Our July 2026 issue opens with a guest editorial by Scott Vandervalk who shares his search for new hooks in fantasy stories. Aurealis #192 features the captivating 'The Square' by EL Edwards, the disquieting 'Sons & Fathers' by Ben Peek and the unsettling 'Tethered' by John Mavin, with stunning illustrations by Josh Hardie, Zuzanna Kwiecien and James Spence respectively. Our intriguing non-fiction includes 'What Science Fiction Gets Wrong about Colonising Mars by Daniel Thompson', 'Potatoes Don't Go There: Medieval Cuisine and its Portrayal in "Medieval European" Fantasy' by Annie Mills and 'KPop Demon Hunters (2025): The Politics of Murdering Demons' by Ani White. Add to this our bumper Reviews section for the latest in genre reading and you have a cornucopia of SFF delights!, to infinity and beyond!

Dirk Strasser has written over 30 books for major publishers in Australia and has been editing magazines and anthologies since 1990. He has won multiple Australian Publisher Association Awards and a Ditmar for Best Professional Achievement, and has been short-listed for the Aurealis and Ditmar Awards a number of times. His speculative fiction novels ? including Zenith and Equinox ? were originally published by Pan Macmillan in Australia and Heyne Verlag in Germany. His science fiction story "The Doppelgänger Effect" appeared in the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology Dreaming Down-Under. Several stories have appeared in "Best of" anthologies and lists in Australia and the USA, including regular appearances in the Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction Honorable Mentions. His short fiction has been translated into a number of languages, and his most recent publications are "The Jesus Particle" in Cosmos magazine and "Stories of the Sand" in Realms of Fantasy. His articles have appeared in most of Australia's major newspapers. He founded the Aurealis Awards and has co-published Aurealis magazine for over 20 years.