OA members fill new anthology September 29, 2009
Posted by mbranesf in : announcements, publications, queer-friendly publishers , add a commentPlease indulge me in a little bit of bragging about a very special group of people that I am having the honor of publishing.
The pre-order period for M-Brane SF’s anthology of queer sf, Things We Are Not, began this week, and I wish to draw some extra attention to its writers, nearly all of whom are Outer Alliance members. Several posts at the TWAN blog from September 17 onward, introduce the book’s writers and their stories. Some of these writers have been writing and publishing for a long time, while some are fairly new. They are all wildly imaginative and, as a group, represent the great diversity of the Outer Alliance’s membership. So, even though this project started well before the founding of the Alliance, I am delighted that the timing of the publication is such that I am able to proudly print the Alliance’s Mission Statement on its acknowledgements page.
Followers of artist and writer Mari Kurisato’s work, will recognize her vivid style in the book’s cover art. Newer members of the Alliance may be unaware that Mari is also the designer of the Outer Alliance logo and its various banners and badges.
Linkdump – the inaugural edition September 27, 2009
Posted by zeborah in : links , 1 comment so farGreetings all! Each week I’ll be compiling whatever links people bring to my attention as likely being of general interest to those following the Outer Alliance Blog. The links for the first linkdump are…
Benjamin Solah reviews Tom Cho’s short story collection Look Who’s Morphing.
As part of a series on American women athletes, the Angry Black Woman writes about transgender athletes.
- Benjamin Solah also blogs about the recent media circus surrounding Caster Semenya.
- On the same topic, Chris / M-Brane SF says Do we ask if Michael Phelps is really a human male and not half fish?
Anna Caro writes City of Possibilities as part of New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging Week.
The Lambda Literary Foundation has announced changes in its board of trustees and its executive director position. These have coincided with a clarification of the Lambda Literary Award guidelines (see the guidelines at the LLF website).
Coming Out in Middle School in the New York Times explores the trend of gay and bisexual middle-schoolers increasingly being able to come out to friends, family, and adults at school. Benoit Denizet-Lewis talks to students, parents, and educators:
Though many of the parents I spoke to needed a period of adjustment before accepting their children’s announcement that they were gay or bisexual, others offered immediate and unequivocal support. “The biggest difference I’ve seen in the last 10 years isn’t with gay kids — it’s with their families,” says Dan Woog, an openly gay varsity boys’ soccer coach at Staples High School in Westport, Conn., who helped found a gay-straight alliance at his school in 1993. “Many parents just don’t assume anymore that their kids will have a sad, difficult life just because they’re gay.”
If you come across any links to share for next week’s linkdump, please post them to the Outer Alliance forum or bookmark them on delicious or diigo with tag “outeralliancelinks”.
Sexism in Horror: Women Excluded from Anthology September 25, 2009
Posted by bsolah in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farWhen Irish horror author Maura McHugh saw the line-up of authors interviewed in In Conversation: A Writer’s Perspective. Volume One: Horror, it was impossible for her to overlook the fact that, as she expressed, “Not a single woman is interviewed.”
McHugh continued:
There are no excuses for this omission. That it happens, and it was allowed to happen, speaks to the deeply cultured disregard for women’s opinion in the world. I see it every day. We are marginalised, silenced, side-lined, forgotten, conveniently dropped, patronised, under-represented, dismissed, subtly intimidated and ignored.
Indeed, sexism within horror and speculative fiction as a whole is an issue that is often overlooked. And if you look at the norms of the genre, it’s easy to see how gender roles with society are reflected in the genre.
One of the most obvious examples that come to mind are those of passive female victims in slasher films from the 90s such as Scream and Friday the 13th. In addition, I recently had a conversation with another writer about how horror has often fostered a sexist revulsion to women’s bodies, such as with the symbolism of menstrual blood in many books and movies.
The contradiction, of course, is that from Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein onward, women have made significant contributions to the horror genre. There are numerous female horror writers that easily match their male counterparts in their ability to scare and disturb their audiences. As David Barnett’s article in the Guardian points out, a quick visit to the book store easily demonstrate just how many women are writing horror.
While it’s still shocking that such an oversight happened, it is a sobering reminder for speculative fiction writers, as well. Sexism and homophobia are deep-seeded in our culture, and there is much work to be done to challenge these norms within the genre.
Benjamin Solah is a Marxist horror writer from Melbourne, Australia. He blogs his thoughts on writing and politics, including on gender and sexuality, and you can find these and other articles at Benjamin Solah, Marxist Horror Writer.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #2: Malinda Lo September 25, 2009
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, publications , add a commentWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #2. Each Friday the Spotlight features an ally who writes, reviews, publishes, or is in some other way involved with LGBTQI speculative fiction. Our guest this week is Malinda Lo, author of the YA novel, Ash.
Malinda is a Chinese American lesbian, who is active in LGBTQI and POC (People of Color) awareness efforts. She was managing editor of the lesbian entertainment news site, AfterEllen.com until September of 2008, when she began writing fiction full time.
In addition to keeping a personal journal, Malinda is a member of the 2009 Debutantes LiveJournal community for new YA authors, and a maintainer for The Enchanted Inkpot YA and Middle Grade fantasy community. She lives in Northern California with her partner.
Review of HORN at Harry Markov's site September 23, 2009
Posted by mbranesf in : reviews , add a commentAlliance member and book reviewer Harry Markov has a recent post at his Temple Library Reviews site reviewing Peter M. Ball’s novella Horn, an urban fantasy tale with a lesbian protagonist. Harry will be posting review items here from time to time, and Alliance members who have new or upcoming publications may wish to alert him when review copies are available so that he can help spread the word.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #1: Michele Lee September 18, 2009
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, publications , 4commentsWelcome to the first Outer Alliance Spotlight. Each Friday the Spotlight will feature an ally who writes, reviews, publishes, or is in some other way involved with LGBTQI speculative fiction. Our first guest is Michele Lee, a writer and reviewer from Louisville, Kentucky.
Michele is bisexual and happily married to a straight ally. She thinks of herself as an inclusive writer, who doesn’t necessarily focus on including queer content, but instead on exploring the machinations of relationships, and how our sexual and gender identities develop. One of her two children is autistic, so Michele is also active in autism awareness.
Her short fiction has appeared in several places including Aoife’s Kiss, Black Ink Horror XXX, and Cthulhu Sex Magazine, and her novella, Rot is available through Skullvines Press. In addition to her personal book review blog, Book Love, Michele has written reviews for The Fix, Monster Librarian, and Dark Scribe. She is planning a Horror Day event in the Louisville area tentatively scheduled for the 14th of November, 2009, but she managed to carve out some time from her busy schedule to answer a few questions for us. (more…)
Lethe to reprint Scott's SHADOW MAN September 16, 2009
Posted by mbranesf in : publications , 1 comment so farSteve Berman at Lethe Press reports that Lethe will very soon reprint Melissa Scott’s Lambada Award-winning novel Shadow Man.
In the far future, human culture has developed five distinctive genders due to the effects of a drug easing sickness from faster-than-light travel. But on the planet Hara, where society is increasingly instability, caught between hard-liner traditions and the realities of life, only male and female genders are legal, and the ”odd-bodied” population are forced to pass as one or the other. Warreven Stiller, a lawyer and an intersexed person, is an advocate for those who have violated Haran taboos. When Hara regains contact with the Concorde worlds, Warreven finds a larger role in breaking the long-standing role society has forced on ”him,” but the search for personal identity becomes a battleground of political intrigue and cultural clash.
Readers may add it to their cart at Amazon.
Lee Wind wins GLBT book blogger award September 16, 2009
Posted by mbranesf in : announcements , 2commentsOuter Alliance Member Lee Wind’s blog “I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?” , focused principally on queer-related YA books, is now, officially, an award-winning blog. Lee won the Book Blogger Appreciation Week “Best GLBT Review Blog” blue ribbon. Huzzah!
Lee Wind
Outer Alliance folks will want to visit Lee’s site frequently for its wealth of great information.
Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge Announce Sterling Editing September 9, 2009
Posted by Natania in : The Outer Alliance, announcements , 1 comment so far
OA members Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge have just announced the formation of Sterling Editing, an editing, coaching and mentoring service for writers. As Nicola says:
If you want to make your writing better, we can help you.
We’ve both done a lot of teaching (Clarion West, Arts Council of Great Britain, Emory) and have been mentoring and coaching informally with those students and friends, but now it’s time to codify and formalise what we do.
We love to teach. We love to share.
From the site:
Many people who offer editing services have never had a story, essay or book professionally published. They’ve never worked with an agent or publisher. They may have excellent theoretical knowledge — but we believe there’s no substitute for experience.
We are expert writers with excellent editing, teaching and coaching skills. We can help you both improve your writing and meet the challenges of a writer’s life, whether you’re trying to build a career, make a mid-career transition, carve out time from your busy life to work, or understand how the money works.
Serious congratulations are in order! Best of luck to you both. A truly wonderful resource for writers.
Regarding queer-unfriendly markets September 9, 2009
Posted by mbranesf in : Uncategorized , 18commentsAfter much discussion within the Outer Alliance, a consensus has been reached that when our writers or publishers encounter a market that is specifically unwelcoming to queer content, that we ought to make sure our membership is aware of it so that they may decide individually whether or not they wish to try to conduct business with such a market.
It is adamantly not the function of the Outer Alliance to tell its members how to behave nor to police the world of speculative fiction publishing. We do, however, believe that our membership, and many more people outside the Alliance, would prefer to have the information when it becomes known that a publisher is specifically opposed to the things we stand for.
The following is excerpted from the website of Crossed Genres magazine, edited by Bart Leib and Kay Holt:
“While advertising Crossed Genres through Project Wonderful, I’ve been placing a number of ads specifically calling for submissions to our upcoming LGBTQ issue.
On September 1, I placed an ad bid on Flash Fiction Online, figuring it was an appropriate site for a call for writing submissions…
The next day (9/2) I received an email notification that the bid had been rejected. The owner offered only this short message as explanation: “’Sorry, I don’t accept sexually themed ads.’”
Please click here to read the remainder of this item at the Crossed Genres site.
Also, this is the ad that Crossed Genres attempted to place.
