Fluid identities

First the brag: I recently edited an essay by Ursula K. Le Guin for The Cascadia Subduction Zone, and afterwards she told me I was "not only a good editor but a nice one."  (Thank you, Ursula!)  Next the confession:  As a zine's "poetry editrix" I once responded to a letter from a rejected submitter by peeing on it and mailing it back.  25 years passed between these two exchanges--years during which I got a lot of experience on both sides of the editing equation.  So now I look at where I've ended up and where I started out and I feel qualified to wonder:

Do editors have mighty powers?  Do they ever use these powers for ill?  Or only for good?


 The Fem-SF list serve, on which feminist science fiction authors discuss topics of concern, once considered banning editors.  The idea was that participants would feel freer to talk about their work and careers, maybe snark about turnaround times, compare pay rates.  Editors were classified as bosses, and Fem-SF was going to be configured as a boss-free environment.

Then Nalo Hopkinson protested that she edited as well as wrote.  Turned out there were others like that.  Turns out I'm one of them.  Timmi's another.  In this day of independent small presses and multiple simultaneous career tracks, the editors-as-bosses model of publishing's hierarchy is really rather dated.

Editors who write--or writers who edit--want to do both things best.  Also, we think we know what "best" means.  Our mighty powers range from Fresh Pair of Eyes through Chicago Manual of Style to Flush Bank Account.  Our origin stories are particularly helpful for us to keep in mind when it comes to understanding what our contributors are trying to accomplish and making sure they do so.

We worry.  We're careful.  We're busy but concerned.  We don't see ourselves as villains.  We don't actually intend to do ill, and we're always as diplomatic as possible--peeing on correspondence aside.

Understand this, though: we're sweet because honey is a better lubricant than gall.  Or urine.

Another episode in the interval between my editorialistic nadir and zenith: I attended Clarion West in 1992.  There I was introduced to the Milford method of critiquing.  One of the key points I learned about this method: start out telling the writer what they did right because that shows them you know what you're talking about.  This technique doesn't just make them feel good, it makes clear your bona fides.  It gives your subsequent remarks credibility.  Credibility you as an editor will need, since you yourself can't change the text.  You can't.  It's not yours; it's the author's, and only the author can change it.  So if you want to see something revised, get out your plastic bear full of golden bee vomit and squeeze.

I guarantee you'll be happier thinking back on having done that than if you apply another liquid.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone, Vol. 2 No. 3

The Summer issue of The Cascadia Subduction Zone is out!

The issue begins with a tribute to poet and theorist Adrienne Rich, who made an enormous contribution to feminism as we know it today, and includes poetry by Alex Dally MacFarlane and Kiik A.K., Graham Joyce's thoughts on Angela Carter's magnificent Nights at the Circus, a very personal essay by Abby Koenig on that expensive, tricky sfnal procedure known as IVF, reviews of new work from Samuel R. Delany, N.K. Jemison, Nancy Kress, and others, and concludes with the art of Meredith Scheff. If you aren't a subscriber, you can purchase a single issue or subscribe here. For me, personally, Thomas Foster's essay-review of Nalo Hopkinson's Report from Planet Midnight alone is worth the price of the issue.

Current Issue
Vol. 2 No. 3 — July 2012

Essays

In Memoriam: Adrienne Rich
  by L. Timmel Duchamp

Back at Day 1, Again
  by Abby Koenig

Poems

adam
  by Kiik A.K.

wedding in the uncut hair
of the meadow
  by Kiik A.K.

Most Beautiful in Death
  by Alex Dally MacFarlane

Grandmother Magma

Nights at the Circus
by Angela Carter
  reviewed by Graham Joyce

Reviews

Through the Valley
of the Nest of Spiders
by Samuel R. Delany
  reviewed by Victoria Garcia

Report from Planet Midnight
by Nalo Hopkinson
  reviewed by Thomas Foster

The Killing Moon
by N.K. Jemisin
  reviewed by Ebony Thomas

Fountain of Age
by Nancy Kress
  reviewed by Cynthia Ward

Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually
Fluid Science Fiction
edited by Brit Mandelo
  reviewed by Paige Clifton-Steele

Featured Artist

Meredith Scheff

The Fourth Issue of the Cascadia Subduction Zone is now available for free download

You can download the pdf of Vol. 1, 4 here.

This was a special issue on Women and Science. Here's the issue's table of contents:

Essays

Gender, Science, and Narrative Inversion by Ann Hibner Koblitz

Women in Science and Science Fiction: A Mutual Relationship? by Helen Merrick

Bad Science: The Flawed Research into Gender Differences in the Brain by Nancy Jane Moore

Where the Juice Is: An Interview with Julie Czerneda by Nisi Shawl

 

Grandmother Magma

Symbiotic Planet by Lynn Margulis reviewed by Andrea Hairston

Reviews

Tesseracts Fifteen edited by Julie Czerneda & Susan MacGregor reviewed by Nic Clarke

Frankenstein's Monster by Susan Heyboer O'Keefe reviewed by Siobhan Carroll

The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski reviewed by Karen Burnham

Revolution World by Katy Stauber reviewed by Tom Foster 

Featured Artist

Jennifer Mondfrans

The Third Issue of the Cascadia Subduction Zone now available for free download

Caught up in the madness of our 2011 Pleasures series, I forgot to post this earlier: the third issue of The Cascadia Subduction Zone is now available for free download, here.

Here's the issue's table of contents:

Vol. 1 No. 3 — July 2011

Feature Essay

Can Science Fiction Change the World? by Kristin King

Poems

Where Are You? by Mary Merriam

Three Lessons by Shweta Narayan

Grandmother Magma

Memoirs of a Spacewoman by Naomi Mitchison An Appreciation by Gwyneth Jones

Reviews

Fairy Tales in Electri-City by Francesca Lia Block reviewed by Maria I. Velazquez

Isles of the Forsaken by Carolyn Ives Gilman reviewed by Nic Clarke

This Shared Dream by Kathleen Ann Goonan reviewed by Deb Taber

Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston reviewed by Maria I. Velazquez

Up Against It by M.J. Locke reviewed by Karen Burnham

Paradise Tales by Geoff Ryman reviewed by Victoria Garcia

Blackberries and Redbones edited by Regina Spellers and Kimberly Moffitt reviewed by Tanya C. DePass

Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex reviewed by Cynthia Ward

Featured Artist

Mr Mead

The Cascadia Subduction Zone, Vol. 2, 1

I'm pleased to announce that the new issue of The Cascadia Subduction Zone-- the first of our second year of publication-- is out! In addition to a full complement of reviews, it has an essay by our own Josh Lukin on disability in literary criticism in general and Anne Finger's brilliant short fiction in particular, another essay by Mary Meriam on Lilian Faderman, Kij Johnson on Margaret Cavendish, and a poem by Anne Sheldon. If you aren't already a subscriber, this would be an excellent time to subscribe, especially since we have a special-- supplemental-- issue on Joanna Russ in the works, which we intend to distribute to subscribers without additional charge. And if you're subscription has expired, surely you'll want to renew! You can do both of those things here.

Here's the Table of Contents of the new issue:

Essays

Ishmael in Love: Anne Finger and the Reclamation of Disability by Josh Lukin

My Muse by Mary Meriam

 

Poem

History Lesson by Anne Sheldon

 

Grandmother Magma

The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish reviewed by Kij Johnson

Reviews

With Fate Conspire by Marie Brennan reviewed by Ebony Thomas

Master of the House of Darts by Aliette De Bodarda reviewed by Deb Taber

The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin reviewed by Mikki Kendall

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi reviewed by Nic Clarke

Distances by Vandana Singh reviewed by Ama Patterson

Song of the Swallow by K. L. Townsend reviewed by Karen Szymczyk

Featured Artist

Marilyn Liden Bode