Haikasoru: new publisher - Japanese SF in English translation

From Haikasoru editor Nick Mamatas:

Haikasoru -- that's "high castle" with a Japanese accent -- is a brand new imprint of Japanese science fiction (with plenty of fantasy and even a dash of horror) in translation, brought to you by VIZ Media.

Eileen Gunn interviews Nisi Shawl, first black winner of the James R. Tiptree Jr. award

I've been talking a little bit about this with Ted Chiang and some other people in a book discussion group I'm in, Tom Foster and Evan Cherniavsky. In light of that old "death of the author" idea. Is a story something I create to communicate ideas, or something I participate in with my readers? I'm always thrilled when someone gets out of a story what I was trying to put into it. And I'm also often thrilled when someone gets out of a story a totally other thing I didn't even know was up in there.

Verb Noire announces its first publication

New publishing venture Verb Noire has recently announced its first publication: River's Daughter, a novel by Tasha Campbell.

Abigail Richard's earliest memory is of wading with her mother in the cool waters of the creek near their home. The dark-skinned daughter of a mixed marriage in a post-Civil war pioneer town, Gail finds herself ostracized in a way her pale-skinned brothers never are--for her skill in swimming, her mother, and her color. It is only when her mother leaves her behind and she is forced to protect herself against other people's manipulations that Gail dives to the water's depths for protection--and finally learns where she truly comes from.

The mission statement of Verb Noire is To celebrate the works of talented, underrepresented authors and deliver them to a readership that demands more. What does that mean? That if you’re a talented writer with an awesome, original story about a POC girl/guy/transgendered character, there is a place for you. And that if you’re a sci-fi/fantasy fan who has grown tired of the constant whitewashing of these genres, there is a place for you, too.

To support Verb Noire, click this link.

Sheree R. Thomas on writing word by word

Sheree R. Thomas, author, teacher, and the editor of Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction From the African Diaspora, talks on her blog about being inspired by Arthur Flowers and about getting the words down:

I know some folk still think somebody is going to give them the Big Secret Key to Publishing, like published authors carry it around in their back pockets as they float through life. As if they can simply raise a well manicured hand and place you promptly in the Pantheon.

Nisi Shawl receives the Tiptree Award at WisCon

Carl Brandon Society co-founder and steering committee member Nisi Shawl received the James Tiptree, Jr Award for her story collection Filter House last night at the WisCon 33 Guest of Honor ceremonies.WisCon is special to the Carl Brandon Society as it's where the organization got its start. We're especially pleased that Mary Anne Mohanraj, also a co-founder of the Carl Brandon Society, and Nnedi Okorafor were announced as the Guests of Honor for WisCon 34!

We'll have more photos from last night soon.

Also, Think Galactic, a sister child-of-WisCon organization, will be holding its second convention June 26-28 at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Visit the Think Galacticon convention site for more information.

Fen of Color United May 18th Campaign

LiveJournaler neo_prodigy has created a campaign and LJ community for visibility of Fen of Color inspired by RaceFail 09:

On Monday May 18, 2009, we are asking anyone who identifies as a POC/non-white to post this banner, their speculative short stories, artwork, poetry or simply write a post on their favorite fandom on their blogs as an act of protest to show we will not be silent or invisible. The day of protest is entitled Fen Of Color United or more aptly, FOC_U.

White allies can also show solidarity for this event by posting this banner and expressing the need for diversity and speaking out against the bigotry in the genre, through posts and/or their creative work as well.

Full post: http://community.livejournal.com/foc_u/435.html

Jamaica, W.I. launch of two YA fantasy titles from Macmillan Caribbean

Island Fiction is a brand new fiction series from Macmillan Caribbean aimed at teenagers. The novels are all based around fantasy, science fiction and the legends and folklore of the Caribbean.

On Wednesday, May 20, 2009, Macmillan Caribbean is launching two of the titles in Kingston, Jamaica; Night of the Indigo, by Michael Holgate, and Delroy in the Marog Kingdom, by Helen Williams.

Whiter, brighter washing

From Greg Van Eekhout, via Twitter:

Sunspot then. And: Sunspot now.

I'm thinking that the two guys in the first pic had a kid. What do you think? -nalo

Nisi Shawl wins Tiptree Award

Nisi Shawl has won the James R. Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award for her short story collection Filter House (Aqueduct Press). The Tiptree is for science fiction and fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender. A work of art (different each year), $1000 USD, a chocolate typewriter, and the right to wear the fabulous Tiptree tiara, created by Elise Mattheson.

Science fiction writing workshop in India

Writer Vandana Singh blogs about a science fiction writing workshop that will happen in India this summer. Singh will be one of the instructors:

"Until fairly recently, though, we didn’t know if we were going to have any applicants, but now it is pukka, as we say in India. Eighteen people have been selected based on their submitted writing samples. Most are not established writers but all have promise and enthusiasm. And — amazingly — about 50% are women!"

Whitewashing "The Last Airbender"

Nojojojo posts an essay on The Angry Black Woman about the problematic casting choices for the film The Last Airbender.

With this casting, we have two nations of heroic white people fighting genocidal brown people to save other poor downtrodden brown people.

Shared Worlds: summer creative writing camp for teens

Shared Worlds is a two-week residential camp based on a "shared world" theme. A shared world is a growing trend in fiction that centers around a complete, fictional world designed by a group. During Wofford's Shared World program, students will design fantasy worlds with other young, creative writers and share those worlds through fiction, art, and game design.

Held on the historic campus of Wofford College in South Carolina, USA, Shared Worlds takes multi-disciplinary learning to a new level. During this two-week-long residential campus learning experience, students will work together with authors and instructors to create entire worlds, complete with history, economy, language and culture. Students will write in those worlds, share those worlds and apply those worlds to fiction, art, and game design.

Read more about the programme.

YouTube: Kevjumba throws down about the Dragonball movie

Call for submissions: Hyphen Magazine Asian American story carnival

Help us honor and argue with The Joy Luck Club on the 20th Anniversary of its publication AND celebrate API Heritage Month in May! Send us your immigrant story in 300 words or less!


This year is the 20th Anniversary of the publication of The Joy Luck Club, the book that, for better or for worse, defined Asian America to a generation of readers, and opened up mainstream American fiction to Asian immigrant stories. I say "for better or for worse" because, although it was wonderful for people of my generation -- who were reaching adulthood just as Joy Luck was hitting the bookstores -- to finally see Asian immigrant families in fiction, the book also limited a generation of writers to a particular narrative.


We don't all suffer an immigrant generation gap with our parents; many of us are 1.5s, and many of us are 3rd generation or deeper; many of our parents are culturally competent in the US; most of us didn't grow up in Chinatowns. Half of us aren't women; we aren't all Chinese ... or Japanese, or Korean; our cultures of origin don't always center around cooking rice, or mahjong games in the kitchen, or the insulting mistakes our white boyfriends make at the dinner table; the racism we experience isn't always the blatant kind.


So, for a book that didn't intend to cause all the controversy or inspire all the ambivalence it has, I can't think of a better way to honor its birthday than to talk back. For May, Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, let's tell more stories ... stories that aren't like The Joy Luck Club at all.


I'm declaring a blog carnival of short, personal Asian American immigrant narratives.


These will be YOUR families' immigration stories in 300 words or less. Very short, so don't try to tell the whole thing. Pick out one important anecdote or detail that you think is unusual. Some questions to get you started:


* What about your family's immigration experience is unusual, not like the stereotypes?
* Did your family immigrate all at once, or over several generations, and just to the US, or elsewhere? Did anyone go back?
* Did your forebear/s have a goal in immigrating? Do you think this was their only purpose?
* Did something funny or strange or sad happen when they got here?
* Has your family been here so long you've forgotten the immigrant experience? Tell us another story, then!


We're looking for a diversity of stories: East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, Central Asian, North Asian, women, men, transgendered people, all ages and generations, all regions of the States (and we'll fudge "American" if you're not from the States or even from North America), all kinds of stories, all ways of telling them.


Here's the process:


1. Write your immigrant story of 300 words or less.
2. Post it to your blog or somebody's blog.
3. Send me the URL at claire (at the domain) hyphenmagazine (with a dot) com. Please put "Joy Luck Hub submission" in the subject line.
4. Deadline is May 1.
5. Depending on a number of factors, we might reprint a few here on Hyphen Blog (with permission). Or we might not.


PLEASE FORWARD THIS CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS TO YOUR ASIAN AMERICAN FRIENDS!

Review of Ana Clavel's novel Shipwrecked Body

Carrie Devall reviews Shipwrecked Body, by Mexican-born writer Ana Clavell:

Shipwrecked Body is a wickedly funny, insightful, fast-moving riff on gender, identity, and sexuality that might appeal to readers of feminist speculative fiction.


Antonia, a young heterosexual woman in Mexico City, wakes up one morning to find that she has turned into a man. She quickly realizes that women react to her differently, and with the help of a gay friend, Francisco, and some other men that he recruits, she explores the world of men and homosociality that was previously inaccessible to her. She gets involved with several women and a man and makes discoveries about sex, love, and identity.

Shweta Narayan short story on Strange Horizons

Shweta Narayan's short story Nira and I has been published by the web magazine Strange Horizons.

Nira and I are with Hemal on the day she dies. She is teaching us a clapping song game, a remembering game. She is winning.

Shweta Narayan has lived in places where Hemal's story is less fictional than she'd like. She was the Octavia Butler Memorial Scholarship recipient at Clarion 2007. She has a poem in the Winter 2009 issue of Goblin Fruit and stories forthcoming in places like Shimmer, Greatest Uncommon Denominator, and the Beastly Bride anthology, and she is working on her first novel. For more about the author, see her website.

Superman in the Cotton Fields: Comics in Black and White, Mostly White

Superman in the Cotton Fields is a 2005 article by Scott Poole on systemic racism in the comics industry.

A racist society is one in which significant political and social capital rests in white hands, even if that society gives lip service and official tribute to the ideals of 'tolerance' and 'diversity'. At least in the marginal art form of comics, African American representations are changing.

Read 1st chapter of S.P. Somtow's series The Dragonstones online

"Sometimes you'll believe me, and sometimes you'll say it can't be so; but stay with me. Every event in the world has at least two explanations: one that is fact, and one that is the truth."


-- from S.P. Somtow's novel Jade

Writer S.P. Somtow, winner of the World Fantasy Award, has made the first chapter of his fantasy novel Jade available to read online. Jade is the first novel in S.P. Somtow’s new fantasy series The Dragonstones, set in the intersection between the worlds of Harry Potter and Bangkok 8.

From the website for The Dragonstones: Somtow has been absent from publishing for about seven years. His seven-year writer's block has not exactly been uncreative — he's composed and had produced three operas and many other major musical works. His fiction block broke last year with An Alien Heresy, which recently appeared in Asimov's.

Somtow says, Despite public readings of The Dragonstones being rapturously received, (my) big trilogy hasn’t yet found a publisher. If you like what you’ve read, don't hesitate to lobby your favorite fantasy publisher!

Read the opening chapter of Jade.

Superheroes photo project by Dulce Pinzón

MINERVA VALENCIA from Puebla works as a nanny in New York. She Sends 400 dollars a week.


MINERVA VALENCIA originaria de Puebla trabaja como niñera en Nueva York.
Manda 400 dólares a la semana.

From Pinzón's artist's statement:


"This project consists of 20 color photographs of Mexican and Latino immigrants dressed in the costumes of popular American and Mexican superheroes. Each photo pictures the worker/superhero in their work environment, and is accompanied by a short text including the worker’s name, their hometown, the number of years they have been working in New York, and the amount of money they send to their families each week.

Click on the link to see Superheroes.

Thanks to Neil Gaiman for the pointer.

Verb Noire: new publishing venture

The mission statement of Verb Noire:

To celebrate the works of talented, underrepresented authors and deliver them to a readership that demands more.


What does that mean? That if you're a talented writer with an awesome, original story about a POC girl/guy/transgendered character, there is a place for you. And that if you're a sci-fi/fantasy fan who has grown tired of the constant whitewashing of these genres, there is a place for you, too.

Here's the Verb Noire donation link.