Welcome to issue thirteen of Lightspeed!

Wow, has it really been a whole year already? It has! We launched back in June 2010, so this month’s issue is our anniversary issue. As mentioned previously, we’ve had a great first year—nine out of the sixteen original stories published in Lightspeed in 2010 have been reprinted in a best-of-the-year anthology, and we have two Nebula Award finalists and a Hugo Award finalist on the award ballots (plus I’m up for the Hugo Award for Best Editor and Lightspeed itself is finalist for Best Semiprozine). We’re hugely honored to have our stories so recognized, and we’d like to think that these accolades are only a sign of more great things to come. Many thanks to all of the readers and writers who have supported us and chosen us for these honors—we salute you!

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

June 7

K.C. Ball gives us an A.I.’s view of the complexities of love, space travel, and physics in “Snapshots I Brought Back from the Black Hole.”

Keeping on the subject of black holes, astronomer/SF author Mike Brotherton delves into the science of singularities in his article “Dividing By Zero.”

June 14

“Frost Painting” by Carolyn Ives Gilman takes a poignant look at a relationship in the wake of a very different kind of alien invasion.

Science fiction fans have long known that art and science aren’t as deeply divided as they’re made out to be. In our next article, Graeme McMillan explores “Dissolving the Wall Between Art and Science.”

June 21

In Grady Hendrix’s story “Transcript of Interaction Between Astronaut Mike Scudderman and the OnStar Hands-Free A.I. Crash Advisor” an A.I. gives the best advice it can, based on its analysis of human behavior.

Then, Genevieve Valentine is back with more trivia and snark as she ponders the “Six A.I. Types Who Annoy Us to Death.”

June 28

In our final story this month, Ian McDonald brings us “Recording Angel,” the story of a journalist sent to report on the party at end of the world, and the first contact with the alien life that caused it.

And we wrap things up this month with an interview with acclaimed science writer Mary Roach, bestselling author of Stiff, Spook, Bonk, and Packing for Mars.

***

So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!