It also features speculative poetry and non-fiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables.

It was launched in September 2000, and publishes new material (fiction, articles, reviews, poetry, and/or art) 51 weeks of the year, with an emphasis on "new, underrepresented, and global voices.

Susan Marie Groppi won the World Fantasy Special Award—Non-professional in 2010 for her work as Editor-in-Chief on Strange Horizons.

[10] The magazine won the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine in 2024, after being a finalist every year from 2013 onward.

[14] Three stories published in Strange Horizons have won the Theodore Sturgeon Award.