Of Stories, Of Futures

OF STORIES OF FUTURES

by Kerry C Byrne

Stories for the futures we need.

When we launched our kickstarter, this was the tagline we chose. After all, we believe that literatures—stories, storytelling, reading, experiencing, rereading, sharing—effect everything about the futures we can look forward to. We know that every new story is indebted to the political; every sentence or image shapes new ideas, new dreams, new goals. Stories are important. And we need to acknowledge the power that the hold over us.

We deserve better futures. We deserve the stories that will give us those futures.

We are indebted, of course, to others for the life’s blood of this tagline, and the purpose of Augur. To theories of futurity in queer theory and disability studies. To decolonial literatures like magical realism, afrofuturism and indigenous futurisms. To the work of the many who have come before us, and who do work today, whose intellect, compassion, and drive push us daily to do better, think better, listen better, know better. This is what creating space for the futures we need means to us: to constantly evolve, based on developing senses of empathy, awareness, and knowledge. To publish the stories that reflect this mission.

This is why we have our three dominant goals: first, to publish creators from the space currently known as Canada and around the world; second, to bring together speculative fiction and just-barely-realism (what we call “dreamy realism”) in Canadian literature, where the two are rarely explicitly acknowledged as equal; and third, to focus on intersectionality, and promoting marginalized voices whenever we have the chance. These are the goals that speak to what we want to see in our stories: these are the goals that we will aspire to meet with each issue. We look forward to learning how we can better achieve this with every publication.

Augur opened to submissions for the first time about a year ago. We were overwhelmed, at the time, by the response. With little but a new Twitter account and a dream, we received more than 500 reprint options for our Preview Issue. We thought that Augur was a publication that needed to happen. Those numbers proved to us that we were right. So we are also indebted to those who’ve believed in us and supported us, whether you’ve been with us from the start or only heard of us a week ago. Whether as a kickstarter supporter, a social media follower, or a supportive name in our inbox. We had the idea: you are the ones who helped us make it happen.

A publication is a community, and we wouldn’t be here without ours.

Since April 2017, we’ve received a grand total of 2100 submissions from writers around the world, and have had the opportunity to read more fantastic stories from great creators than we know what to do with. We are honoured to have received this trust. We have enough content that we’ve begun shaping our third issue, and we have enough funding to pay our creators rates that are competitive with the Canadian literary magazine market. Thank you.

We couldn’t say it enough, but: thank you.

Thank you for joining us in creating the futures we deserve.

This issue, our first official issue collecting previously unpublished work, is larger than we expected—just like this magazine project, it blossomed before we knew it. So we’re thrilled to invite you to read through not eight—nor nine!—but twelve pieces, by twelve creators from the space currently known as Canada and around the world. Read, devour, consume.

And let us know if we’ve done a good job living up to our tagline, and all those who’ve supported it.

We’re listening.

Continued in Augur Magazine Issue 1.1...