edited to invite comic creator suggestions too

Wiscon the World’s Leading Feminist Science Fiction Convention has given me my tentative schedule (four panels and a reading). There may be tweaks and changes.  I hope to see some of you there and regardless of whether you can make it to Madison Wisconsin 24-27 May I would like you help with the Karen Axness Memorial Panel: Women Writers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of.

This panel has a history to live up to, “A WisCon tradition (this year is the 36th!). Panel members will discuss the latest books by female SF and fantasy authors, emphasizing new female authors in these fields.”

I need your help! I want your suggestions for what new books and female authors or comic writers/creators to mention and bit about their work (post in comments please). This panel is so intimidating, there’s so much great stuff out there!

I also want to bend the panel a little and talk about short fiction writers – I think of short fiction as this wonderful experimental space and I’m excited by the voices coming up in those grounds. Given the pressure on writers for their first book to perform it’s strategically important to keep an eye out for the short fiction writers you love so they can keep bringing the experimental and the awesome.

Send me your suggestions in the comments, or e-mail if you prefer, pretty pretty please!

My full con schedule behind the cut:

Join the Mod Squad: Enhance Your Moderation Skills

Fri, 4:00–5:15 pm Assembly
Christopher Davis moderating, with Liz Argall, Alan Bostick, Betsy L, Victoria Janssen

Ever go to a panel and spend your time thinking, “With a good moderator, this would be a much better panel?” We will review several ways to be that good moderator, offer tips and tricks, and generally work on improving WisCon’s already high standards for panel moderation. We strongly encourage you to attend this panel if you are moderating at WisCon, especially if it’s your first time. It’s also a great experience if you ever have, or think you ever will, be a panel moderator anywhere.

 

None of Us Are Goats!

Sat, 2:30–3:45 pm Conference 2
Liz Argall, Jessica Eanes, Keffy R. M. Kehrli, Kelly Lagor, Grá Linnea

Four short readings (most likely all of them will be contemporary fantasy or weird fiction). In addition, Kelly will play music.

 

Gendered communication styles in the workplace

Sun, 10:00–11:15 am Room 629
Liz Argall moderating. Cat Hanna, Naomi Mercer, Talks-with-wind, Andrea L. Staum

Interpersonal communication styles are influenced by the cultural experience of gender, but add in office power dynamics and things get… interesting. Men finding themselves in a woman-dominated workplace may find how things work to be alien. Women entering a workplace that values a robust debate of ideas may find it intimidating. Unlike your social life, you *have* to work with these people, and that means finding out how to talk to them constructively.

 

Fear and Masculinity in SF/F

Sun, 2:30–3:45 pm Senate B
Gregory G. H. Rihn moderating, Liz Argall, Alex Bledsoe, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Michael Underwood

Many anti-feminist tropes in genre fiction, from women in refrigerators to saving princesses, portray men’s fears as residing exclusively outside the individual. When realistic inner lives are portrayed, as in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, it is often in the context of “gritty” or “dark” post-modern fiction. Some works, such as Steven Erickson’s Malazan Books of the Fallen series, and Michael Marshall Smith’s Spares, use military settings to explore the inner lives of masculine people. Others, like Jim Hines’s Libriomancer and Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan series, play explicitly with these tropes. What works have explored the inner fears and tension of masculinity? Which have gone to ridiculous lengths to avoid discussing the vulnerability of masculine characters?

 

Karen Axness Memorial Panel: Women Writers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Sun, 4:00–5:15 pm
Tom Porter moderating Liz Argall, Gail Leinweber, David Peterson, Sheree Renée Thomas

A WisCon tradition (this year is the 36th!). Panel members will discuss the latest books by female SF and fantasy authors, emphasizing new female authors in these fields.

Dear co-panellists, where possible I have linked to your websites/online presences (Please let me know if you have something you’d like me to link to or if you would like me to change an existing link.