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Short Legend

Supernova, published by the Celje Literary Society since 2016, is the only Slovene print magazine, dedicated exclusively to fantasy literature (science fiction, fantasy and horror).

It is a biannual publication, published in the spring and autumn time of conventions and other literary events.

Supernova, published by the Celje Literary Society since 2016, is the only Slovene print magazine, dedicated exclusively to fantasy literature (science fiction, fantasy and horror).

It is a biannual publication, published in the spring and autumn time of conventions and other literary events.

In short, Supernova is literary sugar, whose excessive consumption will not give you diabetes. That is the benefit of consuming fantasy sugar.

Supernova has come out with an English edition for Eurocon - Eurocon Special 1. The purpose of the English edition is to present the Slovene fantasy literature production to the European public. We have invited the previous authors of Supernova and a few select foreign authors to participate and the result is before you.

How do you participate?

Send your text in English to our e-mail address (unfortunately, we do not (yet) have translators for other European languages). Foreign publications editor Dominik Lenarčič will ensure a quality treatment.

ISSN code

• Print edition: ISSN 2464-0387
• PDF edition: ISSN 2712-4479

Supernova Wins the ESFS Award for Best Magazine

The Slovenian delegation played an active and highly visible role throughout the convention, participating in the programme, presenting Slovenian speculative fiction, and promoting the activities of Celje's Literary Society, Supernova, and Fanfest.

This year Slovenia submitted nominations in seven ESFS Award categories:

• Best Written Work of Fiction – Skrivnost Srži by Jakob Konda
• Best Event, Festival or Convention Organised by Fans – Na meji nevidnega
• Best Artist – Maja Poljanc
• Best Author – Julija Lukovnjak
• Best Promoter – Bojan Ekselenski
• Best Magazine – Supernova
• Best Translator – Sergej Hvala
• Chrysalis Award – Matjaž Marinček (Medgalaktične pripovedke)

With the exception of the Chrysalis Award, the winners are elected by delegates representing ESFS member countries. Competition was exceptionally strong, with some categories attracting as many as thirteen nominees.

Among Europe's leading speculative fiction magazines, Supernova emerged as the winner of the ESFS Award for Best Magazine.

The award recognises ten years of dedicated work by the magazine's editorial team, whose enthusiasm, professionalism, and commitment to promoting both Slovenian and European speculative fiction have earned international recognition. It is also an important milestone for Slovenian speculative fiction and a remarkable achievement for a volunteer-run magazine.

More about Eurocon in Berlin ...

Editorial: Confession of a Certain Bojan

(from issue Eurocon special 2)

Supernova has puffed its way to the magical number 20, while the English edition stands at issue number 2. On this occasion, Bacchus himself invited us to a celebration in a tavern at the beginning of the universe.

This issue has almost everything the biggest ones have—and then some extra for good measure. The indulgence begins right at the start, as the saying goes, the fish smells from the head.

The prose is a mix of domestic and foreign fare, with guests from Belgium, Serbia, and Croatia adding to the feast.

An important part of the magazine belongs to the rich “potica” of the report section, with its largest slice dedicated to Fanfest 9.

Prattling of a Particular Dominik

Bojan bemoans how insular the Slovenian fan community is. On some level, he is right, but this is slowly changing. Bojan and I have already done our part to popularise Slovenian SF&F in the former Yugoslavia and I’m glad to report that individual authors, publishing houses and actors are now slowly doing their part. Edgar Kaos, the YA dark fantasy book series from domestic superstar Julija Lukovnjak will soon be available in English for the wider public to discover and enjoy (and published by the same publisher as the original, no less!). The Ljubljana-centric convention Na meji nevidnega, the Slovenian Comic-Con, is attracting high profile guests from abroad. Last year, it was Brian Muir. This year, it’s Samantha Shannon and Jonathan Stroud. Our nominations for the ESFS awards also prove that there exists a desire for recognition outside the domestic fandom circles. Have a gander at our selection, dear reader, you might find someone or something from our land that might interest you!

Editorial: A Fantastical Urbi et Orbi

(from issue Eurocon special 1)

Slovene fantasy, which also includes science fiction, horror and more, has made some strides in the last few years, but only the hobbyist activities of the Celje Literary Society enter the European sphere. Sadly, Slovenia has neither a specialised publishing house, nor enough serious literary-theoretical research or conventions such as Eurocon or the neighbouring Sferakon. All of the professional activity on the subject of fantasy is in the domain of observing the mostly foreign genre literature.

But in this segment, I will not be focusing on the troubles of the Slovene area.

The largest event in Slovenia tied to our favourite genres is ‘Na meji nevidnega’ (Slovene for: ‘On the Border of the Invisible’), which is the Slovenian equivalent to Comic-Con and everything that that entails. Occasionally, there appears some other event with irregular iterations.

The Celje Literary Society, which organises Fanfest, the only Slovene festival of fantasy literature, is probably the only one that, as much as it can, seriously and systematically dabbles in Slovene fantasy literature. The festival has been taking place for some time on the third weekend of October, as to not overlap with other conventions.

Fanfest is not a hobbyist event with lively stands of various products more or less tied to fantasy, nor does it have cosplay, fantasy quizzes, a playroom, concerts or anything else typical of such events.

Of course, this does not mean that the festival is not attractive to the wider public, but it is specialised for fantasy literature and relevant subjects. The only thing meant for a strictly professional public is the panel workshop that takes place before noon on Sunday.

The literary festival covers professional, promotional and socialising matters. The central event in the Celje House of Culture (Celjska kulturnica) is especially interesting due to its main guest Zoran Živković, who needs no special introduction.

So let’s keep it brief – at the Eurocon in Dortmund in 2017, professor Živković received the prestigious European Grand Master Honorary award. The professor is represented here in this special Eurocon issue with the story »First photograph«.

The Celje Literary Society first organised the festival in 2017, this year will be its ninth iteration and not even the COVID epidemic has stopped us. Though, in those tough years, we adapted to the circumstances and are proud of the fact that we managed to carry out the programme against all odds, partially through Zoom. Its organisation would be impossible without the financial support of the Urban Municipality of Celje (Mestna občina Celje - MOC) and the local bookstore named Antika. We also have to thank the Public Fund for Cultural Activities of the Republic of Slovenia (Javni sklad Republike Slovenije za kulturne dejavnosti - JSKD) for giving us space for the central event and some accompanying events.

The festival additionally features the active Slovene authors of fantasy, who also publish in the Supernova magazine, the only Slovene literary journal for fantasy.

The magazine has been publishing since 2016, its founder and main editor is Bojan Ekselenski and its publisher is the Celje Literary Society. Without the financial backing of the Celje Municipality and the Public Fund, the journal couldn’t be published in tangible form. So far, 18 regular issues have been published and this special, let’s say extraordinary edition, is dedicated to Eurocon. The Eurocon issue is meant mainly for the European fandom to introduce them to Slovene fantasy and to the magazine.

Supernova is a bi-annual journal, published in spring and autumn to cover the convention season. Aside from fantasy prose and poetry, it also publishes technical essays which can’t be published in other literary journals. Of course, it also includes interviews, information on new publications, occasional book reviews and, naturally, reports from various events. The report section has been newly christened the “fantastični dogodkopis” (“Fantasy Event Report”).

What can you find in this issue?

More about fresh doze of Supernova...

Call for Supernova

The magazine is a biannual publication, published in spring and autumn. The magazine lives off of submissions, especially stories and poems.

We also accept essays and speculative fiction book reviews.

We only accept submissions in electronic form. We cannot accept only type-written submissions and we will reject them.

Deadlines:

• February for the spring issue (comes out during the time of spring conventions)
• 15th of July for the autumn issue (comes out before Fanfest)

Addresses

• E-mail:
  • celjsko.literarno@outlook.com
  • bojan.ekselenski@gmail.com (editor)
• Editorial board:
  • Celjsko literarno društvo
  • Gledališki trg 4
  • 3000 Celje

We seek the following:

• Short story: up to 7.500 words (45.000 characters with spaces), we will accept longer stories based on the available space and we may ask the authors to shorten the stories to the expected length.
• Esssay: up to 7.500 words,
• Book review: up to 3.500 words,
• Poetry: all together up to 300 lines, an individual poem up to 150 lines.

Bojan Ekselenski

Translated from Slovene by Dominik Lenarčič