Here’s the text of the email we sent out today:
This year we’ve been learning how to operate effectively under constantly changing conditions. While our online programs and meetings continue to help keep the Carl Brandon Society community together virtually, we’ve also taken advantage of a pair of beautiful, breezy summer evenings to present the Octavia E. Butler scholarship pendants in person, outdoors. They went to Shingai Kagunda at Clarion in San Diego, and to Naomi Day and Wen-Yi Lee at Clarion West in Seattle. We have photographic evidence on our blog: https://carlbrandon.org/2022/09/octavia-butler-scholarship-presentations-owls-abound/
We jumped at the chance to co-sponsor the 2022 BlackSpecFic report put together by LD Lewis, a five-year follow-up to her landmark 2017 study of the presence of Black authors in the genre. This much-anticipated report, which covers both long- and short-form speculative fiction, came out November 23. Read it here.
The anthology we’re sponsoring, Ex Marginalia, is scheduled for release from the publisher, Hydra House, on February 21, 2023. At this point we’ve seen Ashe Samuels’ extraordinary cover art, and the authors have approved the book’s galleys, as has editor and 2014 Butler scholar Chinelo Onwualu. Though we could still use donations to cover the cost of its publication, the book is basically ready to go! Read more about it here.
Also in the works for spring 2023 is a brilliant new event: a BIPOC book fair for children. It’s a lot like the Scholastic Book Fairs many of us in the US remember from elementary school, but it’s focused on the science fictional and fantastic stories by authors of color. We’ll have in-person author visits, and each kid attending will receive two free books. Already, we’ve received a wonderful gift of $10,000 for this project’s inaugural session.
In another move toward expanding our activities, we’re adding new categories to the two Carl Brandon Society literary awards. For years we’ve given trophies and prizes of $1000 each to the winners of two literary awards: the Carl Brandon Parallax Award for imaginative fiction by an author of color, and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award for imaginative fiction which expands and explores our understanding of race. Now we’ve decided to recognize one long work and one short work for each award. We’re doubling the number of possible winners! Visit our awards page to submit your nominations.
And once again in 2022, we’re the fortunate beneficiaries of a Humble Bundle campaign. As of the moment we write this, the Pathfinder and Starfinder Humble Bundle has raised over $15,000 for us, with eight more days to go! By the time you read this that campaign will be over—which means you can donate independently and make your own individual difference in our evergreen efforts to improve representation.
The frontiers of imagination. That’s where we’re working. We’re excited about what we’ve been able to accomplish there in the past few years, and we look forward to doing even more, now and in the future, with your help.
Please make a donation.
Sincerely,
The Carl Brandon Society’s Steering Committee
K. Tempest Bradford, Maurice Broaddus, Candra K. Gill, Jaymee Goh, Kate Schaefer, Nisi Shawl, Yang-Yang Wang
P. O. Box 23336
Seattle, WA 98102
The Carl Brandon Society is a qualified 501(c)3 organization, and all donations to it are tax-deductible. Our federal tax I.D. number is 27-0140141.
What we’ve been getting up to
We just filed our annual tax return with the IRS, which meant that we reviewed what we’ve done recently. We want our supporters to know at least as much about that as the IRS does, so here goes.
2020 was a pivot year for most people and organizations, as we all struggled to deal with the sudden changes required by the pandemic and by the public response to the killing of George Floyd. Our response to the pandemic was to switch from in-person events to online events. The Carl Brandon Society presented five programs online during 2020. Our world became bigger, not smaller, even as we all stayed inside. Average attendance at these online panels was 45, with 88 attendees at the most popular. The panels continue to be available on YouTube.
The response to the killing of George Floyd included an outpouring of donations to organizations that grapple with issues of race. Since the Carl Brandon Society’s mission is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction, we were among the organizations that received much larger donations than usual, which has positioned us to be able to serve our community in more ways. We are currently working on how best to use these resources, both short-term and long-term.
2021 was a growing year, building on 2020’s success. We presented two online panels similar to those held in 2020. In addition, we held two online town halls to gather ideas from our community about what we should do next, attended by writers and editors of color from countries worldwide to give us direction about what resources of those that we can provide are most needed now. In 2022, we will begin holding workshops by and for writers and editors of color developed in response to the 2021 town halls.
In July, 2021, we sponsored a party/gathering space for BIPoC at CONvergence, an annual convention for fans of science fiction and fantasy in Minneapolis. It was our only in-person event during the pandemic so far.
In 2020, Akwaeke Emezi received the 2019 Parallax Award for a work of speculative fiction created by a self-identified person of color for their novel Pet. Michele Tracy Berger received the 2019 Kindred Award for a work of speculative fiction dealing with issues of race and ethnicity for her story “Doll Seed.” Going forward, we have expanded our Kindred and Parallax awards to include separate awards for short fiction and novels, with a $1000 honorarium for each of the four awards. As with other organizations, the pandemic has interfered with some of our normal operations. We expect to name recipients of these awards for works published in 2020 and 2021 by year-end 2022.
In 2020 and 2021, because of the pandemic, neither Clarion in San Diego nor Clarion West in Seattle held an in-person workshop. In 2021, Clarion West held their six-week summer workshop online rather than in person, while Clarion in San Diego deferred for another year. We granted two Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarships to students participating in the online Clarion West workshop — double the number we’re committed to granting annually. For 2022, both workshops are back to in-person attendance, with Clarion West having a mix of students originally admitted in 2020 and those admitted this year, and Clarion in San Diego having only those students admitted in 2020. We have granted a total of three Butler scholarships for these 2022 in-person six-week summer workshops.
We’re serving as the fiscal sponsor for Hydra House’s Ex Marginalia project, a book of essays about writing by authors who will not and cannot remain in the margins. Scheduled for publication in Fall/Winter 2022, the nonfiction collection is edited by multiple award-nominated author, editor, and 2014 Octavia E. Butler scholar Chinelo Onwualu.
We’re excited about what we’ve been able to accomplish in the past few years, and we look forward to doing more. We especially look forward to being able to get together again in person, while keeping on with the remote events that allow for more access to more members of our community.
K. Tempest Bradford, Maurice Broaddus, Candra K. Gill, Jaymee Goh, Kate Schaefer, Nisi Shawl, and Yang-Yang Wang
The Carl Brandon Society Steering Committee
PS: Thanks again for all you’ve done to make this possible! Please consider continuing to support our work by making a tax-deductible donation at carlbrandon.org/donate/.
2019 Octavia Birthday Fundraiser
June 22 is Octavia E. Butler’s birthday—she’d be 72 years old if she were still alive today. Butler was a writer, a visionary, and a genuine, certified genius—and also a community-minded activist who worked to make a place for people of color within the science fiction, fantasy, and horror communities. She was an early and enthusiastic member of the Carl Brandon Society. In that spirit, the Carl Brandon Society is celebrating Octavia’s time here with a Butler Birthday fundraiser that will allow us to continue her work and change the world of speculative fiction the way she changed it—for the better.
Our goal is to raise $20,000 by July 22, and we’ve already raised over $2,300. Reaching this goal will allow us to continue our major programs, such as the Octavia E. Butler Scholarships for writers of color attending the Clarion and Clarion West writing workshops, and also our Parallax and Kindred awards for excellence in literature challenging racial and ethnic stereotypes.
To date, CBS has funded 27 scholarships for students of color attending the Clarion and Clarion West workshops, presented 6 Kindred and 7 Parallax Awards, and provided 20 years of support and strategizing for People of Color seeking representation in our field. All with the help of generous donors like you.
The Carl Brandon Society is a 501( c )3 organization, so your donation is tax-deductible in the U.S.
Donate now electronically (credit and debit cards accepted) by clicking the button below.
Or send a check or money order made out to the Carl Brandon Society to:
The Carl Brandon Society
P.O. Box 23336
Seattle, WA 98102
Continue celebrating Octavia’s birthday by reading these tributes to her literary influence at LitHub: https://lithub.com/the-grand-cultural-influence-of-octavia-butler/
We’ll announce this year’s scholars upon the completion of the Clarion and Clarion West workshops this summer.
Thank you!
The Carl Brandon Society Steering Committee