Independent Science Fiction and Speculative Culture Newspaper
Alienaward PressBuenos Aires · Independently edited · Weekly columns and dispatches
Alienaward Press is a independently edited newspaper on science fiction literature, indie genre film, tabletop worldbuilding, and the small-press scene across Latin America.
The current issue opens with a lead column on translation, a speculative essay, and a convention dispatch from the local circuit. Long-form criticism, author interviews, and behind-the-scenes reporting on zine fairs and print runs sit alongside the weekly columns.
Most of what we publish starts as a reader's question or a contributor's unfinished argument. Before anything reaches the page, it passes through a short set of practical steps that keep the reporting honest and the editing visible.
Send a paragraph describing what you want to write and why it belongs in the paper now. A review pitch should name the book, the angle, and what you think it gets wrong or right. An essay pitch should state the claim in one sentence. We read pitches as they arrive and reply with either a yes, a redirect to a different section, or a note that the subject is already covered.
Anything with a date, a name, a print run, or a quoted line gets checked against a source before editing. If your piece discusses a work in Spanish that has an English edition, note which version you are quoting and whether the translation changes the passage you rely on. Translation notes are welcome as part of the piece, not as an appendix.
Have the primary material in front of you: the book, the film, the game book, the zine, the correspondence. Keep a short list of the people you plan to contact and what you want from each. If you are writing about a fair, a print run, or a screening, gather the concrete details first, since those are the parts readers check. Opinions are yours; the record is shared.
Accepted pieces go through a line edit and a second read for structure. We schedule around the weekly columns and the weekly reading selection rather than promising a fixed publication date. After a piece runs, corrections go to the editor and are noted at the foot of the article. The letters section is edited by contributors, so replies to published pieces may appear there rather than in a comment thread.
If you are unsure which section fits, describe the piece in plain terms and we will point you to the right editor.
Most readers arrive through one piece and then follow a thread. If the lead column on the Southern Cone novelists left you wanting the longer argument, these three continue it: the work behind the zine tables, the covers that decide whether a book gets picked up, and the letters where readers push back on all of it.
A translator's shortlist of Argentine and Chilean science fiction now reaching English readers, with notes on what survives the crossing and what sharpens along the way.
Read the shortlistThe stack of stapled booklets hides a set of decisions about paper weight, binding, and print quantity. A practical look at the math that keeps the small-press scene running in Buenos Aires.
Read the piecePrefer to browse by theme instead of following one thread? The archive of past issues groups everything by subject, from criticism and translation notes to convention dispatches.