Magazines That Want (More) Diversity

Magazines That Want (More) Diversity

I often talk about the need for markets and their editors/publishers to do more to up the diversity in their slush pile and, consequently, in the publication itself. And one of the steps toward doing so is making sure that people know about your intentions in that direction. It does help to make the statement outright, but you still must back that statement up with results. Editors sometimes ask me how they get the word out, and, as I said in my Mind Meld contribution the other week, one of the ways is writer to writer to writer. Since I’m a writer whose blog is read by other writers, I guess I should do my part. :)

I recently sent this list of magazines looking for more POC authors and stories with POC characters and non-standard cultures/settings/etc to the Carl Brandon mailing list. I know that the editors of these markets want more because they told me so (which is as good an indication as any).

Fantasy — Any magazine I’m involved with definitely cares about this issue. One would hope it goes without saying, but not everyone is aware of who works for what and the goings on behind the scenes.

Sybil’s Garage — Before the last reading period, Matt Kressel and I had several discussions about how to draw in more diverse submissions. We edited the guidelines to make that desire clearer and I encouraged authors I knew to apply. I believe the next submission period is in early August, so keep an eye out and, yes, send your stuff in. Matt also says not to make any pre-judgments on what a Sybil’s Garage-type story is.

PodCastle — Rachel Swirsky is definitely on the look out for great stories by POC authors. I gave her some names and stories to check out, but you increase your own chances by submitting. PodCastle, like EscapePod, takes reprints. And it doesn’t matter how long ago the story was published, just so long as it’s good (and fantasy — for SF stuff, submit to EscapePod).

Asimov’s — Sheila Williams has mentioned to me a couple of times that she’d like to see more women in her slush (particularly with SF stories) and I suspect that she could use more submissions from POC and/or with POC characters and under-represented cultures.

As always, none of these markets is likely to publish a story just because it’s written by a POC or has POC characters. But in order to have a chance, you need to send the story in!

There are probably markets that I’m missing or editors who want more diversity but haven’t mentioned it to me. If so, mention it in the comments. I’ll add it to the main post as we go along.

Other markets looking to increase diversity (as indicated in the comments):

Fantasy Magazine Launches New Website

Fantasy Magazine Launches New Website

On July 17, 2008 Prime Books announces the launch of the new Fantasy Magazine website.

The site design is by Matthew Kressel of Senses Five Press, which publishes Sybil’s Garage and Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy.   The artwork is by New Zealand-based artist Sanjana Baijnath.

Fantasy Magazine’s authors have included some of the best new and established voices in the fantasy genre, including Stephanie Campisi, Paul Jessup, Richard Parks, Holly Phillips, Ursula Pflug, Ekaterina Sedia, Rachel Swirsky, Lavie Tidhar, Catherynne M. Valente, and Jeff VanderMeer. The magazine publishes a new story each Monday, with commentary, interviews, reviews, and essays appearing throughout the week along with Friday’s Blog for a Beer! feature, which allows readers to unleash their creative talents. The new site will add audio and video content, previews of Prime and Juno books and new contests.

“Fantasy Magazine … [has] already shouldered their way into the ranks of the most prominent fiction e-zines on the internet”—The Year’s Best Science Fiction

“Fantasy Magazine is one of the most promising new fiction publications to launch in the field in years.”—Locus

“We hope to continue bringing innovative and enthralling fiction and features to fantasy lovers across the globe . . . and this is just the first step in many to come. Keep reading Fantasy Magazine!” —Cat Rambo and Sean Wallace

The magazine’s staff includes co-editors Cat Rambo and Sean Wallace, managing editor K. Tempest Bradford, and intern Nivair H. Gabriel.

Upcoming content in 2008 includes works from authors such as Jim Hines, J. MDermott, Ursula Pflug, and Erzebet Yellowboy. This week’s story is “Watermark” by Michael Greenhut, accompanied by an audio version read by Cat Rambo.


On a personal note, I’d really like to thank Matt for the hard work he did setting up the site.  That’s a custom theme you see, which he made from the ground up.  He incorporated all of the elements I asked for and offered suggestions and improvements of his own.  I can’t recommend (or thank) Matt enough.  It’s really beautiful work and he’s a hell of a programmer.

I’m also super, super pleased that Sanjana allowed us to use her art.  I fell in love with that image the first time I saw it.

William Sanders, You Stay Classy!

William Sanders, You Stay Classy!

To bring this back around to where it belongs…

Sanders has returned from his trip and is responding to authors criticizing his bigoted views and/or asking that their stories be removed from the Helix site by, predictably, being a complete asshole.

He told N. K. Jemisin that he’d never publish her again and responded to Yoon Ha Lee’s removal request with some choice words:

He then … claimed that I only asked for the story to be withdrawn “because, let’s get real here, you feel the need to distance yourself from someone who is in disfavor with the kind of babbling PC waterheads whose good opinion is so important to you, and whom you seem to be trying to impress with this little grandstand play.”

As others have said: you stay classy, man!

To make things even better, on the page where Yoon’s story used to be is the following text:

Story deleted at author’s pantiwadulous request.

A quick check shows that this text also graces the two pages where N K Jemisin’s story used to be.

ETA: Looks like sometime last night Sanders rethought this strategy and simply deleted the pages. But Nick Mamatas has the screencap. You know, in case someone tried to pretend that shit didn’t happen.

And this morning I discovered that, though Sanders offered to take down the stories just yesterday afternoon, he now expects authors who want their stories removed to pay him $40 to do so. I’m sure if I sat here for another two hours, he’d do something else to offend.

If Sanders’ crazy wasn’t broadly evident before, it is now. (Also, pandiwadulous??)

Elsewhere, N K talks about the minefield one must traverse when something of this nature comes up. People don’t want to support Helix in any way as long as Sanders is involved, but the authors published there are not at fault and shouldn’t be punished. Doing the former without doing the latter, indirectly, is hard. It’s not the authors’ fault, but they may get backlash nonetheless.

Speaking of editors taking responsibility, Micole has an interesting post on the Aqueduct blog where she calls for a boycott of F&SF until they stop publishing Dave Truesdale on their website. (Others agree.) I’ve heard that Dave only has one column left on his contract, so he’ll be going soon, anyway. But it should be noted that he isn’t going away because Gordon van Gelder has expressed disappointment at the things Dave has to say (that I’ve seen), but just because the contract is up. Micole sites some of the nasty things Dave has said about me personally, which I appreciate other people pointing out (as Tobias did, as well). But I don’t know that this is going to move Gordon much. (He doesn’t have a very high opinion of me, so I don’t think he’d care if Dave or anyone else was nasty about me.) I’m less concerned about that than the crazy stuff he’s said as a columnist for F&SF and in other “professional” capacities. That anyone thinks it’s okay to give him a venue says a lot.

I’m going to say again: When will we, as a community, collectively shunn these people until they go away? Because, seriously, this has to stop. Pandiwadulous? PC Nazi? If people like this aren’t shut down and put out of the group, they will not stop, they will not get better, but they will infect others, drive folks away, and make the “professional” venues they’re associated with look like safe harbors for hate and bigotry.

My actual thoughts on Gardner Dozois

There’s been a lot of chatter in the threads dealing with the William Sanders rejection letter fiasco to do with my post last week where I said “The fact that Gardner Dozois brought up the specter of a lawsuit makes me wonder what’s hiding in his rejection letters.” Some people (generally people who already dislike me, but perhaps also some who I respect) feel that I was, in a roundabout, backhand way, calling Dozois a racist, sexist, bigot. I have two things to say to that.

The first is: if I felt this way about Dozois, I would actually just say it. I’m pretty damn blunt. And I’m not afraid to call out racism where I see it, even if the racist happens to be an editor. If I had actually felt that Dozois was racist, it would not have been a sidelong comment.

The second is: when I said “it makes me wonder” and elsewhere in the post “I’m extremely wary” I meant just exactly that. When people don’t address the elephant in the room, and that elephant happens to involve bigotry, my spidey sense starts to tingle. I do wonder what that means about them. I particularly wondered what it meant about Dozois, because I wouldn’t have thought he’d have anything in particular to worry about regarding rejections in the wild. His talking about lawsuits and copyright made me rethink that.

However, it turns out that my assumption about why Dozois wasn’t addressing the elephant in that Asimov’s thread was wrong. According to people on that board, he was attempting to follow the rules of that space. He also posted elsewhere that the issue of professionalism and ethics is very important to him. His priorities are not my priorities. And much as I may disagree about priorities, I don’t feel that makes him a racist.

There’s a difference between not addressing bigotry and being a bigot. I do definitely feel that not addressing is wrong–it should always be addressed. Not just in this situation, but in the SF community at large. But calling someone out for not addressing is and should be different from calling them a bigot. (Heck, he may be addressing it in places I don’t see. I just don’t assume people do because, in my experience, people don’t.)

If Dozois himself feels that I called him a racist or similar, then I’m definitely sorry about that. (The if is only because I don’t actually know how he feels on the issue.) If people I know and respect feel I did that, hopefully they don’t anymore. I don’t particularly care what certain other parties think on the issue. They get pissed when I wake up in the morning instead of dying in my sleep. At that point you just can’t win.

My Contribution To Post A Rejection Letter Friday

My Contribution To Post A Rejection Letter Friday

Now that I’m back to my home computer, here are some rejection letters I’ve recieved. I post them not because they are particularly funny or heinous or anything — they’re pretty standard — but because they both come from publications that I work for or have done in the recent past. Both of the editors who rejected me I now consider good friends. (Yes, Kris, you are my good friend.) Onward!

Dear Ms. Bradford,

Thank you for submitting your story “Enmity” to SYBIL’S GARAGE. Unfortunately at this time we will not be accepting your submission for publication. We enjoyed your story, however, it’s not quite right for the magazine. We hope you consider sending to us again.

Sincerely,
KD
Editor
SYBIL’S GARAGE

and

Dear [my real first name and, may I note, spelled WRONG],

Thank you for your submission to Fantasy Magazine, but it didn’t quite grab me, so I’m going to pass on this.

all best wishes,
Sean

That second rejection was for Black Feather, BTW.

Nothing scathing, as I said. But funny for me, considering.

Both of these stories were/are going to be published.  This is one of the reasons why writers share rejections.  To show that even when you don’t wow one editor, you may wow another.  And that editor’s not being wowed has no absolute bearing on your ability to wow elsewhere.

Post A Rejection Letter Friday

Apropos of the ridiculous focus on whether or not posting rejection letters is common practice/professional/legal/cuddly/appropriate/blue rather than on the exposure of crude and offensive racist language, I’m officially declaring it Post A Rejection Letter Friday.

I already posted LeGuin’s.  I’ll post one of mine this evening, because the one I want is on my home computer.  In the meantime, post one of yours!  In comments, in your blog, anywhere.  Link back to nostalgiaforinfinity, just cuz :)

I’m getting more famous by the day

Dave Truesdale is a wee upset at me:

Tempest is angry at everyone and everything that doesn’t fit her narrow worldview. And everyone who disagrees with her on even the tiniest little thing she either labels (nay, screams is) a racist, a sexist, or a homophobe; and yet she labels this forum as full of racists, sexists, and homophobes, and doesn’t see how William can stand it over here. Talk about the utter arrogance and self-righteousness of her non-stop rants! She’d find sexism or racism in a blade of grass, for crying out loud. Rush was right after all, about her sort. I didn’t use to think so, but I’ve seen her type prove Rush right time after time after time. Whew.

Someone needs an emergency bitch-suction operation.

Oh yes he did.

The only good thing I can say is that at least he says things about me in public forums where I’m free to disagree or just laugh at him appropriately.  At least he gets as close to saying things to my face as he can without actually being in the same room as me. It’s super rare to find someone brave enough to actually have a face-to-face conversation with me about any issues I talk about often (race, sexism, etc.).

But I find it incredibly funny that he responded to my annoyance with the level of nasty on the boards by being nasty about me.

Dear People On The Asimov’s Boards and Elsewhere…

…who are quibbling about whether it was legal for Luke to post that rejection letter or any rejection letter, let’s get one thing straight: No one would be whining and crying about this had he published a rejection that said:

Dear Luke,

Your writing is very good, but this story isn’t right for our market. The spec element isn’t strong enough for our tastes, but you might do well to try more literary markets because I feel the story has a lot of merit.

The only reason this is upsetting to Sanders and, I assume, certain other editors, is because that letter revealed bigotry. Bigotry that Sanders assumed Luke shared with him (and he might have) and thus he felt safe expressing it. It seems to me that the only reason this would worry any other editor is if they realized that rejections they’d sent out might reveal their own bigotry in some way. That would scare the shit out of me, too. Know what? I can’t feel sympathy for you over it, though.

We can spend the next week quibbling over whether or not rejections are private correspondence and whether it’s unprofessional to post one to public or private spaces. (I don’t believe it is based on the fact that, since I’ve been a writer, writers have shared rejections, either in whole or in part, in forums relating to writing. Also, I agree with those who’ve said that once a person says truly despicable, racist things in letter form, professionalism is already off the table.) It may very well be true that, from a legal standpoint, Luke didn’t have the right to do what he did. But, again, would anyone care if it hadn’t revealed what it did?

The fact that Gardner Dozois brought up the specter of a lawsuit makes me wonder what’s hiding in his rejection letters. Why else try to scare Luke in that way? Maybe it’s just general fear on the Internet that people of his ilk seem to have. Either way, it makes me extremely dubious about Gardner and anyone else who focuses solely on the whole private/public correspondence bit and not the raging bigotry. As Celia said elsewhere, this is similar to what got David Moles in trouble with SFWA. The people in question couldn’t defend their (terribly disappointing and, in some cases, disgusting) words and opinions, so they fell back on whining about privacy.

I’ve made a man of straw, would someone like to use it?

ETA: It’s been brought to my attention in comments that Sheila Williams was the first to bring up lawsuits. I mistakenly thought it was Gardner mainly because Luke mentioned him, not Sheila. That still makes me sad, because I am still annoyed with all this focus on whether it was okay for Luke to post the rejection instead of the important issue: Sanders’ bigotry.

I also hear that people are mad because I’ve cast aspersions at (on?) Gardner Dozois. I elaborated in the comments, but basically I stand by my assertion that I am extremely wary of people who jump to “How horrible of Luke to post that letter” and not “How horrible of Sanders to say such things!” Those who do not speak out against bigotry usually do so because they are afraid/intimidated into not doing so by their peers or because they just don’t see the bigotry as being all that bad. (There are other reasons, too, these are just the ones I come across most of the time.) I have some sympathy for people who fall into the first category and absolutely none for people who fall into the second.

Daughter of ETAThis very thoughtful comment explains how, in the context of the community and rules of the Asimov’s board, this particular annoyance began.  Unless someone who actually hangs over there wishes to contradict this, I’m going to choose to believe this is how things work there.  Which means that everything is Stephen Francis Murphy’s fault.  And I have no trouble believing that.  Above when I said there might be other reasons for reacting to the “oh, ethics and copyright!” and not “arg, bigotry!”?  This appears to be one of those other reasons.  I’ll amend my opinions accordingly.