The Aqueduct Gazette, Vol. 9 Spring/Summer 2014

Aqueduct Press has published a new issue of the Aqueduct Gazette, edited by Arrate Hidalgo, to celebrate our tenth anniversary. We distributed print copies of the issue at WisCon, and will be bringing some to Readercon and Diversicon. But you can download a pdf of it (free) here. The table of contents includes:

A conversation with Andrea Hairston, discussing her new collection Lonely Stardust: Two Plays, a Speech, and Eight Essays;

A conversation with Sarah Tolmie, discussing her debut novel, The Stone Boatmen; 

An original essay by Gwyneth Jones, "I Don't Fly";

"September 1, 2024: A Speculation" by Joan Haran, Kristin King, Josh Lukin, Annalee Newitz, and Kiini Ibura Salaam;

"WisCon 2004-2014: Challenges and Transformations" by Sandy Olson, Debbie Notkin, and Ian Hagemann;

An excerpt from Alexis Lothians' introduction to New Amazonia: A Foretaste of the Future by Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett;

And a reflection by me on the Conversation Pieces series.

The Winter 2011 issue of the Aqueduct Gazette is out

Two items of Aqueduct Press news: first, Aqueduct Press's website has had a (much needed) face-lift; and second, the new issue of the Aqueduct Gazette is available now for (free) download. As with the last issue, Paige Clifton-Steele edited the new issue. The contents include an interview with Suzy McKee Charnas, a Spotlight on PM Press, and an essay by Andrea Hairston, as well as a look at new Aqueduct Press books that will be out soon.

The Aqueduct Gazette: the Spring 2010 issue

The online edition of the Spring 2010 Aqueduct Gazette is now available as a PDF download here. In this issue,

*Nisi Shawl, in "Written on the Water," considers how differently she now reads the books that were a big influence on her life. She notes

Rereading is always, to me, rewriting. As I reread the texts I love, those that are dear to me, their words spill away from me into new meanings, filling up the fresh impressions I have left on the world by making my way through it. The hollow places and questions and emptinesses I have come upon in my continuing explorations open to receive thoughts that were always waiting to occur.

*Issue editor Paige Clifton-Steele interviews Helen Merrick, asking her questions such as "In the beginning of your book [The Secret Feminist Cabal], you immediately identify yourself as a fan among fans. Do you think it's important that works like this should be written by people who claim that title?" and "Donna Haraway cautions against viewing the cyborg as a product of technophilia, specifically, 'for example, those who relegate the cyborg to an odd, attenuated kind of technophilic euphoria.' But I think a lot of people come to sf in childhood, and embrace it prior to any understanding, out of something that looks a lot like a technophilic ("gee-whiz!") impulse. Is there some contradiction buried here? Can that impulse be trusted to serve greater purposes sometimes?" She also asks Helen to talk about her experience as a Tiptree juror.

*Paige Clifton-Steele, in "Henrietta's Afterlife: Octavia Butler and the HeLa Cell Culture," reads Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis Cycle by way of the case of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman from whose cervical cancer cells originated the first immortal cell tissue line, HeLa:

Long after her death, her extracted cancer cells continued to divide. They are still dividing in hundreds of labs all over the world. Henrietta Lacks became, in death, "the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory."

Those cells, in turn, were reproduced on a massive scale during the search for a polio vaccine, and have since figured in the development of treatments for countless diseases and the answers to other scientific questions. However, white doctors took the cells from Lacks without her knowledge, and her children have had no say in how they were used....

....Lacks' son consented to an autopsy based on the suggestion that any results might medically benefit her descendants. Since then the world over has seen the benefit of HeLa; she has a wealth of spiritual descendants. It's her real descendants for whom the benefits have been scarce. Most of them live without health insurance. None of them have ever been included in the profits that are made off of HeLa cells....

*And of course the issue offers plenty of news about Aqueduct Press books, current and forthcoming.

The Aqueduct Gazette, Winter 2010

The new issue of the Aqueduct Gazette-- Winter 2010-- has been posted at Aqueduct Press's website. You can download it, free of charge, here. In it you'll find a fascinating original essay by Carrie Devall, "The Shady Relationship between Lesbian and Speculative Fiction"; Eileen Gunn's "Going to Narrative," which is her introduction to the forthcoming Narrative Power: Encounters, Celebrations, Struggles; Kristin King's "Love at the City of Books"; and excerpts from the preface of Helen Merrick's The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms. Oh, and other stuff, too, about our new and forthcoming titles.

The paper version of the newsletter is not back from the printer yet. But if you'd prefer it to the electronic version, let us know, and we'll send you one as soon as they arrive at Aqueduct.

Aqueduct Gazette, Summer 2009

The Summer 2009 issue of the Aqueduct Gazette is now available for download from Aqueduct's site. (This is the issue we distributed at WisCon.) Highlights include Nisi Shawl's reflections on finding herself the first African American to win the Tiptree Award, Gwyneth Jones's notes on the stories in The Buonarotti Quartet, an interview with Liz Henry about The WisCon Chronicles, Vol. 3: Carnival of Feminist SF, and my thoughts on Aqueduct's fifth anniversary. There's also the usual-- word of works forthcoming from Aqueduct and descriptions of our most recent publications. You can download a pdf file of the issue here.

The Aqueduct Gazette, Issue 4

The latest issue of The Aqueduct Gazette is now available for download at Aqueduct's site, here. The issue focuses on Vandana Singh, and the contents of the issue include:

--Women Writing in India: Vandana Singh interviews the editors of Zubaan Books
--"The Decolonization of the Mind," Vandana Singh's guest Hanging out along the Aqueduct column
--Nisi Shawl's Filter House is on Publishers Weekly Year's Best list
--Details about Vandana Singh's new novella, Distances
--Details about forthcoming books from Aqueduct
--Details about new volumes in the Conversation Pieces series

The issue has a lot of images, so the download will be slow for anyone using a dial-up connection. But we're expecting the paper edition of it to be back from the printer's soon, so if you'd like us to send you a copy, do drop Tom a note at info@aqueductpress.com and we'll mail it to you.

The Aqueduct Gazette, Issue 3

The latest issue of The Aqueduct Gazette is now available from download at Aqueduct's site, here. Contents of the issue include:

* "Seeing Voices: A Conversation with Nisi Shawl" by Jesse Vernon
* "The Fantastical Poems of Mary Coleridge" by Theodora Goss
* "Feminist Science Fiction and WisCon: A Poly-Political Conversation with Eileen Gunn" by Jesse Vernon
* "Hanging Out Along the Aqueduct..." (a guest editorial) by Ray Vanck

Plus, of course, peeks at Aqueduct books to come!

Get Your Aqueduct Gazette Here

The second issue of the Aqueduct Gazette is now available for download here. In this issue you'll find interviews with two Aqueduct authors, an essay by Carolyn Ives Gilman, an editorial by Jesse Vernon (who edited the issue), and much, much more!

ETA: We've scaled down the resolution of the pdf file so that it's a more manageable download. Sorry about any frustration or inconvenience the original version might have caused you.