afrofuturism

February 26, 2018

Nalo Hopkinson’s FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS is essential feminist science fiction

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized afrofuturism, alex brown, black panther, carla bataller estruch, fábulas estelares, falling in love with hominids, midnight robber, nalo hopkinson, nnedi okorafor, sandra lindow, The New York Review of Science Fiction, tor.com

On the Spanish site FÁBULAS
ESTELARES, Carla Bataller Estruch includes FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS and Midnight Robber among the essential title of feminist science fiction.

The list will be updated as you discover more works. It is personal, but transferable: you can write down all the titles and authors that you want. The staff part comes to that I will indicate what I have read and what I have not, what interests me more or less, what I think is complementary, basic or essential.

Andrea Blythe on her eponymous blog praises what she’s read of the collection.

The other book I’ve been working on is FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, a short story collection by Nalo Hopkinson. I love her work and am enjoying the stories I’ve read so far.

Photo: David Findlay

At TOR.COM, Alex Brown mentions Midnight Robber in 8 Books and Comics for Your Post-Black Panther Reading List.

One of the best parts about the Black Panther cast is its pan-African diversity. Delve back into the Black diaspora with Nalo Hopkinson’s novel set on planets colonized by Caribbean space explorers. Corrupt Antonio Habib rules over Toussaint until he and his daughter Tan-Tan are driven off their planet and onto another filled with exiles and criminals. After years of abuse at his hands, Tan-Tan kills him and goes on the run. Pregnant with her father’s child, she seeks refuge with an Indigenous species out in the bush outside the town. She soon takes the moniker of the Robber Queen, doling out violent justice to protect the helpless and ease her guilt at her own crimes. Although Midnight Robber doesn’t have any strong thematic or character connections to the film, it’s one of the best examples of contemporary literary Afrofuturism, hints of which are all over the Black Panther movie.

In THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION piece on Nnedi Okorafor, Sandra J. Lindow namechecks Hopkinson several times.

Afrofuturism is a way of looking at the past and imagining a future where Africans, African-Americans, and other African diaspora can be equal participants in creating a sustainable, egalitarian future. It is a movement that has been significantly influenced by music and art. Like other writers of color such as Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, N.K. Jemisin, and Nisi Shawl, Okorafor was informed by the Civil Rights Movement’s active reclamation of black history and culture that resulted in the Afrofuturist movement. Beginning with stories written in early creative writing classes, Okorafor takes contemporary problems such as bullying, racism, bigotry, ecological disaster, and out-of-control venture capitalism and moves them into the fantastic landscapes of Afrofuturism.

<snip>

By the beginning of this century, writers of color were beginning to draw considerable critical attention. Many of them were women. In 2002, Nalo Hopkinson was the first person of color to be a WisCon guest of honor. In 2010 Nnedi Okorafor shared the honor with writer/editor Mary Anne Mohanraj, and since then there have been six more Afrofuturist guests: Nisi Shawl, Andrea Hairston, N. K. Jemisin, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Sofia Samatar, and Nalo Hopkinson again. The WisCon web site has announced that the 2018 WisCon’s invited guests of honor are Saladin Ahmed, writer of Black Bolt for Marvel Comics, and award-winning novelist/screenwriter Tananarive Due, who teaches Afrofuturism at UCLA. The feminist sf community has embraced these writers, and they in turn have infused feminist sf/f with creative energy at a time when the original second-wave feminist sf writers are no longer in the forefront. Their popularity is based on their willingness to break the mold of traditional sf tropes and not be guided by the constraints of Western mythology.

<snip>

In addition to Yaszek’s questions, Okorafor joins Nalo Hopkinson in asking, “What role will the mythic supernatural have in human evolution?“ and like Octavia Butler before them, “What role will alien intervention play?” (Hopkinson interweaves mythology and the supernatural in her fiction often in transgressive ways as in her novel The Chaos where Baba Yaga and her flying chicken-legged house appear in downtown Toronto.

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

February 8, 2018

Nalo Hopkinson writes amazing stories

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized afrofuturism, book riot, cbc, falling in love with hominids, nalo hopkinson, podcast, reddit, review, sff yeah

Photo: David Findlay

On the BOOK RIOT podcast SFF YEAH! (Episode 17 at about 26:10), they discuss Nalo Hopkinson and her collection FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

Hopkinson has an
amazing voice. She just writes these amazing stories.

At REDDIT, thequeensownfool started a Nalo Hopkinson appreciation thread.

Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican-born Canadian writer and editor, who currently resides in California. She is best known in the Canadian SFF scene for her novels Brown Girl in the Ring and The Salt Roads. Hopkinson’s work draws on Caribbean history and language, specifically its traditions of oral and written story telling. I’d classify her work as afrofuturism, defined as:

a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and philosophy of history that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentrism, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of black people, but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past.

Similar to the work of Octavia Butler, Hopkinson’s work incorporates and questions the historical events of slavery and its impact on the Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora, but also imagines possible futures.

The CBC shares a video with Nalo Hopkinson: “Afrofuturism, sci-fi and why ‘it is a radical act for Black people to imagine having a future‘”

You may know about Black History Month, but what about Black Future Month? CBC Arts turned to science fiction writer Nalo Hopkinson to find out more about what the future means — and why it’s so exciting.

Hopkinson brings her experience as a Black woman to her novels. She’s been reading science fiction since she was young, but she came to writing it in her adulthood after discovering that one of the writers she admired was a Black man. Now, she’s the award-winning author of six novels, including the acclaimed Brown Girl in the Ring (which is the inspiration for a new movie by Sharon Lewis, called Brown Girl Begins).

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

August 17, 2016

There is no better place to first experience Nalo Hopkinson than FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized afrocaribbean, afrofuturism, chuma hill, collection, elizabeth story, falling in love with hominids, nalo hopkinson, read diverse books, reading 1000 lives, reddit, review, short stories

READING 1000 LIVES
praises Nalo Hopkinson’s FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

The uniqueness of
her perspective also doesn’t mean that her writing is just for
people like her. It’s really important to have books by all kinds
of people, not just straight, white men. But that doesn’t mean that
a book by a straight, white man can’t speak to a queer, black
woman. Or in this case, the reverse. Hopkinson’s writing touches
all those qualities that her quote on Cordwainer Smith mentions. She
writes universal, core themes of what it is to be human, to deal with
despair and to fight it.

<snip>

The opening story of
this collection, “The Easthound”, is an exquisite introduction to
the range of Hopkinson’s writing. Set in a post-apocalyptic world
where adults become ‘sprouted’ into creatures that kill and feed
upon the living, the story uses setting and a minimized plot as
backdrop to focus on characters and emotion. This balance – tending
towards what typically gets called literary – is typical of
Hopkinson’s stories. Also common for her work, here she takes a
general premise that should be familiar to science fiction fans and
puts on her unique twist. Her writing is not usually ‘light’
reading and some of her stories benefit from multiple reads because
nuanced characteristics aren’t at first registered. Yet, “The
Easthound” demonstrates that Hopkinson can write taut action
sequences amid more quiet moments of deep character introspection.
The language can vary from the straight-forward to a more artistic
poetry, such as lines in this story that form part of a ‘Loup-de-lou‘
game that children play.

<snip>

Overall this
collection conveys a feeling of reading folklore. Readers
particularly drawn to that style of fantasy will probably easily
enjoy Falling in Love with Hominids, as Hopkinson uses the style
effectively even in the context of a science fiction tale. Some of
the stories here have been included elsewhere, including “Best of…”
anthologies, pointing to Hopkinson’s success and recognition. If
you haven’t yet experienced her writing, there is no better place
to get a representative view of it as this.

Photo by David
Findlay

Naz at READ DIVERSE
BOOKS includes the collection in their article Black Women As Heroes
And Role Models – A Reading List.

FALLING IN LOVE WITH
HOMINIDS – Nalo Hopkinson

This brilliant short
story collection has several stories with black women and girls as
leads. These girls and women defend their village from invading
European conquerors, have divine powers of creation, and overall
epitomize Black Girl Magic, sometimes literally!

At REDDIT, keshanu
compiles a selection of Recommended black science fiction and fantasy
authors.

This is a list of
black science fiction and fantasy authors that I decided to write in
the wake of the controversial posts made in the last couple of days
(here and here) about Fireside Fiction’s study on the lack of black
authors published in SFF short fiction magazines. I didn’t want to
be too presumptuous in making this post, because a number of authors
were already suggested in those threads. Ultimately, I went through
with posting anyways, because I am sure a lot of people missed or
intentionally skipped over those threads and the sub doesn’t have a
list of black fantasy authors yet like the one for women who write
fantasy. Besides, I love talking about favorite authors of mine.

One of the
traditionally recognized four black SFF authors N.K. Jemisin listed
in her interview with Fireside Fiction, Nalo Hopkinson is one of my
favorite writers, period, so I’m going to start with her. Born in
Jamaica, she’s lived in a whole lot of places, including Canada,
where she moved to with her family as a teenager, and the U.S., where
she currently lives. Her works have won numerous awards. Hopkinson’s
Caribbean influences are infused throughout her work. She’s also
your go-to author if you want to read about black LGBTQ characters.
Really for characters of all sorts of backgrounds, she’s got you
covered. She’s a great author to start this list off with, because
while some of her work won’t appeal to a lot of people, she’s got
a wide-range of styles, so I think there is something for just about
anyone in her work.

My favorite book by
her is undoubtedly THE SALT ROADS, a historical fantasy which follows
three different black women from different places and time periods
(pre-revolution Haiti, 19th-century Paris, & Ancient Egypt), who
are all bound by their connection to a sea-goddess, Ezili. If you
like your fantasy light on the magic, heavy on the history, and more
literary, this is your book. This isn’t a light read, if that’s
not your thing. There are great queer women in this book, beautiful
relationships, and it is probably the most erotic of her books that
I’ve read, for those of you whose thing that is. Word of warning:
Early on in the book is a scene with a chamber pot full of urine and
menstrual blood, which I know will put some people off of this book,
but I promise the rest of the book is not like that at all, so if you
can make it past that one scene, you’ll be fine.

<snip>

On the fence about
Hopkinson and not sure if you have the time to try one of her books
out? Last year, she published a collection of some of her short
fiction, FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS. This collection of full of
wonderful stories, mostly reprints, and I loved almost every single
one of them. Like her books, the stories are very diverse in
settings, style, themes, and characters.

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS,
visit the Tachyon
page.

Cover art by Chuma
Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

August 4, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Patricia A. McKillip, Nalo Hopkinson, and Ellen Datlow

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized afrofuturism, anthology, because books carry the whole universe inside them, chuma hill, collection, dreams of distant shores, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, falling in love with hominids, fantasy, horror, john coulthart, John Langan, livia llewellyn, nalo hopkinson, patricia a mckillip, reading 1000 lives, reiko murakami, review, science fiction, short stories, the monstrous, the warbler, Thomas Canty

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Patricia A. McKillip (photo: Stephen Gold/Wikimedia Commons), Nalo Hopkinson (David Findlay), and Ellen Datlow

BECAUSE BOOKS CARRY THE WHOLE UNIVERSE INSIDE THEM enjoys Patricia A. McKillip’s beautiful DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES.

DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES is a whimsical and creative collection of fantasy short stories and novellas by renowned author Patricia A. McKillip.

I have to say that I wanted to pick up one of Patricia A. McKillip’s books for quite some time, so I was really glad that I had a chance to read this collection! I’ve always thought that writing a good short story or novella is more difficult, because you need to give a reader the same substance in a sometimes much shorter form, and in this collection of stories I could see it done amazingly.

The writing was very rich and I found the imagery absolutely beautiful. The stories also give us a variety of fantasy genres – we have traditional fantasy, but also urban fantasy and historical fantasy, so there’s something for everyone. If I could recommend something to you before you pick this book up, it’s best to take your time with it and read it slowly, to devour the stories and be able to get their meaning. That’s when the reading experience would be the best, in my opinion. My only concern and the reason for my rating was that the longer novellas were a bit too slow at times for me and also I got the better understanding of some of the stories only after reading the afterword, but perhaps it’s just me.

I would definitely recommend this collection! It can be a great introduction to Patricia A. McKillip’s writing, as well as a wonderful adventure for everyone who loves reading fantasy.

THE WARBLER praises Nalo Hopkinson’s extraordinary FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

I’ve been fortunate, over the last year or so, to have had my horizons expanded as a reader. For a while, my bread and butter were long-form fantasy epics, or space operas dealing with political games and good-versus-evil as a central theme. Don’t get me wrong; I love those books still, and they can get plenty “deep” to satisfy any curious soul. But the more I read short fiction and speculative fiction like Nalo Hopkinson’s FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS (published by Tachyon), the more convinced I feel of the power of science fiction and fantasy to tell deeply human stories with the capacity to elicit change.

As such, the stories in HOMINIDS occupy varied spaces on the spectrum of human goodness and darkness. There’s the pain and alienation of the transition into adolescence, the odd biology of beginning relationships as told by orchids, the magic of belief, the desire to fly away from bullies. They’re beautifully written, and as different from each other as can be—which makes sense, since all but one of the stories was published over the last decade-or-so. It’s a testament to Hopkinson’s raw skill with words; a few of the stories, in particular one dealing with “The Elephant in the Room” (you’ll get the joke when you read it, which you absolutely should), were sparked by a challenge, the desire to take a reader by surprise, or to not allow them the time to recover from an oddity too outrageous to believe.

FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS is yet another extraordinary collection of short stories that is well worth your time and rapt attention. The writing is beautiful, the message important, and its delivery is page-turning. Not only that, but as with all short fiction collections, it’s perfect for those of you who are only able to read a bit here and there. Do yourself a favor and pick up FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS. You won’t regret it.

Daniel at READING 1000 LIVES reviews Ellen Datlow’s satisfying THE MONSTROUS.

For anyone familiar with editor Datlow the short review for her recent horror anthology THE MONSTROUS would be that it is everything you’ve come to expect from her superb taste and expert experience. If you’ve liked previous anthologies from her, you’ll love this. If you’re a decided non-fan, I wouldn’t expect this anthology to change your mind, tastes in horror just don’t match.

The selections in THE MONSTROUS run the gamut of the horror genre, from the subtle to the creepy, the graphic, and the weird. The anthology’s theme also fits a broad interpretation of ‘monstrous’. The monsters are human and beastly, earthly and supernatural, literal and figurative. In many cases the monstrous is unexpected, as are the directions and tones the stories may take. “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” by Livia Llewellyn is perhaps the best example of the latter. The title of this story and its start suggest family-friendly positivity, pleasant days and warmth. But Llewellyn quickly turns behind the façade of tradition and happiness toward the darkness at the heart of a family gathering. This story is Lovecraftian in inspiration, but not so heavily as to ruin my appreciation of its well-played contrasts.

The collection ends with “Corpsemouth” by John Langan, a stellar example of an ‘epic’ short story. Including emotional complexity with strong characters and plot this story merges the modern with the ancient. In part its style reminds me of classic gothic horror tales of Britain, but with modern language and present-day context. This marks one of multiple stories in this collection that feature horrors that reveal themselves in relation to family. Perhaps this frequency is because of their power, monstrous realities we are innocently born into and cannot easily escape. Ones we have a responsibility of blood to face and overcome. “Corpsemouth” is a top take on this theme, bringing THE MONSTROUS to a satisfying conclusion that makes me greedily await Datlow’s next project.

For more info on DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Thomas Canty

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more on THE MONSTROUS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Reiko Murakami

Illustration by John Coulthart

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

July 26, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Bruce Sterling, Nalo Hopkinson, and Cory Doctorow

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized afrofuturism, Ann Monn, ardi alspach, b&n sci-fi & fantasy blog, brown girl in the ring, bruce sterling, content, content: selected essays on technology creativity copyright and the future of technology and the future of the future, context, context: further selected essays on productivity creativity parenting and politics in the 21st century, cory doctorow, daniel pelavin, eff, electron frontier foundation, elizabeth story, john coulthart, Marty Halpern, More Red Ink, nalo hopkinson, pirate utopia, rudy gutierrez, The Guardian

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Bruce Sterling (photo: VERGE), Nalo Hopkinson (David Findlay), and Cory Doctorow (NK Guy, nkguy.com.tiff)

Marty Halpern on his MORE RED INK delivers redux of his some hard facts about Bruce Sterling’s PIRATE UTOPIA, now with information about a special sale price.

Shortly after posting that blog I learned about the caveat: the $14.95 price tag is indeed correct, but it’s the Amazon-onlypre-publication price. Order the book from any other source and the price will be $19.95, which will also be the retail price after publication.

Now the problem with buying from Amazon is a) some people prefer not to support Amazon, and b) with a $14.95 purchase, you have to pay shipping, because $25 is the minimum purchase amount for free shipping on books (unless you are a Prime member).

But, I have an alternative solution:

With the assistance of Tachyon Publications, you can now purchase the Pirate Utopia hardcover through the Tachyon online store at the $14.95 price – but you must use a coupon code at checkout, and this coupon code is only valid through Sunday, August 7. And if you reside in these United States and select media mail as the shipping option, shipping will be free.

A $14.95 hardcover, free media mail shipping, and you are supporting an independent publisher…It doesn’t get any better than that.

On the B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG, Ardi Alspach included Nalo Hopkinson’s BROWN GIRL IN THE RING in her primer Defining the Genre: 7 Novels of Afrofuturism.

The debut novel by award-winning author Nalo Hopkinson draws heavily on the lore and traditions of Afro-Caribbean culture, bringing elements of magical realism into a dystopic vision of downtown Toronto. Ti-Jeanne is a single mother who has recently given birth to a baby boy and is forced by circumstance to live with her grandmother, Gros-Jeanne, a well-respected herbalist and spiritualist. The baby’s father, Tony, finds himself in trouble and seeks out Gros-Jeanne for help, requiring Ti-Jeanne to come to terms with her heritage and embrace her grandmother’s spirituality, which she had previously rejected. In a bleak future, traditions of the past come alive and two strong women take charge of their own destinies.

Cory Doctorow’s piece in THE GUARDIAN about an EFF lawsuit discusses many of concepts and ideas espoused in his essay collections CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT, AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE and CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit on Thursday that American copyright wonks, technologists and security researchers have been hotly awaiting for nearly 20 years.

If they succeed, one of America’s most controversial technology laws will be struck down, and countries all over the world who have been pressured by the US trade representative to adopt this American rule will have to figure out whether they’ll still enforce it, even after the US has given up on it.

The rule is section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998, the “anti-circumvention” rule that makes it illegal to break an “access control” for copyrighted works. These “access controls” often manifest as “digital rights management” (DRM), and the DMCA gives them unique standing in law.

EFF is suing the US government, arguing that section 1201 of the DMCA is unconstitutional, and also that the Library of Congress and the copyright office have failed to perform their duties in the three-year DMCA 1201 exemption hearings.

For more info on PIRATE UTOPIA, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by John Coulthart

BROWN GIRL IN THE RING cover illustration and design by Rudy Gutierrez with custom lettering by Daniel Pelavin

For more info on CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT, AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Ann Monn

For more info on CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

May 5, 2016

Wonderful FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS gets an A+

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized afrocaribbean, afrofuturism, book blather, chuma hill, collection, contact2016, de hatchetman speaks, earl grey services, elizabeth story, falling in love with hominids, nalo hopkinson, review, short stories, william doyle-marshall

BOOK BLATHER praises Nalo Hopkinson’s FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

Part of what I like about FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS is that it’s so very diverse. I don’t think there’s a single white protagonist (which is fine with me, not that Nalo Hopkinson needs my permission; there’s more than enough white protagonists to go around), and several of the protagonists are casually queer. There’s even a casual BDSM relationship in Emily Breakfast (well, the mention of it is casual, the relationship itself is quite serious and long-term). It’s really nice and it’s really beautiful and it’s really, really human.

Hmm, specific stories. The aforementioned Emily Breakfast is fabulous, about cats and chickens and the talents of both. Shift is a take on The Tempest that is just absolutely wonderful, particularly I think for POC (though, again, I’m white, I wouldn’t necessarily know, do NOT take my word for it). Ours Is The Prettiest is a Borderlands story, though you don’t need any Borderlands knowledge, that meditates on humanity, liminal spaces, and liminal people/species. Soul Case is short and heartbreaking, about what you have to trade for safety. Left Foot, Right is a take on Cinderella that prioritizes the sisters and their relationship. Men Sell Not Such In Any Town, which made me pick up Hopkinson’s novel Sister Mine. And Blushing, which you should read if you’re my girlfriend, is a fabulous take on Bluebeard that you just… just read it. I can’t say why it’s so amazing unless you read it.

Having named half the stories in the book, I think I’d better stop before I go on about all of them, but the entire book is wonderful. Definitely give it a shot. A+

In her chronicle about her time at Contact2016, Elizabeth of the Early Grey Services discusses The Sexy Lamps & the Bechdel Test panel.

The
Sexy Lamps & the Bechdel Test panel offered some interesting
opinions, with panel members stressing that works passing these tests
weren’t necessarily good. The tests simply offer a benchmark, or
place to start. For example, Maria Lewis pointed out that the movie
PACIFIC
RIM doesn’t
pass the Bechdel-Wallis test but that Mako Mori is still a badass
character with her own independence. Kate Cuthbert added that female
characters could talk about shoes and still pass the Bechdel-Wallis
test, but that wouldn’t necessarily make them fully realised
characters. It was also suggested that the Bechdel-Wallis test in
particular was easier to pass in literature than on film because
there’s generally more space in which to work.

Maria Lewis, Kate Cuthbert, Karen Simpson-Nikakis and Marlee Jane Ward discuss the Bechdel Test. (Source: Early Grey Services)

Deggan’s
Rule is the racial corollary to the Bechdel-Wallis test and was the
topic of one of the panels I sat on with Devin Jeyathurai, Katryna
Starks, Christine Sun and Lois Spangler. Devin discussed what it was
like for him not to see himself represented in any of the literature
he read growing up, while Katryna touched on research that showed the
negative effects this lack of representation can have. Christine
brought up the Minority Highlander Syndrome: the tendency for
creators to think there can be only one in relation to diverse
characters. And I got a chance to fangirl over some positive
representations, citing SORCERER
TO THE CROWN by
Zen Cho, FALLING
IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS
by
Nalo Hopkinson, THE
MERGER by
Sunil Patel and the SAGA
graphic
novel series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples.

William Doyle-Marshall at DE HATCHETMAN SPEAKS spotlights Nalo Hopkinson in his article “Our Authors Tell Remarkable Cultural Tales.”

February is known as “Black History Month” or “African-Canadian History Month”. I have frequently argued something is wrong with this designation. People of African Heritage make history daily in every field imaginable. This blog emphasizes their involvement in the literary field. A perfect example to be aptly noted. Three of our writers have presented us with material that captures our language and social involvement in this world.

World Fantasy Award Winner Nalo Hopkinson’s “Falling in love with Hominids” captures some Caribbean folklore and other cultural experiences in her science fiction genre. If your roots are implanted in Caribbean soil, you are likely to encounter familiar characters and sayings. In her story “Left Foot, Right” you come face to face with douens. These are characters we never really understood except that adults told us you should not go out at night in the dark yards otherwise you would encounter these creatures who are likely to take you away into the woods. And guess what would happen next? You would never be seen again.

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

March 18, 2016

FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS reflects all the contrasting emotions that make us human

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized afrocaribbean, afrofuturism, award, caribbean beat, chuma hill, collection, elizabeth story, falling in love with hominids, in tori lex, interview, nalo hopkinson, review, romance times, rt, science fiction

Nalo Hopkinson was named a 2015 RT Reviewers’ Choice and Career Achievement Winner.

Today we’re so happy and proud to present the 2015 Reviewers’ Choice and Career Achievement Winners! Let us tell you, a lot of blood, sweat and tears (more tears than you might think!) went into selecting these, the best titles of 2015. Hearty congratulations to all of the winners, thank you for writing such amazing books last year. The award ceremony will take place at the RT Convention in Las Vegas next month, we hope to see many of you there!

IN TORI LEX reviews FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

I really enjoyed my introduction to Ms. Hopkinson’s work. From the very beginning it was clear that these stories would reflect all the contrasting emotions that make us human. She explains in the foreward "We are, all of us, capable simultaneously of such great good and such horrifying evil.“ The vivid imagery, plain language and memorable diverse characters made almost all of the short stories very enjoyable. I noticed how many times she mentioned hair, characters doing each other’s hair reminded me so much of my own life. Hearing about twisting dreadlocks and taming afros immediately made my heart glad, because it reminded me of my many friends and family members. It was refreshing to see some of my identity and culture reflected back at me.

None of the stories are connected and the different themes and settings kept me intrigued along the way. Between elephants in rooms, limitless food for the hungry, time travel and fragrant tattoos, I was righteously entertained. There were nice introductions to the stories to help orient the reader, and gain more understanding about her writing process.

CARIBBEAN BEAT interviews Nalo Hopkinson.

Caribbean Beat: How do you define speculative fiction?

Nalo Hopkinson: I generally only use the term “speculative fiction” in academic circles. Science fiction and fantasy are literatures that challenge the complacency of our received wisdoms about power, culture, experience, language, existence, social systems, systems of knowledge, and frameworks of understanding. They make us reconsider whose stories deserve to be told, whose narratives shape the future and our beliefs, and who has the “right” to make and remake the world.

Is there a distinctively Caribbean kind of spec-fic?

A bunch of Caribbean SF/F [science fiction/fantasy] writers will be gathering to discuss this in March at the University of California, Riverside, as part of a year of programming I’m co-organising on alternative futurisms. I suspect one of the things we’ll end up talking about is Caribbean relationships to the experience of resistance — how it’s shaped our histories and imaginations, and so how it must shape our imaginative narratives. For instance, when I watch The Lord of the Rings, I wonder what the orcs do to rebel against their forced existence as beings created to be foot soldiers and cannon fodder.

We’ll probably also talk about the unique impact of place and space on the Caribbean psyche. I recently wrote a short story for Drowned Worlds, a fiction anthology on the theme of the effects of rising sea levels worldwide. For me, coming from island nations whose economies are often dependent on bringing tourists to our beaches, and which are the guardians of so much of the world’s precious biodiversity, it was particularly painful and personal to write a story about what will become of our lands. The resulting piece is angry and spooky, and combines science with duppy conqueror in ways that are uniquely Caribbean.

On the panel, we might also talk about language. The multiple consciousness that Caribbean history gives us is reflected in our code-switching, code-sliding, code-tripping dancehall-rapso-dubwise approach to signifying simultaneously on multiple levels. Science fiction reaches for that in its use of neologisms. Caribbean people, like so many hybridised peoples the world over, live it. We are wordsmiths par excellence.

Read the rest of the fascinating interview at CARIBBEAN BEAT.

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

February 15, 2016

FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS distances readers from well-worn tropes and techniques

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized african heritage month, afrocaribbean, afrofuturism, alternative futurisms, amber troska, charles yu, chuma hill, collection, daniel josé older, elizabeth story, falling in love with hominids, geek's guide to the galaxy, halifax public libraries, interview, it's a hardback life, karen lord, karin lowachee, nalo hopkinson, nisi shawl, people of colo(u)r destroy science fiction, podcast, science fiction, sunil patel, ted chiang, the pinocchio theory, tobias buckell, university of california riverside, walter mosley, wired

Photo: IRFAN KHAN/GETTY IMAGES

Amber Troska at IT’S A HARDBACK LIFE enjoyed FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, her first Nalo Hopkinson experience.

Nalo Hopkinson’s stories are hybrids, blending science fiction and fantasy, Western and Afro-Caribbean influences, pain and joy, the real and the unreal. She has a particular talent for blending the magical and the mundane in surprising ways.

As a writer of short stories that are specifically fantasy and science fiction, Hopkinson demonstrates her understanding of how a story needs to follow it’s own internal logic to be successful; any outside, novelistic standard of structure or expectation is thrown out the window in favor of internal integrity.

I could draw a lot of comparisons between Hopkinson and other current short story artists– like Kelly Link or Elizabeth Bear– as far as the ideas of internal vs. external logic and the strength of so many different voices, but Hopkinson also has a non-Eurocentric approach that sets her apart and further distances readers from well-worn tropes and techniques. This is my first experience with Nalo Hopkinson, but it certainly won’t be my last.

THE PINOCCHIO THEORY delivers a lengthy, spoiler-rich discussion of the short story “Message in a Bottle,” which appears in FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.

For the reader, the same thing plays out on a metalevel. “Message in a Bottle” takes up the traditional science fiction figuration of extraterrestrial aliens; it shows us how this figuration works in hegemonic groups’ fears of other human beings as aliens; in the way the narrator cannot help seeing children as aliens; and finally in the unassimilability of other (alien) species to our own.

On the WIRED podcast GEEK’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, editors Nalo Hopkinson, Nisi Shawl, and Sunil Patel discuss PEOPLE
OF COLO(U)R DESTROY SCIENCE FICTION.

Nalo Hopkinson on her background as a writer:

“I was lucky growing up. I am the daughter of a library technician—my mother—and an actor/poet/playwright/teacher—my father—and living in the Caribbean we were very keyed in to the literature of the region. I knew that people of color could write, and that we could write whatever we wanted to. When I started writing science fiction I did have to do the sort of ‘unhooking’ of my brain. The first story that came to mind was the default kind of fantasy—white people set in some part of Europe—and I sat with it, because it wasn’t making me comfortable, and I completely changed it. But I knew that I could do it, and I’m kind of blessed that way, and it really hurts me when I see people that don’t have that advantage.”

Nalo Hopkinson co-organized the yearlong Alternative Futurisms, an exploration of ethnic futurisms, hosted by the the University of California, Riverside. Previous guest authors have included Daniel José Older and Walter Mosley.

“Throughout 2015-2016, the Sawyer Seminar on Alternative Futurisms is helping to build bridges amongst the various zones of scholarship and creation in people-of-color futurisms and fantastical narratives,” said Nalo Hopkinson, co-organizer of the yearlong seminar, a professor of creative writing and an award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy. “Following a successful fall quarter, which included a conference, film screenings and panel discussions, the winter quarter is focusing on creators of people-of-color science fiction and fantasy.”

Art by John Jennings

Upcoming events include a panel discussion on Caribbean science fiction and fantasy with Karen Lord, Karin Lowachee, Nalo Hopkinson, and Tobias Buckell and readings by Ted Chiang and Charles Yu.

Learn more about Alternative Futurisms at the University of California, Riverside page.

Without comment, the Halifax Public Libraries included FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS among their recommended reads for African Heritage Month.

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

January 20, 2016

Rocking the Black Comix Arts Festival with Nalo Hopkinson, Nnedi Okorafor, and Jewelle Gomez

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized afrofuturism, bcaf, black comix arts festival, falling in love with hominids, fantasy, jewelle gomez, jill roberts, jim demaiolo, nalo hopkinson, nnedi okorafor, panel, san francisco, san francisco public library, science fiction, speculative fiction

Nalo Hopkinson, Nnedi Okorafor, and Jewelle Gomez on the best of the Afrofuturist genre panel (photo: Jill Roberts)

Nalo Hopkinson, author of FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS and fellow writers Nnedi Okorafor, and Jewelle Gomez killed on their panel on at the 2016 Black Comix Arts Festival (BCAF). The fun-filled trio talked about monsters that appear in their work, the writing process, Afrofuturism, and the futures of African American and African speculative-fiction.

Tachyon managing editor Jill Roberts and Nalo Hopkinson (photo: Jim DeMaiolo)

Luckily for us, the San Francisco Public Library, who hosted the discussion in coordination with the BCAF, had the foresight to record the panel.

January 15, 2016

Join Nalo Hopkinson at The Black Comix Arts Festival

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized adilifu nama, afrocaribbean, afrofuturism, bcaf, black comix arts festival, brian mcgee, brotherman comics, chuma hill, collection, cyborg, david walker, dawud anyabwile, elizabeth story, falling in love with hominids, fantasy, frances gateward, futuredude entertainment, hannibal tabu, jeffrey morris, john jennings, nalo hopkinson, nnedi okorafor, race on the qt, san francisco, san francisco public library, short stories, the blacker the ink, who fears death

Art by Dawud Anyabwile and Brian
Mcgee

The 2016 Black Comix Arts Festival (BCAF) happens January 17-18 in San Francisco, CA.

Dawud Anyabwile
(Co-Creator/Illustrator, BROTHERMAN COMICS), Brian
Mcgee (Colorist,
BROTHERMAN COMICS),
John Jennings and Frances Gateward (Co-Authors, THE
BLACKER THE INK), Jeffrey Morris (Founder, Futuredude Entertainment),
Adilifu Nama (Author, RACE ON THE QT), David Walker (Writer, CYBORG),
Nnedi Okorafor (Award-Winning Novelist, WHO FEARS DEATH), Hannibal
Tabu (Author & Journalist), Nalo Hopkinson (Award-Winning
Novelist, FALLING
IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS),
and
others will be in attendance.

The Black Comix Arts
Festival (BCAF) celebrates African Americans’ creativity in the
comic arts and popular visual culture and is dedicated to the notion
that all audiences deserve to be subject in the culture in which we
participate. The two-day event includes a grand expo, kids
activities, film screenings, panels and conversations, cosplay events
and much more.

In conjunction with the BCAF, the San Francisco Public Library is hosting an author panel featuring the best of the Afrofuturist genre. The event includes Nalo Hopkinson, Jewelle Gomez, Nnedi Okorafor, Ayize Jama Everett, Brian McGee, and John Jennings. It happens on Sunday, 1/17 from 1:00 – 4:00 in the Koret Auditorium of the Main Library (100 Larkin St).

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story