Sarah Pinsker's Blog, page 3

China

I've been trying to write a post about my amazing trip to China for almost two months now. Part of what's taken me so long has been sifting through 400 photos to decide what to include here. The other delay was all the deadlines I extended so I could take the trip.

Anyhow, here goes: 

I was invited to China by three different organizations: the promoters of the MTA Festival (YEMA Live), the FAA (Future Affairs Administration), and Science Fiction World magazine. The MTA Festival was supposed to be a combination of South by Southwest and Coachella, but the art installations elevated it to something else entirely (more on that in a bit).

I arrived in Beijing bleary-eyed, having decided that the best course of action was to stay up through the entire flight and trick my body into exhaustion. It worked! Morning in Baltimore, evening in Beijing, and I was a wreck. I've touched down in new-to-me countries in that state before, and it brings a certain degree of surreality.

My volunteer guide from the festival, Gracia, managed to find me in the airport after a bit of triangulation, and I fought to stay awake through the ride into the city. Gracia helped me check into my hotel and find my room. We got into the middle of the room and the lights promptly went out. I didn’t know you were supposed to put your room card into a little slot by the entrance in order for the lights to work. I collapsed onto the bed the second she left.

Fourteen hours later, I met her downstairs for a day of sightseeing. First she took me to buy a Chinese SIM card for my phone, which made communication with everybody much easier.  We had lunch at the delicious B��ihé vegetarian restaurant, in a hutong near the Lama Temple, where I had the best vegetarian sausage dish I've ever had, sautéed with green beans. 

We then took several buses around to the entrance of the Forbidden City. For the entire afternoon we wandered in and out of palaces and courtyards. Many of the signs were bilingual, and Gracia helpfully filled in information when the signs were lacking. It's a magnificent complex. The scale of it boggled my mind. I think I liked the outer gardens best, with their serene courtyards.

For dinner, we found another hutong restaurant, Zuo Lin You She, serving a finger-shaped fried dumpling called dalian huoshao. We had several: tofu and fennel, egg and chive. Delicious after a long day of walking.

The following day, we stopped at a bakery and filled a bag with pastries and then took several subway trains and buses out to the Ming tombs. The Ming tombs are spread out over a fairly large area, with several different sites. Some of them still haven't been found. I loved the Sacred Path, much less crowded than the other sites, and lined with beautiful trees and expressive sculptures.

We bused and subwayed back into the city, then took a cab to another lovely Buddhist vegan restaurant, where we waited for the volunteer driver who was supposed to take us out to the festival site. I passed out completely in the car, after two days of sightseeing and an upside down schedule. Woke up to Gracia and the driver arguing about where we were – the GPS said we had reached my festival hotel, but we were sitting on the side of the highway next to a half-constructed building with no lights on.  After waiting and triangulating, with the GPS still insisting we were there, a truck pulled in and told us to follow. We turned onto a dirt service road and went a couple more kilometers until we reached another construction site – the hotel. It was well after midnight, but Gracia found a clerk to let me into my room. The lobby was a work in progress, but my room was beautiful, and bigger than my house. I had just about enough time to notice that before I passed out again.

Gracia called to wake me in the morning, and to tell me there was a panel going on at the festival that I might enjoy. I packed a day bag, put on hat and sunscreen, etc. She met me outside my room and led me…  upstairs! While the lobby and outside of the hotel weren't quite finished, upstairs there was a beautiful hall where the festival's tech panels were taking place. The hotel, it turned out, was also a winery. Their wines flowed freely all weekend – the white was delicious – along with strawberry moon cakes.

The first panel was an interview with Michael Lang, one of the promoters who founded Woodstock. He talked about plans for the anniversary concerts in 2019. We had an opportunity to chat in line for food later.

 Lunch was a buffet in the hotel restaurant. Not a single thing was vegetarian – even the rice had ham in it – but the indefatigable Gracia convinced the kitchen to make me some rice with egg instead of ham and a beautiful mountain of sauteed greens. She took excellent care of me.  I chatted a little with some of the artists who had installations at the festival grounds.  Then we listened to a couple more tech panels, with Gracia translating for me.

I also did an interview for Japanese television with Kutsuna Miwa, whose art involves taking live bullets from conflict zones and transforming them into jewelry. She gave me one of her bracelets and I gave her a CD.

When the panel program concluded, we headed to the festival grounds. The festival itself took place a couple of kilometers from the hotel, at a dune-filled film site, Sky Desert (it was the location for The Mummy: Return of the Dragon Emperor, and many, many Chinese films).  It was magnificent. You passed through a giant Stargate to enter. The main stage was made to look like the engine of a giant spaceship crashed into the desert. I've never seen a stage that big. Everywhere you looked there were futuristic art installations and inflatables. People sat in the shadows of UFOs to listen to the music.

Gracia suggested we check out the technology tent before it closed.  We walked past dancing robots and a half dozen VR booths. At the center of the tent was a darkened room with another art installation, Nick Verstand's "Anima," a large vinyl planet that responded to movement by modulating its music and the storms on its surface in color, speed, and direction.

I played the cool observer until I couldn't anymore. I didn't try any of the shoot-'em-up VR games, and I don't want zombies chasing me in three dimensions, but there was a booth at the back with a demo of a VR experience based on a Liu Cixin story, created by Sandman VR. I put on the headphones, the visor, the gloves. There ensued several minutes of pure delight as I pushed my way through a starfield to see a man putting a child to bed on the moon. It was beautiful and thrilling. I get the appeal.

We left the technology tent at twilight, and watched the festival grounds transform again. Art installations such as Romain Tardy's Future Ruins lit up. Planets and sand snakes took on a stellar glow. The mainstage engines flared to life. It was breathtaking. I dragged Gracia away earlier than I would have liked (and I think earlier than she would have liked), because I had to prepare for the following day.

The following day was my first event of the trip: a panel about "How Sci-Fi can make breakthrough to the limit of humankind?" I was asked to play three songs before the panel began. The promised amp never materialized, but when I plugged my Telecaster direct into the board, a miracle happened. That beautiful high ceilinged room sounded wonderful. 

The panel included Stanley Chen (Chen Quifan) (read his Clarkesworld story "The Fish of Lijiang" here) and Tang Fei (read her Apex story Call Girl here), and was moderated by Ji Shaoting. I'm a fan of both of the other writers, and it was a pleasure to chat with everyone on the stage. For the second day of panels, there were live translators working English-to-Chinese and Chinese-to-English in a booth at the back of the room, and little earpieces we could wear to understand each other. It worked very well.

Afterward, we adjourned to the restaurant, where I ate another mountain of veggies and rice while everyone else went through the buffet. The other writers and the staff of the FAA sat down with me and we had a great time chatting. This time I insisted on a to-go container for my broccoli mountain, since I felt so terrible about all the wasted food.

That turned out to be a good plan. Partway through the afternoon panels, a huge hailstorm hit. It was cool to watch through the floor to ceiling windows of the winery. After the storm, the sky still looked ominous. I decided to sit out the second night of the festival, afraid that if I got drenched and sick I might have a miserable rest of my trip. Gracia made me promise that if I needed her I'd call her back, and went off to the festival. I had a wonderful evening reading and watching branch lightning from my window and eating my delicious leftovers. No regrets. I had one perfect night at the festival, and that was enough.

The next  morning we made the long trip back to Beijing. I was glad I had slept through the ride up, since I found the highway a little terrifying. Gracia pointed out one of the unrestored sections of the Great Wall from the car, which was cool. She asked a whole bunch of wonderful questions that she had been holding off on in order to save my voice for my festival appearance, which was very kind of her.

We arrived at my third hotel, near the university where the Galaxy Awards would take place. Near a bunch of universities and tech sites, I believe; this hotel clearly catered to an international clientele, as evidenced by their buffet, which included everything you might expect of an Indian, British, German, Chinese, or American breakfast. I dropped my stuff in my room and went off to lunch with Gracia and Jane, the FAA employee who was taking over for Gracia.

We went to an absolutely amazing restaurant, Cixiangju Vegan, not far from my third hotel. Gracia spent the meal giving Jane the Care and Feeding of a Sarah talk while I stuffed my face with sesame pancakes and vegetarian eel and pumpkin greens and barley tea and all kinds of amazing food I'd never had before. Back at the hotel, I said a tearful goodbye to Gracia, who did an excellent job of taking care of me for five exhausting days.

Monday night was my bookstore panel, hosted by the FAA. It took place at a famous bookstore in a mall. Jane and I went early because there was an interview I was supposed to do beforehand. After the interview, we wandered the mall for a while. I played an interesting little guitar in a music store. We took pictures with a giant fiberglass shark. I was still full from our lunch feast, but we went to a dessert café where I ate a giant bowl of chocolate coconut porridge and Jane had a grass jelly porridge. The coconut cream in my porridge swirled in a really pretty way. It looked like gases moving across a planet. Jane caught me playing with my food and recorded me, so now there is video of me playing with my food.

We went back to the bookstore, where there were now very professional looking human sized banners announcing the panel. The café at the back had been transformed into a listening space. Multiple media outlets were setting up cameras and mics. All this for a Monday night mall bookstore panel on women in science fiction! Very impressive. Even more impressive: the crowd that started lining up to get into the space.

The FAA had hired a live translator to make sure I understood and was understood. He had just moved back to Beijing from France, and was in fact trilingual. Also impressive.

This panel, like the one at the festival, was moderated by Ji Shaoting, and featured Tang Fei, Hao Jingfang  (author of the Hugo-winning novelette Folding Beijing) and me. I gushed at Hao Jingfang before the panel over how much I'd loved not only Folding Beijing but also her story Invisible Planets, which reminded me of Le Guin's Changing Planes, a book I adore. She told me she didn't usually come out to events (she has a toddler) but she wanted to do this one to meet me. Mutual admiration society.

This panel also went really well. Ji Shaoting asked thought-provoking questions, and the audience asked great questions as well. I loved that the audience – about 150 people, and apparently 150 000 more online – seemed to cross all age and gender lines. At the end of the panel we sang Happy Birthday to one of the FAA employees, ate cake, and chatted with the audience. Tang Fei informed me that she had decided she was taking me out the next day.

The next morning, I took a cab on my own – the first time on the trip I went anywhere on my own! – to meet Tang Fei and Reika from the FAA at Beihai Park. I successfully got myself to the right park entrance (Well, Reika gave me a written address, which I gave to the hotel concierge, which the concierge explained to the taxi driver, so I didn't have all that much to do with it.)

Beihai Park was beautiful. There were people dancing, rock formations, lakes, willows, lotus flowers. There's a white dagoba on an islet in the center of the park. From there you can see both the Forbidden City and the tallest skyscraper in Beijing – a stunning juxtaposition of old and new. Down the steps from there you descend into a temple grounds, shielded from the rest of the park.  We sat in a pavilion and chatted and took pictures. Somebody below us was painting and listening to Chinese opera.

From there, we walked out the park's south gate and then doubled back through the hutong along the eastern wall. We arrived at the Royal Icehouse, a restaurant inside a former royal ice houses (as the name says), where massive blocks of ice were stored for imperial use in the times before refrigeration. Tang Fei told me she'd seen me eating my mountains of rice and vegetables at the music festival and determined that I would eat a real meal with her. I had yam with blueberry sauce, young bamboo (DELICIOUS), gingko nut (I was told you should never eat more than five), and I can't remember what else. It was a delicious meal. Tang Fei had been concerned that her English wouldn't be good enough to converse with me, but science fiction proved like always to be a language of its own.  She and I snuck down into the basement while Reika was on the phone, and took pictures in the storage rooms.

After lunch, we wandered around the Houhai Lakes and over the Silver Ingot Bridge, then had coffee in a Starbucks while Reika interviewed me. I had a lovely day chatting with both of them.

The next day, having proven myself capable of taking a taxi on my own, I was assigned to meet Reika at the FAA office. The FAA's office turned out to be in the most science fictional building I've ever seen. After meeting with Alex about some business stuff and giving the staff the gifts I'd brought them from the American Visionary Art Museum, we went up to the swimming pool. The swimming pool was unmarked, but you could tell you were on the right floor by the chlorine smell. The swimming pool also turned out to be in a bridge between that building and the next one. The bridge included a spa and an auditorium.  The view showed the building to be one of several connected by similar bridges. At the bottom, there were ponds with bizarre little sitting rooms shaped like 50s televisions, a bookstore called Kubrick's, a movie theater, a convenience store. Very cool.

Reika and I took a taxi to the 798 Art District, a former munitions factory transformed into a modern art hub. Tang Fei met us and we ate a giant meal of assorted fake meats. I had a beautiful flowering tea (I can't remember what flower now…) and shared a beer with Tang Fei.

After lunch we wandered through the area, which was full of modern art galleries. We went to the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, where we saw a cool installation called "The Last Vehicle" by a Hong Kong artist named Nadim Abbas. The first room you walked into was bathed in red light. A tiny remote-controlled rover wandered through a landscape of planetary dunes. The layout of the museum then took you through an exhibit of photos and architectural models of China's first Western hotels ("Accommodating Reform: International Hotels and Architecture in China, 1978-1990")– lots of Warhol photos. Eventually, if your trip is timed right (ours was) you arrive at a room where the artist behind the Mars Rover piece sat in a room meant to simulate a bunker. He wore a giant gaming helmet, pajamas, and slippers, and sat in front of a console with a joystick, a keyboard, and an array of monitors. Some had games, some had different views of the rover in the other room, which he was controlling in real time. The shelves to either side of him were filled with toilet paper and water bottles. It was a good commentary on the death of experience, especially in contrast to the very real experience of my trip. 

After that, we wandered into an exhibit of videos by female videographers (a mix of documentaries, art films, other…) and a beautiful gallery of watercolors that mixed traditional and modern styles.  We took a taxi back to the hotel. On the way, Reika got a message that Science Fiction World was requesting that I learn how to say happy birthday to Science Fiction World in Chinese for an anniversary video they were creating. I met the editors of the magazine in the hotel, where they recorded my valiant attempt at the sentence, after which I was whisked off to a soundcheck for the Galaxy Awards the next day. Then we dropped my guitar back at the hotel again and went back to the vegan restaurant from Monday, where Crystal Huff and I ate a feast with a bunch of the staff from the FAA. It was a leisurely, rollicking meal, full of laughter. We had a private room at the back of the restaurant, and stayed until they closed the place down around us.           

The next day, I met Crystal and the women from Science Fiction World and we went for yet another vegan feast at yet another amazing vegan restaurant, this time with the Science Fiction World editors. I ate so many delicious meals. After that, we headed to the Galaxy Awards, where Crystal gave her speech about what it would take for China to make a successful bid for a Worldcon. Afterward, the other writers went out for dinner and I stayed to check my guitar again, since it had issues the night before. Then we left and came back  to walk the red carpet. Yes, there was a red carpet for the Chinese science fiction celebrities attending the awards, and Crystal and I both got to walk it. I grinned, having no idea how to pout or pose. At the end of the red carpet was a big poster that we signed.

The Galaxy Awards were a very professional affair, with interstitial music, live music (it kicked off with an opera singer!), comic skits, videos. Ji Shaoting from the FAA hosted with grace and style. I sang Cavedrawing about ¾ of the way through the ceremony. I didn't even know about the starry backgrounds behind me until I saw the pictures afterward. The award ceremony also illustrated (as had the bookstore panel) exactly how popular and vibrant Chinese science fiction is. The enormous auditorium was filled with university SF clubs, authors, fans. I sat right behind the great Liu Cixin and watched him patiently sign autograph after autograph for his fans. Oh! And I got to meet one of the women who has translated my stories into Chinese, Anna Wu (Wu Shuang) , though sadly I didn't get a picture with her.

It was a lovely night, and, sadly, my last evening in China. I bid a teary goodbye to all my new friends at the FAA and Science Fiction World, regretting that I hadn't been able to arrange to stay through the rest of the Galaxy Award festivities and the Chinese Nebulas that followed later in the weekend. I also don't seem to have any pictures with Li Xin or Joanna from Science Fiction World, which I'm sad about. 

So that was my China trip. I left so much undone, but I think I made the right choices in how to spend my limited free time. I'd love to go back and see the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. I'd love to go to Chengdu and see the pandas. I'd love to go back and hang out with the wonderful people I met in my travels, but I'm glad I'll get to see more of them as more and more stories are being translated from Chinese into English for American magazines.

Also! If you want to read stories by all the authors I met in one place, an anthology of Chinese stories translated to English called came out this week. You should check it out! 

All three of my host organizations worked together seamlessly to make sure my trip went well, and I had a great time with everyone they assigned to help me. If and when China bids again for Worldcon, they will have my support. The organizations I worked with proved they know how to put on a professional event. I'll forever be grateful for the opportunity.

 

*photos with me in them were taken by Gracia, Jane, Reika, Tang Fei… apologies for the poor attribution.

 

 

 

 

China

I've been trying to write a post about my amazing trip to China for almost two months now. Part of what's taken me so long has been sifting through 400 photos to decide what to include here. The other delay was all the deadlines I extended so I could take the trip.

Anyhow, here goes: 

I was invited to China by three different organizations: the promoters of the MTA Festival (YEMA Live), the FAA (Future Affairs Administration), and Science Fiction World magazine. The MTA Festival was supposed to be a combination of South by Southwest and Coachella, but the art installations elevated it to something else entirely (more on that in a bit).

I arrived in Beijing bleary-eyed, having decided that the best course of action was to stay up through the entire flight and trick my body into exhaustion. It worked! Morning in Baltimore, evening in Beijing, and I was a wreck. I've touched down in new-to-me countries in that state before, and it brings a certain degree of surreality.

My volunteer guide from the festival, Gracia, managed to find me in the airport after a bit of triangulation, and I fought to stay awake through the ride into the city. Gracia helped me check into my hotel and find my room. We got into the middle of the room and the lights promptly went out. I didn’t know you were supposed to put your room card into a little slot by the entrance in order for the lights to work. I collapsed onto the bed the second she left.

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Fourteen hours later, I met her downstairs for a day of sightseeing. First she took me to buy a Chinese SIM card for my phone, which made communication with everybody much easier.  We had lunch at the delicious Bǎihé vegetarian restaurant, in a hutong near the Lama Temple, where I had the best vegetarian sausage dish I've ever had, sautéed with green beans. 

We then took several buses around to the entrance of the Forbidden City. For the entire afternoon we wandered in and out of palaces and courtyards. Many of the signs were bilingual, and Gracia helpfully filled in information when the signs were lacking. It's a magnificent complex. The scale of it boggled my mind. I think I liked the outer gardens best, with their serene courtyards.

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For dinner, we found another hutong restaurant, Zuo Lin You She, serving a finger-shaped fried dumpling called dalian huoshao. We had several: tofu and fennel, egg and chive. Delicious after a long day of walking.

The following day, we stopped at a bakery and filled a bag with pastries and then took several subway trains and buses out to the Ming tombs. The Ming tombs are spread out over a fairly large area, with several different sites. Some of them still haven't been found. I loved the Sacred Path, much less crowded than the other sites, and lined with beautiful trees and expressive sculptures.

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We bused and subwayed back into the city, then took a cab to another lovely Buddhist vegan restaurant, where we waited for the volunteer driver who was supposed to take us out to the festival site. I passed out completely in the car, after two days of sightseeing and an upside down schedule. Woke up to Gracia and the driver arguing about where we were – the GPS said we had reached my festival hotel, but we were sitting on the side of the highway next to a half-constructed building with no lights on.  After waiting and triangulating, with the GPS still insisting we were there, a truck pulled in and told us to follow. We turned onto a dirt service road and went a couple more kilometers until we reached another construction site – the hotel. It was well after midnight, but Gracia found a clerk to let me into my room. The lobby was a work in progress, but my room was beautiful, and bigger than my house. I had just about enough time to notice that before I passed out again.

Gracia called to wake me in the morning, and to tell me there was a panel going on at the festival that I might enjoy. I packed a day bag, put on hat and sunscreen, etc. She met me outside my room and led me…  upstairs! While the lobby and outside of the hotel weren't quite finished, upstairs there was a beautiful hall where the festival's tech panels were taking place. The hotel, it turned out, was also a winery. Their wines flowed freely all weekend – the white was delicious – along with strawberry moon cakes.

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The first panel was an interview with Michael Lang, one of the promoters who founded Woodstock. He talked about plans for the anniversary concerts in 2019. We had an opportunity to chat in line for food later.

 Lunch was a buffet in the hotel restaurant. Not a single thing was vegetarian – even the rice had ham in it – but the indefatigable Gracia convinced the kitchen to make me some rice with egg instead of ham and a beautiful mountain of sauteed greens. She took excellent care of me.  I chatted a little with some of the artists who had installations at the festival grounds.  Then we listened to a couple more tech panels, with Gracia translating for me.

I also did an interview for Japanese television with Kutsuna Miwa, whose art involves taking live bullets from conflict zones and transforming them into jewelry. She gave me one of her bracelets and I gave her a CD.

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When the panel program concluded, we headed to the festival grounds. The festival itself took place a couple of kilometers from the hotel, at a dune-filled film site, Sky Desert (it was the location for The Mummy: Return of the Dragon Emperor, and many, many Chinese films).  It was magnificent. You passed through a giant Stargate to enter. The main stage was made to look like the engine of a giant spaceship crashed into the desert. I've never seen a stage that big. Everywhere you looked there were futuristic art installations and inflatables. People sat in the shadows of UFOs to listen to the music.

Gracia suggested we check out the technology tent before it closed.  We walked past dancing robots and a half dozen VR booths. At the center of the tent was a darkened room with another art installation, Nick Verstand's "Anima," a large vinyl planet that responded to movement by modulating its music and the storms on its surface in color, speed, and direction.

I played the cool observer until I couldn't anymore. I didn't try any of the shoot-'em-up VR games, and I don't want zombies chasing me in three dimensions, but there was a booth at the back with a demo of a VR experience based on a Liu Cixin story, created by Sandman VR. I put on the headphones, the visor, the gloves. There ensued several minutes of pure delight as I pushed my way through a starfield to see a man putting a child to bed on the moon. It was beautiful and thrilling. I get the appeal.

We left the technology tent at twilight, and watched the festival grounds transform again. Art installations such as Romain Tardy's Future Ruins lit up. Planets and sand snakes took on a stellar glow. The mainstage engines flared to life. It was breathtaking. I dragged Gracia away earlier than I would have liked (and I think earlier than she would have liked), because I had to prepare for the following day.

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The following day was my first event of the trip: a panel about "How Sci-Fi can make breakthrough to the limit of humankind?" I was asked to play three songs before the panel began. The promised amp never materialized, but when I plugged my Telecaster direct into the board, a miracle happened. That beautiful high ceilinged room sounded wonderful. 

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The panel included Stanley Chen (Chen Quifan) (read his Clarkesworld story "The Fish of Lijiang" here) and Tang Fei (read her Apex story Call Girl here), and was moderated by Ji Shaoting. I'm a fan of both of the other writers, and it was a pleasure to chat with everyone on the stage. For the second day of panels, there were live translators working English-to-Chinese and Chinese-to-English in a booth at the back of the room, and little earpieces we could wear to understand each other. It worked very well.

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Afterward, we adjourned to the restaurant, where I ate another mountain of veggies and rice while everyone else went through the buffet. The other writers and the staff of the FAA sat down with me and we had a great time chatting. This time I insisted on a to-go container for my broccoli mountain, since I felt so terrible about all the wasted food.

That turned out to be a good plan. Partway through the afternoon panels, a huge hailstorm hit. It was cool to watch through the floor to ceiling windows of the winery. After the storm, the sky still looked ominous. I decided to sit out the second night of the festival, afraid that if I got drenched and sick I might have a miserable rest of my trip. Gracia made me promise that if I needed her I'd call her back, and went off to the festival. I had a wonderful evening reading and watching branch lightning from my window and eating my delicious leftovers. No regrets. I had one perfect night at the festival, and that was enough.

The next  morning we made the long trip back to Beijing. I was glad I had slept through the ride up, since I found the highway a little terrifying. Gracia pointed out one of the unrestored sections of the Great Wall from the car, which was cool. She asked a whole bunch of wonderful questions that she had been holding off on in order to save my voice for my festival appearance, which was very kind of her.

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We arrived at my third hotel, near the university where the Galaxy Awards would take place. Near a bunch of universities and tech sites, I believe; this hotel clearly catered to an international clientele, as evidenced by their buffet, which included everything you might expect of an Indian, British, German, Chinese, or American breakfast. I dropped my stuff in my room and went off to lunch with Gracia and Jane, the FAA employee who was taking over for Gracia.

[image error]We went to an absolutely amazing restaurant, Cixiangju Vegan, not far from my third hotel. Gracia spent the meal giving Jane the Care and Feeding of a Sarah talk while I stuffed my face with sesame pancakes and vegetarian eel and pumpkin greens and barley tea and all kinds of amazing food I'd never had before. Back at the hotel, I said a tearful goodbye to Gracia, who did an excellent job of taking care of me for five exhausting days.

[image error]Monday night was my bookstore panel, hosted by the FAA. It took place at a famous bookstore in a mall. Jane and I went early because there was an interview I was supposed to do beforehand. After the interview, we wandered the mall for a while. I played an interesting little guitar in a music store. We took pictures with a giant fiberglass shark. I was still full from our lunch feast, but we went to a dessert café where I ate a giant bowl of chocolate coconut porridge and Jane had a grass jelly porridge. The coconut cream in my porridge swirled in a really pretty way. It looked like gases moving across a planet. Jane caught me playing with my food and recorded me, so now there is video of me playing with my food.

[image error]We went back to the bookstore, where there were now very professional looking human sized banners announcing the panel. The café at the back had been transformed into a listening space. Multiple media outlets were setting up cameras and mics. All this for a Monday night mall bookstore panel on women in science fiction! Very impressive. Even more impressive: the crowd that started lining up to get into the space.

The FAA had [image error]hired a live translator to make sure I understood and was understood. He had just moved back to Beijing from France, and was in fact trilingual. Also impressive.

This panel, like the one at the festival, was moderated by Ji Shaoting, and featured Tang Fei, Hao Jingfang  (author of the Hugo-winning novelette Folding Beijing) and me. I gushed at Hao Jingfang before the panel over how much I'd loved not only Folding Beijing but also her story Invisible Planets, which reminded me of Le Guin's Changing Planes, a book I adore. She told me she didn't usually come out to events (she has a toddler) but she wanted to do this one to meet me. Mutual admiration society.

[image error]This panel also went really well. Ji Shaoting asked thought-provoking questions, and the audience asked great questions as well. I loved that the audience – about 150 people, and apparently 150 000 more online – seemed to cross all age and gender lines. At the end of the panel we sang Happy Birthday to one of the FAA employees, ate cake, and chatted with the audience. Tang Fei informed me that she had decided she was taking me out the next day.

The next morning, I took a cab on my own – the first time on the trip I went anywhere on my own! – to meet Tang Fei and Reika from the FAA at Beihai Park. I successfully got myself to the right park entrance (Well, Reika gave me a written address, which I gave to the hotel concierge, which the concierge explained to the taxi driver, so I didn't have all that much to do with it.)

[image error]Beihai Park was beautiful. There were people dancing, rock formations, lakes, willows, lotus flowers. There's a white dagoba on an islet in the center of the park. From there you can see both the Forbidden City and the tallest skyscraper in Beijing – a stunning juxtaposition of old and new. Down the steps from there you descend into a temple grounds, shielded from the rest of the park.  We sat in a pavilion and chatted and took pictures. Somebody below us was painting and listening to Chinese opera.

From there, we walked out the park's south gate and then doubled back through the hutong along the eastern wall. We arrived at the Royal Icehouse, a restaurant inside a former royal ice houses (as the name says), where massive blocks of ice were stored for imperial use in the times before refrigeration. Tang Fei told me she'd seen me eating my mountains of rice and vegetables at the music festival and determined that I would eat a real meal with her. I had yam with blueberry sauce, young bamboo (DELICIOUS), gingko nut (I was told you should never eat more than five), and I can't remember what else. It was a delicious meal. Tang Fei had been concerned that her English wouldn't be good enough to converse with me, but science fiction proved like always to be a language of its own.  She and I snuck down into the basement while Reika was on the phone, and took pictures in the storage rooms.

After lunch, we wandered around the Houhai Lakes and over the Silver Ingot Bridge, then had coffee in a Starbucks while Reika interviewed me. I had a lovely day chatting with both of them.

The next day, having proven myself capable of taking a taxi on my own, I was assigned to meet Reika at the FAA office. The FAA's office turned out to be in the most science fictional building I've ever seen. After meeting with Alex about some business stuff and giving the staff the gifts I'd brought them from the American Visionary Art Museum, we went up to the swimming pool. The swimming pool was unmarked, but you could tell you were on the right floor by the chlorine smell. The swimming pool also turned out to be in a bridge between that building and the next one. The bridge included a spa and an auditorium.  The view showed the building to be one of several connected by similar bridges. At the bottom, there were ponds with bizarre little sitting rooms shaped like 50s televisions, a bookstore called Kubrick's, a movie theater, a convenience store. Very cool.

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Reika and I took a taxi to the 798 Art District, a former munitions factory transformed into a modern art hub. Tang Fei met us and we ate a giant meal of assorted fake meats. I had a beautiful flowering tea (I can't remember what flower now…) and shared a beer with Tang Fei.

After lunch we wandered through the area, which was full of modern art galleries. We went to the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, where we saw a cool installation called "The Last Vehicle" by a Hong Kong artist named Nadim Abbas. The first room you walked into was bathed in red light. A tiny remote-controlled rover wandered through a landscape of planetary dunes. The layout of the museum then took you through an exhibit of photos and architectural models of China's first Western hotels ("Accommodating Reform: International Hotels and Architecture in China, 1978-1990")– lots of Warhol photos. Eventually, if your trip is timed right (ours was) you arrive at a room where the artist behind the Mars Rover piece sat in a room meant to simulate a bunker. He wore a giant gaming helmet, pajamas, and slippers, and sat in front of a console with a joystick, a keyboard, and an array of monitors. Some had games, some had different views of the rover in the other room, which he was controlling in real time. The shelves to either side of him were filled with toilet paper and water bottles. It was a good commentary on the death of experience, especially in contrast to the very real experience of my trip. 

After that, we wandered into an exhibit of videos by female videographers (a mix of documentaries, art films, other…) and a beautiful gallery of watercolors that mixed traditional and modern styles.  We took a taxi back to the hotel. On the way, Reika got a message that Science Fiction World was requesting that I learn how to say happy birthday to Science Fiction World in Chinese for an anniversary video they were creating. I met the editors of the magazine in the hotel, where they recorded my valiant attempt at the sentence, after which I was whisked off to a soundcheck for the Galaxy Awards the next day. Then we dropped my guitar back at the hotel again and went back to the vegan restaurant from Monday, where Crystal Huff and I ate a feast with a bunch of the staff from the FAA. It was a leisurely, rollicking meal, full of laughter. We had a private room at the back of the restaurant, and stayed until they closed the place down around us.           

The next day, I met Crystal and the women from Science Fiction World and we went for yet another vegan feast at yet another amazing vegan restaurant, this time with the Science Fiction World editors. I ate so many delicious meals. After that, we headed to the Galaxy Awards, where Crystal gave her speech about what it would take for China to make a successful bid for a Worldcon. Afterward, the other writers went out for dinner and I stayed to check my guitar again, since it had issues the night before. Then we left and came back  to walk the red carpet. Yes, there was a red carpet for the Chinese science fiction celebrities attending the awards, and Crystal and I both got to walk it. I grinned, having no idea how to pout or pose. At the end of the red carpet was a big poster that we signed.

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The Galaxy Awards were a very professional affair, with interstitial music, live music (it kicked off with an opera singer!), comic skits, videos. Ji Shaoting from the FAA hosted with grace and style. I sang Cavedrawing about ¾ of the way through the ceremony. I didn't even know about the starry backgrounds behind me until I saw the pictures afterward. The award ceremony also illustrated (as had the bookstore panel) exactly how popular and vibrant Chinese science fiction is. The enormous auditorium was filled with university SF clubs, authors, fans. I sat right behind the great Liu Cixin and watched him patiently sign autograph after autograph for his fans. Oh! And I got to meet one of the women who has translated my stories into Chinese, Anna Wu (Wu Shuang) , though sadly I didn't get a picture with her.

[image error]It was a lovely nig[image error]ht, and, sadly, my last evening in China. I bid a teary goodbye to all my new friends at the FAA and Science Fiction World, regretting that I hadn't been able to arrange to stay through the rest of the Galaxy Award festivities and the Chinese Nebulas that followed later in the weekend. I also don't seem to have any pictures with Li Xin or Joanna from Science Fiction World, which I'm sad about. 

So that was my China trip. I left so much undone, but I think I made the right choices in how to spend my limited free time. I'd love to go back and see the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. I'd love to go to Chengdu and see the pandas. I'd love to go back and hang out with the wonderful people I met in my travels, but I'm glad I'll get to see more of them as more and more stories are being translated from Chinese into English for American magazines.

Also! If you want to read stories by all the authors I met in one place, an anthology of Chinese stories translated to English called came out this week. You should check it out! 

All three of my host organizations worked together seamlessly to make sure my trip went well, and I had a great time with everyone they assigned to help me. If and when China bids again for Worldcon, they will have my support. The organizations I worked with proved they know how to put on a professional event. I'll forever be grateful for the opportunity.

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*photos with me in them were taken by Gracia, Jane, Reika, Tang Fei… apologies for the poor attribution.

 

 

 

 

Balticon 2016 Schedule

Balticon is this weekend! Here's my schedule as it stands right now. Check the app or the program guide for the most up to date version.

Friday May 27, 2016
9:30 PM
Solo CONCERT - Kent (6th Floor)
(25 minutes)

Saturday May 28, 2016
8:00 AM - 11 AM
Set Phasers to Stun: Writing Short Literary SF/F
Parlor 9059 - Workshop - Advance signup required here - This is a 3 hour small-group workshop. There are still slots open. 

5:00 PM
Sarah Pinsker, Alex Shvartzman and Michael Underwood Autographing (5th Floor)
Autograph Table 1

8:00 PM
Readings: Michael Flynn, Larry Hodges, Laura Nicole, Sarah Pinsker - St. George (6th Floor)

Sunday May 29, 2016
11:00 AM
Dangerous Voices Variety Hour
Maryland Ballroom (MD Salons CD) "Main Tent" - 5th Floor
Special Event 1 hour 30 minutes
Co-hosted with Mike Underwood. Guests/victims: Jo Walton, Fran Wilde, John Picacio, Peter S. Beagle. Dangerous Voices is a quiz show/reading/interview series. Think NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" with free books for the audience.

1:30 PM
Getting Horses Right in Your Fiction
St. George

8 PM SFWA Meet & Greet - Parlor 11029 - SFWA officers discuss current and upcoming projects and answer questions. Current, past, and prospective members are welcome to attend. Meet & chat with other members of the organization.

Monday May 30, 2016
10:00 AM
Monday Gimungous Autograph Session
Kent (6th Floor)
Autographs 

11:00 AM
How to Give and Get Critiques
Parlor 8029
Panel with Connie Willis(!), Scott Edelman, Alex Shvartsman, KM Szpara

12:00 PM
What's Hot Short Fiction?
Parlor 8029
Panel with Michael R Underwood, Scott Edelman, Alex Shvartsman, Jean Marie Ward

[According to Scott H. Andrews' program, in that noon hour I am also simultaneously on a Music in Fiction panel with him, which I'd also like to be on. If you have a time turner, let me know.]

Balticon 2016 Schedule

Balticon is this weekend! Here's my schedule as it stands right now. Check the app or the program guide for the most up to date version.

Friday May 27, 2016
9:30 PM
Solo CONCERT - Kent (6th Floor)
(25 minutes)

Saturday May 28, 2016
8:00 AM - 11 AM
Set Phasers to Stun: Writing Short Literary SF/F
Parlor 9059 - Workshop - Advance signup required here - This is a 3 hour small-group workshop. There are still slots open. 

5:00 PM
Sarah Pinsker, Alex Shvartzman and Michael Underwood Autographing (5th Floor)
Autograph Table 1

8:00 PM
Readings: Michael Flynn, Larry Hodges, Laura Nicole, Sarah Pinsker - St. George (6th Floor)

Sunday May 29, 2016
11:00 AM
Dangerous Voices Variety Hour
Maryland Ballroom (MD Salons CD) "Main Tent" - 5th Floor
Special Event 1 hour 30 minutes
Co-hosted with Mike Underwood. Guests/victims: Jo Walton, Fran Wilde, John Picacio, Peter S. Beagle. Dangerous Voices is a quiz show/reading/interview series. Think NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" with free books for the audience.

1:30 PM
Getting Horses Right in Your Fiction
St. George

8 PM SFWA Meet & Greet - Parlor 11029 - SFWA officers discuss current and upcoming projects and answer questions. Current, past, and prospective members are welcome to attend. Meet & chat with other members of the organization.

Monday May 30, 2016
10:00 AM
Monday Gimungous Autograph Session
Kent (6th Floor)
Autographs 

11:00 AM
How to Give and Get Critiques
Parlor 8029
Panel with Connie Willis(!), Scott Edelman, Alex Shvartsman, KM Szpara

12:00 PM
What's Hot Short Fiction?
Parlor 8029
Panel with Michael R Underwood, Scott Edelman, Alex Shvartsman, Jean Marie Ward

[According to Scott H. Andrews' program, in that noon hour I am also simultaneously on a Music in Fiction panel with him, which I'd also like to be on. If you have a time turner, let me know.]

2015 in Review

I think I still have time for a 2015 wrap-up post! If I don't start trying to add pictures, anyway. I'm combining it with a here's-what-I-published post, with all of my 2015 stories listed toward the bottom.

The year treated me very well, both personally and creatively. I don't really post about the personal side much here, but this was the year that a long-standing immigration battle came to an end. That's about the most nonchalant way I can say something that more accurately translates to a big old GIF of Kermit flailing. (No pictures, Sarah. Keep writing.)

Highlights:

 My new album is recorded and mastered. You will hear it in 2016.


I wrote a novel. I'm pretty pleased with it. I'd written a couple of trunk novels with endless middles and no endings over the years, but the last few years of work on my short fiction helped me see this as something I could actually pull off. More about that at another date. (Note to self: insert more Kermits flailing. All the flailing Kermits.)


I went to my first SF writing workshop, Sycamore Hill. I was absolutely terrified to do peer to peer critiques with Karen Joy Fowler, Ted Chiang, Kelly Link, Maureen McHugh, Molly Gloss, Christopher Rowe, Kiini Ibura Salaam, Matt Kressel, Carmen Maria Machado, Richard Butner, Megan McCarron, and Gavin Grant, but I think I didn't embarrass myself. It was a wonderful week, in an absolutely gorgeous setting. (All the rest of the Muppets, too.)


I read way less than usual (see novel, album, end of immigration battle), but the books and stories I read this year were wonderful. I hope to do a post about them at a later date. 


I went to my first Worldcon, in Spokane. Had fabulous meals with fabulous people, nearly suffocated in the post-apocalyptic air. Shared a wonderful reading with Effie Seiberg, participated in some fun panels, including the very intimidating Ursula K Le Guin career retrospective.


I also went to the Nebulas, Readercon, Balticon, Capclave, and the Baltimore Book Festival, all of which were a ton of fun. Nick Offerman posed for a picture with me and my cousin's guitar. We got chased out of Millenium Park by cops on Segways. I didn't sink the SFWA booth at the BBF. The Outer Alliance reading at Readercon was one of the best readings I've ever participated in. Ended my SF year with the Queers Destroy Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror reading at Bluestockings in New York, which was also wonderful. I ate congee for the first time, and very fancy ice cream somewhere on the edge of Manhattan.


I was invited to be the writer Guest of Honor at Chessiecon 2016, which will also be a ton of fun.


I received my second Nebula nomination.
My story No Lonely Seafarer appeared on the Tiptree Award long list.


 I got to hear/see Toshi Reagon's Parable of the Sower opera-in-progress, which was the absolute music-listening highlight of my year.
Music-playing highlights included a headlining gig at Edith May's Paradise and the amazing songwriters' round robin at Tall Trees.


My SFWA board tenure continued with work on the Baltimore Book Festival and the Mentorship program.


Translations of some of my stories were published in Chinese and Spanish. I had reprints in the Year's Best YA Speculative Fiction, the Nebula Awards Showcase 2015, and the Year's Best Weird Fiction Vol. 2, among other places.


My submission stats were way down. I just completely ran out of time to submit stories. I didn't write quite as many as the past few years either (see again: novel).

25 submissions, down from 63. 10 sales (4 from 2014 submissions), 10 submissions pending still. I'm really pleased with that ratio.

I only brought seven stories to a submission-ready draft. There are several that still need more attention, and, hey, novel.

The short stories:

I had 11 new stories out, listed below. I'm not sure which of the stories would be my favorite, so I'll pick the novelette, "Our Lady of the Open Road," in June's Asimov's, which carries a bigger piece of me with it than most, and received some of my favorite reviews ever.

"What Wags the World," Daily Science Fiction, November 16, 2015

 Letters to Tiptree, Twelfth Planet Press (nonfiction, but I couldn't find someplace else to put it)

"And We Were Left Darkling," Lightspeed, August 2015 

"Pay Attention," Accessing the Future anthology, July 2015

"In the Dawns Between Hours," Queers Destroy Science Fiction! by Lightspeed, June 2015

"Our Lady of the Open Road," Asimov's, June 2015

"Today's Smarthouse in Love," The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2015

"Remembery Day," Apex Magazine, May 2015

"Last Thursday at Supervillain Supply Depot," Daily Science Fiction April 10.5 2015

Reprinted in Funny Science Fiction anthology, September 2015

"When the Circus Lights Down," Uncanny Magazine, March/April 2015

"Beauty & the Baby Beast," Daily Science Fiction, January 9 2015

"Songs in the Key of You," Asimov's, January 2015

 So anyway, that's what I've got. Thanks for the wonderful year, and here's to 2016!

My Capclave 2015 schedule

My schedule for this weekend's Capclave in Gaithersburg, MD. I'm only going to be there for Friday evening/Saturday morning, so they've packed in a lot of programming!

 

Friday
4 PM-4:50 PM
Your Day Job As Your Muse


Friday
5 PM-5:50 PM
Getting Into Short Fiction


Friday
9 PM-9:50 PM
The Right Length For Your Story


Saturday
10 AM-10:50 AM
Tiptree Retrospective


Saturday
12:30 PM-12:55 PM
Reading - Sarah Pinsker

Expanded below:

Your Day Job As Your Muse (Ends at: 4:55 pm) - Salon A
Panelists: Barbara Krasnoff, Sarah Pinsker (M), Lawrence M. Schoen
SF writers who work for NASA have it easy. What about the rest of us? How does your day job influence what you write when you are off the clock? Do you base characters on coworkers? Turn daydreams of being the corporate hero into your creative works?

(I'm listed as moderator, but I pointed out that I might not make it on time because of said day job.)

Getting Into Short Fiction (Ends at: 5:55 pm) - Frederick
Panelists: Jim Freund (M), Dina Leacock, Sarah Pinsker, Gordon Van Gelder
What are some of the best resources for someone who wants to start reading shorter fiction? What are good habits to adopt, and expectations to foster?

The Right Length For Your Story (Ends at: 9:55 pm) - Rockville/Potomac
Panelists: Scott H. Andrews (M), Sarah Avery, Sarah Pinsker, Gordon Van Gelder
A short story is not a condensed novel. How do you know if your idea will require a story, novella, novel, or trilogy? When you edit, what makes you decide if it should be expanded or shortened? Were you ever surprised what a work took a different form? Which expansions of shorter works into novels work and which do not?

Tiptree Retrospective (Ends at: 10:55 am) - Rockville/Potomac
Panelists: Scott Edelman, Jim Freund, Cathy Green, Sarah Pinsker
Alice Sheldon, who wrote as James Triptree Jr. was born 100 years ago. She was a complex individual who kept her true identity secret even from the many writers who communicated with her by mail. Robert Silverberg famously wrote that only a man could have written Triptree's stories. What did she have to say and what was her best work? Why is she important to the field?

Saturday 12:30 pm
Frederick
Reading - Sarah Pinsker (Ends at: 12:55 pm)
Author: Sarah Pinsker

 

 

Found in Translation

A lovely translation of my story "A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide" has just appeared in the Chinese magazine Science Fiction World. I wanted to take a moment to introduce the two women who have been working on my Chinese translations. They previously worked on my novelette "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind," and are tackling "And We Were Left Darkling" next.

 

Translation of fiction is not an easy task. It's not word for word. If you've ever put a phrase into Google Translate, you know that we haven't found a way to automate the process well. Good translators do so much more than substitute words in one language for another. They convey moods and concepts. They convey figurative language and idiom with no corollary. If you read Ken Liu's translation of the Chinese novel The Three Body Problem, you may have noticed his thorough footnotes. Ken footnoted passages that might hold great significance to a Chinese reader, and none to most Americans. A uniform of a certain color might resonate in one culture, while to another it might be nothing but a detail of world-building. To make the book successful with American audiences he had to make us understand the significance of every sentence.

 

Translation is a collaboration.  Working with the translators on "A Stretch of Highway…" (and earlier, "In Joy…") forced me into a more intimate relationship with my own stories. I would get emails asking specific questions I had never answered for myself. I needed to clarify whether a minor character was a younger sibling or an older sibling; the word in English was the same, but they were different in Chinese.  Did "worked on his truck" mean "repaired the engine" or "drove his truck"? Both are reasonable readings given the context. And then there were the figurative sentences: infections with figurative teeth, artificial pathways. It's a figurative story; there was a lot of back and forth.

 

Over the months that we worked together on these stories, we got to talk about other things as well. The places we live, the things we do outside of writing, our pets and families.

 

I asked both women if I could talk about them here. I wanted to give you their biographies and a little more, since I didn't want them reduced to a simple byline after all of their hard work.

 

Wu Shuang, or Anna Wu, is a science fiction, movie, and teleplay writer. She is from Jiangsu Province. She graduated from China University of Mining and Technology, where she majored in Chinese language and literature. She has already published several short stories in Galaxy's Edge, Science Fiction World Magazine, and Arts and Literature, and has worked with Yu Youqun to translate more than two hundred thousand words of English fiction by writers including Mike Resnick, Ken Liu, and Alyssa Wong. She asked me to say that she believes that imagination could change the world, and that the beauty and charm of science fiction will last forever in the universe and galaxy. 

 

Abby  (Yu Youqun) was born in 1985 in Sichuan Province. She graduated from China University of Mining and Technology, and received Bachelor and Master's degrees of Arts in 2009 and 2012. Her major was English language and literature. She has been teaching college for more than three years. Collaborating with Anna, she began to do translation of science fiction works. She says they work together happily. Abby is responsible for translating the English version into Chinese and communicating with the authors. Anna makes the Chinese version more fluent when Abby has finished her work. She asked me to say, "All of our published works were worked out by our pooling of thoughts. I believe reading science fiction is an amusing enjoyment.  Imagination enlarges our world and horizon, makes everything to be possible. I hope this will be helpful."

 

I'm so happy to have been able to work with these two talented translators, and I look forward to working with them again in the future. I wrote these stories, but in their careful translations, they bring them to life for a new audience. 

My Sasquan Schedule 2015

I'm heading to my first Worldcon in a few days! I'm looking forward to my first big Con, and to spending time in Spokane and Seattle. My official schedule is below. See you there!

The Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin

Thursday 21:00 - 21:45, Bays 111B (CC)

Ursula Le Guin is one of the giants of the field, whose works include pivotal SF and fantasy works. The panel discusses the works and influence of Ursula Le Guin. 

Charlie Jane Anders (m), Sarah Pinsker, Gary K. Wolfe, M. J. Locke

Friday 11:00 - 11:45, Bays 111A (CC): Certainly Not For the Money: Why We Write Short Fiction

Why do we put ourselves through the angst of writing short fiction? It certainly isn't the money. Why else would we do it?

Mark J. Ferrari (M), Mur Lafferty, Sarah Pinsker, Stefan Rudnicki, Rick Wilber

 


Friday 16:30 - 17:00, 301 (CC):  Reading - Sarah Pinsker

Come to my reading! I'll fortify you with snacks, then we can go to happy hour. 

 


Saturday 13:00 - 15:00, 300B (CC): SFWA Business Meeting

If you're a SFWA member, come to the meeting and find out what's new in the organization right now, from model contracts to mentoring.

Saturday 16:00 - 16:45: Hall B (CC) Autographing - Lou Antonelli, Walter H. Hunt, Nick Kanas, Sarah Pinsker, John Scalzi, Eric James Stone, Rick Wilber

 

 

My Readercon 2015 schedule

Readercon is an always excellent speculative literature-focused con. The panel topics and guest list are fantastic. Nicola Griffith, one of my favorite authors, is one of the Guests of Honor this year. Below is my schedule for the weekend. Can't promise there won't be one or two more changes, but I think this is pretty much set. See you in Burlington!

Friday July 10
1:00 PM    G    Winter Is Coming: Feminist SF and the Frozen Tundra Buddy Trek. Gwendolyn Clare, Malinda Lo, Caitlyn Paxson, Sarah Pinsker (leader), Sonya Taaffe. During the Ancillary Justice book discussion at Readercon 25, it was brought up that many favorite feminist SF novels feature pairs of characters slogging through an inhospitable landscape: Nicola Griffith's Ammonite, Maureen McHugh's Mission Child, Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, and of course Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness. Having a pair of characters traveling together generally leads to opportunities for trust and relationship building, but what is it about the tundra trek (or equivalent) that lends itself so well to feminist SF stories in particular?



8:00 PM    F    Revealing the Past, Inspiring the Future. Amal El-Mohtar (leader), Max Gladstone, Alena McNamara, Sarah Pinsker, Julia Rios. When writing Hild, Nicola Griffith was aiming for historical accuracy where possible, including in her depictions of women, queer characters, people of color, and slavery in seventh-century Britain. She writes, "Readers who commit to Hild might see the early middle ages differently now: they see what might have been possible, instead of the old master story about the place of women and the non-existence of POC and QUILTBAG people 1400 years ago. And if it was possible then, what might be possible today and in the future?" What other books and stories expand our notion of the possible by revealing the truth of history? How can creators of future settings learn from the suppressed or hidden past?
Saturday July 11
11:00 AM    CO    Dog, Cat, Snake: Predicting Pets with Literary Taste. Beth Bernobich, Stacey Friedberg, Sarah Pinsker, Rick Wilber, Navah Wolfe. Let's play a game! Can you predict whether someone is a cat person or a dog person by what they read and write? Do you think dog people prefer predictability while cat people like surprises? Are horror fans more inclined to keep spiders and snakes? Panelists will discuss their literary preferences and see whether others can guess their pets.


12:00 PM    E    Autographs. Malinda Lo, Sarah Pinsker.
Sunday July 12
10:00 AM    F    Reading Stance and Genre. Peter Dubé, Chris Gerwel, Nicola Griffith, Alex Jablokow, Sarah Pinsker. In 2013, Nicola Griffith's Hild was nominated for the Nebula award, alongside Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Under Best Novella that same year was "Wakulla Springs" by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages. Going further back, Peter Straub won a World Fantasy Award for Koko. By most critical definitions none of these are works of speculative fiction, but, as Gary K. Wolfe said on an episode of the Coode Street Podcast, "if you approach Hild with the expectations of a fantasy reader, you’ll still get most of the asethetic delights you’re looking for." He asked, "What if we approach genre not from the point of view of theoretical definitions or market categories or even the author’s intention, but from how we choose to read a particular work?" This panel will explore the many answers to that question, from many perspectives.


12:30 PM    EM    Reading: Sarah Pinsker. Sarah Pinsker.

My Balticon Schedule

I'll be at Balticon from May 22-25th. There's a ton going on. Movies and games and live podcast tapings and lots of great panels. Jo Walton, one of my favorite authors, is the guest of honor. Check out their website for all the details.

Here's my schedule:

FRIDAY MAY 22

9:00 PM
Dangerous Voices Variety Hour 
Salon B


 
Sarah Pinsker (M), Michael Underwood (M), Alex Shvartsman
(50 minutes)


 
Baltimore Science Fiction Society's own readings series comes to Balticon once more! The Dangerous Voices Variety Hour takes its cues from such diverse inspirations as the popular 510 reading series, NPR's quiz show: Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, and Orson Welles's original War of the Worlds broadcast. The hour long, free event features readings, irreverent author interviews, trivia, prizes, and more.

SATURDAY MAY 23

1:00 PM
Matrons and Crones: Older Female Characters in Fantasy and Science Fiction
Derby


 
Gail Z. Martin (M), Karen Burnham, Paula S Jordan, Sarah Pinsker, Virginia DeMarce
(50 minutes)


 
All too often, older women in fiction are included only to provide background for the protagonist. How can we make sure that they're actual characters with their own roles to play?

SUNDAY MAY 24

4:00 PM
Readings: Sarah Avery, Katie Bryski, Sarah Pinsker
Chesapeake


 
Sarah Pinsker, Katie Bryski, Sarah Avery
(50 minutes)


 






5:00 PM
Autograph - Sunday - 17:00
Autograph Table


 
Maria V Snyder, Sarah Pinsker
(50 minutes)


 

MONDAY MAY 25

11:00 AM
SF/F Mysteries
Chase


 
Sarah Pinsker (M), Andrew Fox, John L French
(50 minutes)


 
From Bester's The Demolished Man to Jo Walton's Farthing and Chris Moriarty's Spin State. Robot detectives and vampire detectives and android detectives. Parlor mysteries and space station mysteries. The tools of the trade in the past (Sherlock Holmes' very Victorian method of deduction) and the future (AI, bugs, drones).

See you there!