It’s been a stellar year here at the magazine… see what I did there? Stellar?
We published our first anthology! We crossed a quarter million page views on the site and passed the 150 video mark on our YouTube channel.
We launched a support group for writers that meets every Thursday night and doubled the size of our editorial team. 
And, since we launched in the summer of 2020, we’ve published more than 700 stories and articles by over 300 different writers.
But that’s not all.
Next year is going to be even bigger and even better. We’ve already begun work on our second anthology, and are in talks with two authors about serializing their novels. We’re also planning on adding new regular segments to our YouTube channel such as discussion shows about speculative fiction books, movies, games, and science and technology.
Are you interested in being a part of any of that? We’re always looking for YouTube show guests and co-hosts, and, of course, editors and contributors for our website and books. You could also help us with organizational efforts, fundraising, or social media outreach. In return, you get to become part of a community of authors and editors, and network with some of the biggest names in the field.
At a time when AIs are about to swoop in and turn the writing profession upside down, writers will have to lean harder into their humanity to survive — and to thrive. That means reaching out to other writers and readers, showing people that you are human, that you have a point of view, that your work has meaning — you’re not just putting out random collections of sentences picked by AI as being most likely to attract readers.
Email me at maria@metastellar.com if you’re interested in helping us out or if you’re looking to submit short stories or essays.
But most of all, I’d like to thank our editorial team.
Melody Friedenthal has been the heart of our operation, copyediting everything that goes up on the site, as well as organizing and editing our anthology. Geordie Morse, our fantastic fiction editor, has been leading a team of volunteer judges and, together with the help of Terrence Smith, has been shepherding hundreds of submissions through the review process every spring and fall. Marie Ginga, our reprints and excerpts editor, has selected and published more than 300 reprints and excerpts. Alex Korolov has been managing our news submissions, and Amira Loutfi has been coordinating with science fiction and fantasy publishers to get review copies of books in the hands of our volunteer reviewers.
E.E. King and Andrea Goyan, the hosts of our Long Lost Friends YouTube show, have been spectacular. This past year, they interviewed Hugo-award winner Neil Clarke, sci-fi legends Mercedes Lackey and Larry Niven, writers Gini Koch and Shelby Van Pelt, and many, many more.
And our book review team, including Carla Nordlund, Romel Madray, N.T. Narbutovskih, Mary Stoll, Sydney Levinson, and Christina Brown.
And don’t let me forget our Patreon supporters. Their donations pay for all the original fiction that is published on the site. Humphrey Price, Mary C Stoll, Alexander Korolov, Avery Parks, Terrence Smith, Brad Center, David Perlmutter, Samantha Bryant, Melody Friedenthal, Renay Intisar Jihad, Anastasia Korolov, and Amira Loutfi — you guys rock and we love you!
Here’s to a great 2023! May all human writers and readers live long and prosper!
MetaStellar editor and publisher Maria Korolov is a science fiction novelist, writing stories set in a future virtual world. And, during the day, she is an award-winning freelance technology journalist who covers artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enterprise virtual reality. See her Amazon author page here and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and check out her latest videos on the Maria Korolov YouTube channel. Email her at maria@metastellar.com. She is also the editor and publisher of Hypergrid Business, one of the top global sites covering virtual reality.