Outer Alliance Spotlight #58: Delicious Link Soup December 3, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : links, news , 9commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #58. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. It’s chilly in the Northern Hemisphere, so this week, we’ve got delicious link soup to keep you warm.
Wednesday was World AIDS Day
Treatment, awareness, and acceptance have come a long way in the past 25 years, but AIDS is still a major problem worldwide. YA author Libba Bray posted a thoughtful essay about her own experiences losing loved ones to the disease. I’ll warn you right now that it made me tear up in a coffee shop, but it was worth the chagrin.
If you’re unfamiliar with Libba’s work, and are interested in reading YA speculative fiction with queer content, you might check out her short story, “Primate the Prom” in 21 Proms, the Gemma Doyle trilogy (which starts with A Great and Terrible Beauty), or her latest novel, Going Bovine.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards Fundraiser
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards aim to recognize the hard work and talent of translators who bring us stories we might not otherwise be able to read. They’re hoping to raise $2,000 to use as prize money. Anyone who makes a donation between now and the 14th of January will be entered into a drawing to win books and other exciting prizes.
A Few Exciting New Releases This Week
*Zombiality: a queer bent on the undead is edited by Bill Tucker, and contains a story by Angelia Sparrow.
*Crossed Genres released their first novel this week. R. J. Astruc’s A Festival of Skeletons is available in print and e-book formats.
*Monday was the release day for Aether Age: Helios, edited by Chris Fletcher and Brandon Bell. Chris is also one of the people behind the newly released 2020 Visions anthology.
Awesome Queer Content in Comics
And finally, here’s something to spark some conversation here in the comments, or over dinner tonight with your non-virtual friends. Neo_Prodigy has made a list of 25 awesome queer comics characters, which is great, but non-exhaustive. What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Have additional favorites? And can anyone out there think of any trans, intersex, or asexual comic book characters?
Outer Alliance Spotlight #52: Coming Out 2010 October 15, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : links, news, publications, queer-friendly publishers, submissions , add a commentWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #52. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. Coming out Day was Monday the 11th (Tuesday the 12th in the UK), so that’s our focus this week.
OA Members Talk About Coming Out:
Nicola Griffith shared an excerpt from her memoir, And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner Notes to a Writer’s Early Life. This is a sad, alarming, amusing, and sweet glimpse of Nicola’s teen years before she became a well-adjusted and happily out adult.
Cheryl Morgan reminded us that being out is not always simple, easy, or safe with a post examining some of the challenges trans people face.
Catherine Lundoff agrees that being out is a privilege, and asks that we consider supporting organizations which help queer youth like District 202.
New Releases:
Rigor Amortis, the anthology of zombie erotica edited by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt is available at amazon, and contains stories by OA members Kay Holt and Kaolin Fire.
The Little Death of Crossed Genres, edited by Chris Fletcher and Jaym Gates is available in both electronic and print formats through the Crossed Genres website.
The latest issue of Weird Tales contains Natania Barron’s three part poem about “made” women in mythology. “The Wakened Image” appears alongside pictures by Brigid Ashwood.
Calls for Submissions by Queer-friendly Publishers:
Rose Lemberg would love to see poems with LGBTQI voices for Stone Telling. The current submission window is open until the 21st of November, and at present, Rose says there hasn’t been nearly enough queer content in the submissions pile.
Port Iris Zine is accepting submissions for issue #4 until the 5th of November. See their guidelines for more details.
Karen Romanko is looking for Halloween themed stories for her next anthology, Jack-o’-Spec.
That’s all for this time. Join us again next week, and please share any news you might have here in the comments, on the Outer Alliance google group, or via Twitter (mention either @omgjulia, or @outeralliance)
Outer Alliance Spotlight #10: Chris Fletcher November 20, 2009
Posted by juliarios in : interviews, publications, queer-friendly publishers , 1 comment so farWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #10. 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 Chris Fletcher, editor of M-Brane SF.
Chris and his longtime partner Jeff moved from St. Louis, Missouri to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 2007, after the restaurant they’d run together failed financially. Chris took that failure as an opportunity to reboot his creative writing side, and in February of 2009, started the magazine, M-Brane SF.
As one of the very first people to join The Outer Alliance, Chris has been an active Outer Alliance blogger and advocate from the start. In addition to M-Brane SF, he also recently edited an anthology of queer speculative fiction called Things We Are Not, which contains several stories by other Outer Alliance members. On the horizon, slated for a June 2010 release is another anthology to be published by Hadley Rille Books called The Aether Age, which Chris is co-editing with Outer Alliance member, Brandon Bell.
Chris keeps a personal blog at mbranesf.livejournal.com and is active on Twitter as mbranesf. He has two cats names Maus and Jack.