Hivemind: Global Speculative Fiction is a Georgia Tech student and faculty-run digital magazine of global speculative fiction. We publish science fiction and fantasy—broadly defined— on the themes of language, culture, and communication. We are also interested in multimedia and interactive stories that push the boundaries of traditional storytelling. Hivemind is based out of the School of Modern Languages and is led by an editorial board staffed by graduate students in the new M.S. in Global Media and Cultures. Each issue centers on one unifying concept or theme connected to our overarching focus on global SF. Our content includes original short fiction, reprints, translations, interviews, and articles. By spotlighting and celebrating diverse speculative traditions, Hivemind: Global Speculative Fiction seeks to expand our understanding of worlds both real and imagined.
Over 2020-2021, we developed the prototype of Hivemind, an online multimedia magazine that explores global speculative fiction through language and culture. We also published our first issue, “The Future of Translation.” As we developed the site, Sofi became our visual assistant editor, focusing primarily on developing the look of the site and its gorgeous visualizations. Will became our literary assistant editor, focusing on editing website content and conducting interviews for our Non-Fiction section. We published Hivemind Vol 1 Issue 1 (“The Future of Translation”) in April 2021 and are currently developing Vol 1 Issue 2 (Japan x Future) for August 2021.
“The Future of Translation” features five fiction stories and six non-fiction articles, including reprints of Ursula K. Le Guin, original translations of Japanese proto-SF, and interviews with Game of Thrones conlanger David J. Peterson and Chinese/English science fiction translator and writer Andy Dudak. We also published two multimedia stories, one interactive article, and a collection of six multimedia folktales that “translate” culture. Two pieces in our inaugural issue by undergraduate Natalie Mueller (“Race to the Lunar World” and “Human vs. Machine Translation”) won 2nd Place in the 2021 VIP Innovation Competition (Human and Environment Track). We received funding from the School of Modern Languages for Issue 1.2 (“Japan x Future,” coming out in August 2021) and are planning to apply for small internal grants to fund Volume 2 (“Anthropocene”).
