Eugene Fischer

Tag: Alexis Lothian

WisCon 42 and the Tiptree Award

WisCon 42 has come and gone without my writing about it, but it was a lovely time. After spending a year on the Tiptree jury I intentionally kept my schedule for this con programming-light. I ran a fiction workshop again, something I always enjoy, and did two panels talking about the process of judging the Tiptree and the works we selected for various honors. I got to reconnect with several friends, including Nueva Madre translator and current Tiptree Award juror Arrate Hidalgo, and longtime con buddy Brit Mandelo whom I hadn’t seen in several years. Much missed though were many friends and WisCon regulars who were unable to attend this year. At the end of the weekend I played a role in the award ceremony for Virginia Bergin, pictured above with her commissioned art piece and flanked by myself and 2017 jury chair Alexis Lothian. Virginia is a delight, and getting to know her was a highlight of my con. I hope I get to see her in Madison again in the future. Her winning book comes out in the United States in November from Sourcebooks under the title The XY.

Tiptree Award Announcement: Virginia Bergin Wins!

It can finally be revealed: after a year of intense reading and copious discussion, the jury has selected Who Runs the World?  by Virginia Bergin as the winner of the 2017 James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award. In addition to the winner, we selected 7 items for placement on the Honor List, and 26 items for the Long List. Please give them all a look: official announcement of the 2017 Tiptree Award, Honor List, and Long List.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about many of these works in the future (and how nice it will be to be able to talk publicly about my reading once again!), but for now I have to run off and catch my plane to Orlando for ICFA. But click through to the announcement to read what we found remarkable about so many of these works. And huge congratulations to Virginia Bergin!

My WisCon 41 Schedule

I’ll be in Madison, Wisconsin from May 26-29th for WisCon. Here’s what I’ll be doing.

• Friday, 9:00 am – 12:00 am, Caucus: Critique Session. I’m running one of the workshop sessions this year, and very excited to do so. This is one you’d’ve had to apply for in advance. If it sounds like something cool and you missed your chance, look for it next year. There are general fiction workshops every year, plus special topic sessions on things like genderqueer writing and romance in SF.

• Friday, 7:30-8:30 pm, Capitol/Wisconson: Opening Ceremonies. Pat Schmatz and myself, last year’s Tiptree winners, will be there to crown this year’s winner, Anna Marie McLemore.

• Saturday, 10:00-11:15 am, room 605: Judging the Tiptree. Current Tiptree jurors discuss the process of judging and selecting Tiptree award winners. Other panelists are Jeanne Gomoll, Aimee Bahng, Kazue Harada, Alexis Lothian, Roxanne Samer, and Julia Starkey.

• Sunday, 10:00 am – 11:15 am, Michelangelos: Burning Up on Re-entry (reading).  I’ll be reading some of my fiction, along with Jed Hartman, Kat Tanaka Okopnik, Benjamin Rosenbaum, and David J. Schwartz. This’ll be in the back of the Michelangelos coffee shop around the corner from the con hotel, where I’ve attended many WisCon readings over the years but never before done one.

Judging the Tiptree Award

This was made public a little while ago, at the same time the new winner and honorees for work published last year were announced (congratulations to them all, especially Anna-Marie McLemore!), but I’ve been remiss in mentioning here that I’m on the panel of judges for the 2017 James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award. The panel often includes a past winner of the award, and I’m thrilled to fill that role this year. Serving with me are Cheryl Morgan, Julia Starkey, Kazue Harada, and our chair Alexis Lothian.

As a consequence, I won’t be tracking my fiction reading online at all this year, since it will mostly be for award consideration. Also, if you follow me on social media, you will see me posting about the award with some regularity. That’s because the judges need people’s help making sure we see all the excellent work that gets published this year. The Tiptree Award has an open recommendations system, so any new (i.e. published in 2017) science fiction or fantasy that you think explores or expands notions of gender is eligible, and can be nominated just by typing the details into a simple web form. You submit it, we’ll see it.

Nominate works for the 2017 Tiptree Award here.

2016 Tiptree Symposium celebrating Ursula K. Le Guin

In December I traveled to Eugene, Oregon to attend the 2016 Tiptree Symposium, a two-day academic conference on the work of Ursula K. Le Guin. I got to see some old friends, made some new ones, briefly met Le Guin herself, and heard many thoughtful panels and lectures. If that sounds like something you’re sad to have missed, you’re in luck: the University of Oregon has put videos of the presentations online.

I’m planning to rewatch several of these, starting with the incredible panel Alexis Lothian put together on “Speculative Gender and The Left Hand of Darkness,” featuring Aren Aizura, micha cárdenas, and Tuesday Smillie presenting three trans perspectives on the novel. I took five pages of notes on this panel alone, and came away feeling I hadn’t been able to jot down everything I wanted to think more about.

Since the video index page I linked above truncates the titles, here’s a full listing of the videos:

December 1, Sally Miller Gearhart Lesbian Lecture, Dr. Alexis Lothian, “Queer Longings in Straight Futures: Notes Toward a Prehistory for Lesbian Speculation”

December 2, Welcome and Panel 1: Ursula K. Le Guin and the Field of Feminist Science Fiction

December 2, Panel 2: UO Prof. Edmond Chang’s Feminist SF students on The Word for World is Forest

December 2, Keynote and Q & A: Karen Joy Fowler, “Ursula Le Guin and the Larger Reality”

December 3, Panel 3: “Speculative Gender and The Left Hand of Darkness”

December 3, Panel 4: “Le Guin’s Fiction as Inspiration for Activism”

December 3, Panel 5: Kelly Sue DeConnick and Ben Saunders: “New Directions in Feminist Science Fiction: A Conversation with Kelly Sue DeConnick”

December 3, Keynote: Brian Attebery, “The James Tiptree Jr. Book Club: A Mitochondrial Theory of Literature” (The text of this one was also published on Tor.com)