#wiscon40

This is wonderful.

As a coda to our Nalo Hopkinson special, we're pleased to reprint her announcement of a new award for the SF community. The award was first announced during her Guest of Honor talk at Wiscon 40:

“There are many people who do good in this field, who perform small and large actions of kindness and welcome every day. I'd like to encourage more of that.

I'm starting an award, an annual kindness award to recognize five people and groups who in the previous year have done something that makes positive change in science fiction community. It might take the form of printed certificates, awarded and announced with little pomp or ceremony; perhaps via a press release. There need not be a monetary award, but it'd be nice to give the recipients a tangible token of recognition. Should enough people commit to donating a few dollars every year, such that there is an annual pot of $2,000, that would be enough for five monetary awards of $300 each, with $500 left over for administration. $3,000 per year would be enough for each recipient to receive in addition a physical award.

Here you can find links to all of my Wis-Con 40 posts, including panel reports for the following panels: 

When Villains Are Our Only Representation (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the baddie)

Body Positivity and the Disabled Body

Critiquing Bootstraps, Positive Thinking, Diet and Exercise

Female Friendship in Fiction

Intersectionality and Other Words Taken from Women of Color

Bi Invisibility

Polyamory Won't Fix Your Love Triangle

There Is No Aging Out Of Fandom

Is Rey a Mary Sue?

Super Girls and Women in TV and Movies

WisCon : Feminism, Science Fiction, Madison

Programming

Our programming offers a spectrum from panel discussions, academic presentations, author readings, a writers’ workshop, and late-night parties.  We also have programming specifically for children and teens!

Finding your space

We cap our membership at 1,000 — just the right size that you can catch up with old friends, meet new friends, or disappear into the crowd if you want.  We offer $1 childcare, a Con Suite with an array of snacks, safer spaces for People of Color and for trans/genderqueer people, and a dedicated Quiet Place where you can catch your breath and decompress.

I just spent last Thursday through Tuesday in Madison, Wisconsin, having an amazing time doing panels, meeting readers that made me cry with joy, creating new friendships that will last for decades, meeting with friends I’ve had for what seems like decades, and having mutual fansquee with THE BEST SFF authors in the business, some of whom I’ve had on my bookshelves since the late 80s.

After the horrors of the inaccessible academic conference I went to last November, it was so life-affirming and beautiful to have such a good experience. This isn’t meant to inply that there isn’t a lot further to go and room for improvement, and YMMV, but I GOT TO WATCH GAME OF THRONES with SALADIN fricken AHMED and other luminaries of color on Sunday night.

In honor of WisCon 40 finishing this week--which was an amazing experience--I’m posting a review of Susan Jane Bigelow’s short story “Sarah’s Child.” 

[Black background with white text that says “Strange Horizons.” In upper-left corner of image is a purple planet with darker and lighter shades of purple swirled on its surface.]

First published on Strange Horizons in May 2014, this story made it to the honor list for the 2015 Tiptree Award. The titular Sarah is a queer trans woman who has a dream about having a biological son. While she wakes from this dream and discovers she is happily married to her wife, Janet, she also realizes that despite the vividness of her dream they don’t have a son. Sarah tries to dismiss her dream as a side-effect of hormones, but the dreams continue and become more intertwined with her life as the story goes on. 

I'd had dreams about motherhood before. Pregnancy, babies, those dreams came with the hormones. Everybody had them, or said they did.

Soon Sarah begins receiving texts addressed to “June” and talking about Sheldon, the son she dreamed of having. She even begins exchanging mysterious handwritten notes with Sheldon. As the dreams and notes continue, Sarah discovers the link between her, Sheldon, and the mysterious June. 

While I won’t spoil the science fiction twist of the connection between Sarah and June here, I will reveal that the story unpacks something many trans people think about, “what would my life have been like if I had been born cisgender instead of trans? Would my life have been different?”

In terms of trans content in science fiction, Bigelow’s story not only features a queer transgender woman as the protagonist, but Bigelow herself is a trans woman. Susan Jane Bigelow has published three novels and numerous short stories, including a piece in the trans literature anthology, The Collection. If you want to find out more about her writing you can check out her blog, The Extrahuman Union, or follow her on Twitter @whateversusan. 

It’s always a pleasure to have the opportunity to review science fiction written by other trans folks, particularly such an amazing short story. This story has been one of my favorites this year and I found its examination of identity, longing for motherhood, and communication between spouses to be both touching and deeply poignant. I recommend people drop what they are doing and go read “Sarah’s Child.”

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