Wednesday Geek Woman: Mikki Kendall, activist and author

Mikki Kendall, activist and author. Photo courtesy Mikki Kendall.

Mikki Kendall is a writer, pop culture critic, editor and author.

In 2009, she started Verb Noire, a small press for genre fiction featuring characters that are people of color and/or LGBT. In 2011, her first story, “Copper For A Trickster,” appeared in Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories. She’s been a panelist at WisCon, Arisia, and Readercon,  and been a guest on the Nerdgasm Noire podcast.

As of last month, she has a new story out! Content warning for violence and sexual violence, but if you’re able to do so you should really check out If God Is Watching. It’s a gorgeously-written period fantasy about a young woman with an unusual power, and anything else I tell you about it would spoil its awesomeness so seriously just go read it.

Though she’s a talented fiction writer, she’s better known for her incisive cultural criticism on issues relating to race and gender. in August 2013, she started the #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen hashtag–a home for honest criticism of the ways white feminism has failed at intersectionality and repeatedly thrown women of color under the bus. The tag picked up steam until it was globally trending.

Together with Jamie Nesbitt Golden, she started Hood Feminism, an intersectional blog about race, gender, and misogynoir (the toxic brand of explicitly anti-black misogyny). They’ve leveraged Twitter to keep that conversation going with hashtags like #FastTailedGirls and #DangerousBlackKids.

Her non-fiction has appeared in The Guardian, Salon, NPR’s Code Switch, and XOJane, among other places. You can find her at Hood Feminism and on Twitter as @Karnythia.

Quick Rec: LaShawn M. Wanak’s 21 Steps to Enlightenment (Minus One)

Do you like beautifully-written short fantasy? Of course you do.

Head on over to Strange Horizons to read LaShawn M. Wanak’s 21 Steps to Enlightenment (Minus One) for a little bit of wisdom, a little bit of Chicago, and a little bit of magic.

And if you like it (you probably will; it’s pretty awesome), consider supporting Strange Horizons.

ETA: Wanak has some background info about the story on her blog.

Linkspam made the top 10 (24th June, 2011)

• Color Lines gives us The Ultimate 21st Century People of Color Sci-Fi List
  

  It seems that when it comes to sci-fi, cultural experiences of the melanin-inclined are merely reserved for exotic backdrop (ahem, “Stargate”) and half-assed tokenization (ahem, the horrible Mandarin in “Firefly”). […] This is for all the disappointed moviegoers who felt the title “Minority Report” was misleading.

• Forbes lists The 10 Most Powerful Women Authors The list only counts living authors, but includes both Pulitzer-Prize winners and bestsellers
• on privilege denial within disability: If the only time you bring up being not abled is when someone calls you out on being ableist, this may apply to you.
• An Open Letter to Courtney Martin, an Editor at Feministing.Com: To offer a review on a feminist Web site of Octavia Butler’s work without discussing, in depth, her contribution to feminism in general and black feminism specifically is to do the legacy of Octavia Butler a tremendous disservice.
• (Warning: extensive anti-women/feminist statements quoted, some advocating violence.) How to choose the absolutely wrong person to write about girls and D&D — the title really says it all. The article in question has since been removed.
• On Geekdom and Privilege: Sympathy For The “Pretty’?: All of which is not to say that celebrities or hot people can never be members of the community. In calling herself a history geek, Campanella herself seems to fit the definition of a geek ally: she has some geeky interests, and she believes in evolution (thank goodness), but it’s not like she chose to cosplay Wonder Woman for the swimsuit competition, either.
• Ann Leckie: Wiscon-Related Thoughts pt 1: But we still do it, ourselves. Some portions of the eternal what’s really science fiction debate seem focused on excluding pears and oranges from our basket on the grounds that they’re not really fruit. Except no definition that excludes oranges and pears will also include every sort of apple.

You can suggest links for future linkspams in comments here, or by using the “geekfeminism” tag on delicious, freelish.us or pinboard.in or the “#geekfeminism” tag on Twitter. Please note that we tend to stick to publishing recent links (from the last month or so).

Thanks to everyone who suggested links.

Final Day To Win An eReader and Support The Octavia E. Butler Scholarship

Technically, one can donate to the scholarship fund at any time. But today is the last day that one can buy tickets to win an eReader or an autographed copy of the Dark Matter anthology while simultaneously supporting the scholarship. In lieu of giving you a long-winded plea for participation and money, I’m going to linkspam you a bit.

• Here’s where you can go to learn about the Carl Brandon Society, the Butler Scholarship, the drawing rules, and information about the eReaders on offer.
• Note that the eReaders (Nook, Kobo, and Alex) will also come pre-loaded with fiction, poetry and essays by many writers of color. Want the full list? Click here.
• Need more reasons to convince you that supporting this cause is a good thing? Here’s 5.
• Jeff Vandermeer is doing it, Nicola Griffith is doing it, Jha is doing it, you should, too! (peer pressure!)
• It costs a lot to go to Clarion. Click here to see how much.
• Buy some tickets. Support some writers. Invest in the future of SF/F/H literature if for no other reason than helping to ensure there will continue to be more of it you’ll want to read.

Win An eReader And Support Speculative Fiction Writers: Carl Brandon Society Fundraiser

The Carl Brandon Society, an organization dedicated to racial and ethnic diversity in speculative fiction, will hold a prize drawing of five eReaders to benefit the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship, a fund that sends two emerging writers of color to the Clarion and Clarion West writers workshops annually.

In keeping with the Society’s support of literature from and about people of color, the prizes include five eReaders: two Barnes & Noble Nooks, two Kobo Readers, and one Alex eReader from Spring Design. Each eReader will come pre-loaded with books, short stories and essays by writers of color from the speculative fiction field, including: N. K. Jemisin, Nisi Shawl, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Terence Taylor, Ted Chiang, Shweta Narayan, Chesya Burke, Moondancer Drake, Saladin Ahmed, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and more.

The drawing’s tickets will cost one dollar US ($1) and can be purchased here. Entrants may purchase an unlimited number of tickets, which will be available from November 5, 2010 through November 22nd, 2010. Sales will close at 11:59PM EDT on November 22nd. Winners will be drawn randomly from a digital “hat” and announced online.

To purchase tickets, read details about the eReaders, or to learn more about the Carl Brandon Society, or to see the full rules, please visit the Carl Brandon Society website.