Ay LiterAr QuArterLy January 2016 X Vol. 6. No. 1 Essays The Tiptree Symposium by L. timmel Duchamp Sighting of an Aqueductista by Josh Lukin Flash Fiction A Troubling Reflection by Wilma Bernard Wasteland PoEms by in this issue Mary Agner Anne sheldon & sonya taaffe X rop GrandmothEr maGma e Thirteen Ways of rin rin Looking at a Monster h ar by eleanor Arnason book rEviEws Ghost Summer and Other Stories by tananarive Due Dark Orbit by Carolyn ives Gilman The SEA Is Ours edited by Jaymee Goh & Joyce Chng Flesh & Wires by Jackie hatton A Small Key Can Open a Large Door “since its launch in 2011 The Cascadia Subduction Zone has emerged as one edited by strangers in a of the best critical journals the field has to offer.” tangled Wilderness h Jonathan McCalmont, February 18, 2013, hugo Ballot nomination EaturEd rtist $5.00 F a e rin harrop Managing Editor vol. 6 no. 1 — January 2016 Ann Keefer Reviews Editor Essays Nisi Shawl The Tiptree Symposium by L. Timmel Duchamp h 1 Features Editor L. Timmel Duchamp Sighting of an Aqueductista by Josh Lukin h 5 Arts Editor Kath Wilham Flash Fiction $5.00 A Troubling Reflection by Wilma Bernard h 3 PoEms Poem for Kivrin; For Peg; Star Babe Takes No Prisoners; & Maidservant from Away by Anne Sheldon h 4 O(r)bit; Power Couple: Combustion; & Rachel Carson’s Prix Fixe by Mary Agner h 13 & 15 The Lost Aphrodite by Sonya Taaffe h 17 GrandmothEr maGma Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Monster Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus by Eleanor Arnason h 6 book rEviEws Ghost Summer and Other Stories, by Tananarive Due reviewed by Tanya DePass h 10 Dark Orbit, by Carolyn Ives Gilman reviewed by Nisi Shawl h 11 The SEA Is Ours, edited by Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng reviewed by S. Qiouyi Lu h 14 Flesh & Wires, by Jackie Hatton reviewed by Stevie Watson h 16 A Small Key Can Open a Large Door, edited by Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness reviewed by Maria Velazquez h 18 FEaturEd artist Erin Harrop h 20 Subscriptions and single issues online at: To order by check, payable to: www.thecsz.com Aqueduct Press Print subscription: $16/yr; P.O. Box 95787 Print single issue: $5 Seattle, WA 98145-2787 Electronic Subscription (pdf format): $10/yr [Washington State Residents Electronic single issue: $3 add 9.6% sales tax.] In This Issue Cover banner collagraph of the Cascadia subduction zone by Marilyn Liden Bode y The Tiptree Symposium (Eugene, OR, Dec 4-5, 2015): A Few Reflections by L. timmel Duchamp The University of Oregon Libraries The panel of authors who had corre- hosted a symposium on December 4-5 sponded with Tiptree was particularly in honor of Alice Sheldon’s centennial. rich in observations linking the experi- The event remembered and celebrated ence of 1970s feminist sf with that of not only the life and work of Alli Shel- today’s feminist sf. After asking the pan- don/James Tiptree Jr., but also her par- elists to talk about what they had been ticipation in the creation of what Suzy publishing and reading in the 1970s, giv- McKee Charnas at one point called “the ing the audience a sense of those times, world of feminist sf.” I’ve written else- moderator Karen Joy Fowler opened where about how frequently women with the statement that “It is genuinely It was exciting and scary, but possible to relate to feminist sf as a collectively con- true that I imagined science fiction as a place dominated by women” when she do because they were structed, organic world-in-process that conscious of themselves first started reading science fiction in they feel themselves to be part of, even as a community… before they discover feminist sf fandom. the late 1970s, which by then boasted Of the many thrilling moments of the a wealth of feminist fiction by Joanna symposium, I want to especially note Russ, Suzy McKee Charnas, Ursula K. those that revealed, through the discus- Le Guin, Vonda N. McIntyre, Octavia sion of and reading of letters by Tiptree, E. Butler, James Tiptree Jr, and others. Ursula then said that communities of Le Guin, and Russ, that Russ and Tip- writers “were practically nonexistent” in tree spoke of that world, too. I doubt I’ve mainstream fiction, while science fiction ever felt as intimately connected with provided a rich such community. Suzy these writers as when in her keynote talk Charnas recalled her first sf convention, i Julie Phillips, quoting from their corre- a WorldCon held in Kansas City — yes, spondence, revealed their sense of shar- that historic event at which attending 1 ing that world and being sustained by it. women, led by Susan Wood, rebelled, de- And Julie’s mention of Tiptree’s post- manding a space of their own in which to disclosure fear that she might no longer talk about the sf that the men disdained be welcome in that world made me des- and would not discuss. Suzy mentions olate. What they knew in the 1970s (and that after her exposure to the Manhat- all of us should know now) was that be- tan literary scene, where writers talked to ing a woman writing science fiction was one another only at cocktail parties or at nothing new. What was new for them academic meetings, she was “incredibly in the 1970s was their sense of and need …a WorldCon held in excited” to find at that con a community Kansas City — yes, that for an explicitly feminist community of of women writers and readers, coalesc- historic event at which writers determined to explore what had ing and beginning to create “the world attending women, led by been previously dismissed as trivial; yet, of feminist sf ” — a world inside a world. Susan Wood, rebelled, as each of them knew, this exploration It was unlike anything she had known. demanding a space of was in every way risky and dangerous. It This “world inside a world” may sound their own… was exciting and scary, but possible to do utopian to many of us today in com- because they were conscious of them- parison with our constant, often pain- selves as a community, conscious that ful need to re-think how we negotiate that community had their backs. our differences, but the symposium of- Tom Foster served as The Cascadia Subduction Zone's guest features editor for our most recent issue: Volume 5, Number 4 (October 2015). This was one of our themed issues, with a special focus on comics and graphic novels. We regret that we neglected to credit him in our print edition. Cont. on p. 2 Tiptree Symposium fered abundant reminders that painful for trans today been the same back then, (cont. from p. 1) lessons and negotiations have always would Alli have chosen to transition. been with us. Alli Sheldon, like many That question, for me, serves as an index women of her generation, was ambiva- of just how different our world is from lent about feminism and saw its gains that of the 1970s. Yes, a few people did as subject to arbitrary male permission, have “sex-change operations” back then. as Tiptree exulted in being part of that But in a world of locked essentialist sex community (one of its only “male femi- and gender categories and rigid concep- …after the disclosure, Alli tual limitations, the possible forms that could “no longer hear” nists”) and despaired that she wouldn’t be welcome there when her non-writing being trans now takes and how they are Tiptree’s voice. understood was unimaginable. It is par- identity was revealed. During that same ticularly poignant to think of how that panel discussion, Ursula said that when began to change in, say, the last ten years she began writing, she had seen litera- of Alli’s life. ture as written by men about men for I’ve written an account of the sym- men and hadn’t thought about it. And posium for Aqueduct’s blog, which you so she wrote “as a man, until I started to can find at http://aqueductpress.blogspot. feel it wasn’t right. Vonda kept pinging com/2015/12/report-on-tiptree-sympo- me gently on the head.” She had to learn sium.html. We will be publishing Julie to write “as a woman.” And that was Phillips’ keynote talk in the next issue of “hard work,” Ursula said with emphasis. the CSZ. And finally, I want to share the She also said that many 1970s feminists announcement Carol Stabile made at disapproved of stay-at-home mothers, the end of the symposium: the Univer- which made her feel at odds with some sity of Oregon will be hosting a feminist feminists. “I like doing housework,” she sf symposium focused on Joanna Russ The feminist sf community said, conjuring up the ghost of her for- next year and another focused on Suzy H in general, and her mer defensiveness. McKee Charnas the following year. correspondence with Ursula The feminist sf community in gener- Forty years later, the “world within a and Joanna in particular, 2 al, and her correspondence with Ursula world” is still going strong. was a lifeline for Alli, and Joanna in particular, was a lifeline though in the end it for Alli, though in the end it wasn’t, of wasn’t, of course, enough. course, enough. Julie characterized Alli’s last ten years, the decade following the disclosure, as a desperate search for a new sense of identity.