Meet FATE's new editor!

Editor Phyllis Galde with new editor/owner, Matthew Kibbey. Kibbey worked in the corporate accounting world for 16 years and was publisher of THE OBSERVER before taking the FATE torch. He holds a B.A. in History from Western Michigan University.

Phyllis Galde “officially” owned and operated FATE for 22 years. That’s if you’re counting from 2004, the year she acquired rights to the magazine. Prior to that, her publishing company Galde Press was licensing and producing FATE since 2001. Yet her historic career with the publication started even earlier.

In 1989 she was editor-in-chief, a title she held for over three decades. Through sharp business acumen and a deep love for the topics covered in FATE, she brought stability to the magazine during a tumultuous time for publishers. She guided it through format changes (digest-sized to full-sized and back again), staff changes, industry changes, and public attitude shifts concerning the “Strange and Unknown” reports that are FATE’s bread and butter.

I am convinced Phyllis has a clone acting on her behalf.

Phyllis Galde hard at work in her secret headquarters, aka "The FATE Farm."

Yes, she still runs Galde Press out of its headquarters in North Carolina; and yes, she’s resurrecting the world’s only print journal dedicated to interspecies telepathic communication, Species Link. But I’m not only referring to these endeavors. Phyllis also takes care of 4 goats, 2 guinea hens, a flock of ducks, chickens, 3 cats, and 1 sweet dog, Lana.

A few years ago, Phyllis suffered a severe stroke and was forced to reassess all of these things on her plate. Thankfully, she is recovering well through a combination of physical therapy, a positive attitude, and good old fashioned determination. Each time I visit her FATE Farm in North Carolina, I’m impressed by how much progress she’s made. She refuses to let anyone else feed her goats or carry the heavy bundles of wood that heat her home (she makes multiple trips back and forth a day).

Did I say determined? Maybe I meant stubborn.

When I ask her what our plan is any time I come to town, her response is always: “Eat shit and howl at the moon.” And sure enough, that’s what we usually end up doing.

Relocating precious cargo from North Carolina to its new home in Leelanau County, Michigan.

Through our Mr. Miyagi/Karate Kid relationship, Phyllis has taught me not only about assembling the world’s premier high strangeness magazine, but also how to balance business and ambition with empathy. The sheer amount of letters she receives from subscribers who write to her as if she’s already part of their lives has become the second heartbeat of the magazine. They don’t address Phyllis like a distant editor, they talk to her like an old friend. It’s both humbling and intimidating—an impossible legacy to live up to, but I’m excited to try.

FATE editor/owner Matthew Kibbey getting lost in the vault.

What does this mean for FATE Magazine?

• We are not reinventing FATE. We are carrying the tradition forward while making it accessible to a new generation of readers.

• We're committed to publishing more issues of FATE, more frequently.

Thank you for all of your support and readership.

We've been here for eight decades and we're just getting started.

Here's to another 80 years of "true reports of the strange and unknown."

FATE Issue #742 (Print)

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