Five Institutions and One Conversation
Apr. 21st, 2020 08:15 am1. Public Libraries I have been lucky enough to spend most of my life with access to good libraries, and I just really love them. As a kid I loved to go to the library and browse, which was how I discovered many of my favorite books. As an adult, I mostly place holds online rather than looking through the shelves. Before shelter in place I had a routine of going to the library once a week with my kid, where I’d return books, pick up any holds that had come in, then go play in the children's section for a while with my kid and eventually pick out a few picture books, before we’d go and have fun with the self checkout machine. Afterwards, we would like to play outside for a bit before heading home.
2. Lady Business This Hugo Award winning blog which features intersectional femistist criticism and capslocked yelling about books has been an important part of my fandom experience for years. I don’t remember how exactly I found out about the blog, but it was soon after it started, and I immediately began following and commenting. Somehow this led to me making friends with the editors, and those friendships developed even more when I eventually got on twitter. Renay encouraged me to write more about short fiction, which grew into me writing occasional pieces for the blog. Then a few years ago I was asked to write Short & Sweet, my short fiction column on the blog. Lady Business has not only given me a platform for my writing but it has also very much influenced my style, and showed me that it’s ok to write pieces that are informal, personal, and full of feelings.
Lady Business is also important to me socially-through my friendships with the editors I have become friends with many other lovely people. And all of these lovely people have had a huge impact on my fandom experiences, recommending great media, and helping me find my way into transformative fandom. I am so so lucky to have such wonderful friends!
3. The Hugo Awards The Hugo Awards are given out for science fiction media and criticism, and I’ve written before about why I enjoy the awards, and participating in the voting and nominations process for them. The Hugos are also a site of fandom conflict that I continue to engage with because they feel mangangable and also like an area in which progress is being made. I started voting in the Hugos because I’d been reading for years about the need for the awards to be more diverse, and since then I have seen the awards grow more diverse, despite the backlash of the Puppy slates. I also worked to create The Lodestar Award for Best YA Book, which is technically not a Hugo, but is announced on and voted for with the Hugos. I get a thrill every year now when they announce the award! It’s real, it has a name, and I helped make that happen! While there is still a lot of progress to be made- the whole conflict of AO3’s win last year was awful- I’m hopeful that the awards can continue to grow more inclusive over time.
4. WisCon This intersectional feminist science fiction convention in Wisconsin has been a great experience for me. I have only attended twice, but I loved it both times, I got to have really amazing conversations and get great recs. WisCon has also been a place where I got to see my internet friends in person, which is amazing! There are parts of WisCon that feel a bit old school, like the fact that they fund The Otherwise Award in part with a bake sale. But I enjoy that too -- it gives the whole thing a sense of history.
5. Archive of Our Own (AO3) This fanfic archive is so great! I know there are other places online to read fic, but AO3 is basically the only place that I read fic. I love that it's easy to find things, and sometimes can’t quite believe the sheer volume of fic. I also really appreciate that the archive allows me to download fic on to my ereader- I sometimes struggle to read things on screens, and I try to limit my screen time right before bed, so having the fic on my ereader makes it much more possible for me to read it. And finally, I love that AO3 is run by fans for fans, and mostly volunteer run.
+1 Conversation. Racefail ‘09 This was a conversation about race and representation in SFF that happened over several months in early 2009. I was pretty much a lurker for all of this conversation, but it really affected me as a reader. Because of Racefail I’m much more aware of racial issues in terms of characters, creatators, and world building inspiration. The conversation led me to be more intentional in my reading by seeking out more works by people of color, which has, unsurprisingly, led me to discover many amazing works I might otherwise have missed.
2. Lady Business This Hugo Award winning blog which features intersectional femistist criticism and capslocked yelling about books has been an important part of my fandom experience for years. I don’t remember how exactly I found out about the blog, but it was soon after it started, and I immediately began following and commenting. Somehow this led to me making friends with the editors, and those friendships developed even more when I eventually got on twitter. Renay encouraged me to write more about short fiction, which grew into me writing occasional pieces for the blog. Then a few years ago I was asked to write Short & Sweet, my short fiction column on the blog. Lady Business has not only given me a platform for my writing but it has also very much influenced my style, and showed me that it’s ok to write pieces that are informal, personal, and full of feelings.
Lady Business is also important to me socially-through my friendships with the editors I have become friends with many other lovely people. And all of these lovely people have had a huge impact on my fandom experiences, recommending great media, and helping me find my way into transformative fandom. I am so so lucky to have such wonderful friends!
3. The Hugo Awards The Hugo Awards are given out for science fiction media and criticism, and I’ve written before about why I enjoy the awards, and participating in the voting and nominations process for them. The Hugos are also a site of fandom conflict that I continue to engage with because they feel mangangable and also like an area in which progress is being made. I started voting in the Hugos because I’d been reading for years about the need for the awards to be more diverse, and since then I have seen the awards grow more diverse, despite the backlash of the Puppy slates. I also worked to create The Lodestar Award for Best YA Book, which is technically not a Hugo, but is announced on and voted for with the Hugos. I get a thrill every year now when they announce the award! It’s real, it has a name, and I helped make that happen! While there is still a lot of progress to be made- the whole conflict of AO3’s win last year was awful- I’m hopeful that the awards can continue to grow more inclusive over time.
4. WisCon This intersectional feminist science fiction convention in Wisconsin has been a great experience for me. I have only attended twice, but I loved it both times, I got to have really amazing conversations and get great recs. WisCon has also been a place where I got to see my internet friends in person, which is amazing! There are parts of WisCon that feel a bit old school, like the fact that they fund The Otherwise Award in part with a bake sale. But I enjoy that too -- it gives the whole thing a sense of history.
5. Archive of Our Own (AO3) This fanfic archive is so great! I know there are other places online to read fic, but AO3 is basically the only place that I read fic. I love that it's easy to find things, and sometimes can’t quite believe the sheer volume of fic. I also really appreciate that the archive allows me to download fic on to my ereader- I sometimes struggle to read things on screens, and I try to limit my screen time right before bed, so having the fic on my ereader makes it much more possible for me to read it. And finally, I love that AO3 is run by fans for fans, and mostly volunteer run.
+1 Conversation. Racefail ‘09 This was a conversation about race and representation in SFF that happened over several months in early 2009. I was pretty much a lurker for all of this conversation, but it really affected me as a reader. Because of Racefail I’m much more aware of racial issues in terms of characters, creatators, and world building inspiration. The conversation led me to be more intentional in my reading by seeking out more works by people of color, which has, unsurprisingly, led me to discover many amazing works I might otherwise have missed.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}