We’re genuinely sorry to have lost Jetse de Vries from the Interzone editorial group. He’s always demonstrated enormous levels of commitment in working with us to choose exciting, imaginative and well-crafted SF and Fantasy stories. We will miss his discernment and passion for interesting and polished writing, and we fully agree with the positive and sincere feedback from readers and writers who share our disappointment at his departure.

We are, however, a little perplexed at the idea that Jetse’s departure has been caused by a change in Interzone’s “direction and tone”. No such change was identified or discussed at any time within the team. The three remaining fiction editors do not feel there has been any shift in our editorial process, quality standards, ethics or strategy.

We are also puzzled by the suggestion that the nature of our material will change next year: Jetse has played a full and significant part in selecting the stories our readers will be enjoying for many months to come. It will be quite a while before anyone gets to read a post-Jetse story in Interzone. In fact, we have yet to select a story without his input.

We would like to reassure readers and authors that there is no change in editorial ethos or policy – explicit or implicit, actual or pending – at Interzone.

Andy Cox, David Mathew and Andy Hedgecock (fiction editorial group, Interzone)