, for the first time, international writers are doing it for themselves. The Internet has acted as a levelling ground. English has become a de facto global language (to the natural dismay of the French). A new wave? A global movement? Not as such. Though it would be tempting to give it a name and a label, what we see is merely indicative of the changes in the larger world, and in the smaller world of SF by reflection.
And that change, I think, is a very good thing.
Lavie Tidhar is the author of linked-story collection HebrewPunk (2007), novellas An Occupation of Angels (2005), and forthcoming Cloud Permutations (2009) and Gorel & The Pot-Bellied God (2010) and, with Nir Yaniv, short novel The Tel Aviv Dossier (2009). He also edited anthologies A Dick & Jane Primer for Adults (2008) and the forthcoming The Apex Book of World SF (2009). He’s lived on three continents and one island-nation, and currently lives in South East Asia.
1. John Klima on 02nd June 2009 at 7:35 am
I, for one, am a big fan of World SF. I wish I saw more of it. I’m looking forward to the Apex Book of World SF.
And not to toot my own horn too much, but Electric Velocipede has always been open to submissions from around the world. I’ve published stories from people in Australia, France, Italy, Thailand, Singapore, and South Africa among others. Upcoming issues have stories from Australia, the Czech Republic, and Thailand.
It’s true that I mostly see and publish stories from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom (in that order) but I’m always happy to see stories from around the world.