Happy Birthday, FanLitDear faithful FanLit readers,

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (well, 15 years and the Milky Way, to be more precise), a band of plucky underdogs who believed life’s too short to read bad books started a website under the able leadership of Princess, err, Dr Kat Hooper.

June 1, 2022 will mark our 15th birthday, and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our readers who have joined us on this epic journey, whether you found us a decade and a half ago or just today.

If it weren’t for you we’d have given this up long ago and just be ranting with our friends over beers about waiting for the next GAME OF THRONES book, moaning with our friends over beers about how Brandon Sanderson just wrote another book between our first and third round while we’re still working on our unfinished short story, reminiscing with our friends over drinks about the first time we read the RIDDLE-MASTER trilogy followed by a toast to Patricia McKillip, and, well, you get the idea (and yes, we like beer and drinks).

Instead, we were lucky enough to find a fanbase that (unlike our friends/ partners/ pets) didn’t tire of our ranting, moaning, and reminiscing. Not to mention our effusing and gushing about whatever book we last fell in love with. So thank you once again. And as someone who has been here since the beginning, I’d like to thank and applaud my colleagues, past and present, who made celebrating our 15th birthday possible.

Like a lot of 15-years-olds, we’ve gone through, and are continuing to go through, some changes. As noted, we’ve had reviewers come and go (and come back again) over the years. And those of us still here are busier than we’ve ever been — new jobs, new responsibilities, new priorities, (new books if you’re Marion!).

And so you’ll notice some scaling back of our site as we adjust our output to better match our current abilities. We’ll still be reviewing (no worries on that!), but not quite as frequently. And while some of our columns will remain regular features, such as the What’s The Best Book You Read Last Month posts, others will move to intermittent posting. We want to emphasize, we’re not going anywhere! We’re just pulling back a bit.

We hope those of you who have been with us over the years have found us a valuable and engaging resource even as our faces have changed (or aged). And if you’re new to the site, welcome! And here’s to having you with us when we celebrate our 20th birthday!

FanLit T-shirt

FIVE commenters from the US will receive some lovely FanLit BOOKMARKS (quite practical!) and a cozy FANLIT T-SHIRT (as long as supplies last, we have S,M,L,XL). Or, if you prefer, you may choose a book from our stacks, or a $5 Amazon gift card.

You can leave any sort of comment — a birthday wish, an admission of how many days/ years you’ve been wasting your time edifying yourself at our site, a festive natal day poem. Whatever!

Just make sure to subscribe to comments so you’ll know if you won, or check back in about 10 days.

Thank you for wasting spending your time with us!


2023 UPDATE: Somehow this post was deleted in summer 2023, probably during our migration to a new host. We recreated the post but couldn’t restore the original comments. So, we’re posting them below:

 

20 Comments

  1. Viki S.

    Congratulations! Here’s to 15 more. I still have to say I love your logo :).

     

      • Janny is the reason I’m here…lol. She read my reviews on goodreads and sent me this way. That was some time ago for sure! Been an amazing experience ever since. This is a wonderful site ran by amazing people. Congrats to Kat and team.

         

  2. We have really nice bookmarks.

     

  3. SandyG

    Congrats. I’ve enjoyed discovering new books on your site over the years

     

  4. John Smith

    Yay for 15 years! Please accept my plaudits!

     

  5. Jillian

    Congrats! Thank goodness for this site. Yall have helped me find so many new reads through your reviews.

     

  6. Noneofyourbusiness

    Have a very Happy Birthday indeed!

     

  7. The Distinguished Professor

    Don’t the books from the stacks usually come with bookmarks in them, anyway?

     

  8. Lady Morar

    Congratulations on reaching 15 years!

     

  9. Andi

    Congratulations!! Here’s to the next 15!

     

  10. Sandy Ferber

    I am so honored to be associated with this very fine group of talented reviewers and writers; it was a very happy day for me indeed when Kat first asked me to join. I much appreciate our leader’s patience with me as I pursue my love of obscure books of the distant past here, as well as my taste for, uh, dubious film. Wishing FanLit much continued success in the years to come….

     

  11. Michael Voss

    Happy 15th! Many thanks for persevering so long and bringing so much to yhe fan community! Here’s to the nextc15!

     

  12. I’ve said this before so I hope I don’t sound repetitive, but you guys have been my go-to for fantasy/science fiction reviews for over 10 years now. Keep up the great work, scaled down or not…and Happy 15 years!!!

     

  13. L.A. Young

    CONGRATULATIONS on 15 years!

    I believe I’ve been following this site since I was in my 2nd graduate program (7-8 years). I love how you all take the time to review speculative fiction from the past and the present, and across ALL media formats!

    Here’s to another 15 years!

     

  14. Amit

    Congrats on 15 years and here’s to many more to come …phenomenal blog , great reviewers and the driving force behind me falling in love with genre reading again 👌👌👍👍

     

  15. I put everyone except the reviewers in our queue, so even if you’ve won in the last 2 months, you qualified.

    Our winners are: Viki S. John Smith, The Distinguished Professor, Andi, and L.A. Young.

    If you are choosing a T-shirt please include your first TWO preferred sizes in order of preference.

    Please contact me (Marion) with your choice and a US address. Happy reading!

     

    • L.A. Young

      Thank you very much! I emailed my information earlier.

       

  16. Viki S.

    Thank you so much! I just sent you an email. Have a great afternoon!

     

  17. The Distinguished Professor

    Thank you, Marion! Just sent my choice and information.

     

Author

  • Bill Capossere

    BILL CAPOSSERE, who's been with us since June 2007, lives in Rochester NY, where he is an English adjunct by day and a writer by night. His essays and stories have appeared in Colorado Review, Rosebud, Alaska Quarterly, and other literary journals, along with a few anthologies, and been recognized in the "Notable Essays" section of Best American Essays. His children's work has appeared in several magazines, while his plays have been given stage readings at GEVA Theatre and Bristol Valley Playhouse. When he's not writing, reading, reviewing, or teaching, he can usually be found with his wife and son on the frisbee golf course or the ultimate frisbee field.