The Death of Realms of Fantasy Magazine

I was planning on writing on a different topic today, but when I got home and checked the mail, plans changed. I received a notice that Realms of Fantasy (ROF) was ending with the April 2009 issue. I also was sent back my check for the two year renewal that I had just sent to them.

ROF started up in 1994 and was edited by Shawna McCarthy for its entire run. She had previously been at Asimov's Science Fiction where she won a Hugo Award from the World Science Fiction Convention as best editor. ROF had a sister magazine Science Fiction Age that had been cancelled years ago by the publisher. I often wondered how ROF was still going, last time they published circulation information, it was down to about 6000.

A lot of good writers had contributed strong stories over the 15 years the magazine was being published. I also liked the Folkroots column which gave an overview to a lot of classic myths and legends, going over historical antecedents. Gahen Wilson, the famed cartoonist, wrote a regular book review column for this publication.

I am a big magazine fan, having over 70 subscriptions. One by one by favorites have died, it does not help that I like a lot of small press publications. I remember back in the late 70's/early 80's when the Twilight Zone magazine started up. I loved that publication and was sad to see it go. Now ROF is gone.

Not many places still publish fantasy stories, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is still going on, they are down to a circulation of about 18,000. Overall, magazines are dieing left and right, I wonder which one of my faves will be next to go.

Here is to ROF, you will be missed.