Tonya Liburd's Blog, page 12

Quoth

Interview with Carmen Maria Machado, where she addresses the subject of writing as activism:-

As for the question of “activism,” I think that if you’re a woman, a queer person, a person of color, a non-cisgender person, a non-able-bodied person, etc., writing is inherently a form of activism because you’re staking a claim in a world that is not meant for you. When you try and put your work into the world, you’re saying “I think that what I have to say, in the way I say it, is so important that I am willing to try and get it to other people, no matter what it takes.” And that requires ego, in the best way possible. It requires that you take yourself and your craft and your voice seriously. When you’re not white, not male, not cisgender or straight or able-bodied, that ego is a radical act. So yes, the fact that I take myself seriously as an artist and do what I can to put my work out into the world is a form of activism.

Filed under: Quoth, Writing Tagged: carmen maria machado, Quoth, Tonya Liburd, writig, writing, writing as activism

Graveyard Shift Sisters interviews me!

From Eden Royce’s Blog:-

The Graveyard Shift Sister feature is back for 2016!

First up this year in this interview series is Tonya Liburd.

Tonya is an editor, author, and champion of people of color as fiction creators. I spoke with her about people of color behind the scenes in fiction and publishing, creating from a place of pain, and using your heritage and history in your writing.

As I’m sure several people who read this feature are creators themselves, I also asked her what publishers are tired of seeing. (There’s also a link to where you can submit your uber creative story as well!)

The phenomenal Loretta Devine in Urban Legend.

Read the entire review and interview on the Graveyard Shift Sisters website.

Read the interview here:-

Filed under: Writing Tagged: dark geisha, Eden Royce, Graveyard Shift Sisters, interview, Tonya Liburd

Issue 193 of the Malahat Review has arrived in my mail…!

Happy Picture Time…!

Filed under: Writing Tagged: issue 193, The Malahat Review, The sweater, Tonya Liburd

Quoth

On white feminists & black women stereotypes…





Minister Faust:-

Useful note via Margarita Lau: it is white Western women that usually can get away with this, because the ability to violate social norms is a form of privilege. You can see it at conferences, where woc/non-Western women are dressed more professionally than white women, and white men are the sloppiest of all. Steve Jobs got away with wearing the same thing every day not because he was so above such nonsense as clothes but because he was a powerful man.

Also, the whole railing against traditional femininity thing is such a second – wave phenomenon. Like, fighting the patriarchy by adopting masculine modes of dress, speech, etc is really missing the point, and it has a quaint side-effect of casting feminine women as the enemy, instead of the whole machine of gendered oppression. Very common in academia, especially sciences, where traditionally feminine pursuits are scoffed at as superficial, and a woman loses 10 points of perceived IQ for every inch of heel. Put it together with the previous point, and you get a fun situation where the least privileged get shit from the mainstream for being “non-professional” if they step outside of the acceptable, and they also get shit from white feminists if they don’t! — via Ekaterina Sedia

(…I think Steve Jobs and others in Apple who dressed the same as he did were into differentiating Apple in branding, rather than the power aspect, although he still has a point with him, IMHO…)

Filed under: Quoth Tagged: Ekaterina Sedia, Margarita Lau, miinster faust, Quoth, white feminists & black women stereotypes

Cover reveal, Table Of Contents for Malahat Review Issue 193, which includes my piece “The Sweater”

So; the cover and table of contents for The Malahat Review issue 193, which my creative nonfiction piece “The Sweater” will be in, is up!

You can see it here.

Filed under: Uncategorized