I’m excited to be a virual program participant for this year’s Arisia Convention!
My schedule is:
FRIDAY 1/15 8:30 pm”Pandemic Fiction: Before and After” I’ll be on this panel with Ken Schneyer, Rachel A. Brune, Lisa Batya Feld, Mark “Justin” Waks.
Living through an actual pandemic is bound to have an impact both on how pandemic fiction is written, as well as how pre-COVID-19 fiction is read. In this panel, we’ll discuss what we, as readers, think pre-existing fiction got right and what it got wrong, and how future pandemic fiction could change because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
SATURDAY 1/16 2:30 pm”Surviving the Apocalypse Emotionally” Joining me on this panel is Bhadrika Love, LB Lee, Gordon Linzner, Bey Woodward.
Most discussions about surviving the apocalypse (be it zombie, climate, or alien) focus on the skills necessary for physical survival. But we are emotional creatures, and coping with the stress and grief is just as important as building a fire. What do healthy emotions and healthy relationships look like after the world ends? What genre stories have tackled these questions well, and what advice can they give us for our own non-apocalyptic trauma?
SATURDAY 1/16 4:00 pm”The Octavia Butler Future is Now” I’m on this one with Gillian Daniels, Andrea Hairston, Rob Cameron, Sam Schreiber.
In her Earthseed series, Octavia Butler gave us a vision of the 2020s that is disturbingly close to our reality, including storms, and droughts brought on by climate change; escapism through addictive pharmaceuticals and games, and perhaps most chillingly a far-right US President backed by extremist evangelical Christians. This panel will review the highlights of these books and discuss the influences on Butler’s writing as well as the influence these novels have had since their publication.
