I got this in the mail recently:
“MEANWHILE ELSEWHERE just won the American Library Association Stonewall Book Awards Barbara Gittings Literature Award!!!
This is a mouthful but I think it’s basically is the top LGBTQ fiction/poetry award they give out. Which means: THIS IS HUGE. And as a result your work will probably end up in A LOT of libraries. And who knows who might read it as a result? ALMOST ANYBODY that’s who.”
Super excited!!!
So, I have been meaning to talk about this for awhile. 🙂
A couple of years ago, I was asked to write a speculative fiction piece for a forthcoming anthology from Topside Press (the wonderful people who published He Mele A Hilo).
My problem with being trans and writing spec fiction was that first, I’m basically an optimist, a very flawed optimist, but an optimist. I don’t do dystopia very well, and sometimes trans futures can seem, well, dark. And I also am quite afraid of zombies, trans or otherwise. Like NEVER see a horror movie with me. I will leave. Even if you are cute and buying.
On the other hand, being an optimist doesn’t mean being an idiot. Saying I hope it gets better doesn’t mean one should ignore the reasons behind why we actually NEED things to get better. My optimistic life for trans people? Love. Friendship. Acceptance. Maybe a fun date. A place to pee. Health professionals who are as supportive and informed about them as they are of any other patient. Teachers and schools who focus on nurturing healthy, education students.
So, with the support of the editors, I wrote that story…what on the surface seems like a very normal, almost prosaic story. And I hope people who read it would understand that not all unattainable futures are unattainable because of physics or space and time–but simply because we as a species have elected not to try.