The Kismet Magazine put out their first issue in September, 2024. The physical copy is a booklet stitched together with black thread. On the cover is a black and white image of planet Earth with roots or tentacles coming out of the South Pole, a couple of orbital rings, and a pagoda-like building on the North Pole. Other, smaller, tentacular Earths float around it in space. Open it up and you’ll see, in large letters, “DEAR EARTHLINGS...”
Kismet started because its publishers—specifically M.J. Woods and Bry Best—had noticed a lacuna in the world of speculative fiction magazines. They longed for a magazine that did a few specific things, which they listed in their first issue:
1. Intentionally created a community of its own
2. Focused on frequently marginalized voices, non-Western perspectives, transgressive ideas, etc.
3. Functioned between media and academia, both putting out the content and discussing it critically.
Then they realized, they could make that magazine. The Kismet is what resulted. We talk with Editor-in-Chief M.J. Woods, Co-Founder and Developmental Editor Bry Best, and Managing Editor and Oracle Sarah Johnson LaBarbera about the story of its founding, what they hope to accomplish, and why developmental editing is such an important part of their mission.
