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labingiEmerging from burial under an exhausting, invigorating, warp-speed teaching term, I have so much news to catch up on! Prepare for snippets that deserve more space. This issue...
* Spoon Knife 4: A Neurodivergent Guide to Spacetime
* Jolabokaflod PDX Book Festival This December
* Book-Pod Podcast
* Anarres Project: Just Futures Symposium
* Positive Dystopia
* Thoughts on OryCon
Click here for a version of this newsletter that's better formatted and stuff.
Short Neurodivergent SF Story Published
My short story “Veils and Gifts” has been published in Spoon Knife 4: Neurodivergent Guide to Spacetime, on sale now. The anthology’s theme is neurodivergent queer characters involved with time travel. Astoundingly, the backstory to my indie film The Eater fit the bill. So here it is: everything the world's three and a half Eater fans ever wanted to know about how that giant, derelict ship got out there! Plus a diverse array of neurodivergent, queer time travel adventures!
Jolabokaflod PDX Book Festival Is Coming
Jolabokaflod PDX is festival in the Icelandic tradition of ushing in the new year with good books. I will be tabling there with Arthur Smid, December 28, 2:30-5:30 p.m. at Nordic Northwest, 8800 SE Olesen Rd., Portland, OR 97223. Thanks to Margaret Pinard (Twitter @ tastelifetwice) for holding the event!
Book-Pod Podcast: Listen & Submit
Husband and wife team Ben and Sarah Nadler produce the Portland-based postcast, Book-Pod, featuring author interviews and author readings. Their website has a feature for submitting your book for consideration. Their most recent episode features local detective sci-fi author, Jessie Kwak. An upcoming episode will feature me reading from my eco-science fiction novel Perdita and chatting a bit about SF.
Report from the Anarres Project: Just Futures Symposium
My Portland State student Cat Davilla alerted me to the existence of this amazing organization and event. The Anarres Project, named for the anarchic world of Ursula Le Guin's ambiguous utopian SF novel, The Dispossessed, the Anarres Project is "a forum for conversations, ideas, and initiatives that promote a future free of domination, exploitation, oppression, war, and empire." Their symposium this November at Oregon State University featured a number of engaging panels on science fiction, fantasy, and social justice, including a very rich key note speech on indigenous futurisms by Portland State professor Grace Dillon. I highly recommend this annual event, which is free and open to the public.
Positive Dystopias!
This exciting concept absolutely deserves, and will get, its own blog post. The term was coined this fall by my Science through Science Fiction student, Lorenzo (Enzo) Alazas and rapidly developed into an intriguing conversation with the class as a whole. According to Enzo, a "positive dystopia" is a dystopian social order that articulates its authority by offering itself as a source of hope. The idea might be "society has to be organized this way because we are saving you from...." By extension, a positive dystopia is also a space for opening up a more authentic vision of hope based on reform, a basic example being the rebels in Star Wars. Stories of positive dystopia are with us everywhere, including, I'd argue, real life. By naming the concept, however, we can explore new possibilities for understanding and transforming our societies. More to come.
Report from OryCon 41
For me, Portland’s fantastic SF&F convention, OryCon, was a blur between fantastic panels and sitting in the hallway grading research papers. It was amazing to see C. J. Cherryh speak on genetic engineering. She has a manner both straightforward and witty. I also loved the panel on fight scenes, featuring Fonda Lee, and enjoyed all the panels I spoke on, but especially the panel on writing climate change, which was dynamic and relevant, with a very engaged and informed audience.
* Spoon Knife 4: A Neurodivergent Guide to Spacetime
* Jolabokaflod PDX Book Festival This December
* Book-Pod Podcast
* Anarres Project: Just Futures Symposium
* Positive Dystopia
* Thoughts on OryCon
Click here for a version of this newsletter that's better formatted and stuff.
Short Neurodivergent SF Story Published
My short story “Veils and Gifts” has been published in Spoon Knife 4: Neurodivergent Guide to Spacetime, on sale now. The anthology’s theme is neurodivergent queer characters involved with time travel. Astoundingly, the backstory to my indie film The Eater fit the bill. So here it is: everything the world's three and a half Eater fans ever wanted to know about how that giant, derelict ship got out there! Plus a diverse array of neurodivergent, queer time travel adventures!
Jolabokaflod PDX Book Festival Is Coming
Jolabokaflod PDX is festival in the Icelandic tradition of ushing in the new year with good books. I will be tabling there with Arthur Smid, December 28, 2:30-5:30 p.m. at Nordic Northwest, 8800 SE Olesen Rd., Portland, OR 97223. Thanks to Margaret Pinard (Twitter @ tastelifetwice) for holding the event!
Book-Pod Podcast: Listen & Submit
Husband and wife team Ben and Sarah Nadler produce the Portland-based postcast, Book-Pod, featuring author interviews and author readings. Their website has a feature for submitting your book for consideration. Their most recent episode features local detective sci-fi author, Jessie Kwak. An upcoming episode will feature me reading from my eco-science fiction novel Perdita and chatting a bit about SF.
Report from the Anarres Project: Just Futures Symposium
My Portland State student Cat Davilla alerted me to the existence of this amazing organization and event. The Anarres Project, named for the anarchic world of Ursula Le Guin's ambiguous utopian SF novel, The Dispossessed, the Anarres Project is "a forum for conversations, ideas, and initiatives that promote a future free of domination, exploitation, oppression, war, and empire." Their symposium this November at Oregon State University featured a number of engaging panels on science fiction, fantasy, and social justice, including a very rich key note speech on indigenous futurisms by Portland State professor Grace Dillon. I highly recommend this annual event, which is free and open to the public.
Positive Dystopias!
This exciting concept absolutely deserves, and will get, its own blog post. The term was coined this fall by my Science through Science Fiction student, Lorenzo (Enzo) Alazas and rapidly developed into an intriguing conversation with the class as a whole. According to Enzo, a "positive dystopia" is a dystopian social order that articulates its authority by offering itself as a source of hope. The idea might be "society has to be organized this way because we are saving you from...." By extension, a positive dystopia is also a space for opening up a more authentic vision of hope based on reform, a basic example being the rebels in Star Wars. Stories of positive dystopia are with us everywhere, including, I'd argue, real life. By naming the concept, however, we can explore new possibilities for understanding and transforming our societies. More to come.
Report from OryCon 41
For me, Portland’s fantastic SF&F convention, OryCon, was a blur between fantastic panels and sitting in the hallway grading research papers. It was amazing to see C. J. Cherryh speak on genetic engineering. She has a manner both straightforward and witty. I also loved the panel on fight scenes, featuring Fonda Lee, and enjoyed all the panels I spoke on, but especially the panel on writing climate change, which was dynamic and relevant, with a very engaged and informed audience.
