What is Solaris?

Founded in 1974 in Longueuil (Québec) by Norbert Spehner, Solaris is the oldest French-language Science-fiction and Fantasy magazine in the world.  It’s probably the fifth longest-running fiction-publishing SF magazine in the World, after Astounding Stories/Analog (1930), the Magazine of Science-fiction and Fantasy (1949), Italy’s Urania (1952) and Japan’s SF Magazine (1959).

Solaris deals in all forms of science-fiction and fantasy, including horror and « weird » fiction.  It publishes original material (short stories and illustrations) as well as related information, criticism, interviews and articles.  Solaris not only publishes established authors, but fosters the development of young francophone creators through a strong editorial direction. Mostly published and distributed in Québec, Solaris is also known in English Canada, the United States and in Europe, where it is considered to be one of the most significant francophone magazine of its field.

Solaris sponsors an annual literary contest, the Prix Solaris, intended to encourage new authors.  (The Prix Solaris is open only to Canadian authors.) There is also the Prix Joël-Champetier which is open to everyone outside Canada.

Solaris aims to account for the existing richness of SF&F as well as to confront all emerging tendencies and new approaches  Whereas the growing popularity of the SF&F field is mostly spurred by its audio-visual representations, Solaris continues to support literary creation and reflection.

The team responsible for the continued success of Solaris includes such internationally-renowned authors such as Joël Champetier (The Dragon’s Eye), Yves Meynard (The Books of Knights) and Élisabeth Vonarburg (In the Mother’s Land, Reluctant Voyagers, The Silent City).

After more than twenty-five years of activity, Solaris has published nearly all significant French-Canadian SF&F writers. Stories that have originally appeared within the pages of the magazine have gone on to win nearly a dozen Aurora Awards (in addition of the eleven Auroras won by the magazine itself), almost as many Prix Boréal and a significant proportion of Grand Prix de la Science-Fiction et du Fantastique Québécois. Several of these stories can be read in the English-language anthology Tesseracts^Q, published by Tesseracts Books.

Through the years, Solaris has been edited by Élisabeth Vonarburg, Luc Pomerleau, Hugues Morin and Joël Champetier. Jean Pettigrew is the current managing editor.

Solaris receives subsidies from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts.

 

Mise à jour: Avril 2009 –