Cast your mind backward, dear reader, to the spring of 2021. We were still learning the ways of a pandemic world. We were new and untried, and into this strangeness came The Deadlands, a new project from Sean Markey and E. Catherine Tobler, two of the people behind Shimmer, beloved but dead. And Sean said to E., “query some folks for stories for this new magazine-shaped thing,” and E. said “oh yes, certainly,” and lo, one of the first she queried was Shimmer alum Vajra Chandrasekera.
You may know that name now, oh yes—he of The Saint of Bright Doors and Rakesfall fame. In fact, Rakesfall had a beginning in The Deadlands Issue #1 with Peristalsis. E. fell in love with it from word one, but didn’t know if it was the direction Sean wanted to ramble in. But lo! Yes, yes it was.
And now here we are, looking at Issue #40 in the near distance, and E. thought “we should do A Thing, because it’s a number ending in zero and humans make big deals over those, but what could we do?” WHY NOT, she thought, ask that first author to return, this time to choose the fiction himself, to shape an issue of the magazine his words helped bring into this world? Why not.
And so we are.
Vajra Chandrasekera will be editing issue #40 of The Deadlands, dear readers. Here’s what he had to say about that:
“Denizens of the Deadlands! I am honoured to return once more to these dread pages. As a guest editor, I look forward to your death-touched fiction. Please make it difficult for me to choose, and forgive the inevitable ruthlessness of the editorial scythe.”
Denziens! Dread pages! Yes. Issue #40 is going to rock. It will publish in October 2025.
Therefore, denziens, prepare yourselves! Fiction submissions for Vajra’s issue will be open from April 1 (no joke) to June 30, 2025. Our regular guidelines and influences will apply, so study them. Apply each and every one to your work.
We encourage writers of underrepresented groups to submit their work. Black, Indigenous, trans, gay, persons of color, persons not of these United States. A global outlook, for an inclusive magazine. Stay tuned to our socials for more (bsky, instagram), and welcome Vajra back to The Deadlands, from which one never truly escapes.
Excited?
So are we!
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