Ansible

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Arthur "ATom" Thomson's logo for Ansible #49, published April 1987.

Ansible is an award-winning British newsletter fanzine published by author and fanwriter Dave Langford, taking its title from a communications device featured in Ursula K LeGuin's 1966 science fiction novel Rocannon's World. Langford is quoted as having likened it to the British satirical magazine Private Eye.

The first series (50 issues) ran from August 1979 (distributed at the third UK world sf convention) until August/September 1987 (coinciding with the fourth UK world sf convention); it was relaunched in October 1991 (resuming the original numbering) and currently appears monthly, often on the first day of the month (issue #266 was published in September 2009). Although a limited quantity of hardcopies are distributed, most readers use the online version.

Contributing writers included Brian Aldiss, Mal Ashworth (Rot), Chris Atkinson (Start Breaking Up), Jim Barker, Paul Barnett, Chris Bell, Pamela Boal, Jeanne Bowman, Sandy Brown, Steve Brown, Jackie Burns, Avedon Carol (Pulp), Terry Carr (Lighthouse), Malcolm Edwards (Vector), Chris Evans, Colin Fine, Abigail Frost, Neil Gaiman, Dave Garnett, Steve Green, Judith Hanna (Fuck The Tories), Rob Hansen (Pulp, Chuch), Steev Higgins, Bob Jewett, Roz Kaveney, Jane Killick, Paul Kincaid (Vector), William McGonagall, Chris Morgan (Brum Group News), Caroline Mullan, Joseph Nicholas (Vector), Peter Nicholls, Rog Peyton, Charles Platt (Beyond), Christopher Priest, Geoff Ryman, Bob Shaw (Get Fokt), Kevin Smith (Sfinx), Brian Stableford, Andrew Stephenson, Charles Stross, Sue Thomason, Ian Watson, D. West, and Martin Morse Wooster.

Contributing artists have included Jim Barker, Simon Bostock, Kev Clarke, Malcolm Edwards, Ken Fletcher (Rune), Brad W. Foster, Alexis Gilliland, Ian Gunn, Rob Hansen, Jon Langford, Pete Lyon, Sue Mason, Dave Mooring (Fuck The Tories), Stu Shiffman, Dan Steffan (Boonfark), Steve Stiles, ATom (The ATom Anthology), Taral Wayne (DNQ), Margaret Welbank, and D. West, among others.

It has won the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine on more than one occasion.

External links