In our June issue, we feature the return of some of our most popular and honored authors, as well as a number of Asimov’s debuts by writers whom we feel represent tomorrow’s exciting SF talents. To start things off, we welcome back critically acclaimed and award-winning author Ian R. MacLeod, not seen in these pages since 2002’s “Breath-moss,” with his latest story: “The Hob Carpet.” It’s an epic, surprising, and transgressive tale of an innovative genius who must withstand the hardships caused by the controversial conclusions of his beliefs in a singularly conservative world. This is a beautifully imagined work, as readers have come to expect from MacLeod, and is sure to be one of the most talked-about stories of 2008.

The month continues with a happy tradition: that of James Patrick Kelly’s annual June fiction offering (his 25th in a row—how does he do it?). This year he throws an unusual “Surprise Party” during which we see even tomorrow’s augmented humans may still find making it “over the hill” a distinctly stressful experience. Lawrence Person brings us to the sunny seaside where a beach-bum discovers (and must figure out what to do about) the unfortunate, chilling affects of “Gabe’s Globster”; up-and-coming experimental SF author Forrest Aguirre makes his Asimov’s debut with “The Auctioneer and the Antiquarian, or, 1962,” a touching story that reaches into one of US history’s most uncertain moments to mirror the same uncertainty in a young boy’s heart; Felicity Shoulders makes a strong Asimov’s debut with a laugh-till-you-cry tale about the difficulties of single-motherhood while working as a “Burgerdroid”; perennial favorite Nancy Kress returns with a story of troubled teens presented with an even worse world than they’d imagined in “Call Back Yesterday”; and Derek Künsken’s Asimov’s debut, “Beneath Sunlit Shallows,” dramatically displays his careful attention to world building and scientific extrapolation in a tale of three post-humans’ lives in the deep blue sea.