R.B. Lemberg's Blog, page 53

Double Squee

Heard back from Goblin Fruit - they are taking my poem "Strong as Salt" for either Winter or Spring 2011. 

And this wonderful review of the first issue of Stone Telling over at Sabotage Reviews, courtesy of Tori Truslow ( amagiclantern  )- thank you very much!

Stone Telling submissions reminder

Hi everyone,

This is just to remind you that we have about two weeks left of the Stone Telling open reading period, which will end on Nov.21st. If you haven't yet, please send me your work! A tentative theme for Iss. 2 is "generations," although please send anything you want - I will accept thematic and not so thematic poems! As always, diversity in voice and theme is very welcome.

If you feel so moved, please spread the word!

Women editors in Fantasy

 So, I am VERY spoonless, but this bothers me and I need to speak out.

You know, magazines that publish fantasy? That girl-cootie genre that women write and read - not exclusively, but a lot?

Let's look at the people who read slush and choose which voices and stories you, fantasy readers, will be exposed to.

F&SF - edited by a dude.

Fantasy magazine used to be edited by a dude/dudette team, and I personally thought Cat Rambo was awesome. Both Sean and Cat stepped down. A sole male editor - JJA - stepped in. Now they are looking for a "new approach." I loved the old approach - which featured many women, and quite a few diverse perspectives - so I cannot help but be apprehensive.

Realms of Fantasy? You know, that controversial magazine that planned a "Women in Fantasy" issue and published many fine women fantasists, and was edited by Shawna McCarthy, and also showcased quite a few diverse perspectives? Dead.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies? Awesome magazine, no doubt, but the editor is a dude. There is no problem inherent in dudedom, but please, people, if not 50%, can we have at least 30% dudette editors? Please?

Nope.

IGMS? Dude.

Strange Horizons?  Locus Mag informs us that "Susan Marie Groppi, fresh from her World Fantasy Award win, has announced she will be stepping down as editor-in-chief of Strange Horizons effective November 1, 2010. Reviews editor Niall Harrison will take Groppi’s place."

ETA: UPDATE : Apparently Susan, Karen and Jed will still be collectively making decisions at the SH fiction department (see discussion thread).

There is... Cat Valente left. Apex publishes all genres, not just fantasy, but who is, no doubt, awesome. 

And there is Sheila Williams of Asimov's, but she is not in fantasy.

That's it for the pros, ladies and gentlemen. Unless I am missing something. Correct me. Please.

ETA: I apologize, but at this point I am going to lock comments to this entry. I have been very sick lately, and find I cannot deal with more comments at this point. I should have foreseen running out of spoons very quickly, and shouldn't have posted this when I am in physical pain. Apologies again. 

The comments made were excellent and will remain available here. Please give them a read.

Link

Those of you who haven't yet read Athena's excellent column on Steering the Craft at Apex - please do! It's beautiful and inspiring. 

Turning off comments for lack of spoons.

1/2 of WC apologizes

Following ample teachable moments provided by Mike Allen, Shweta Narayan, Lisa Bradley, and many wonderful others, one half of the WC Roberts duo offered a sincere apology (in the comments to Mike Allen's entry). As apologies go, it is not perfect, but what in this world is? I accepted it. I have not heard from Andy Miller, nor do I expect to, although miracles do happen.

Again, thank you very much to all of you together and individually, who offered words of support and courage in my journal and elsewhere. Your words mean the world to me. Protecting and upholding each other, we empower each other to speak, learn, live. So we bless each other.

And as elorie   reminds us, poetry had always been crucial for this process. She quotes Audre Lorde, who said,

"For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest external horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives."
 Here's to poetry, then. Here's to hope.

-----

I am closing comments to this entry, because spoon supply dropped way under zero here. Thank you for understanding.

Tired. So Tired.

And now they screened all the comments. ETA: and now they unscreened them.

ETA: and now they started deleting comments by shweta_narayan. 

So, for the curious, who ask - what is Rose Lemberg hiding?

Let's see.

I want to be treated as a human being. I want to see my friends and loved ones treated so. I want all humans to treat each other as persons.

I want people to uphold each other.

Let's try that again.

I want people to take interest in other people because they are persons, each with their unique histories, emotions, desires, words, fears. I do not want to see people singled out as repositories of a la carte lectures in response to prying questioning about their Color, Creed, Place of Origin, Sexuality, Gender, Immigrant Status, and Other Topics of Interest and Educational Benefit to Curious Questioner. 

And, you know what? I don't want to be silenced. I have been voiceless for a long time. I am speaking now. And I am making a place for you speak - you, and you - yes, and you, and you - through Stone Telling. And in the  stonetellingmag   community. And here.

Come speak with us. 
Come listen with us.

I am not a zoo exhibit. I am not a zoo exhibit. I am not a zoo exhibit.

This is a follow-up on my locked entry from yesterday, which I am now making public. Whether you read or didn't read yesterday's entry, please read on. 

Recently I gave a Stone Telling interview (about POETRY) over at WC Roberts' blog. WC Roberts is a pseudonym of two people, one of whom contacted me to set up this interview. In a followup to the interview I commented and said I would be happy to answer questions. Along comes someone called  bearleyport  , and says this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sure.

What was it like growing up in the former Soviet Union?
How were you affected by the changes '89-92?
Why did you leave?
What has been like for you, as an immigrant?
Why should death scare you?
How do you feel about Chekhov, or Gogol?
How is Russian literature represented to the west, especially the American midwest?
What is speculative poetry like in the former USSR today?
What was it like to be a poet in the USSR?
What has the "experiment" of the Marxist-Leninism or Stalinism to teach us about humanity, and how can/should these lessons be applied to predictions/visions of the future?
What good is human cognition?
-------------------

People had been pointing out to him the dehumanizing effect of his questions. I responded to him with:
Bearleyport, I do not know you from Adam, but I am frankly surprised that you would assume I would be your token ex-Soviet to interview right here on WC Roberts' blog. We had been discussing my zine and poetry in general, and my mention of FSU was limited to "I was born in the former Soviet Union." Your zeroing down on that one feature and questioning me about everything from Gogol to Marxism-Leninism is disrespectful and bizarre. I am nobody's token ex-Soviet. I am a person.
He responded with
"I think it's better to ask an "inappropriate" question than to settle for ignorance and prejudice."
 Yes, we have yet another TEACHABLE MOMENT here. Do my allies want to do a translation here? I am sick of this and would use some help.

BETTER FOR WHOM? 

Ok, Moving on, and even more interestingly, I seem to know him from Adam. Birds of various shape and color chirped in my ears that bearleyport is none other than the other half of the WC Roberts byline, who at various times went by Robert Porter, Andy Miller,  and Jose Sludge of dubious fame. Interesting, huh? One part of WC Roberts sets up the interview questions, and the other one attacks; I notice that the other two editors interviewed (white Americans) were not so interrogated.

Robert Porter/Andy Miller and his various iterations had been known for expressing misogynistic and racist views before. I learned some of this from my PoC female friend, who is welcome to speak or not to speak in the comments to this entry.

In addition to this dehumanizing behavior, the incident is is an incredible breach of trust on the part of the interviewer(s). 

I CRY FOUL.

ETA: I posted to the ST community, and will answer reasonably phrased follow-up questions to my interview there. This is also a reminder that Stone Telling is open to submissions until November 21st. As always, we are committed to showcasing multi-cultural and boundary-crossing poetry. Let's combat fail with awesome!

So I gave a Stone Telling interview (about POETRY) ...

 So I gave a Stone Telling interview (about POETRY) over at WC Roberts' blog, and said I would be happy to answer questions. Along comes this person I do not know, and says this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sure.

What was it like growing up in the former Soviet Union?

How were you affected by the changes '89-92?

Why did you leave?

What has been like for you, as an immigrant?

Why should death scare you?

How do you feel about Chekhov, or Gogol?

How is Russian literature represented to the west, especially the American midwest?

What is speculative poetry like in the former USSR today?

What was it like to be a poet in the USSR?

What has the "experiment" of the Marxist-Leninism or Stalinism to teach us about humanity, and how can/should these lessons be applied to predictions/visions of the future?

What good is human cognition?--------------------------------------------------------------
I have not said anything yet, but these questions make me feel like a zoo exhibit. Do you see why? 
 

On social justice

I quoted this for Athena in the comments, but I love this quote from a 19th-century memoir so much I think it deserves its own entry.

"The routine of obstructing the Torah-reading was practiced well by the widow Tcherne. It should be noted that she seldom entered claims on her own behalf, usually she argued for others. […]
When she had called the attention of the praying public to herself by strong poundings on the platform, she jumped alertly (which did not correspond well with her broad and thick body) toward the ark, placed herself upon the stairs and it was no longer possible to budge her from her site and open the ark. Like a wall she stood in place, mighty and brave, and not a man there was who would dare try to squeeze by her, lest he might receive a gift of a righteous measure from her hand, or especially from her sharp tongue. She never employed totally pure language and she never took pity on a man’s dignity, so long as she was fighting for truth and justice […] And she would not budge from there until the town elders promised her justice and that they would remedy the ill immediately after Shabbat."
            (Shmaryahu Levin's memoir, 19th century, as quoted by Iris Parush in Reading Jewish Women)

I am a PC firebird. Got it?

So happy to see posts by allies on the topic of G. Bondoni's column. I comment in Jim Hines' excelent entry on this topic. Here's one thing I said:
... the language Bondoni uses - "PC Zombies," "PC parrots" is hate speech in my book. Zombies are not supposed to have volition, and the speech of parrots is conceptualized as thoughtless mimicry. Drawing this parallel is denying volition and agency to people on the other side of this debate. Not kosher.
And on the topic of editing, I say this on editorial responsibility:I edit a small poetry magazine, and when I solicit non-fiction columns from people, I first go take a good look at their livejournals/blogs/published articles to get a good impression of their writing style. While Bondoni may not be a celebrity, an editor soliciting a column from him should be able to get a good impression of his writing style, with minimal effort. I also draw your attention to Athena Andreadis'  "Standing at Thermopylae," a salvo to her upcoming response column at Apex.

I wanted to add this. I trust Catherynne Valente.  If engaging Bondoni as a columnist had been, in my opinion, misguided, engaging Cat as an editor was a briliant move. And as long as she continues to edit short fiction and poetry at Apex, I will continue reading and submitting - and giving Apex Company the benefit of the doubt.

N.B: Typing is painful right now, so responses to comments might be delayed or limited. Thanks for understanding.