The WisConChronicles, Vol. 5: now available!

I'm happy to report that Aqueduct Press is now selling The WisCon Chronicles, Vol. 5: Writing and Racial Identity, edited by Nisi Shawl, through its website. This volume, which focuses on WisCon 34, was in such great demand that we ran out of these at WisCon. Here's a brief summary of its contents:


Racial Identity and Writing
A Dozen Writers and Thinkers Reflect – Six-part Series edited by Eileen Gunn


WisCon GoH Speeches by
Mary Anne Mohanraj & Nnedi Okorafor


Speeches and Excerpts from Tiptree Award Winners
Greer Gilman & Fumi Yoshinaga (acceptance speech by Mari Kotani)


Essays by
Maurice Broaddus, Tanya C. DePass, Amal El-Mohtar, Jaymee Goh, MJ Hardman, Jane Irwin, Nancy Jane Moore, Kate Nepveu, Vandana Singh, & Heidi Waterhouse and Jess Adams


Short Fiction & Poetry by
Terry Bisson, Jane Irwin, Amal El-Mohtar


Panel Transcripts & Notes
Neesha Meminger and Ibi Zoboi, Zola Mumford, Maria Velazquez, & LaShawn M. Wanak

Nisi begins her introduction thus: "Some time in January of 2011 I wrote to a friend: 'I feel like I am floating in an alternate universe of silver goggles and artificial wombs and look there's Emily Dickinson smoking a cigar.' I was deep inside the process of editing The WisCon Chronicles, Vol. 5: Writing and Racial Identity, surrounded by all those elements and more-- a delightful place."

Nisi also writes this in her introduction: "I'll offer you only one superlative: M.J. Hardman's minim opus, "The Russ Categories," has got to be the hardest-won essay in this book. For years MJ has taught a course on applying the lessons of  Joanna Russ's How to Suppress Women's Writing to the accomplishments of other suppressed groups. With colleague Anita Taylor she has been making of it an interactive online learning experience. I asked her to contribute a condensed version. Right before her deadline she had what's technically known as a"bilateral pulmonary embolic shower." Hundreds of blood clots formed in her lungs. One is enough to kill a person. MJ apologized from her hospital bed for missing her deadline. A few weeks later, when still a "shut-in" tied to an oxygen tank, she submitted her essay. It is provocative, sweeping, humorous, magnificent. It may well be the book's heart."

Interested? You can purchase the book here.