Editorial

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Sheila Williams

I’m writing this March/April 2026 editorial in November of 2025. Over the past year we’ve lost four contributors. I’d like to memorialize them before more time gets away.

We published ten stories by Timothy Robert Sullivan (June 9, 1948–November 10, 2024). His first story, “The Comedian,” appeared in our June 1982 issue, and his last tale, “Anomaly Station,” was published in December 2014. “Anomaly Station” may have been my favorite Tim Sullivan story, but his first tale left a lasting impression. “The Comedian” was chilling, disturbing, and decidedly not humorous. Yet, Tim was one of the funniest people I’ve ever known. He was quick witted, and when he lived in Philadelphia, we had a number of adventures. Perhaps the most memorable was riding in his car’s passenger seat. The floor had rusted out in places, and I had nothing but a hole beneath my feet! Tim helped Robert A. Collins found the International Conference on the Fantastic. 

He also loved horror movies and seemed to know everything about them. From him I learned that the name of the movie that tormented my childhood was Konga. Tim starred in S.P. Somtow’s The Laughing Dead, and he directed, scripted, and/or acted in a number of other low-budget horror films. 

When I first became editor of Asimov’s, I was told to expect a searing missive from Barry N. Malzberg (July 24, 1939–December 19, 2024) outlining all my flaws. Apparently a number of editors considered this letter a rite of passage. This was a rite I never passed, as Barry was always incredibly supportive. I had access to a lot of information and from my first days working for Davis Publications onward I helped him track down facts about early Analog authors. He once said that if I didn’t know something, nobody did. (Of course this wasn’t really true, but I enjoyed the compliment!) We had good conversations about writing and editing. Every so often he’d send me a nice note about one of my editorials, and he particularly loved a guest editorial I wrote about Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore for Analog. 

I was pleased to publish three of the eight stores that he wrote or coauthored for Asimov’s. His first, “The Several Murders of Roger Ackroyd,” appeared in our Winter 1977 issue. His last Asimov’s story “Let the Games Begin,” which he co-wrote with Robert Friedman, appeared in our July/August 2023 issue. Other collaborators included Bill Pronzini (“Out of Quarantine,” November/December 1978 and “Eve of Beyond,” February 2011) and Bruce McAllister (“Going Home,” February 2012).

Barry Malzberg had an acerbic wit. He was known for his dystopian and otherwise pessimistic fiction as well as historical and critical essays and essays about the business of being a science fiction writer. He lost several Hugo Awards, but won the 1982 Locus Award for his collection of historical and critical essays, The Engines of the Night. I miss his emails and his thoughts on a multitude of subjects.

“Tryouts” was Barry B. Longyear’s (May 12, 1942–May 6, 2025) first story for Asimov’s. It was part of his Circus World series and it was published in our November/December 1978 issue. He’d already published twelve pieces of fiction in the magazine when his blockbuster novella, “Enemy Mine,” appeared in the September 1979 issue. “Enemy Mine” won Asimov’s its first Hugo Award. The story also picked up a Nebula Award, and Barry won the Campbell/Astounding Award for best new author in 1980. This award triumvirate was a feat that wasn’t duplicated until Rebecca Roanhorse won the same awards in 2018. “Enemy Mine” was made into a 1985 movie starring Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr. Barry published eleven more pieces of fiction during George Scither’s editorship. 

Many of these stories were very short and written under funny pseudonyms. Shawna McCarthy moved the magazine away from publishing short punny tales, and Gardner Dozois agreed with her philosophy. Barry’s fiction disappeared from our pages for twenty-seven years. I, however, was proud to publish two of his stories. “The Advocate” appeared in our April/May 2008 issue. His haunting story,“Alte Kameraden,” which was published in our April/May 2010 issue, was a finalist for the Sidewise Award. It remains one of my favorite tales.

Robert R. Chase (August 30, 1948–October 20, 2025) published his first of sixteen Asimov’s stories, “The Figure of Drosselmeyer,” in our January 1997 issue. Bob was the chief counsel of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Silver Springs, Maryland, and he brought a sensibility and body of knowledge to his fiction that differed from most of our authors. Bob’s first novel, The Game of Fox and Lion, was nominated for the Compton Crook award. His fiction was also short-listed for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the Nebula, and our own Readers’ Choice Award.

I appreciated all of Bob’s work. Two of my favorites were “Five Thousand Light Years from Birdland” (January 2009) and “Decaying Orbit” (October/November 2014). In recent years, I’ve enjoyed the continuing escapades of Lewis Michaels, his girlfriend Tyche Buckley, and his Aunt Bertha. Bob’s last story for us, “Lost Recall” (September/October 2024), was the third in this series. We at Asimov’s are sad there won’t be any more.