Albedo One

Albedo One

Albedo One Issue 31
Albedo One Editorial Team	John Kenny, Bob Neilson, David Murphy, Frank Ludlow, Roelof Goudriaan and Peter Loftus with Contributing Editors Dev Agarwal, Juliet E. McKenna and David Conyers.
Categories	Horror, fantasy, science fiction (cross-genre and unclassifiable)
Frequency	Biannual or Triannual
Circulation	~900
Publisher	Albedo One Productions
Year founded	1993
Country	Ireland
Language	English
Website	www.albedo1.com
ISSN	0791-8534

Albedo One is an Irish horror, fantasy and science fiction magazine founded in 1993 and currently published by Albedo One Productions.

Albedo One is widely regarded as the successor to the defunct Irish science fiction magazine FTL, which was originally published by the (also now-defunct) Irish Science Fiction Association.FTL was itself a successor of the Irish magazine Gateway. Albedo One is often credited as holding the position of the "longest running Irish magazine of speculative fiction" and has been billed as "Ireland's answer to Interzone." From issue 1, 1993, to issue 12, 1996, Albedo One was published by Tachyon Productions and was in an A5 size format. From issue 13, 1996, the magazine moved to a larger A4 format and was published by Albedo One Productions. The move to new publisher and format was motivated, according to the editors, "in an effort to gain better distribution, more advertising and put a little jizz into the magazine.".

Albedo One currently publishes original (i.e. previously unpublished) stories from Irish, European and International authors. Its focus on Irish authors has often been noted by reviewers, but publication of non-Irish authors is not excluded as with some national genre magazines, and the magazine is "primarily interested in good writing". The magazine states that its "definition of what constitutes SF, horror and fantasy is extremely broad" and that it likes "to see material which pushes at the boundaries", a fact that has been remarked upon by readers and reviewers. In this respect, one reviewer stated that "Any magazine that encourages both new writers and readers to range more widely, deserves encouragement."

The magazine currently appears in print and electronic pdf format approximately two to three times per year. Stories published in each issue generally range from 2000 to 8000 words in length, though in practise published stories sometimes fall outside these lengths. The magazine also publishes in each issue an interview with a well-known genre author, in addition to book reviews and a (recently sporadic) letters column under the heading "Ugly Chickens" after the famous story "The Ugly Chickens" by genre author Howard Waldrop. The editors of the magazine have stated that aside from the fiction, they feel that non-fiction content "lends a magazine its identity."

The magazine also features an irregular article or opinion piece by anonymous authors writing under the name of Severian, after a character made famous in the writing of genre author Gene Wolfe. These columns are often noted for their "opinionated" or controversial stance on genre matters, with that in issue 31 of Albedo One being described as "a deliberately provocative rant" by one reviewer. In 1996 the editors offered an open invitation, stating that "If you feel strongly about anything and want to let us and the readers know, you too can don the mightly mantle of Severian."