TOD 062 The Outer Dark Symposium, Part 7: Weird Sisters Panel and Women of Weird Fiction by Lisa Yaszek

In this podcast The Outer Dark presents the seventh and final blockbuster installment of The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird 2019 including the panel: ‘Weird Sisters of Horror: writing from a female or non-cis-male perspective’, moderated by Anya Martin and featuring Selena Chambers, Nancy A. Collins, Fiona Maeve Geist, Gwendolyn Kiste, Gabriela Damián Miravete, Sunny Moraine, teri.zin/Zin E. Rocklyn, and Damien Angelica Walters, as well as Authors, Editors, Poets, and Artists: The Women of Early Weird Fiction, a presentation by Lisa Yaszek, PhD. The presentation was recorded live on Saturday March 23 at Silver Scream FX Lab in Atlanta, GA. The panel was recorded live on Sunday March 24 at Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur, GA. The interview with teri.zin and Reviews from The Weird were recorded on Nov. 27.

Intro: Special Guest teri.zin

After episode intro and sponsor acknowledgements, (0:07:55) teri.zin/Zin E. Rocklyn joins Anya to introduce the panel, plus her own journey to Weird horror, her first story (‘Summer Skin’) in the Sycorax’s Daughters anthology (Cedar Grove, 2017), her challenges in selling confrontational work from a black woman’s perspective, how publishers wanting works by diverse authors can better walk their talk, how reviewers and readers can support diverse authors, her advice on building an audience via social media, why the ‘Weird Revolution’ is only just getting started, and her recommended current Weird fiction authors including Nathan Ballingrud, Livia Llewellyn, Chesya Burke, LH Moore, Jessica Guess, and Monique Laban. Listen to teri.zin read from ‘Bird’ (Nox Pareidolia, Nightscape Press) on The Outer Dark 056 and from ‘The Night Sun’ at NecronomiCon 2019 on The Outer Dark 053.

Show Notes

In this podcast The Outer Dark presents the seventh and final blockbuster installment of The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird 2019 beginning with (0:52:50) Authors, Editors, Poets, and Artists: The Women of Early Weird Fiction, a presentation by Lisa Yaszek, PhD, professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech and editor of Library of America’s The Future is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women. Lisa begins with four women of Weird Tales magazine, including writer Dorothy Quick, poet Leah Bodine Drake, editor Dorothy McIlwraith and artist Margaret Brundage, and also spotlights Lilith Lorraine and Edythe Eyde, aka Lisa Ben and Tigrina, who made their mark in the amateur fantasy community. This segment took place between the readings by Greg Bossert and Gabriela Damian Miravete which aired in Episode 061. Lisa also created a PowerPoint slideshow to accompany her presentation. You can find it and follow along here.

(1:20:19) Then listen in to the panel ‘Weird Sisters of Horror: writing from a female or non-cis-male perspective’, moderated by Anya Martin and featuring Selena Chambers, Nancy A. Collins, Fiona Maeve Geist, Gwendolyn Kiste, Gabriela Damián Miravete, Sunny Moraine, teri.zin/Zin E. Rocklyn, and Damien Angelica Walters. The no-holds-barred discussion takes off with what the authors think they do that is different from traditional horror or Weird fiction written by men, followed by a frank conversation about how editors looking for diverse authors but not authentically diverse characters and plots, narrow expectations of women’s sexuality and the ‘monstrous non-cis body’, fighting the expectation that rage and mental illness narratives should have uplifting endings, expanding female characters beyond overused tropes, why their writing interests are especially suited to Weird horror, and a rejection of declarations that the Weird fiction trend is on the wane stated by cis male authors at just the time that groundbreaking works by women and non-cisgendered authors and authors of color are finally getting accepted by editors/publishers . As Damien Angelica Walters observes: ‘We changed the narrative’. Listen to 2019 symposium readings by the featured authors in episodes 046, 052, 056, and 061.

Reviews from The Weird

(2:19:10) Gordon B. White reviews three recent books by exciting contemporary women Weird fiction authors, Out of Water by Sarah Read (Trepidatio Publishing) and (2:24:10) a double dose of new works by Nicole Cushing: The Half-Freaks (Grimscribe Press) and A Sick, Gray Laugh (Word Horde).

This episode was brought to you by 2019 Ruby Sponsors Grimscribe Press/Vastarien: A Literary Journal and Word Horde, as well as our Platinum Sponsors PseudoPod, Innsmouth Free Press, Nightscape Press, Kino Lorber, and NecronomiCon Providence; and Emerald Sponsor Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing. Thank you to all our attending and supporting members, sponsors, Indiegogo campaign supporters, and volunteers who help make Something Weird happen.

The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird is the only annual conference centered around contemporary Weird fiction. Our mission is to foster conversation and connect communities among the diverse slate of creators and audience members under the umbrella of speculative fiction—inclusive, safe and welcoming to women, LBGTQ+, and writers of color. The fourth annual symposium will be held March 26-27, 2020 at Silver Scream FX Lab. Find out more, including a link to purchase supporting and attending memberships at TheOuterDark.org.