Canadian Horror Comes of Age.(history of the Canadian Fiction Magazine)(Brief Article)

IN THE SUMMER OF 1994, Canadian Science Fiction went legit.

Not that there was anything nefarious about Canadian SF prior to the summer of 1994. It had always been read by a loyal following of fans and had been the subject of a few very well regarded anthologies, but had it ever been taken seriously as CanLit? Perhaps not, even though any literary venture written by Canadians is, by its very nature, part of the canon of Canadian Literature.

So, what happened in the summer of '94?

Two things.

First, the World SF Convention was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, bringing science fiction and fantasy fans to this country from the four corners of the Earth to celebrate a unique form of literature.

The other?

The Canadian literary magazine, Prairie Fire produced a special issue on the theme of "New Canadian Speculative Fiction." Okay, so Canadian SF had not come so far as to actually be called "Science Fiction" and had to hide behind the loftier (and more literary) sounding term "Speculative Fiction," but it had at least reached the point where an honest-to-goodness Canadian literary magazine had thought enough about what was happening in the field to devote an entire issue to the genre.