SFera

SFera is a science fiction society from Zagreb, Croatia.^[1][2] It was founded in 1976,^[3] thus marking the beginnings of organized science fiction fandom in the region.^[4]

SFera is the official organizer of SFeraKon, an annual Croatian science fiction convention. Since 1995, it also publishes annual collections of science fiction stories of Croatian authors.^[5][6] The founder of the collection series and its first editor was Darko Macan.^[7] SFera's own fanzine, Parsek, has been published since 1977.^[4]

Although Croatia today has number of science fictions societies and conventions, as well the annual short fiction anthologies, SFera remains the major national society. Since mid-1970s, its members and founders - among them Krsto A. Mažuranić, Damir Mikuličić, Neven Antičević, Ivica Posavec - were included in organisation of almost every major initiative in Croatian science fiction, including the Sirius monthly magazine (awarded two times as the best European science fiction magazine, in 1980 and 1984^[8]), which was founded and partially edited by SFera's members, then the Futura magazine, which was edited by Krsto A. Mažuranić, and also various attempts at local science fiction publishing, as well many fandom activities. Today, when it's not a publisher or an organiser, SFera remains the patron or initiator of various science fiction activities in Croatia, especially small press publishing as science fiction literary journal Ubiq,^[9] the series of books by winners of the SFERA Award (Biblioteka SFERA), or the anthology of the Croatian science fiction stories 1976-2006 Ad Astra. The major Croatian science fiction portal (and its online fanzine) NOSF is also run by the SFera members.