Today is Ursula K. Le Guin’s 80th birthday. I read The Dispossessed for the first time during my junior year of college, and its lesson, in a friend’s words, that “it’s always more complicated” has stayed with me, even if I don’t always remember it. Three Roads Four Ways to Forgiveness should be read by [...]
My partner Cynthia has a piece in a new collection of essays inspired by WisCon. We ran into Timmi Duchamp, the publisher, at the Minneapolis airport. We were all on the same connecting flight to Madison for WisCon 33. So we got to see the finished book. Forgive the crappy iPhone picture here. I’ll replace [...]
The Tiptree Award, for the best science fiction exploring gender published in 2008, goes to Patrick Ness for The Knife of Never Letting Go and Nisi Shawl for her short story collection Filter House. Shawl is also co-author, with Cynthia Ward, of Writing the Other: A Practical Guide, a handbook on writing characters from different [...]
Sarah Hall’s The Carhullan Army (published in the US as Daughters of the North) won the Tiptree Award for the best work of science fiction or fantasy dealing with gender published during 2007. Also of interest to readers of this blog, Charlie Stross’ Glasshouse was on the short list. More details in the press release. [...]
Denvention 3, the 66th World Science Fiction Convention, opened nominations for the 2008 Hugo Awards. The dearth of women nominated for last year’s Hugos lead to a proactive response for the 2008 cycle, including: A list of women writers eligible for the major genre awards. The SF Book Swap to share eligible books. A Live [...]
You wouldn’t be surprised to meet Ruby enthusiasts at a Japanese science fiction convention. Shimura’s got embedded Ruby running in Illustrator. Press a button, and that evals to ’7′. The back story: Shimura’s part of Cafe Scifi+tique, a performance event put together by Japanese science fiction fans to invert and parody the creepy ‘maid cafe’ [...]
If you can’t make it to Chicago for BlogHer ’07, you can attend the conference in Second Life. Hopefully there won’t be the annoying advertising from Weight Watchers and similar ilk. They are looking for sponsors, so maybe our various communities could kick in to help provide some message-free dosh to pay for the BlogHer [...]
I was forwarded today’s Gizmodo post about a Hello Kitty laptop. Most of the comments on the post are not about the merits of the laptop, but the woman holding up the laptop. WTF, gentlemen? You know there’s a conversation that could be had about marketing, and product design. For instance: how are those decorations [...]
The James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award has a shiny new website, replacing the design they’ve used since 1988 1998.
Well, I’m dumbfounded by Penelope Trunk’s response to Guy Kawasaki’s question about responding to sexual harassment at work. In most cases, you will destroy your career if you report sexual harassment. So unless you are in physical danger, you should not report harassment. Someone asked me today what my values were, and I said fairness [...]
And it’s almost WisCon again. This year I’m on two panels: Celebrating the Fabulous Work of Pat Cadigan, Queen of Cyberpunk Saturday, 10:00-11:15 a.m. SF writer Pat Cadigan’s novels take us inside the lives of cybernetic therapists, cops, media artists, and even the dead. Cadigan’s futures are both fantastic and believable, intertwining virtual and real [...]
Aqueduct Press, a feminist science fiction small press, started a group blog, with entries by their writers. Timmi Duchamp’s post on Homophobic Language and ‘femiphobia’, considers the hypermasculine bravado we find all the time in online conversations.
Congratulations to Shelley Jackson (Half Life,) Catherynne M. Valente (The Orphan’s Tales,) and Julie Phillips (James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon): winners of the Tiptree Award for science fiction and fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender. [via Debbie Notkin]
Helen and Campbell Award Nominations [ via Sharyn November ]
The threats made against Kathy Sierra are vile, disgusting, and not uncommon. For instance: Ginmar, an Iraq war veteran, receives hateful comments and threats every day. Min Jung Kim writes about the constant barrage of stalkers and creepy comments she receives. I heard about Ms. Sierra canceling her ETech presentation when Liz Henry IM’ed me [...]