The Galactic Suburbia Award and Honours List January 28, 2012
Posted by juliarios in : announcements, news , 1 comment so farYesterday, the Galactic Suburbia podcast team announced their Award and Honours List for activism and/or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2011.
Galactic Suburbia is a bi-weekly (or, as they say in Australia, fortnightly) podcast, which exists to call attention to feminist issues in the speculative fiction world. In each episode, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Alex Pierce, and Alisa Krasnostein talk about news and noteworthy events, and then discuss the culture they’ve consumed. These conversations are open and fun, and often draw my attention to aspects of books and television shows that I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. I’ve been a fan for a while now, and I’ve mentioned that on this blog, in my own podcast, and during panels at conventions.
Given that, I was absolutely delighted and a bit flummoxed to find OA Podcast #11 on their Honours List. They chose to recognize me along with Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, hosts of one of my other favorite podcasts, The Writer and the Critic. Since several people have told me that episode #11 was their favorite OA Podcast episode, I must give Ian and Kirstyn the bulk of the credit here. They were wonderful guests.
I also want to congratulate everyone else on the Honours List. Special congratulations to Michele Lee, who is an OA member, and the first person I ever interviewed for this blog; and to Cheryl Morgan, who has been an active OA member from the start, and whose thoughtful posts often give me a new perspective on things to do with gender and spec fic. Seriously, though, everyone on the Honours List has done wonderful things, and I admire all of them.
Most exciting of all, perhaps, is this year’s winner. Nicola Griffith (also an OA member!) gets to take home a hand painted Galactic Suburbia Deepings doll for her Russ Pledge idea. Nicola called for everyone to read and talk about women’s writing, and people listened! Several book challenges and blog posts and podcast discussions started because of Nicola’s idea, and the conversation seems to be gaining momentum even now.
Two weeks ago, I was on a “How Not to Suppress Women’s Writing” panel at Arisia, which existed because of the Russ Pledge conversation opener. Andrea Hairston, who is one of the Guests of Honor for WisCon this year, was our moderator, and we spent the session recommending books, talking about how to keep the conversation going, and exploring resources for news and other things like that (I actually recommended Galactic Suburbia there). It was a great panel, and lots of strangers stopped me later to tell me how much they’d gotten out of it. I’m so glad to see Nicola being recognized for her contribution.
Congratulations, Nicola! And congratulations to Carrie Goldman and Katie, Cheryl Morgan, Helen Merrick, Jim C. Hines, Kirstyn McDermott, Ian Mond, L. Timmel Duchamp, and Michele Lee! I think you’re all the bee’s knees, and I’m thrilled to be in your company.
You can hear the Galactic Suburbia team explaining their choices for this award in a special podcast episode. A written explanation is here.
They’re also looking for nominees for the 2012 award, so if you see someone doing something wonderful to advance the feminist conversation, be sure to let them know!
On Refusing to Straighten Up September 16, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : links, news , 6commentsI’m not talking about messy rooms here (though I could be–you don’t want to see the state my house is in at present), but about specfic. Naturally.
Earlier this week over at Genreville, Rose Fox lent her blog to Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown so that they could share their experience submitting a post-apocalyptic YA novel with a gay point of view character. They wrote about how an agent offered them representation if they’d change that character to make him straight.
Rose asked for honest conversation, and in the days since that post went live, I’ve seen hundreds of responses. Several agents and editors have publicly said they’re open to/actively hoping to see LGBTQIA content in their submissions piles, a representative from the agency in question responded claiming it had all been a misunderstanding, the #YesGayYA hashtag on Twitter took off and was full of recommendations and discussion, and many people have taken this as another prompt to point out their favorite YA books with non-straight characters. So that’s all good and happy and we’re done, right?
Not so fast.
As Sherwood and Rachel pointed out in their first post (in which, I note, they deliberately chose not to name the agent in question so as to focus on the larger problem):
Forcing all major characters in YA novels into a straight white mold is a widespread, systemic problem which requires long-term, consistent action.
In their personal blogs, in response to the agency’s post, they add:
This is why we went public: After the initial exchange a month ago, we spoke in private to a number of other writers, without mentioning the name of the agent or agency. There was an overwhelming response of “Me too!” Many other writers had been asked by agents and editors to alter or remove the minority identity of their characters, sometimes as a condition of representation or sale. Sometimes those identities had been altered by editors without the writers’ knowledge or permission.
…
We urge you all to continue focusing on the bigger picture.
The bigger picture does seem to be something everyone involved professes to care about, so let’s take a look at it.
Not every author has major trouble around this kind of thing. Malinda Lo‘s Ash, a retelling of Cinderella in which the main character happens to be a lesbian (and no one in her world thinks that’s strange or anything!), seems to have had a fairly easy road to publication, for instance. This spring, she wrote a long post about how little homophobia she’s had to deal with in her professional life. In that post, she pointed out the difference between personal homophobia and cold hard marketing numbers crunching. Then, this week, she crunched some numbers and made some colorful graphs and charts. These numbers are encouraging in some ways, and very discouraging in others.
Encouraging:
*All the major publishing houses consistently put out at least one YA book with LGBTQIA main or supporting characters each year.
*The numbers dropped sharply in 2010, but rose again in 2011.
*There has been at least one trans or genderqueer character each year.
Discouraging:
*The number of YA books with LGBTQIA main or major supporting characters comprises less than or about 1% of all the YA books out there. Now, the lowest estimates I usually see about LGBTQIA people tend to say that we make up about 10% of the general population. If that’s correct, 1% is a rather low representation.
*Of the LGBTQIA YA books out there, 50% are about gay males. This means Lesbians, bi people of all genders, genderqueer, trans, questioning, asexual, and intersex people are even more under-represented in YA than gay males.
*Very few of these books feature LGBTQIA characters as the protagonist of the book. Many have LGBTQIA supporting young characters (the gay best friend, etc.), or parent/guardian characters instead.
*Many of the books with LGBTQIA characters as the protagonist are Issue Books. That is to say, they’re about the struggles associated with accepting one’s gender identity and/or sexual orientation. While these kinds of books are good to have around, by being the overwhelming majority of this tiny subset of YA books, they’re also contributing to a general sense that LGBTQIA people are not normal. If all queer stories feature people trying to accept their LGBTQIA identities, then what we’re saying as a society, is that having an LGBTQIA identity is something that isn’t easily acceptable. Do we really want to be telling ourselves that? What I hear over and over from members of the community is that we’d love to see more books where people are queer as a matter of course and not as an issue which requires great personal struggles. I think many of us would love to see more books like Ash, in which the protagonist’s orientation is not an issue, and her journey is about more than coming out or learning to accept her identity.
*Out of the eleven LGBTQIA YA books on Malinda’s list, which were published in 2010, only one was a specfic book. YA is a major market for specfic. In almost every bookstore I’ve gone into in the last two years, there’ve been separate sections for non-specfic YA and specfic YA, because there was just so much YA specfic out there. So the fact that only one book on that 2010 list is a specfic book? Is really sad to me. I haven’t counted the other years. Maybe they’re better. But I’m betting the numbers are still pretty low.
Below are a few collected responses to this debate:
Seanan McGuire (AKA Mira Grant) wrote a great post about what she wants to see in fiction.
When I talk about wanting diversity in my YA, I’m not asking for more specifically “queer YA.” I love it, I want to see it keep getting published, I think it’s important, and I think it’s not the point of this particular sword. What I want is paranormal romance where the lead is in love with the head cheerleader, not the head jock. What I want is heist books and con men where it’s Mike and Dan, not Mike and Dawn.
Nicola Griffith wrote a post and included a video of her telling the story of her struggles getting attention for her book, Slow River.
I think just about every queer author has been through this. I imagine people of colour go through it, too. We all choose whether or not to walk away. I dealt with this in 1994–instantly, satisfyingly (though it was a jaw-dropping shock).
Dennis Upkins wrote a post, which supported Nicola’s musing about people of color facing under-representation.
Do you honestly think this was an isolated incident or these kind of attitudes are happening in a vacuum?
This is most pervasive of the industry as a whole.
Ask yourself how many novels there are out there in mainstream speculative fiction that feature LGBTQs, particularly gay males, as the primary protagonists? For that matter ask yourselves how many mainstream speculative novels feature POCs, or better yet how many feature queer POCs.
Corinne Duyvis posted a roundup of arguments and counter arguments about this issue (well worth reading all of them if you have the time).
One point I did want to make–and something I’ve seen most people echo, thankfully–is that the agent’s reasons for requesting these changes don’t matter. whatever her personal biases or lack thereof, requesting a change like this contributes to the marginalization of an already underrepresented group.
Scott Tracey posted about his experience getting his book with a gay protagonist, Witch Eyes, published.
I don’t like to talk about it, because I still feel like someone’s going to come and rap my knuckles with a ruler, but WITCH EYES had it’s moments. I had agents who said there wasn’t a market for a paranormal with a gay character who had a romance. I had editors suggest they would reconsider the book if Braden and Trey became Brenda and Trey. Or if I removed the romance and made it a straight girl/gay guy buddy comedy.
Scott asks us to buy more LGBTQIA YA if we want to see more published. I think that’s a really important thing to do, but it only works if we have LGBTQIA YA books available to buy.Which brings us to our ending point for today.
Rick Lipman wrote a post about his experiences being a young queer reader and writer. His ending words bring us straight to the heart of this issue:
Listen. I am not that old. When I was growing up, there were no gay characters. And then, when there were, it was Will & Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I did not get to see people like me in books, or on television, or as superheroes. We were not mainstream. We were not acceptable or appropriate for public consumption.
I’m 24 years old. Times have changed a lot in recent years, but to act like there isn’t still a long road of progress ahead is arrogance, plain and simple. I didn’t grow up with role models or stories of my own.
It is unconscionable to me that teens today may still be in the same position.
I’m going to leave it there for today, but I welcome further discussion. I’m not particularly interested in attacks on or defenses of Sherwood, Rachel, or the agency in question, though. I’d rather we keep this discussion to the larger issue, because this isn’t about three people; it’s about all of us.
Lambda Guidelines Change Again August 30, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : announcements, links, news , 5commentsBack in 2009, the Lambda Literary Foundation changed their requirements for awards eligibility to include only authors who self-identified as LGBT. This was a pretty divisive decision. At the time, Nicola Griffith, who was on the LLF board, said, “Our explicit mission is to honour and reward openly LGBT writers.” Others voiced concerns that this policy might exclude people who were not comfortable being out publicly, or (worse) result in unwanted outings. Being a part of the LGBTQI spectrum is something which comes with a certain amount of safety concerns. Some of us are lucky enough to live in places where our orientations are acceptable, but others of us face discrimination and violence on a daily basis. Additionally, there were those who felt that this rule excluded a subset of high quality literature with LGBT content, which might be directly relevant to LGBT issues and lives, but written by straight people. Others felt that straight writers were not part of the community and should not be included in awards meant to promote and honor LGBT people.
These issues are still very much alive and kicking in the LGBTQI community, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that in the past couple of days, I have seen people express both excitement and discomfort at the LLF’s new awards guidelines. It seems that Lambda Literary is trying to appease everyone with their proposed change (most awards open to anyone regardless of orientation, some awards limited to particular groups), but their exclusive categories are too exclusive for many members of the LGBTQI community.
In particular there are categories meant for debut novel to be awarded to a lesbian and a gay man, and then mid-career awards for a female-identified person and a male-identified person. By these rules, I (an openly bi-identifed person, who is active in the LGBTQI community) would not be eligible in the debut category, and many of my friends would not be eligible in these special categories because their genders are fluid or non-binary. This is troubling because I’m pretty sure we’re all the sorts of people LLF would like to include, not exclude.
But don’t take my word for it! Have some links to ponder!
Rose Fox (a past Lambda judge) posted an open letter, in which she dissects the wording of the special categories and explains why she finds it troubling. Rose also includes the brief response she received from Dr. Judith Markowitz, which, alas, doesn’t clear matters up much.
Cheryl Morgan posted her thoughts on the matter, and received several interesting comments from previous Lambda winners and judges like Rick Bowes, Roz Kaveney, and Cecilia Tan as well. Do read the comments on that post!
Nicola Griffith (who is no longer a member of the LLF board, but still interested in the LLF’s work) posted a call for, “… a full and frank discussion of these issues. The Lambda Literary Foundation needs to address trans and bi visibility, equality, and accessibility. Or it should bill itself not as an LGBT organisation but LG(bt).” Nicola also points to an example of someone who disagrees with the removal of the self-identified LGBT authors only requirement, in case you’re curious to see what people have to say about that.
Shaun Duke also weighs in on the issue, and we’ll end with his last line: “ When an important award which is supposed to celebrate LGBT issues in literature doesn’t get how its policies discriminate against its own target demographic, then something is seriously wrong…”
Have you got thoughts about this issue? Please feel free to share them in the comments here, or on the OA google group. We do love lively and frank discussion.
A few Friday tidbits June 24, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : announcements, events, links, news, publications , 1 comment so farFollowing up on the internet hoaxes discussion, here are two links sent in by JoSelle Vanderhooft:
A Gay (Straight) Girl (Man) in Damascus (Edinburgh) by Ali Abbas and Assia Boundaoui is an explanation of the damage the Amina hoax did from two “New York based writers and freelance-journalists that submitted a blood test and birth certificate to affirm that the above thoughts are their own analysis based on a lifetime of Arab and or queer and or American and or woman identification.”
White Privilege and the ‘Gay Girl in Damascus’ is an NPR segment in which Brian Spears (a white man) talks about white male privilege and why it’s not okay to co-opt the voices of marginalized people.
Sara Amis will be moderating a Feminist SF Twitter chat on Sunday at 2pm EST. The theme of this discussion is worldbuilding. If you want to participate, just follow the FeministSF hashtag.
And while we’re talking about #FeministSF, NPR is asking people to share their favorite SF/F books with the goal of ultimately making a top 100 books list. Nicola Griffith reminds everyone to consider including books by women on the list. I’ll add a bid for considering including books by queer people and people of color.
Finally, Ladies of Trade Town is available now at HarpHaven Publishing. I talked to Lee Martindale about this in the big Gaylaxicon podcast episode–it’s an anthology of stories about the oldest profession, with stories by Catherine Lundoff and Cecilia Tan.
Outer Alliance Spotlight #80: Feminism June 10, 2011
Posted by juliarios in : links, news , 3commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #80. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction. This week we’re exploring Feminism.
Cheryl Morgan asks what feminism is, and explores some of the various answers in a thoughtful post on her blog. The comments there are also full of interesting points (like that the wave model is not really ideal, for instance). One of the things that Cheryl brings up is the idea of intersectionality–that feminism shouldn’t be in opposition with anti-racist movements or LGBTQI rights movements. That’s definitely something that most of the OA membership seems to agree with, based on the way people interact on the mailing list. It’s one of the reasons why we try to point out works by and about people of all sorts of genders and racial identities, and not just works by and about gay white men. Not that there’s anything wrong with gay white men, mind you. As a group, we love work by and about them (have I mentioned lately that Hal Duncan writes awesome stories, one of which just won the Spectrum Award for short fiction? I have? Oh, right then). Just, personally, I want to see everyone represented, and I think other OA members do, too.
There’s a long road ahead of us, I’m afraid. Even though there are awesome things like the Tiptree Award (and The Carl Brandon Awards, and the Lammies, and the Spectrum, and…), there are still a lot of people who don’t recognize works that don’t fit into their idea of normality. Which sucks. A lot.
Nicola Griffith points this out over on her blog with a post about The Guardian’s Favourite SF Books list (of which, out of over 500 listed books, 18 are by women–slightly imbalanced?). On the heels of that post, Nicola calls for us to take the Joanna Russ Pledge.
“The single most important thing we (readers, writers, journalists, critics, publishers, editors, etc.) can do is talk about women writers whenever we talk about men. And if we honestly can’t think of women ‘good enough’ to match those men, then we should wonder aloud (or in print) why that is so.”
I’m going to go a step beyond, and say that we should be doing this for people of color and LGBTQI people as well. The way to become visible is to refuse invisibility.
Finally, talking of Joanna Russ, the awesome women of Galactic Suburbia (an Australian feminist SF podcast) are planning to have a big discussion of The Female Man and “When it Changed” in an upcoming episode. I mention this because it’s a great chance to read and listen and contribute to the conversation about feminism and queerness in SF. I’d like to see more open conversation about this spread all over the internet.
That’s it for this week. Next week will bring the June episode of the OA Podcast. In the meantime, please feel free to share your thoughts on feminism, SF, Joanna Russ, intersectionality, and other related topics in the comments here, on the google group, or by e-mailing me at julia@juliarios.com.
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 #51: We Got Your Back October 8, 2010
Posted by juliarios in : links, publications, queer-friendly publishers, submissions , 2commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #51. The Spotlight features news about (and sometimes interviews with) allies who are active in supporting and celebrating LGBTQI speculative fiction.
We Got your Back:
Another excellent project to give hope and support to LGBTQI teens popped up this week. The We Got Your Back Project wants your written or video stories, whether you are part of the LGBTQI spectrum, or a supportive ally. Their site is full of great resources for people who are considering suicide, or people who know others in that position. If you submit something to this project, please let us know and we’ll link to your story.
New Releases:
Sandra McDonald’s story, “Seven Sexy Robot Cowboys” is up at Strange Horizons. It’s got queer content and there’s a link to a video of sexy ice-skating cowboys at the bottom in case sexy ice-skating cowboys are your thing.
Salon Futura’s latest issue features a podcast discussion in which Nicola Griffith, Hal Duncan, Cheryl Morgan, and Catherynne M. Valente talk about writing LGBTQ characters.
Lee Benoit’s novel, Moonspun is out as part of Loose Id’s special Coming Out Day 2010 collection.
Angelia Sparrow’s erotic steampunk romance novella, Sky Rat is available from Pink Petal Books.
JoSelle Vanderhooft announced the table of contents for an anthology she’s editing, Steam Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories. The book should arrive in January of 2011, but you can pre-order or request review copies now by contacting JoSelle.
Calls for Submissions:
Circlet Press has four anthologies open right now. Like an Iron Fist: Dystopian Erotica and Like a Moonrise (erotic coming of age stories about animal shapeshifters) both close on the 15th of October. Sense and Sensuality (paranormal Jane Austen inspired stories) is open until the 1st of November, and Like a Cunning Plan: Erotic Trickster Tales is open until the 15th of December.
The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Short Fiction Contest is open until the 1st of November. They’re looking for 5,000-7,000 word LGBT stories in all genres. There’s a $15 entry fee, and the top winners will receive $250 for first place and $50 for second and third place as well as publication in n anthology, which will be launched at the literary festival in May of 2011.
That’s all for this time. Join us again next week, and please share any news you might have (or links to your We Got Your Back Project contributions!) here in the comments, on the Outer Alliance google group, or via Twitter (mention either @omgjulia, or @outeralliance).
Announcing the Science in My Fiction short story contest! March 22, 2010
Posted by bartleib in : announcements, events, publications , add a commentOuter Alliance members Bart Leib and Kay Holt, founders of Crossed Genres and Science in My Fiction, have announced the Science in My Fiction short story contest!
“Here’s how it works: Authors write a science fiction or fantasy short story which is inspired by a scientific discovery or innovation made or announced within the past year. It can’t be peripherally added: the science must be integral to the story. Writers must include a link to a relevant article or study of the applied science when they submit their stories.”
A panel of 6 amazing judges will vote on the finalists. Two of the six judges (Nicola Griffith and Cat Rambo) are members of Outer Alliance.
There’s $400 of cash prizes to be won, plus subscriptions, books, etc.
Please visit the contest page, read the entry guidelines, see who the judges are, and read about our Kickstarter drive to put the winning stories in print!
Then, enter your story! The contest will be open for entries from April 1 through June 30. Winners will be announced on July 21.
Show us there’s still room for real Science in fiction! Huge thanks to everyone who helped us make the contest happen!
Outer Alliance Spotlight #5: Nicola Griffith October 16, 2009
Posted by juliarios in : events, interviews, publications , 3commentsWelcome to Outer Alliance Spotlight #5. 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 author, editor, and Lambda Literary Foundation board member, Nicola Griffith.
Nicola’s first novel, Ammonite, won the Premio Italia, Lambda, and Tiptree awards. She went on to win the Nebula, Spectrum, World Fantasy Award and 5 more Lambdas before joining the Lambda Literary Foundation Board of Trustees in June of 2009. In addition to writing 5 novels, a memoir, and several shorter works, she also co-edited (with Stephen Pagel) the Bending the Landscape series of LGBTQ science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies. She keeps a blog at http://asknicola.blogspot.com/.
Originally from the UK, Nicola now lives in Seattle with her partner, Kelley Eskridge, with whom she recently started Sterling Editing (an editing, mentoring, and coaching service for writers). Both Nicola and Kelley will be appearing alongside futuristic heavy metal band, BloodHag, on October 24th at Olympia Washington’s first SciFiFest. (more…)
Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge Announce Sterling Editing September 9, 2009
Posted by Natania in : announcements, The Outer Alliance , 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.