Luna Media Press Release | 2 March 2006
AUSTRALIA’S AWARD-WINNING popular science magazine, COSMOS – which also publishes original fiction every issue – has made all of its previously published stories available online.
“Science fiction is a literary genre that allows us to imagine the future, to develop ideas and scenarios based on the science of today,” said Wilson da Silva, editor of COSMOS. “It’s appropriate that along with reporting from the frontiers of science, we also imaginatively speculate what might be.”
“Science fiction is a literary genre that allows us to imagine the future, to develop ideas and scenarios based on the science of today.”
And the magazine has won praise for its fiction. “Angel of Light” by Joe Haldeman, one of the stories appearing in the December/January issue, has been listed by the New York Review of Science Fiction as one of the 10 top science fiction short stories of 2005.
The magazine’s short stories are being published online in order that they qualify for the genre’s highest prizes: the Hugo, Nebula and Ditmar awards.
COSMOS has published stories by celebrated masters of the genre: Gregory Benford, Charles Stross and Paul Di Filippo, as well as emerging Australian and New Zealand writers such as Robert Hood, Michael McNeil and Andrew Sullivan. Forthcoming issues will publish fiction by Pamela Sargent and award-winning Australian writers Chris Lawson and Cat Sparks.
COSMOS’ fiction editor is Damien Broderick, an internationally recognised Australian science fiction writer and critic who is winner of four Ditmars. “Science fiction is the language we use to discuss the surprising present and the emerging future. It used to be a cult appetite, but that’s all changed, judging by the extraordinary tally of movie-goers attending films like Star Wars.”
Broderick, da Silva and COSMOS Publisher Kylie Ahern have already been short-listed for a Ditmar Award, to be announced in April.
In November, COSMOS received three Bell Magazine Awards, including the coveted Editor of the Year and Best Consumer Magazine Cover. The cover story of the first issue, “Living Forever” by Karen McGhee, also received a judge’s commendation at the National Press Club Health Journalism Awards.
“Angel of Light” by Joe Haldeman, one of the stories appearing in the December 2005 issue, has been listed by the New York Review of Science Fiction as one of the 10 top science fiction short stories of 2005.
The magazine has received numerous accolades since its launch in June 2005. Noted physicist and best-selling author Paul Davies has called it “the world’s most lavish and innovative science magazine”, while scientist and author Tim Flannery has described it as “a stylish magazine of breadth and ambition”. Nobel laureate Peter Doherty says COSMOS “captures science in a way that inspires, excites and entertains.”
COSMOS is supported by an Editorial Advisory Board that includes Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, science broadcaster Robyn Williams and former Young Australian of the Year Bryan Gaensler.
The magazine was founded by Melbourne scientist and entrepreneur Dr Alan Finkel AM, publishing executive Kylie Ahern, and former ABC TV Quantum reporter Wilson da Silva. It is available via subscription or at newsstands in Australia and New Zealand.
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