It released its first issue October 1, 2006, and has maintained a regular monthly schedule since, publishing fiction by authors such as Elizabeth Bear, Kij Johnson, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Sarah Monette, Catherynne M. Valente, Jeff VanderMeer and Peter Watts.

[3] In January 2015, Clarkesworld began a relationship with Storycom to regularly translate and publish works of Chinese science fiction in their issues.

[4] In February 2019, editor Neil Clarke announced that the magazine had received a grant from LTI Korea for the purposes of translating and publishing nine Korean science fiction stories in upcoming issues of Clarkesworld.

[6] In November 2022, editor Neil Clarke announced that the magazine would be opening a submission period for science fiction written in Spanish.

[8] On 20 February 2023, Clarkesworld temporarily closed submissions due to a sudden increase in AI-generated stories sent to the magazine.