Outer Alliance Spotlight #70: Speaking Up March 25, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : Uncategorized , 11commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #70. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week our focus is on speaking up for what’s right.
On Monday, Jessica Verday posted about her withdrawal from a YA anthology. The reason? The editor felt that because Jessica’s story contained a gay romance, the publisher wouldn’t find it appropriate for the YA market. Jessica chose to withdraw rather than to change her (non-sexually-explicit) story. Choices like that can be extremely difficult and upsetting, even when you’re sure you’re making the right decision. I’m so glad Jessica did make that choice, and that she chose to share her experience with the rest of us. It’s important to talk about these things when they happen–sometimes extremely interesting things come to light. In this case, we learned that apparently the editor never actually asked the publisher, who, when they learned of the situation, said it would have been no problem.
Today, Jessica posted an update on the situation, in which she explained that even though the publisher asked her to reconsider her withdrawal, she declined. The good news here is that we’re able to talk about this publicly, and more and more people are coming out with supportive comments. Jessica is not being heaped with abuse from every direction, which gives me hope. There is strength in visibility, and the more people feel safe supporting decisions like Jessica’s, the better. We’ve been seeing more YA with queer content in the past several years, and I think things like this, painful as they are in the moment, are blazing trails for yet more acceptance. The bottom line to me, and to Jessica, and to a lot of other people out there, is that falling in love with a member of the same sex is not a shameful thing. It’s not unnatural. It should not be taboo in our society, and I think the best way to break down taboos is to expose them, examine them, and speak up for what’s right.
The editor says that she made an assumption in error, and that the content would have been okay with her personally. As Jessica’s entries (and the comments that follow them) point out, this kind of outlook is very disappointing. But because I know too well how easy it is to make mistakes, I want to give her the benefit of the doubt. It is my sincere hope that in the future she will consider LGBTQI content non-controversial, and be more receptive to including it if she continues editing anthologies. I don’t want vengeance. I want a better future. I want to live in a society where people don’t make these assumptions to begin with.
And as for Jessica’s story, I’m looking forward to reading it when it does become available.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. And special thanks to Corinne Duyvis, who initially brought this matter to the attention of the Outer Alliance Google group.
Outer Alliance podcast #69: OA Podcast #5 March 18, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : events, interviews, news, Outer Alliance Podcast , 3commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #69. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week we’ve got the fifth Outer Alliance Podcast episode for you!
In this episode, Catherine Lundoff, Jean Marie Ward, and Lisa Nohealani Morton talk to me about Hellebore and Rue, an anthology about lesbian magic users. After the interview, Catherine reads a selection of teasers from the book, and Jean Marie reads an excerpt of her contribution.
You can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here or use this link to subscribe with iTunes. You can also hit play on the embedded player in this post and listen to the podcast on the web, or visit the individual episode page to download this episode as an MP3 without subscribing.
Notes:
Angela Korra’ti’s post about her plans to raise money for disaster relief in Japan is here.
This year’s Lambda Award Finalists are listed here. Congratulations to everyone, especially OA members, Steve Berman, Katharine Beutner, and Sandra McDonald!
MidSouthCon is happening next weekend in Memphis, Tennessee. I’ll be there along with OA member, Angelia Sparrow. if you’re nearby, come say hi!
The Rainbow Book Fair is also happening next weekend in New York. It’s a big and free LGBT book event, and Craig Laurence Gidney, Nora Olsen and Kat Lively will all be there!
Lisa’s poem in Strange Horizons is “How to Bake a Cake From Scratch”.
Viable Paradise, the writing workshop where Lisa and I first met, is open for applications until the 15th of June.
Catherine’s reading last Friday (we recorded the interview on Sunday the 13th) took place at Dreamhaven Books in Minneapolis. If you’re in the Twin Cities area, and want to support an awesome indie bookstore, that’s a great place to go.
Finally, in addition to all the cons Catherine and Jean Marie listed, Lisa says she’ll be at WorldCon in Reno this August, so if you’re there, say hello!
Thanks for listening, and please do feel free to leave feedback here, on the google group, or by e-mailing me at julia@juliarios.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #68: FOGcon March 11, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : events , 1 comment so farWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #68. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week our focus is on FOGcon.
The Friends of the Genre Convetion (FOGcon for short) starts today in San Francisco, and several OA members will be in attendance. You can catch Chaz Brenchley, Jaym Gates, and Cliff Winnig on panels, and you’ll find Kyell Gold in the dealers room at the Sofawolf Press table.
The convention is geared towards literature and writing, and this year’s theme is The City in SF/F. If you’re in or around San Francisco, check it out. And if you want to get to know some OA members a bit better, join Cliff in the hotel lobby at 5:45 on Saturday for an OA meetup during the dinner break.
If you go, tell us about it! For those of us playing the home game, what are some cities you love in SF/F, and why do you love them?
Outer Alliance Spotlight #67: 2010 Nebula Nominees March 4, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : news , 2commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #67. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week our focus is on the Nebula nominations for 2011.
There are several awards within the LGBTQI literary community, including the Spectrum, Lambda, Rainbow, and Golden Crown, all of which are great resources for anyone specifically looking for stories with queer characters and themes. But! There are also other awards aimed at general readers of science fiction and fantasy, and it is especially heartwarming when those awards lists include a diverse array of content, themes, and writers. Such is the case with this year’s Nebula nominee list.
The Outer Alliance is pleased to congratulate all the nominees, and especially pleased that several of the nominated works include queer content, are written by OA members, or both.
OA members whose works have been nominated this year include:
*Amal El-Mohtar for her short story, “The Green Book” in Apex (and additional congratulations to OA member Catherynne Valente, who bought this story in her role as Apex editor).
*Jennifer Pelland for her short story, “Ghosts of New York” in Dark Faith.
*Shweta Narayan for her novelette, “Pisaach” in The Beastly Bride.
*N. K. Jemisin for her novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
Have you read any of the nominated works? What did you think? Do you have favorites?