It’s Readercon time again, and I couldn’t be more excited! The 35th annual Readercon is being held at the Boston Marriot Burlington in Burlington, Massachusetts. Lots of awesome folks will be there, including guests of honor P. Djèlí Clark and David Gerrold (full participant list here).
From Thursday, July 9th to Sunday, July 12th I’ll be in there, too, paneling and selling Duck Prints Press stuff in the Bookshop.
Panel Schedule:
Friday, 1 p.m.: Sports in Speculative Fiction
Friday, 3 p.m.: The Fine Art of Short Story Editing
Friday, 10 p.m.: Meet the Pros(e)
Saturday, 10 a.m.: Keeping Your Love Alive to the Nth Draft
Saturday, 12 p.m.: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex Writing But Were Afraid to Ask
The Bookshop hours overlap some of those; when I’m not at the table, we’ll have someone else there if it all possible – most likely either my wife (who writes as Nova Mason) or Shea Sullivan.
Vending Hours:
Friday: 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Are you in Boston? Can you get there? Then come on down to Readercon and get your reading fandom on!
A list of the works mentioned in the "Life Cycle of Political SF" panel at #Readercon.
I was privileged to moderate an excellent panel during this year’s Readercon that dealt with the life cycle of speculative fiction. Several books were mentioned, both in the description and during the panel, and I thought I might list them here, beginning with books by the folks on the panel. (If you were there and I’ve left any out, please let me know and I’ll add them.) Panelists Dennis Danvers…
Readercon 28 is July 13 through 16, 2017, in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Friday July 14
1:00 PM BH Body Modification and Post-Humanism: Beyond Body Horror.
John Benson, F. Brett Cox (leader), Jim Kelly, Sarah Lynn Weintraub, T. X. Watson.
Body horror seems to be falling by the wayside as body modification, cyborgs, and post-humans have become increasingly common in fantasy and SF. Are we getting more comfortable with our bodies, or more interested in treating them like machines to be tinkered with? How are advances in surgery, tattoos, contraception, cosmetics, and other present-day forms of body modification influencing this trend? What cultural anxieties are writers reflecting with these metaphors?
2:00 PM 6 Problematizing Taxonomizing: Maybe the Most Readercon Panel Ever.
John Benson, John Clute, Samuel R. Delany, Kathryn Morrow (leader), T. X. Watson.
Countless Readercon panels have been devoted to questions of taxonomy, so let's ask the next questions about taxonomy itself. What is the importance of categories? What is the language of categorization? It is important to define terms, but when do the terms themselves become an obfuscation rather than a clarification? How do taxonomies, and perhaps even the notion of taxonomy, perpetuate problematic power structures? Will we end up coming up with a taxonomy of taxonomies? Will our heads explode?
Saturday July 15
2:00 PM 5 The Life Cycle of Political SF.
Dennis Danvers, Alex Jablokow, Barbara Krasnoff (moderator), Sabrina Vourvoulias, T. X. Watson.
SF writers have often written deeply political books and stories; some stand the test of time, while others become dated very quickly. John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar, Octavia Butler's Kindred, Joanna Russ's The Female Man, and Ursula K. Le Guin's "The New Atlantis," to name just a few, directly addressed major issues of their day and are still relevant now—but differently. What affects how political SF ages and is read decades after its publication? What are today’s explicitly political books, and how do we expect them to resonate decades in the future?
3:00 PM B Reading: T. X. Watson.
*T. X. Watson reads "The Boston Hearth Project," which will be in the upcoming Sunvault anthology of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation.
Readercon is one of the biggest events we attend all year, and is the event that the single highest number of Duck Prints Press authors attend. This year, in addition to me (Claire/unforth/Nina Waters) vending and paneling, authors D. V. Morse, Adrian Harley, N. C. Farrell, Shea Sullivan, Puck Malamud, and Nova Mason were all in attendance.
Learn more about Readercon
We thought it’d be fun to type up some of our impressions and share them with y’all. Here are reports from D. V. Morse, Adrian Harley, N. C. Farrell, Shea Sullivan, and yours truly!
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D. V. Morse Reports:
There were two main themes that emerged from the panels I attended at Readercon 35: a) the role and impact of speculative fiction vis a vis the world at large, and b) cozy and/or comfort reads. Often, this was evident in the names of the panels, other times they just sort of went there.
The second theme is a bit shorter than the first. There were two panels related to comfort and cozy reads, how we define them and what we look for in them. The answers were, unsurprisingly, both similar and varied. The general definitions of “low stakes” and “cozy vibes” looked different to different panelists. For example, one felt that something dealing with grief couldn’t be cozy, while another pointed out that someone healing from grief could actually be very cozy. One of the most intriguing things was learning that author Rachel Gutin has a rubric of coziness she uses for a blog post series looking at various works. I plan to try applying it to some reads I think of as cozy and see where that leads.
A number of works brought up in the panels dealing with the first theme were arguably cozy or were discussed in terms of whether that impacted their effectiveness positively or negatively. But to give you an idea of the range involved, here are some of the panel titles:
Beyond Treevenge: Environmental Justice Stories of Hope and Resistance
Writing Big Ideas Without Being Preachy
Fighting for the Freedom to Read
The Limits of Hope: A Meditation on Fiction as an Activist Force
The Heavy Issues and Light Touch of Discworld
As is always the case, I came away with an ever-growing TBR, including a determination to reread the Discworld books as well as Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I also came away with some great resources related to issues of censorship:
Authors Against Book Bans
Freedom to Read Foundation
Kids’ Right to Read Project
Little Free Library book ban map
Adrian Harley Reports:
I keep coming back to Readercon every year for the joy of being surrounded by fellow passionate sci-fi/fantasy nerds. Perhaps unsurprisingly, my two favorite panels this year were the most passionate.
I had the most fun in “Building a Seven Stories Mountain,” where panelists were given the following prompt: literary-minded aliens have come to Earth and demanded that we present them with seven sci-fi/fantasy books that give them a full picture of humanity, after which the aliens shall decide whether to spare us. What seven books do you give them? Panelists Graham Sleight, Kate Nepveu (editor’s note: Kate’s notes are in this blog post and include all the initial nominees), Katherine Karch, and Rich Horton presented their lists and arguments, and moderator R. W. W. Greene led the panelists and audience in a delightful, ruthless series of debates and cuts. I believe there were literal cries of “No!” as some beloved favorites got the axe. In the end, we were left with Kindred (Octavia Butler), The Dispossessed (Ursula K. LeGuin), Heaven Official’s Blessing (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu), Kalpa Imperial (Angélica Gorodischer), A Light In the Attic (Shel Silverstein), Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (James Tiptree, Jr.), and The Fifth Season (N. K. Jemisin). Kate Nepveu noted that we had probably saved ourselves; if nothing else, by the time the aliens finished reading Heaven Official’s Blessing, we would have had plenty of time to think of further compelling arguments in favor of humanity.
My other favorite panel this year was “The Saga of Blood Marmalade,” a solo presentation by Katherine Creighton about the importance of research and how to do it properly, as demonstrated through her own attempts to track down the real source of a medieval treatment dubbed “blood marmalade” in recent literature. She made source-scouring engaging! This is a gift! In the end, along with the truth about “blood marmalade,” we readers came away with some excellent resources on tracking down primary sources (Early English Books Online, via University of Michigan; Hathitrust; and The Wellcome Library).
Readercon was blessed with many excellent panels this year, and I can’t do justice to them all in a single post. I’d like to especially highlight the “SFF and Queer Cultural Memory” panel, where author David Gerrold shared his own lived experience of the overlap of the sci-fi community and the queer community from pre-Stonewall to today. As one author said on the panel—an author whose name I unfortunately did not write down, so I’m hoping someone else did—Cultural memory is “handing candles from one generation to the next.” I came away from Readercon full of new facts, shiny ideas and what-ifs prompted by panel discussions, and books for the eternal TBR list. I am happy to talk about any of those with anyone. There can never be enough sci-fi fantasy conversation in my life.
N. C. Farrell Reports:
I was only at Readercon on Saturday, but it’s always a good time and nice to see friends!
I think the panel I found most fascinating was “Games as Historical Arguments,” which turned out to be a conversation about player agency, the ability to create counterfactual history, how games/stories are supposed to have satisfying endings for players and replay value, and “what is the story being told here?”/societal assumptions baked into mechanics.
“What role is the player taking and what does that teach them about how they can look at the world?” was the thematic question that they kept circling, with examples that were often focused on the negative (people learning to enact colonialism and exercise military power). Which is understandable! There are fewer well-known examples of positive versions of this!
They brought up Sign at one point as an example of how games can place you into a specific role and historical context and allow you to embody experiences you might not otherwise encounter. (Sign is “Based on the history of Nicaraguan Sign Language. Nicaragua in the 1970s had no official form of sign language. In 1977, something happened. Fifty deaf children from across the country were brought together to a school in Managua. Without a shared language to express themselves, the children did something remarkable—they created one. In Sign, we follow a story inspired by that journey.”)
The conversation covered a lot of mediums. Video games came up a lot (especially Crusader Kings, though Papers Please! was discussed at length as well). Board games (Settlers of Catan and Spirit Island are the ones I recall most). Reenactment, including what I fondly call “larping for credit” (Reacting to the Past academic classes), was discussed as a way of engaging with history and thinking about vectors of change. But, honestly, one of my favorite comments during this panel was one panelist, in her introduction, saying that she doesn’t play many games but thinks of her historical research as a kind of archival exploration game. Which is totally fair! And made me think about the indie RPG scene and lyric games (a style of game that’s meant to be very contemplative and in some ways interrogate what a game even is).
I also really enjoyed the interview with P. Djeli Clark, who was very funny and insightful and talked a lot about his love for epic fantasy (Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time in particular) and how his academic life as a history professor feeds and inspires his writing.
The panel on “SFF and Queer Cultural Memory” was fascinating and wandered back and forth between people talking about “we have always been here”-style books and their own personal memories of the past, a way of proving how much has changed in a short period of time and also how by simply having a panel like this we’re helping create more shared cultural memory. Definitely interesting! Not sure I was expecting it from the description, but I’m glad I went.
“Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex Writing” was a very nice panel that I did not get much from, due to being a person who has been writing smutty fanfic for over a decade. xD But the friend I went with, who is less experienced and less comfortable with writing sex, thought it was great—especially the part where every panelist was clear that they were more interested in how sex was an expression of a character and their personality than the mechanics of it, even for erotica. Like, yes, it’s important that smut be sexy if that’s its role in the story, but sometimes it’s supposed to be un-sexy or otherwise fulfill a different narrative role/beat. And that’s good too, if that’s the point!
I caught part of “The Rise of Cozy Fiction,” wherein the panelists agreed that it was mostly a reaction to The Times being What They Are and spent a lot of time discussing personal definitions of what “cozy fiction” was and how in a Venn diagram it would be an overlapping circle with “cozy mysteries,” not exactly the same thing. A cozy mystery might not be cozy fiction, and obviously not all cozy sf/f is a mystery! (I believe Malka Older’s The Mimicking of Known Successes was cited as perhaps being both, though ymmv on that, since they also agreed that “cozy” was a very personal definition/vibe.)
I also picked up some anti-AI pins from the Clarkesworld booth, since they were handing them out for free, and gave one to my friend who was also there and managed to look at all the vendor tables except that one. xD It was very important to me that they have one because I sometimes feel like half of their job is trying to tell people why using AI in academic contexts is foolish.
Also fun: As I was leaving, being spotted by someone who recognised where my shirt was from (Friends at the Table, c/W mecha shirt) and chatted with me about FatT a bit in delight at seeing another fan.
Shea Sullivan Reports:
I have attended three Readercons, now, and it continues to be one of the best things I do for myself and my creative practice every year. I always come back infused with inspiration and hope.
P. Djèlí Clark and David Gerrold were the Guests of Honor this year, and seeing them on panels and in interviews was phenomenal.
Panels this year were dense and thought provoking, and I often had conflicts that challenged me (missing “Literary Cannibalism” for a chance to talk to Scott H. Andrews of Beneath Ceaseless Skies was difficult, but rewarding, and luckily I had friends who were able to take notes). I had a few opportunities to connect with new people, which is pretty rare at Readercon, since we’re all sprinting from panel to panel to restaurant to sleep, again and again! And I managed to pack in about 8 panels over three days, some amazing meals with friends, and a little time at the DPP table in the bookstore.
I enjoyed so many panels for so many reasons, I wish I could tell you about all of them! But, let me whet your appetite with “Defining the Monstrous,” a panel that was run twice with two sets of panelists. I went to the first one, with panelists Gillian Daniels, Catt Kingsgrave, Kit Sedia, and moderator Mike Allen. Each of the panelists, all of them speculative fiction writers, came from a different angle—Kit has a biology background, Catt works with abuse survivors, and Gillian spoke from her English folklore research and the lens she used in her upcoming novel. Mike Allen, the moderator, also spoke as a publisher and writer of horror.
The discussion ranged from the standard “external” monster, like Pennywise from Stephen King’s It, to “internal” monsters, where the ugliness of a character is externalized into a monster, to the outsider monster, representing a group such as queer or neurodiverse folk, to the romantic monster, often representing forbidden or dangerous urges, and many variations on those themes.
I have always been interested in delving into monstrosity as metaphor, but the group covered a lot that I hadn’t considered. There was discussion of the attraction of the monstrous, and the different lenses through which it can be examined. Catt talked about how common it is for people to seek safety in dangerous protectors. Kit explained that fear and arousal are very closely linked in the amygdala. Gillian brought up the inherent danger of being radically vulnerable and completely known in a relationship.
There was talk of monstrosity as an outcome of trauma and specifics around various depictions of monsters in fiction, classic and new. Overall, it touched on a lot of different ways monsters are used in fiction, and made me think more deeply about themes of consumption of people by society and the drive toward becoming more dangerous as a protective measure. These are the basis of a lot of our monster stories, and I think they are relevant in new ways that I hope to explore or see explored.
I can’t possible write about everything I attended or everyone I chatted with at Readercon, I can only encourage you to experience it for yourself! In the meantime, I always have a long list of books I’ve bought or added to my TBR list because of conversations, panels, or bookstore finds at the con. Here are just a few:
Jenny Will Eat You Now by Gillian Daniels
Daydreamer by Rob Cameron
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
The Little Red Fish by James Moffitt and illustrated by Bizhan Khodabandeh
The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia
The Mystery of the Bitten Peach by Cecilia Tan
Claire Houck Reports:
I’m writing my own report after reading and editing everyone else’s, and I find I haven’t the least idea where to begin. This is my third Readercon, and I’ve paneled at all three, which is a great honor that definitely does not in anyway both trigger and cure my imposter syndrome. This was the first time my wife, Nova Mason, came with me, which was a delight, as we so rarely get to travel just the two of us (without our kids) and we met at a (gaming) convention, so this is something we’ve shared our entire relationship.
The only panels I got to attend were the ones I was a panelist on: “Sports in Speculative Fiction,” “The Fine Art of Short Story Editing,” “Keeping Your Love Alive to the Nth Draft,” and “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex Writing But Were Afraid to Ask.” All were phenomenal in their own ways.
“Sports and Speculative Fiction,” wonderfully modded by Marianna Martin, ended up a very positive and intriguing discussion of both made-up sports and modern-day sports in fictional settings (and some historical sports, too). I especially appreciated how little overlap there was in knowledge between the panelists: we’d all read very different works about sports, and so we all brought really different things to the table.
“The Fine Art of Short Story Editing” had me sat with Neil Clarke, Scott H. Andrews, Ellen Datlow, and T. J. Woolridge, and we had a fantastic discussion about what we look for as editors, what challenges we’ve faced, and more. I think my favorite moment was during the Q&A, when an audience member asked us what we are looking for as we look forward—as in, what we want to see next, and Neil Clarke was just like (heavily paraphrased) “nope, no way, not answering that, if I say an answer people will send me so many stories with that that I’m not even going to say.”
I was probably least fit for “Keeping Your Love Alive to the Nth Draft,” because it ended up being primarily a discussion of editing one’s own novels, and while I’ve done that, I have more experience editing other people’s novels, and we didn’t get into discussing that aspect much (like, keeping your passion engaged when it’s not your own work). Still, it was lovely to chat with everyone; Caitlin Rozakis introduced me to the term “reverse outlining,” which I’ve always done but didn’t know had a name, and even sitting at the same table as Delia Sherman left me a bit of a gawky teenager. I wish this one had more time, though, there were a lot of things I’d have liked to explore that we simply didn’t get to.
Speaking of wanting more time, at the end of “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex Writing But Were Afraid to Ask,” we all agreed we could have kept talking for hours, and I think the audience would have listened. It was a standing-room-only crowd, and we had a great and wonderfully candid conversation about writing about sex. Marianna Martin, who moderated this one as well, mentioned afterward about maybe trying to organize an online day-long multi-panel… thing… to talk about this more, and I really hope she wasn’t joking because I’m there with bells on if she really does it.
Aside from my panels, I was mostly at the Duck Prints Press table in the Dealer’s Room. I had a lot of really great conversations with people there, as I always do, and a lot of people also circled by to remark on appreciating things I’d said during the panels, which does wonders for my self-esteem. I especially love how many queer folks stop by, and we can talk about what we’re reading, how we’re doing, etc. And, for the third year running, I had multiple wonderful conversations start because I was reading danmei at the table when things were slow (Twin Jades of Jiangdong by Fei Tian Ye Xiang was my read this year.)
I always leave Readercon feeling empowered, confident, inspired, motivated, and part of a wonderful wider community. I’m already looking forward to next year!
