Thursday, November 4, 2010

The Portal

The Portal is a new website, dedicated to reviews of speculative fiction in its short form, but covering the entire world. The readers are introcuded to The Portal’s presentation and goals from the first post:

The Portal is a free, volunteer-run, online review of short-form science fiction, fantasy, and horror from around the world. We review work in English and also provide English-language coverage of short fiction markets, anthologies, and genre literary activities in many language communities.

We concentrate on short-form fiction for several reasons. First of all, short fiction is a prime place for new writers to develop their artistry and discipline. It’s also a source of development for editors and publishers, who can learn to work with authors, build their business skills, and make a reputation. Finally, the abbreviated length of short fiction makes it conducive to translation.

Our mission is to benefit authors, editors, bureau heads and reviewers, and fans around the world.

- Authors will gain public feedback on their work, increased exposure, and usable pull-quotes.
- Editors will get a quick way to survey their field and experience work in other languages.
- Bureau heads and reviewers will have a venue in which to share insights, build their portfolios, explore new work, and keep their critical skills sharp.
- Fans will have a place to read about work released in languages they may not know.

The first post on The Portal was made half a month ago, but already the articles on the site are very interesting and they captured my attention instantly. We already can find reviews of a few magazines such as Ideomancer, Bull Spec, Strange Horizons, Fantasy and Science Fiction and Sybill’s Garage, but also a Russian science fiction magazine, Polden. Also, The Portal reviews “Paraíso Líquido” (Liquid Paradise), a collection of short stories by the Brazilian writer Luiz Bras and “Mount København”, the debut book of the Danish writer Kasper Collins Nielsen and has articles about the speculative fiction of Denmark, France and Bolivia.

The Portal is already proving to be an excellent source of information and reviews, but also a place that hopefully will encourage the translation of the writers outside the English language too.

Good luck, The Portal!

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