Speculative Fiction Lovers, Check Out My Stash
Right now on my hard drive I have a huge virtual stack of fiction, poetry and essays by writers of color. We’re talking award-nominated and award-winning stories by some of the fanciest writers of color to ever set pen to paper. Don’t believe me? Here’s the list:
Short Fiction
- Judgment of Swords and Souls by Saladin Ahmed
- Elan Vital by K. Tempest Bradford
- The Executioner by Jenn Brissett
- The Flinchfield Dance by Mary Burroughs (A Butler Scholar*)
- The Abyss Gazes Also By Christopher Caldwell (A Butler Scholar*)
- A – The Teachings by Chesya Burke
- Chocolate Park by Chesya Burke
- He Who Takes Away the Pain by Chesya Burke
- The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang – 2008 Hugo and Nebula award winner
- Non-Zero Probabilities by N. K. Jemisin – 2010 Hugo and Nebula nominee
- And Their Lips Rang with the Sun by Amal El-Mohtar
- Emeritas by Caren Gussoff (A Butler Scholar*)
- Lena’s Gift by Shweta Narayan (A Butler Scholar*)
- Hi Bugan ya Hi Kinggawan by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (A Butler Scholar*)
- Teaching a Pink Elephant to Ski by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
- Sex Degrees of Separation by Terence Taylor
Non-Fiction
- Beyond Duality by Moondancer Drake
Novels
- King Maker: The Knights of Breton Court by Maurice Broaddus (Angry Robot)
- Racing the Dark by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Agate Bolden)
- The Burning City by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Agate Bolden)
- Redemption In Indigo by Karen Lord (Small Beer Press)
Anthologies and Collections
- A Mosque Among the Stars, ed. Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, Ahmed A. Khan (ZC Books)
- Being Full of Light Insubstantial by Linda Addison – Winner of the 2007 Bram Stoker Award (Space and Time)
- Tides From The New Worlds by Tobias S Buckell (Wyrm Publishing)
- Slightly Behind and to the Left: Four Stories and Three Drabbles by Claire Light (Aqueduct Press)
- The Honey Month by Amal El-Mohtar (Papaveria Press)
- Paper Cities, An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, ed. Ekaterina Sedia – Winner of the 2009 World Fantasy Award (Senses Five Press)
- Filter House by Nisi Shawl – Winner of the 2008 James Tiptree Jr. Award (Aqueduct Press)
Magazines
- Apex Magazine November 2010 (Issue 18 – The Arab/Muslim Issue), ed. Catherynne M. Valente
- Sybil’s Garage no. 7, ed. Matthew Kressel
Why do I have all this goodness? Because these are all stories that are set to be loaded onto 5 eReaders that the Carl Brandon Society will give to those who paid $1 to buy tickets and enter their drawing. For a donation of $1 you can enter to win a Nook, Kobo, or Alex eReader. And it will come with everything you see above.
If I were one of those dudes on TV, I would be telling you how this is a $400 value or something like that. Instead I will just say: this is a worthy cause, these are excellent prizes, and if you at all care about supporting the next generation of writers of color who will then go on to write more wonderfulness such as you see listed above, then I implore you to help us out by buying a ticket and making that donation.
Click here to do so. And thanks!
Short Fiction
Judgment of Swords and Souls by Saladin Ahmed
Elan Vital by K. Tempest Bradford
The Executioner by Jenn Brissett
The Flinchfield Dance by Mary Burroughs (A Butler Scholar*)
The Abyss Gazes Also By Christopher Caldwell (A Butler Scholar*)
A – The Teachings by Chesya Burke
Chocolate Park by Chesya Burke
He Who Takes Away the Pain by Chesya Burke
The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang – 2008 Hugo and Nebula award winner
Non-Zero Probabilities by N. K. Jemisin – 2010 Hugo and Nebula nominee
And Their Lips Rang with the Sun by Amal El-Mohtar
Emeritas by Caren Gussoff (A Butler Scholar*)
Lena’s Gift by Shweta Narayan (A Butler Scholar*)
Hi Bugan ya Hi Kinggawan by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (A Butler Scholar*)
Teaching a Pink Elephant to Ski by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
Sex Degrees of Separation by Terence Taylor
Non-Fiction
Beyond Duality by Moondancer Drake
Novels
King Maker: The Knights of Breton Court by Maurice Broaddus (Angry Robot)
Redemption In Indigo by Karen Lord (Small Beer Press)
Anthologies and Collections
A Mosque Among the Stars, ed. Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, Ahmed A. Khan (ZC Books)
Being Full of Light Insubstantial by Linda Addison – Winner of the 2007 Bram Stoker Award (Space and Time)
Tides From The New Worlds by Tobias S Buckell (Wyrm Publishing)
Slightly Behind and to the Left: Four Stories and Three Drabbles by Claire Light (Aqueduct Press)
The Honey Month by Amal El-Mohtar (Papaveria Press)
Paper Cities, An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, ed. Ekaterina Sedia – Winner of the 2009 World Fantasy Award (Senses Five Press)
Filter House by Nisi Shawl – Winner of the 2008 James Tiptree Jr. Award (Aqueduct Press)
Magazines
Apex Magazine November 2010 (Issue 18 – The Arab/Muslim Issue), ed. Catherynne M. Valente
Sybil’s Garage no. 7, ed. Matthew Kressel
Why can’t you just support writers – why specifically writers of colour? Can’t we succeed without need special favours even in art? :-/
Note to all: Leigh-Andrea is still on moderation. I let this comment out of the queue because it’s a question that often comes up, and I don’t mind addressing it. But, be aware, Leigh-Andrea has definitely shown herself to be a troll so, you know, don’t leave any scraps outside!
Why do I support writers of color specifically? There are many reasons.
Reason 1: I’m a person of color. I like to support my homies.
Reason 2: POC are often at a disadvantage — sometimes financial, sometimes social/cultural — when it comes to attending intense, expensive workshops such as the Clarions. If I can remove part of that burden for two students each year, that’s a small step in the right direction.
Reason 3: We need more diverse voices and experiences in speculative fiction. One great way to facilitate that is to provide assistance in any way I can, including monetarily, but also by being a good member of the community.
Reason 4: community is very important to me. Being in a community means supporting the other members of the community. Raising one person up helps to raise us all up.
All this isn’t to say that I don’t support writers of all backgrounds — that was your assumption, Leigh-Andrea. But this is why I specifically donated my time and effort to helping this cause at this time.
Leigh-Andrea,
Writers of color get shit on and disadvantaged on a regular basis, as a regular basis. This happens from inception (writers of color aren’t encouraged as much by teachers, don’t have as many role models who look like us and come from similar backgrounds, don’t have as many opportunities to take after school classes or go to camp, etc.) through education (writers of color aren’t as actively recruited by writing programs, are overlooked or subtly discouraged by teachers and administrators, are often more in need of scholarships and financial support and often have less access to such, etc.) to breaking into the literary world (writers of color aren’t as actively recruited by publishers and editors, may have less access to information about how to break into publishing, may write from a perspective that isn’t recognized or understood by editors, etc.) and then getting their published work recognized (writers of color are often ghettoized into publishing categories that aren’t recognized, writers of color are rarely reviewed at all, much less in the most read and respected publications, writers of color are rarely nominated for prestigious awards, works by writers of color are too rarely assigned in “general” literature classes — as opposed to “ethnic” literature classes, etc.)
Advocating for writers of color is not “special treatment.” It is a few shovelsful of dirt into a pothole the size of the Grand Canyon. And no, we can’t succeed without that advocacy. Without programs geared toward encouraging, training, and promoting writers of color, I for one would never have gotten to the point of entering grad school or going to Clarion West, much less completing work and getting it published. My first published story was drafted as an exercise in a writing class I took at an Asian American arts organization. And my book was published by a feminist press (serving another underserved writing demographic) that didn’t even exist when I entered grad school. Without “special treatment” and these organizations that we start and maintain by the sweat of our own bodies, my weird little stories would still be sitting in a drawer somewhere, or still curled up, embryonic and festering, in my head.
Don’t buy into that narrative, that marginalized people who band together to help each other get a little bit closer to the warmth at the center, are somehow creating unearned privilege. Look at all the work that’s gone into this one little drawing: the work that Tempest and Jenn have put into creating the drawing itself, the work that went into writing the stories that will be loaded onto the eReaders, polishing them, and getting them published. Hell, the work it took for all of those writers to get to the point where they could write the stories in the first place. All of this will pay for one person to go to one six-week summer workshop, and perhaps be transformed thereby … or perhaps not. Out of all of this, maybe one published writer. That’s not special treatment, that’s a life-line.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTEDMFNDV ebluhiBSND VM,KBNJOAEWHN F3BaLKWJNVRGjfdbca f!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND TO THINK I DONATED $10 INSTEAD OF JUST FUCKING TEN TICKETS. I was all like “oh but I has a Kobo oredi, I don’t need one, hee!” and and and and…
aww! Why not buy a ticket or teo and, if you win, give your current eReader to someone as a gift? :D
I kinda dig the simplicity of my current eReader, and it’s already got some staining on it XD But I’ll buy more tickets anyway! I want the free stories! And I’m sure I’ll find someone who wants an eReader!
I flaked and didn’t enter the drawing. I did a little waffling feeling guilty about DRM, and then I decided it didn’t matter, and then I forgot. I have no excuse.
Is it possible to buy the short fiction as a collection? Heck, will probably just randomly donate to the Society somehow, but still want to get the stories if I can.
*facepalm*
Hey Val, sorry I’m so late responding to this. Holidays, work, etc. Anyway, it’s not possible to buy all this as a collection, though that’s something the Carl Brandon Society would love to do. The good news is that a lot of that fiction is available for free online, but you have to hunt it down.
I have one question: why were you feeling guilty about the DRM?
Have you read Peter Hamilton’s “Reality Dysfunction series” very well written and inclusive of most minority characters crucial to the overall story, read the fist chapter of the series and i’ll bet you get hooked as I did also as a prequel to his universal pick up his “Nano Buds” a compilation of short stories that take place prior to “Reality Dysfunction” some very good stories here and always checking in with my Angry Black Woman.