Dear FIYAH Readers,
Goodbyes are difficult, but they’re also best done without much fanfare. So, beginning January 2019, I will no longer be editing FIYAH. Instead, I will be leaving the magazine to work on my own stuff, and to enjoy the abundant blessings of living in a time when certain spheres of publishing seem to be finally embracing Black storytellers (if only momentarily).
This has been an amazing experience, and I’m thankful to have spent the last two years working with the team to build a marvelous magazine. It has been an honor to help incredible Black authors polish their stories into something truly magnificent. It has been a blessing.
No successful endeavor is ever undertaken alone, and the magazine will continue to flourish without me, that is for certain. Troy L. Wiggins has been amazing at picking up the slack of the past year as I pursued my own writing career and will continue to steer the ship. Moving up to Executive Editor will be DaVaun Sanders, who has been on our team from the start and has an excellent eye for stories. FIYAH’s tireless social media team, art folks, and slush readers will still be hard at work, and in light of the mag’s World Fantasy win I expect that you will see more amazing things in the coming years. I look forward to them as well, if as a subscriber, not as an editor.
For me, FIYAH was born out of a need to do something, and a keen rage at an industry that mostly chose to ignore the elephant in the room. I’m glad that energy helped to build a legacy for Black SFF, and I hope you will join with me in supporting FIYAH far into the future. Because, as always, the future ain’t going to write itself.
Best,
Justina Ireland
