On Spec

{{Short description|Speculative fiction magazine}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}}

{{Infobox magazine

| image_file = OnSpec Magazine winter 2006.jpg

| image_caption = OnSpec Magazine Winter 2006

| publisher = Diane Walton, Managing Editor

| frequency = Quarterly

| category = science fiction, fantasy

| founded = 1989

| country = Canada

| based = Edmonton, Alberta

| website = {{URL|https://onspecmag.wpcomstaging.com/}}

}}

On Spec{{cite web |title=On Spec Magazine |url=https://onspecmag.wpcomstaging.com/ |website=On Spec Magazine |access-date=16 April 2019}} is a digest-sized, perfect-bound, Canadian quarterly magazine publishing stories and poetry in science fiction, fantasy, and allied genres broadly grouped under the "speculative fiction" umbrella.

History and profile

Based in Edmonton, Alberta,{{cite news|title=On Spec magazine loses funding, reaches out to readers|url=http://www.mastheadonline.com/news/on_spec_magazine_loses_funding_reaches_out_to_readers/|access-date=22 February 2017|work=Masthead|date=18 August 2014}} On Spec was founded in 1989 by a small group of Edmonton writers who joined together to form The Copper Pig Writers Society.{{cite news|title=Andy Cox's Magazine Spotlight|url=http://www.dowse.com/spotlight-onspec.html|access-date=22 February 2017|work=dowse}} At the time, there was no paying market for English speculative fiction in Canada (though paying markets in French did exist). On Spec is Canada's longest-running, and according to author Robert J. Sawyer, most successful, English-language magazine in the field.[http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/science-fiction/ "Science Fiction"], The Canadian Encyclopedia

Much more like a traditional small literary magazine than the mass-market-styled American science fiction digests such as Analog and Asimov's, On Spec was founded to address the frustration that English-speaking Canadian SF writers faced having to "Americanize" their stories for the existing US markets.{{cite web | url=https://onspecmag.wpcomstaging.com/about-on-spec/ | title=About on Spec / Contact Us | date=8 July 2013 }}

Awards

  • 1990, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, [https://www.csffa.ca/ Aurora Award] Best Work in English: Other.
  • 2020, 2021 [https://www.csffa.ca/ Aurora Award] Best Related Work.

See also

References

{{Reflist}}