I only believe in bounded meritocracies. Below a certain threshold of power, prestige, attention, population—that is where actual events can, sometimes, resemble such a fanciful notion. Add a few more eyes, a greater quantity of dollars, the weight of more history, and invariably you’ll find that chaos, luck, and zeitgeist dominate events. But, very occasionally, those uncontrollable factors line up in a way that is functionally indistinguishable from an impossible meritocratic dream.
That’s how I see the tremendous success of Carmen Maria Machado’s book Her Body and Other Parties. It’s been a finalist for the National Book Award, a Tiptree Honoree, won the John Leonard Prize, won the Crawford Award, and undoubtedly has a slew of other accolades yet to come. I’ve been Carmen’s friend for years, and seen how long in the making was her overnight success. This triumph couldn’t have happened to a lovelier person, nor someone who worked harder for it, nor someone whose writing merited it more. Carmen is the real deal, and her stories are piercingly relevant and stunningly rendered.
I spent the past weekend in Orlando, Florida, grinning from ear to ear as I watched writers young and old flock around her, agog at her literary accomplishments and casual brilliance. I got to sit next to her while she accepted an award for best first fantasy book. (I wasn’t planning on attending the International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts award banquet this year, but of course that all changed when Carmen won.) Here’s a video of her acceptance speech. The completely shameless yee-hah! is, of course, mine.