Over Interzone’s 26 years several generations of new writers have emerged via its pages. Established authors – Moorcock, Bayley, Ballard, Aldiss, Carter, etc, helped IZ find its feet but within a few years Geoff Ryman, Kim Newman, Stephen Baxter, Greg Egan, Eric Brown and others were discovered so I’ll call them the first Interzone generation.

By 1990 a second generation was developing nicely; Charlie Stross, Ian Macleod, Keith Brooke, Alastair Reynolds, Richard Calder, Chris Beckett, Ben Jeapes, John Meaney, and Sarah Ash. The 3rd generation introduced Liz Williams, Tony Ballantyne and (to English language readers at least) Zoran Zivkovic plus, no doubt, others who have yet to produce a novel.

Now a new generation is starting to come through with Tim Akers and Gareth Lyn Powell, so can Karen Fishler, Jason Stoddard and others be far behind?

Gareth L Powell has a collection ‘The Last Reef ‘ due from Elastic Press in August and his debut novel, Silversands, from Pendragon Press next Easter. This space opera has Avril Bradley stranded on a world of assassinations, political intrigue, espionage and subterfuge and in possession of vital data that has lain hidden for almost a century, which makes her a target.

Tim Akers has his debut novel “Heart of Veridon� from Solaris next year and more novels in the same ‘City of Cog’ milieu (the setting of some of his Interzone stories) will follow. This series, the Burn Cycle, starts with Jacob Burn, a disgraced airship pilot with a clockwork heart and other wind-up organs designed to keep him alive in combat conditions.

Chris Beckett has his second novel ‘Marcher’ due from Cosmos Books later this year and a collection ‘The Turing Test’ from Elastic Press in August. ‘Marcher’ incorporates the world of the ‘shifters’ and ‘seeds’ familiar to long-term Interzone readers from his ‘Welfare Man’ stories. At last they can find out where the ’seeds’ originated.

Also IZ218 will be a Chris Beckett Special featuring three of his stories, illustrated by Warwick Fraser-Coombe, Vincent Chong, Daniel Bristow-Bailey, with introductions by Chris and an interview conducted by Andrew Hedgecock. So in Interzone’s list of authors contributing most stories Chris will leapfrog Ian Watson and join Keith Brooke and Kim Newman in 6th place with 22 stories over 18 years.

Recently TTA Towers had a request from a literary agent for contact details for a new author who had their first IZ story this year. The author was asked to send the first few chapters of a novel in progress. So for all the writers ‘out there’ an appearance in IZ does no harm and can do some good.

This August Elastic Press will publish two SF collections by authors who have been heavily featured in Interzone, and elsewhere. These collections collate their strongest material in a formidable showcase of their talents. So Gareth L Powell’s The Last Reef and Chris Beckett’s The Turing Test collections will be launched on Saturday 9th August, 2-6pm at the Citte of York pub, High Holborn, London. Everyone is welcome to attend the launch where both authors will do a short reading followed by Q&A, but leave plenty of time to chat in the bar afterwards.

Finally, it’s not always easy to be sure an author is an Interzone ‘discovery’ or otherwise. My apologies to anyone I missed and please let me know of any omissions or errors via the forum.

Tags: Chris Beckett • Cosmos Books • Elastic Press • Gareth Lyn Powell • Pendragon Press • Prime • Tim Akers • Veridon