MJ Hardman: A Remembrance

[After learning last month of the sudden death of Dr. MJ Hardman, we asked Carl Brandon Society co-founder Victor J. Raymond to write about her crucial contributions to our ongoing work. Though already in the grip of grief due to the death of his father, he gave us the following words.]

We had gathered for the first caucus of People of Color at WisCon, about twenty years ago. Nalo Hopkinson and Nisi Shawl were there — that I remember — and other members of what would become the Carl Brandon Society Steering Committee were there. Like other spaces I had been in before, we knew this was a special moment. There were about a dozen people there, and it felt like we weren’t huddled together for safety, for belonging. That day, the metaphorical tent walls lifted away from our shoulders; we had the space to be who we were and to talk freely.

We were about to start when a mature woman entered the room. She appeared to be white, so we were not immediately sure if she knew where she was. We waited for a moment, and then she said, “I’m not a person of color, but I am the mother of people of color.” We had not discussed how to handle this beforehand, but Nalo nodded and graciously invited her to join us. We could decide for ourselves who was a part of our community, and MJ immediately was included.

This is how MJ Hardman introduced herself to us. And from her we learned so much, oh, how we learned. MJ was an avid science fiction reader, a professor of linguistics, a fierce champion of indigenous rights, a mother, a feminist, and much more. MJ served on the Carl Brandon Steering Committee for nearly 15 years, and we benefited greatly from her presence and contributions.

MJ — for that was how we knew her, never as “Dr. Hardman” (she never stood on ceremony) — was a persistent advocate for unvoiced and underrepresented viewpoints in our work as the Carl Brandon Society. She worked to ensure that the Society’s efforts went beyond the United States, that we paid attention to writers and readers of color in other countries, and that we never forgot the feminist origins of our creation.

When we first began working on the Carl Brandon Parallax and Kindred Awards, MJ championed naming them as we did. “Parallax” — to recognize the breadth of who we were, the entire rainbow of the chromatic spectrum, and “Kindred” — first as an acknowledgment of Octavia E. Butler, an early supporter of our efforts, and second, to recognize that we were all associated, and connected to one another. We chose those names because MJ passionately advocated for them, and we soon realized why her advocacy mattered: they spoke to our shared values.

When the Society took on the challenge to support the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship for writers of color attending Clarion and Clarion West, it strained relationships amongst the members of the Steering Committee. MJ worked to mend those relationships, pointing out that fostering new voices in the field was an important thing for us to do — and there was nobody else who could do it. Over the past decade and more, we have seen the result of that wisdom: more than two dozen writers of color producing outstanding, brilliant creative work after graduating successfully from Clarion and Clarion West.

Over time, we slowly began to see the rest of MJ’s life. MJ saw connections between linguistics, worldview, and speculative fiction. How we speak influences how we think and how we see the world, now and in the future, and those connections were the foundation for her support for our work. I remember meeting her husband, Dimas, at WisCon; they clearly loved one another — Dimas, quiet and bespectacled, and MJ laughing and talking and challenging us to do the right thing (whatever it was in the moment). After knowing them for some time, I found out about his and MJ’s efforts to preserve Jaqaru, his native language. Because of that, it was possible to appreciate the connections MJ made between the important interests in her life. Once she retired from her position at University of Florida, she provided advice and support for the Society, and continued to advocate for, and on behalf of, the Parallax and Kindred awards.

For quite some time, the Carl Brandon Society operated on a shoestring budget — we still do, really. MJ’s academic work kept her focused on the needs of her community and family in Peru, but the Carl Brandon Society is a beneficiary of her estate. Her support will help build a stronger and more capable organization, one that she would be very proud of having helped to start.

Victor J. Raymond

A fierce, beautiful, white-haired white woman in a dark blue dress faces the viewer.
Dr. MJ Hardman attends a WisCon event
A laughing Dr. MJ Hardman rests her head on the shoulder of her husband, Dimas.  Dimas wears rectangular-lensed glasses and a brimmed tweed hat.  He has a moustache and his eyes are shut.
MJ and Dimas enjoy refreshments at a POC dinner held during WisCon.

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/.

Fundraising Tally, Big Thanks, And The Winners of the Butler Scholarship eReader Drawing

Last night the Drawing came to a close and now it’s time to announce the winners of the 5 eReaders and the autographed Dark Matter anthology. But first, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who made this fundraiser successful.

We raised $4,520 from tickets sales and so far $490 in direct donations since the drawing began. We haven’t even calculated all of the donations sent in via mail yet! Right now the total stands at $5,010, which is simply amazing. Our original goal was just $1,000. Once we blew past that in the first 4 days, we set our sights on raising $3,200, the price of a Clarion West tuition. Once we met that goal, our next was to raise $4,950, enough for a tuition to Clarion Diego. In the last 30 hours of the drawing we sold 799 tickets and blew past that goal, too. Thanks to those of you who bought tickets and donated we were able to exceed our goals time and again. We appreciate your participation and generosity so much. Thank you.

Next, a huge, huge thank you to Jenn Brissett. Without her we never would have been able to pull this drawing off. She did all the technical wizardry on the backend and when problems arose (and they did… oh they did) she worked hard to fix them and keep the drawing going. All while doing her graduate work and under major time crunches. Jenn is nothing short of an angel, and we all so, so appreciate her hard work.

Thanks to the other folks behind the scenes who helped put this whole thing together: Candra Gill, who took care of all the other technical needs surrounding the CBS website plus was smart about everything; Nisi Shawl, Claire Light and Kate Schaefer, who gave support, advice, guidance, and time as we rushed to make this whole thing a reality; Pablo Defendini and Nivair Gabriel who volunteered to convert stories into ePub files to make them compatible with the eReaders (for which I am eternally grateful); Matt Kressel whose work on the KGB Raffle inspired us to try it here and who offered advice and technical know-how. And thanks to the members of the Carl Brandon Society board who gave the green light to begin with.

I can never convey enough gratitude to the companies that donated the technology. Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Spring Design all jumped at the chance to be a part of this fundraiser. Thanks for making such wonderful, tempting eReaders and for supporting literature in the digital age.

A big, big thank you to all of the writers and publishers who sent us fiction, poetry and essays to include with the eReaders. The full list is here. The eReaders were a big draw, of course, but your donations added an extra layer of awesome to the prizes.

Everyone who spread the word about this online, on social networks, via blogs, or by word of mouth: thank you.

And now, here are the winners:

The winner of the Spring Design Alex eReader is: Kang-Yun Tsai
The winners of the Barnes & Noble Nook are: David Linder and Joshua Kidd
The winners of the Kobo Wireless Reader are: Jessica Nasca and Molly Aplet
The winner of the autographed copy of the Dark Matter anthology is: Deanne Fountaine
Congratulations to all of you! If we haven’t contacted you directly yet, we will very soon.