Helix SF was a quarterly American speculative fiction online magazine edited by William Sanders and Lawrence Watt-Evans. The poetry editor was Bud Webster.
Sanders began the magazine in 2006[1] as "a place where writers could publish things that none of the regular markets wanted to touch" without any attempt "to be a commercial publication." The venture was supported entirely by reader donations, though Sanders emphasized in his first editorial that the intention was to make Helix SF "a professional-quality online magazine." The magazine was not open to general submissions.
Each issue of Helix SF featured 7 stories, 4 to 6 poems, several regular columns, and editorials by both the editors.
In 2008, Sanders wrote a rejection letter for a submission to Helix SF in which he called Muslims "sheet heads", "worm brained" and "incapable of honesty." Sanders would later deny that he was referring to Muslims as a whole.[2] However, the controversy ultimately resulted in several authors asking to pull their stories from the Helix archives after they found out Sanders had offered that option to N.K. Jemisin.[3][4]
In response to the controversy, Sanders announced that the magazine's fall 2008 issue would be the last.[5][6] Sanders stated that "Perhaps the biggest one is the ongoing failure to develop a broad support base. Not that we've ever hurt for money — we've always been able to pay the writers, if not pro rates, at least considerably better than the average free webzine - but as things have turned out, the support has come mainly from a small number of amazingly generous donors, rather than over a wide range of the readership."[6] On January 1, 2009, the Helix archives were removed from the web and replaced with an explanation for the magazine's demise and links to several of the stories at other locations.[7] Sanders then deleted the magazine's website.[5]
According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Helix SF was "generally praised for the quality of its fiction and poetry."[5] The magazine was also noted for having almost half the published stories written by women, perhaps the only genre magazine of the time to do this.[5]
The magazine was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. Works published in the magazine won and were finalists for a number of awards. These include:
Authors published in Helix SF included Jayme Lynn Blaschke, Bruce Boston, Adam-Troy Castro, Melanie Fletcher, Esther Friesner, Janis Ian, N. K. Jemisin, Jay Lake, Vera Nazarian, Michael H. Payne, Peg Robinson, Jane Yolen, and Steven H Silver.
