Introduction to Aner Welten: Welcome!
(Text by the Aner Welten Team)
I want to welcome each and everyone of you to our online fanzine about speculative fiction from and about Luxembourg: Aner Welten.
Aner Welten is a passion project that came into existence because of my master’s thesis (I wrote about science-fiction in Luxembourg). I realized that Luxembourgish speculative fiction was sparse, however, here and there some texts were blooming. Speculative fiction is making its way into our literature. I personally think that the time has come for Luxembourg to show off. To show the world that we too have potential. Not only is our multilingualism something unique throughout the world, but also the subject of our literature. Of course, many more themes, motives, narratives, styles, and voices besides our multilingualism have an impact on our local literature. Many of these can be identified in the array of initial texts we will publish in the coming weeks – at least, that is what I hope.
Moreover, Aner Welten is a gathering place; a platform to regroup and give the possibility to publish these speculative fiction texts, which sometimes don’t find their place in ‘traditional’ publishing. We want to make this platform available for already established, as well as new writers. In the future, we will also organize anthologies, contests, themed submissions, and you can find us at various conventions.
I want to say thank you to all the authors who have participated in the initial round – their engagement confirmed that there is interest and motivation for this. A needed change.
Those texts are in German, Luxembourgish, and English. Texts that go from traditional fantasy and science-fiction to weird fiction and the new weird to fairy tales and stories told in the second person, with an array of literary devices not necessarily common for the genre. I do not want to spoil more about what is coming. It’s a surprise.
We will publish the first round of texts in an interval of two texts a week. So please follow our social media (@anerwelten on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) or check out the website once in a while.
That being said, from today on, we are open for submission. We are currently a fanzine and therefore cannot pay our authors. However, this is something we are actively trying to change. In the near future, hopefully, we can pay our authors a semi-professional rate.
At this point, I want to say thank you to a few people: First of all, thank you to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Society Luxembourg who have introduced me to the world of speculative fiction literature a few years back. We are also actively collaborating together and Aner Welten is a project partnered with them.
A huge thank you to Sandy, my girlfriend but also co-editor who mostly takes care of the German part of Aner Welten! She constantly pushed me to do this.
And, of course, a huge thank you to all of the authors who submitted the initial texts. Thank you: Gregory Fearn, Kiara Roth, Luc François, Audrey Martin, Ognyan ‘Flame’ Darinov, Giulia Barbarossa, Sven Wohl, Joël Adami, and Maxime Weber, and all the other upcoming authors They are the reason why this is even possible. Thank you a lot Aner Welten family.
And, lastly, thank you to all the readers who, I hope, have as much fun reading the texts as I had while curating them!
Bescht Gréiss,
Cosimo
𓆣
De Cosimo wéi och Ech begréissen Iech all ganz häerzlech op eiser Website. Merci dass dir iech Zäit huelt fir jonk a manner jonk Literaturtalenter an engem vläicht manner bekannte Genre kennen ze leieren. Seid dem ech de Cosimo kennen, hate ma allebéid ëmmer nees di Idee eng kéier ee Literaturprojet an ugrëffeg ze huelen, dee manner etabléierten, mee dofir net manner begaabten Auteuren eng Plattform ze bidden. Natierlech si ma alle béid Nerds, Geeks (ech perséinlech e Freak) an hu schnell entdeckt, dass mir et anescht wëlle maache wéi di aner. Nodeems de Cosimo ëmmer méi säin Häerz un d’spekulativ Fiktioun verluer huet, a selwer vill doranner geschriwwen huet, ass eis opgefall, dass et awer net genuch promovéiert gëtt hei an eisem Ländchen. An voilà, ab haut dem 15. August wëlle ma dat änneren. Ech sinn houfereg, dass esou vill begeeschtert Auteuren sech zesumme fond hunn, a wëlles hunn sech hei op Aner Welten weisen, an och liese loossen.
Et gëtt nach vill ze dinn, a mir probéieren eis Bescht eiser Idee an Visioun, wéi och den Auteure gerecht ze ginn.
Fir mäi léifste Buch vum Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy ze zitéiere:
“For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Sandy