(no subject)

[nolly]

Went to the Mysterious Galaxy holiday party Saturday.

13 authors came to talk about their books.

4 were male, at least one was not white. [1]

Of the 9 women, at least 2 were not white.

Eliminating the authors of straight mystery (no obvious supernatural or fantastic element), memoir (one of Shel Silverstein's best friends) and a cookbook-for-charity, those numbers become 3 men (still at least one not-white), and 6 women (still at least 2 not-white).

Tell me again how the SF/F field is dominated by white men, aas has been claimed? No, really, show me some numbers. Not one anthology among dozens, but the field as a whole. Because I look at the new releases, and I just do not see it.


[1] Sometimes people who look Caucasian to me identify as other-than-Caucasian, and that's fine, but since the subject did not come up explicitly, I can only go by my best guess. Sexuality also did not come up, and that's not something I'm likely to guess with anything like accuracy, so I won't bother trying.

Comments

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Hard to find an author list there, unfortunately, and I don't have time right now to go digging, though I did mark one post, which appeared to have lots of links to stories, to read later, though it may be a good while later.

It is, unfortunately, rather hard to compare mediocre story counts, since what one person considers mediocre, another loves.

[shweta-narayan.livejournal.com]

It is, unfortunately, rather hard to compare mediocre story counts, since what one person considers mediocre, another loves.

Granted; but it's really the only measure that can possibly mean we've reached parity.

You've heard of Paul di Filippo. Have you heard of Nisi Shawl, who is frickin' amazing? When one can have heard of him and not her, that's where I see a continued, extant problem.

Now, in the hard numbers, there are plenty of nasty gender-differences in where the powers in SF stand. (the big magazines, the big publishers, the big awards...) It's not enough to say "There are more women in SF now". You need to be able to show that they are getting equivalent sales to big houses, advances, promotion, readership, visibility, awards...

And if you're right, we'll see that in a few years.
But I don't think we're nearly there yet.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I've heard of Di Filippo mainly because, after reading and loving The Difference Engine, I sought out his Steampunk Trilogy. Alas, I found it sadly disappointing.

As it happens, I have heard of Nisi Shawl, and read a couple of her short stories -- I have, and have read, Mojo: Conjure Stories. (I also have Dark Matter: Reading the Bones on my to-read shelves, but haven't gotten to it yet.) Also, she had a story on PodCastle, which I've been listening to from the start. Maybe some other podcasted works, too? Not sure, but the name seems more familiar than just those would suggest. and I get a lot of short fiction that way.

[shweta-narayan.livejournal.com]

She also co-won the Tiptree award this year, dunno if that's something you follow.

But in this, you're mind-bogglingly rare.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I sort-of follow the Tiptree; I go through cycles where it's the sort of fiction I'm most interested in. Some of them I like, some of them simply don't work for me, though other people love them. (For instance, judging by our conversations last 4th St., Cat Valente and I simply approach the world too differently for me to ever love her books -- I had read the one that won the Tiptree, but it didn't do much for me, and after talking with her, I understand why.) I've read about 9.5 of the winners (I'm pretty sure I didn't finish "Travels with the Snow Queen", anyway), and more from the short and long lists.