Theme Announcement for Issue Five: Frontier

An issue about exploration, testing limits, and going where no one has gone before

Hello all,

Issue Four of Soft Star Magazine was a whimsical and spirited journey through the theme of Arcana. A huge, heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed to this magical collection—fantasy is a genre near and dear to our hearts, and Issue Four: Arcana was a true love letter to that realm of speculative fiction.

Fantasy has many subgenres, different interpretations of what makes an adventure beyond reality’s limits. This is true of speculative fiction as a whole, as well, and with Issue Five, we wanted to return to our science fiction roots and explore new worlds of the genre that we haven’t seen before.

In this spirit, we are pleased to announce the theme of Issue Five: Frontier.

The mission of this issue, to borrow from Star Trek’s James T. Kirk, is “to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

With Issue Five, we hope to uncover these new places in the great unknown of the universe. Stories about discovery, both external and internal; stories about the meeting of alien cultures, and what strange beauty can arise of them; stories about innovation, and things now easily comprehended within our usual frameworks.

That’s not to say that this issue will only be about Trek-style adventures, because there are as many styles of sci-fi and spec fic as there are stars. This is the issue for space westerns about smugglers and outlaws. For UFOs and cryptids and ghost towns, the murk of western gothic. For red rocks, and wide open spaces, and endless skies. We want to see your interpretation of what happens when you plunge into the great unknown of the universe.

We would also love to explore more nonfiction than we have in previous issues—essays, creative nonfiction, reviews, interviews, and more. To this end, we’re also pleased to announce Soft Star’s first essay contest! Submission fees are waived for nonfiction participants. The winner will receive a $20 prize, and all entries will receive automatic consideration for publication in the magazine. More to come on this soon.

You can use this collage as inspiration for your written and visual submissions:

If you’ll forgive one more Star Trek reference, we sign off with one more core tenant of that franchise’s mythos: the Vulcan philosophy of “infinite diversity in infinite combinations,” a philosophy we strive to keep at the core of Soft Star Magazine. We cannot wait to see what new frontiers you will bring us to explore together.

Submissions for Issue Five: Frontier are now open! Please see the Submissions tab for more information. We look forward to seeing your boundary-pushing works and to sharing them with the Soft Star audience!

Until next time,

Miranda and Korinne