Tomorrow, February 22, is the official debut date of the Steamfunk Anthology, co-edited by Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade. Created by Atlanta-based MVmedia, a publisher specializing in speculative fiction by and about people of African descent, the book will be available at Anachrocon (Feb 22-24) and also directly from the publisher.
Stemming from discussions about the lack of minority representation in the steampunk genre, the anthology presents 17 steampunk stories told from an Afrocentric point of view. (Press release.)
~T.
This One’s For the Purple People: Why Writing POC in NYC Shouldn’t Be Hard
Look, we’ve all talked about it, but we have to talk about it some more: inspired both by the criticism and the criticism of the criticism of Girls, Moxie breaks it down for us about why writing POC characters on TV shows set in NYC shouldn’t be that hard.
Interview with A Voice in the Dark creator Larime Taylor
Earlier in September, Southern California artist Larime Taylor launched a Kickstarter for his graphic novel, Dark Zoey. The project is notable not only because it’s a female-centric plot with a diverse cast of characters, but also because of Taylor’s personal story as an artist living with arthrogryposis, a rare congenital disorder that has left him without the use of his hands or feet. With a modest goal of $1,500, Taylor’s Kickstarter went viral, thanks to support from big-name comics creators, and ended up raising nearly ten thousand dollars. About two months later, his backers finally had the opportunity to read the digital version of the first issue of his tale, now known as A Voice in the Dark. Read Rick’s interview with Larime Taylor to find out about his creative inspiration and the process of making his project a reality.
Check out this excellent series of posts looking at African and African-American presence and influence in the steampunk subculture. The introductory post, aptly titled “The League of Extraordinary Black People,” culls together some links and also short interviews with several Black authors writing in the steampunk genre. A follow-up post looks at the influence of Black dandyism on steampunk style. Most recently, a post highlights Black activists and rebels from “the age of steam.”
~ T.
- POC - CREATORS COLLECTIVE! REBLOG!
Are you tired of throwing things at the tv/movie screen/book/game/web series because creators can’t seem to stay away from damaging and hurtful stereotypes?
Have you had it up to here with arguing that whitewashing is not, was not and will NEVER be a good thing?
Do you dream of producing, distributing, marketing, films, art, comics, novels and other media that digs into our rich wide and varied histories, stories, inspirations and fantasies with a group of like-minded people?
Then poc-creators may be for you.
If you are interested in joining us, please contact us at your social networking platform of choice: on facebook by liking our page; and on tumblr by sending a message to searchingforknowlege with your email address. We look forward to welcoming you all!Please signal boost!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST
Relevant to our interests! Signal boosting!
E
(Source: theblackdripsgold)
Moxie chatted with Justin Simien (writer/director/producer) and Lena Waithe (producer), part of the team behind Dear White People, an indie film in production that’s been making some big waves. Talking about their inspiration for the project, the role of social media in being an indie filmmaker, and what it means to be Black, check out the awesome conversation.
A list of PoC Sci-Fi/Fantasy authors.
- Kōbō Abe
- Maria Acosta
- Linda D. Addison
- Saladin Ahmed
- Sherman Alexie
- K. S. Augustin
- Malcolm Azania
- L.A. Banks
- Steven Barnes
- Derrick Bell
- Aliette De Bodard
- Tempest K. Bradford
- Maurice Broaddus
- Joseph Bruchac
- Octavia E. Butler
- Raphael Carter
- Ted Chiang
- Joyce Chng
- Zen Cho
- J. Damask
- Milton J. Davis
- S. J Day
- Samuel R. Delany
- Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Moondancer Drake
- Tananarive Due
- David Anthony Durham
- Malon Edwards
- Greg Van Eekhout
- Amal El-Mohtar
- Zetta Elliot
- John M. Faucette
- Ono Fuyumi
- Amitav Ghosh
- Craig Laurence Gidney
- Jaymee Goh
- Jewelle Gomez
- Hiromi Goto
- Andrea Hairston
- Nalo Hopkinson
- Kazuo Ishiguro
- Valjeanne Jeffers
- N.K. Jemisin
- Alaya Dawn Johnson
- Stephanie Lai
- Yoon Ha Lee
- Ken Liu
- Marjorie M. Liu
- Malinda Lo
- Karen Lord
- Karin Lowachee
- Marie Lu
- Brandon Massey
- Alicia McCalla
- Neesha Meminger
- Anil Menon
- Maryanne Mohanraj
- Haruki Murakami
- E. C. Myers
- Uehashi Nahoko
- Shweta Narayan
- Mahtab Narsimhan
- Nnedi Okorafor
- Daniel Jose Older
- Marge Piercy
- Cindy Pon
- Dia Reeves
- Salman Rushdie
- Michelle Sagara/West
- Nisi Shawl
- Vandana Singh
- Shaun Tan
- Shveta Thakrar
- Sheree R. Thomas
- Colson Whitehead
- Ytasha Womack
- Xakara
- Laurence Yep
- Ibi Zoboi
- Dark Matter (compilation series)
- The Carl Brandon Society (organization)
I went through the notes on this post and compiled as many of the suggestions as I could find, so here it is again. Thanks to everybody who contributed!
Feel free to reblog & add more.
Relevant to our interests!
E
RIP, Leo Dillon. The world has lost another brilliant artist and our hearts go out to his family, wife Diane and son Lee. We put a few of our favorite illustrations from Leo and Diane Dillon up on our site.
Our latest guest contributor, Miranda, was inspired by her apprehension about watching Firefly to write her post. She laments the way Western pop culture often paints Asian characters and cultures in broad strokes, seemingly without caring about unique backgrounds or attentive characterization. Read her post on our site.
This visually exciting and stat fueled post by YA author Kate Hart takes a look at the trends in character diversity in YA literature by analyzing the book covers from the past year. Definitely check out her post!
