The WisCon Chronicles Books
This volume explores some of the issues of interest at WisCon 2007: gender, race, culture, revolution, and the future of thinking about those matters. It offers a selection of scholarly essays, comments, arguments, emotive yelps, appeals to reason, scathing replies, and fears and hopes for the future collected from participantswriters, academics, bloggers, activists, and fans, some of them WisCon veterans and some attending for the first timeincluding Kelly Link, Laurie Marks, Nicola Griffith, Catherynne M. Valente, Wendy Walker, and others.
In my research into feminist and women’s writing, I have found many times and places where women have come together to produce culture—poets of Mercedes Matamoros’ circle in Cuba in the late 1800s, for example, or the publishers of feminist newspapers in France in the 1830s, or the Seneca Falls convention, or the Combahee River Collective. What unites all these movements is their collective nature and their visibility… This series of WisCon Chronicles, along with just about all of the publications of Aqueduct Press and many other zines, websites, and small press publications, and hundreds of blog posts and comments, are public writings that will give the fizz of WisCon a lasting place in women’s history. — from the Introduction The word’s been out for some time now that we’re living in “post-feminist” times. And yet the world’s largest feminist science fiction convention, held annually in Madison, Wisconsin, which many of the genre’s luminaries attend, has become so popular that the ceiling limiting attendance to 1000 participants often tops out months in advance. People attend to meet up with friends from other parts of the country (or the world) whom they’ve come to know online; they attend because the programming goes far beyond the “feminism 101” that is the most they can hope for from most other science fiction conventions. But above all they come to experience the kind of community they can’t get elsewhere. Some participants even characterize it as “four days of feminist utopia”—a reference to the communities created in the most famous feminist novels of the 1970s. This volume explores some of the issues of interest at WisCon 2008: the politics of the intelligibility of stories, internet drama, and feminist fandom. It offers a selection of thoughtful essays and analysis, dialogues, comments, arguments, meditations, and appeals to reason, collected from participants—writers, bloggers, activists, and fans, some of them WisCon veterans and some attending for the first time—including L. Timmel Duchamp, K. Tempest Bradford, Nancy Jane Moore, Alexis Lothian, and many others. Review “As with the two previous volumes, there are far too many thoughtful and intelligent essays, articles, letters and transcripts to cover all the material. The book is jam-packed, and worth reading from beginning to end. I was interested that it even incorporated an unpleasant event which coloured the entire convention—something that most ‘con souvenir books’ would not be so hasty to acknowledge in their post-convention haze. A member of WisCon 32, referred to only as ‘Zathlazip’ in the book, took a selection of pictures of other members and posted them to one of those hideous websites designed to mock and denigrate people for their amusement—this was discovered during the con itself, causing a great deal of hurt, humiliation and sense of betrayal, not to mention the dangerous aspect of this. And of course there was a backlash, equally nasty… “What I admire most about these WisCon Chronicles is not just the collection of intelligent thought, and the best example of documenting the convention experience I have ever seen, but the acknowledgement of the bad parts as well as the good—the exposure of privilege, of negative as well as positive reactions to the discussions, and the willingness to shine a bright torch on all the grey areas, for the purpose of greater and more constructive conversation. I particularly liked that this was a space in which women, people of colour and others who are not normally encouraged to display their perfectly reasonable anger or frustration were able to do so here without 200 blog comments from people telling them that they could get more done if they were just a bit calmer about it. They don’t have to speak in reduced voices here—and funnily enough, their opinions still manage to come out perfectly lucidly.” — Tansy Rayner Roberts, AS if , Aug. 2009
This volume of the WisCon Chronicles celebrates, challenges, and discusses the varied faces of WisCon 33. Its contributors include a mix of writers, scholars, and fans, among whom number Nisi Shawl, Nancy Jane Moore, Andrea Hairston, Jennifer Pelland, JoSelle Vanderhooft, MJ Hardman, and Beverly Friend. It also, notably, includes a handful of short stories. And as with previous volumes, it does not shy away from controversy. They are widely diverse, not only in what events the writer attended, what he or she saw and felt, but in the writers themselves. There are first-timers and long-termers, there are women and men, there are POC and Whites. There are reports in prose and reports in verse, reports from people who went to panels and reports from those who ran parties, reports that rhapsodize about WisCon 33 and reports that critique it, or indicate that it is not always a coming-home and recognizing-the-tribe experience. These are strong, clear voices showing that the experience of WisCon is multi-hued and complex. —from the Introduction by Sylvia Kelso The word’s been out for some time now that we’re living in “post-feminist” times. And yet the world’s largest feminist science fiction convention, held annually in Madison, Wisconsin, which many of the genre’s luminaries attend, has become so popular that the ceiling limiting attendance to 1000 participants often tops out months in advance. People attend to meet up with friends from other parts of the country (or the world) whom they’ve come to know online; they attend because the programming goes far beyond the “feminism 101” that is the most they can hope for from most other science fiction conventions. But above all they come to experience the kind of community they can’t get elsewhere. Some participants even characterize it as four days of feminist utopia—a reference to the communities created in the most famous feminist novels of the 1970s. Review “As usual, we have a grab bag of interesting and at times emotionally affecting content. I very much enjoyed the focus on Tiptree Award winner Nisi Shawl and her experience at the con, as well as the experience of her mother who came along to share the event and contributes a letter about what it was like for her… The mixture of ‘event record’ and after-the-fact discussion is one of the great strengths of these books. “‘Up Off Our Couches: Mental Illness Activism and Speculative Fiction’ by JoSelle Vanderhooft was an extraordinary essay about the portrayal of mental illness in pop culture, and the perceptions of mental illness in everyday community, and how these two things intersect. This is a topic very dear to my heart and the article was crunchy and thought-provoking. “With ‘Haiku Earring Party’ Elise Matthesen describes how this now-traditional WisCon party (in which attendees write poems in exchange for handmade pairs of earrings) got started, and shares some of the special moments she has experienced over the years. I found this story really sweet and inspirational, and I think it shows very much how WisCon differs from other conventions. “‘Romance of the Robot’ by Andrea Hairston was a great analysis of Wall E (and some other examples of robotic romance) and I will now not be able to look at that movie without interpreting Wall E and Eve as lesbians! “I think my favourite parts of the WisCon Chronicles are the panel reports and the one on “Transgressive Women Warriors” was particularly interesting…. I also enjoyed the Panel Notes on the topic of Male Answer Syndrome and the discussion that ensued… “The highlight of the book for me was ‘We See What You Did There,’ a group chat among various POC about their various experiences at the convention, and discussing their relationship with WisCon as a continuing event.” — Tansy Rayner Roberts, blog, stitching words, one thread at a time
Some time in January of 2011 I wrote to a friend: “I feel like I am floating in an alternate universe of silver goggles and artificial wombs and look there's Emily Dickinson smoking a cigar.” I was deep inside the process of editing The WisCon Chronicles, Vol. 5: Writing and Racial Identity , surrounded by all those elements and more—a delightful place. From the Introduction. “This volume of the WisCon Chronicles celebrates, challenges, and discusses the varied faces of WisCon 34. Its contributors include a mix of writers, scholars, and fans, among whom number Greer Gilman, Nnedi Okorafor, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Nisi Shawl, Nancy Jane Moore, Vandana Singh, Andrea Hairston, Eileen Gunn, MJ Hardman, and Maurice Broaddus. It also, notably, includes a handful of short stories. And as with previous volumes, it does not shy away from controversy.”
“We are all stories,” Nisi Shawl says in her Guest of Honor speech included in this volume, and “changing stories changes everything.” What will the stories we tell ourselves about feminism, about science fiction, and about fandom change? How will—and how should—we change those stories? Volume 6 of The WisCon Chronicles documents the conversations, the dramas, and the joys that shaped the world of feminist science fiction fandom before, during, and after WisCon 35. From founders’ recollections of the excitement and conflict of the con’s origins, to many different, difficult conversations about intersections of race, culture, class, and gender, to new forms of fannish engagement that changing media landscapes make more visible, the contributors explore feminism and fandom’s past, present, and future. This volume includes memorial tributes to Joanna Russ, Steampunk, and other issues and subjects. Its contributors include a mix of writers, scholars, and fans, among whom number Nalo Hopkinson, Nisi Shawl, Liz Henry, N.K. Jemison, Jeanne Gomoll, Debbie Notkin, Amar El-Mohtar, Andrea Horbinksi, Eileen Gunn, and others. As with previous volumes, it does not shy away from controversy.
In science fiction and fantasy, just as in the world we all inhabit, disability is often misunderstood, maligned, and disregarded, even by fans (as well as people in general) who are committed to social justice, anti-oppression, and equal representation for all in sf/f fandom. In the spirit of WisCons continuing mission to boldly go where no con has gone before in breaking down barriers, this volume of the WisCon Chronicles seeks to smash ableist narratives that keep disabled people from full participation in the present we inhabit and the speculative futures we hope to create. Contributors include Andrea Hairston, Debbie Notkin, Nisi Shawl, Josh Lukin, and Nancy Jane Moore, among others. The volume includes a CD of the text, including supplemental material.
“In this volume of the WisCon Chronicles, we find ourselves considering what it means to live at the intersections of various identities, some of them more privileged than others. We ask how we can function as good allies to each other in often challenging situations. We’re living through an intense time of social change, and a variety of questions arise as we have these often difficult conversations about feminism, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and more. Among them are questions about what leads to positive social change and how best to effect such change in our communities.” From the Introduction
In short fiction, poetry, personal essays, academic thinkpieces, Twitter rants, and informal Q&As, this volume begins conversations on liberation and limitations, intergenerational and international conflicts, intra-community and internal tensions. Authors include Nalo Hopkinson, Justine Larbalestier, Sofia Samatar, Nisi Shawl, Beth Plutchak, K. Tempest Bradford, Veronica Schanoes, and others.