What is Stellar?

Hi, I'm Abu Zafar, one of the founders of Stellar. I've been a fan of science fiction my entire life, and I've spent the last six years covering the Dune universe on the #1 Dune podcast, Gom Jabbar, alongside my creative partner and co-founder, Leo Wiggins.

Now we're setting our sights on our next big adventure: directing our shared passion for great storytelling and critical analysis to the wider world of science fiction. Together on the Stellar podcast, Leo and I will dig into the books, films, TV shows, video games, and anime that have shaped science fiction, past, present and future.

Along the way, we'll chat with amazing guests, from science fiction authors to critics and scholars. Every week, we'll also release a news episode called Stellar Dispatch to keep our listeners up to date on the latest developments in the SF universe. And four times a year, we'll publish a digital and print magazine with original short stories, essays, and art.

We pay writers $150 flat for each short story, above the SFWA professional rate of 8 cents a word. We're also committed to never publishing AI-generated writing, art, or audio, and we hold ourselves to the editorial standards of a newsroom.

For us, it's incredibly important to build strong relationships with the authors, artists, and collaborators that we'll be working with on Stellar. We invite every author we publish onto our podcast, and we print a Q&A alongside their work in the magazine. I'm a professional voice actor and artist, so I also have the pleasure of bringing each story to life on our podcast through narration and cinematic sound design, and in the magazine with unique illustrations.

We've already opened up submissions for writers and have been overjoyed by the response as our small team digs through the hundreds of amazing sci-fi stories we've already received. We can't wait to share these with the world on our podcast and magazine.

Thank you for checking out Stellar. We hope to find a home in your headphones or on your coffee table next year. If you have questions, pitches, or would like to work with us, reach out at stellarscifi@loreparty.com.