Asimov's Science Fiction

Asimov's Science Fiction is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy and perpetuates the name of author and biochemist Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Dell Magazines 10 times a year, with double issues in April/May and October/November. Asimov's Science Fiction began life as the digest-sized Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (or IASFM for short) in 1977. Joel Davis of Davis Publications approached Asimov to lend his name to a new science fiction magazine, after the fashion of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine or Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Asimov refused to act as editor, but served instead as editorial director, writing editorials and replying to reader mail until his death in 1992. Initially a quarterly, its first issue was dated Spring 1977. It changed to a bimonthly in 1978 and began publishing monthly in 1979. In the mid-1980s it was published once every four weeks, with an extra "mid- December" issue. Double issues were added in the early 1990s before the schedule was scaled back to the present 10 issues per year.