Remember last year when I opened up the blog to several guest bloggers for Black History Month? That was so awesome. I enjoyed having new voices on the blog and the great conversations and thoughts they inspired. From that exercise we gained a new permanent guest, Karnythia, and it whet my appetite for more. So I’ve decided to do the guest thing more often and bring in a few more permanent fixtures around these parts.

As you know, I love literature and particularly science fiction and fantasy literature (as do Karnythia and Nojojojo), so many of the special guests are going to hail from that area of the world. We’re also going to seek out bloggers from outside the U.S. to provide a different view of the topics we discuss around here.

We’re also giving two new bloggers the chance to become permanent guests here. In the next two weeks they’ll introduce themselves and start their own posts.

Our first new guest will be Tiptree Award-winning author Nisi Shawl, who will introduce herself later today. Her short story collection, Filter House, recently won the james Tiptree Jr. award, something I’ll talk at length about tomorrow. Nisi is a sharp lady, an amazing writer, and one of the most intersting people I’ve ever met. I hope you’ll enjoy her posts.