SFT 2021 Stats

This year, I tried something different. Instead of just looking at how many short stories were published in magazines/webzines, and then grouping collections with novels and anthologies (while not pulling out the separate short stories in those collections), I decided to lay out how many short stories were published in zines and how many were published in collections. Collections (as singular items) are still counted in the “long-form fiction” category below, but now we can more clearly see how collections of stories contribute to the percentages of certain source languages.

The top three source languages for short-form zine SFT in 2021 were Chinese (32.6%), Russian (20.9%), and Spanish (14%). The zines that published the most SFT were Clarkesworld (26.8%) and Future Science Fiction Digest (12.2%). For those stories published in collections and anthologies in 2021, the source languages look quite different: now the top three are Spanish (28.4%), Korean (11.6%), and Japanese (11%). We also saw one story from each of the following source languages: Bulgarian, Finnish, French, Greek, Icelandic, Kurdish, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, and Swedish.

In terms of long-form fiction (novels/collections/anthologies), we saw the highest number of stories translated from the German and Korean (13.5%), and from the Chinese and French (9.6%). Novels made up 62.3% of the long-form fiction, with collections making up 26.4% and anthologies 11.3%.

I plan to look back at numbers for previous years and factor in the stories published in collections for more accurate numbers. Stay tuned for a comprehensive look at SFT from 2016 to 2021!

 


SHORT-FORM FICTION

Stories in magazines/webzines

total: 43

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese- 14 (32.6%) (China)

published in: Future Science Fiction Digest, Clarkesworld, Words Without Borders, SFRA Review, Tor.com, Galaxy’s Edge

Russian- 9 (20.9%) (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia)

published in: F&SF, Samovar, Future Science Fiction Digest, Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, World Literature Today, Words Without Borders

Spanish- 6 (14%) (Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Spain)

published in: Constelación Magazine, Future Science Fiction Digest, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed

Japanese- 4 (9.5%)

published in: Hivemind

Italian- 3 (7.1%)

published in: Samovar, SFinTranslation.com

Arabic- 2 (4.8%) (Iraq, Mauritania)

published in: Words Without Borders, Vestal Review

Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian- 1 each (2.3%)

Bulgarian published in: SFRA Review

Czech published in: Clarkesworld

Hungarian published in: Mermaids Monthly

Icelandic published in: Words Without Borders

Indonesian published in: Samovar

 

Clarkesworld– 11 (26.2%)

Future Science Fiction Digest– 6 (14.3%)

Hivemind, Words Without Borders– 4 each (9.5%)

Constelación, Samovar– 3 each (7.1%)

SFRA Review, SFinTranslation.com– 2 each (4.8%)

Asimov’s, F&SF, Galaxy’s Edge, Lightspeed, Mermaids Monthly, Tor.com, Vestal Review, World Literature Today– 1 each (2.3%)

 

*          *          *

Stories in collections/anthologies

total: 155

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spanish- 44 (28.4)

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (Enriquez), Little Bird (Donoso), “Dump” and “Rue Chair” (The Best of World SF)

Korean- 18 (11.6%)

I’m Waiting for You (Kim), Cursed Bunny (Chung)

Japanese- 17 (11%)

“Precious Stones” (Elemental), Terminal Boredom (Suzuki), Fast Forward Japan (Unno), “Prayer” (The Best of World SF)

Russian- 14 each (9%)

The Little Devil and Other Stories (Remizov), “Above the Clouds, Above the Mountains, Above the Sky” (More Zion’s Fiction)

Chinese- 12 (7.7%)

Sinopticon (ed. Ni)

Hebrew- 11 (12.8%)

“The Weather Woman” (Elemental), More Zion’s Fiction (eds. Lottem, Teitelbaum)

Italian- 10 (6.5%)

“Chronotope” (Ab Terra 2020), Futurespotting (Verso), “Beautymark” (European Science Fiction #1)

Polish- 10 (6.5%)

“Lying Weather” (European Science Fiction #1), The Truth and Other Stories (Lem)

Danish- 4 (2.6%)

After the Sun (Eika)

German- 3 (1.9%)

“We Have Lived Here Since We Were Born” (Elemental), “Planned Obsolescence” and “Petware” (European Science Fiction #1)

Portuguese- 3 (1.9%)

Love: An Archaeology (Fernandes)

Bulgarian, Finnish, French, Greek, Icelandic, Kurdish, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Swedish- 1 each (.6%)

Bulgarian: “The Keresztury TVirs” (European Science Fiction #1)
Finnish: “The Naming Tree” (European Science Fiction #1)
French: “Lalana” (Elemental)
Greek: “Roseweed” (European Science Fiction #1)
Icelandic: “The Cryptid” (The Best of World SF)
Kurdish: “Jamshid Khan” (Elemental)
Norwegian: “Ankomst” (Elemental)
Persian: “Dog Rose in the Wind, the Rain, the Earth” (Elemental)
Polish: “Lying Weather” (European Science Fiction#1)
Swedish: “Reaping Day” (European Science Fiction #1)

 


LONG-FORM FICTION

Novels, Collections, Anthologies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

German, Korean- 7 each (13.5%)
Chinese, French- 5 each (9.6%)
Polish, Spanish- 4 each (7.7%)
Czech, Japanese, various- 3 each (5.8%)
Arabic, Italian, Swedish- 2 each (3.8%)
Portuguese, Greek, Russian, Danish, Hebrew- 1 each (1.9%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

novels- 33 (62.3%)

German (7), French (5), Chinese (3), Czech (3), Korean (3), Polish (3), Spanish (3), Arabic (2), Swedish (2), Italian (1), Japanese (1)

collections- 14 (26.4%)

Korean (4), Japanese (2), Spanish (2), Chinese (1), Danish (1), Italian (1), Polish (1), Portuguese (1), Russian (1)

anthologies- 6 (11.3%)

various (3), Chinese (1), Greek (1), Hebrew (1)

1 comment on “SFT 2021 Stats”

  1. Kalin Nenov Reply

    Thank you for this overview, Rachel!

    it's rather disheartening to see that the number of SF translations published was probably smaller than the number of Bulgarian SF books published in Bulgaria (we're a small market, mind you).

    A quick correction: Ivan Popov's "The Keresztury TVirs" was included in _European Science Fiction #1_.

    Also, Kaloyan Zahariev "Aspiring Magician" appeared on Distant Shore Publishing at a semi-pro rate. (I can include a link but I'm afraid of your spam filters. 😉

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