Wow, time sure flies! It seems like just 360 days ago since my last Readercon post. Guess what – TIME FOR ANOTHER ONE YEEEEAAAA! I’ll be on several panels at Readercon 29 this year. So excited! Be sure to ask for a business card (they have badgers on ’em, designed by yours truly).
Here’s a rundown:
SATURDAY!
10:00 AM • Defying Colonial Notions of Authenticity • Phenderson
Djèlí Clark, Pablo Defendini, José Pablo Iriarte, Darcie Little Badger,
Ken Liu
In an interview for the blog Dive into Worldbuilding, GOH Ken Liu
discussed specifically wanting to go outside Western expectations
in writing a fantasy novel that uses Chinese foundational narratives
without writing a “magical China” novel, which he says often leads to
problematic and Orientalist misunderstandings. On Tor.com, Tochi
Onyebuchi says GOH Nisi Shawl’s novel Everfair is an Afrofuturistic
masterpiece even though it is historical fiction. How do these and
other narratives point the way toward decolonizing the future by challenging
and complicating conceptions of the past?
SUNDAY!
10:00 AM • Writing About Research and Discovery • Judith
Berman, Jeff Hecht, Kathy Kitts, Darcie Little Badger, Eric Schaller
Science fiction frequently features scientists and academics who are
doing and publishing original research—and sometimes gets it hilariously
wrong. Panelists who have done original academic and scientific
research will explain how to accurately represent researchers and their
processes and challenges.
12:00 PM • Solarpunk for Everyone • Michael J. DeLuca, Tom
Greene, Marissa Lingen, Darcie Little Badger, T.X. Watson
Solarpunk has become established as a progressive, proactive, optimistic,
climate-aware, politically aware field of speculative fiction. As
solarpunk authors imagine the future, how can they make sure that
future includes everyone? How can solarpunk develop and showcase
remedies not only the climatological errors of the present and past but
the social flaws of oppression, bias, and exclusion?
2:00 PM • Researching the Other • Rose Fox, Darcie Little Badger,
Mimi Mondal, Nisi Shawl, Kestrell Verlager
With Writing the Other, GOH Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward established
that writers have permission to write what they don’t know, as long as they do it with forethought and care. But when is it enough to check out
a library book, and when is it time to hire a sensitivity reader? This panel
will go beyond 101 to discuss the different types of research required by
different aspects of writing outside of one’s experiences.
As you can see, this year will be packed full of SCIENCE, so be sure to bring your lab coat!
Little Badger Diary 