Welcome to biome.
vortex that's just happy to get you from one jump gate to another.
“As you may have seen from the title of today's episode, today is our first segment of what”
I'm calling editor's desk. In print magazines, editors notes provide a peak behind the curtain, a chance to directly participate in a conversation with the editor of the journal. The editor's desk segment will play a similar role for biome. It gives me a chance to share my thoughts directly with you. Thoughts about biome, about stories, and about fiction more broadly. Today, I want to talk about why I launched biome, and why I launched
it now. I've always enjoyed stories, reading them, and writing them from a young age.
Over the last few years, I've also started to listen to audiobooks in podcasts, such as Clark Swirled, SudoPod, and Podcasts. I hope these names are familiar, but if not, I urge you to check them out. They've got some amazing stories, and I'm indebted to them, and to the people who have worked hard to keep them going.
“However, as I listened to these podcasts, I realized I wanted to do something a bit different.”
I wanted a podcast that combines speculative fiction with the joyful passionate approach that Lovar Burton takes in his delightful podcast, Lovar Burton reads. First, reading a story, then discussing how and why he connects with it. It's a format that encourages us to slow down, reflect, and consider what is remarkable about a given story. Now, I'm no Lovar Burton, but I wanted to bring a little bit of that approach to the worlds
of fantasy and sci-fi. As for why I chose a biological theme? First, I felt that the themes
of creatures, ecosystems and environments are urgent, compelling, and deeply interesting. Right now, over 17,000 species are known to be threatened with extinction, and dozens go extinct every single day. Time and again, we hear we are losing biodiversity on our home world at an alarming rate. Thankfully, I can also share that not all the news is bad. According to the University of Arizona, the rate at extinction of plants and animals has
slowed, at least in part thanks to the tireless work of countless conservation groups and folks just like you. Their efforts come from a place of hope, wonder, and empathy, feelings that I hope the stories in biome help cultivate. I also felt that biology and questions about what it means to be a living being, elegantly ties to the fact that we are closer than ever to discovering signs of life beyond Earth. In the next few years, humanity will
launch the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, as well as the creatively named Extremely Large Telescope. Together, they will give us unparalleled tools to scan the skies for signatures of life on distant worlds. Biome stories that are set on distant worlds, or aboard interstellar starships explore the different shapes life takes when it's far from Earth, and I couldn't be happier to have them featured alongside tales that take place in more familiar settings.
Finally, there are the fantastical stories that biome features, with creatures like Hydra's, Dragons, Water spirits, and all the rest. These tales, whether branded as myth or fantasy,
overflow with incredible beasts that have inspired and frightened humanity since time immemorial.
“I think it's fair to say that the biological theme is capaceous, spanning across life and death”
from the familiar to the strange, the alien, to the intimate. Biome is a labor of love, and I couldn't be more proud to share these stories with you. Unfortunately, as captivating and creative as many of these stories are, the number of publications releasing short fantasy and sci-fi seems to be declining. 18 years ago, Neil Clark wrote the first editors note for Clark's World magazine, and in it he wrote that although the fantasy and sci-fi markets were undergoing an inflection point
in which many publications had closed their doors, the sky was not falling. A lot has changed since then. Clark's World is thankfully still thriving. It's one of the best journals out there, but nearly all the links in that Clark's World editorial for 18 years ago point to publications that no longer exist. To me, those dead links feel like tombstones. They mark some of what the reading and publishing world has lost, and I would argue that the situation
may be worse still. As I record this, three of the oldest and most venerable publications in fantasy and sci-fi are undergoing a wrenching transition to new ownership. There's no guarantee that they will survive. The Atlantic magazine has recently got in on the fun too, declaring the end of reading is here, in a recent piece that catalogs all the statistics showing how far reading seems to have declined of late. And the numbers do seem grim. A study from the University
of College London last autumn found that reading for pleasure has declined by more than 40%. Daily habits of reading have fallen to record lows, even when you include audiobooks.
About 51% of US adults report not reading a single book last year at all.
I couldn't find any stats around reading short stories, but I suspect the numbers there are even worse, despite the fact that you would think that short stories would demand less commitment and would therefore be easier to enjoy in our time crunched world. For some folks, the decline of reading triggers a moralizing response. You'll hear this camp say that a decline in reading essentially leads to degenerate societies that are more violent, less fair, and increasingly unequal.
Others lament the decline of reading through more capitalist perspective. To them, reading
“is a fundamental skill that enhances productive value. You should read because it makes you a”
better worker and earn more money. I think there's been enough ink spilled on both of these perspectives that I don't need to expand on them here. Instead, I would point out that books, and especially short stories are often the places where brand new ideas are developed and new themes are explored. Countless movies, shows, paintings, and plays that we love draw their sources directly from books and short stories. Movies like Arrival, The Matrix, Blade Runner, and so many more exist
because a short story captured imaginations and introduced the world to a new way of thinking and seeing and wondering. The beating heart of our culture is literary. Should that heart weaken every area of art and entertainment will suffer? It is with that in mind that I have to ask how many other stories might we be missing out on because the number of places that publish stories has declined. How much poorer are we as people and as a community because the stories that might
“have captured our imaginations never made it out into the world? But I believe all is not lost.”
Podcast listening has grown 15% each year and 55% of Americans listen to a podcast at least monthly.
People will never stop wanting new and exciting stories and that's where I hope biome comes in.
I love stories. I want to share more of them with you. I want to help people discover worlds along the bleeding edge of the new, finding fascinating ways to explore themes as old as time. And as I said earlier, I want to share them in a special way, not just reading them, but helping you fall in love with them by sharing an analysis that appreciates the techniques
“and images and author used to create their story. I will end on the same note that Neil Clark did”
18 years ago. It is distressing to see so many publishers close, but every forest fire clears the way
for vibrant new life. We will never again see the likes of what we have lost, but if we nourish
the ecosystems of stories and writers and publishers, we may still get something beautiful. I sincerely hope you continue to listen to short fiction, with biome and beyond. Because in so many ways, the dreams of our many futures are woven from the stories we tell each other. Just maybe the more stories we enjoy, the greater the futures we can come to imagine together. Next week's interview with Nissa Harlow, author of The Hunting and Memorable Story from
episode 2, find me again, will be released as a written exchange exclusively on Patreon. The interview will be available for free, but I hope you consider signing up on Patreon to support
biome so I can keep sharing amazing stories and interviews with you. You'll find the link in the
show notes. Otherwise, I hope you consider joining us in two weeks for our interview with Christopher Thomas, author of The Winnowers. But for now, dear listener, farewell, wherever the days take you. [Music]
