I’m going to Continuum this weekend! You can see the full program here. Here’s where you can find me (please note I’m on three things on Friday AND Friday is a gold coin donation entry! NO EXCUSES).

Also I should mention that Continuum does Needs Based memberships and I believe there is still money left in this pot for 2018. LMK if you need the details.

Friday 1900 – The Weather Report
The current state of climate change science and science fiction. I will be moderating this panel! It will be fun.

Friday 2030 – Norma K Hemming Award Ceremony
As one of the judges of the NKH for this year, I will be presenting one of the categories AND giving a brief speech about intersectionality and speculative fiction.

Friday 2030 – Ask the Doctor
Q&A between me and the amazing Dr Freya Marske, including audience submissions and possibly Twitter questions, about all the gory or interesting medical stuff you’ve wondered about in your writing.

Saturday 1600 – Horror in Translation
I will be on this panel with Kat Clay and Likhain, who are both awesome. We’ll be discussing the history and influences of Asian horror stories, plus what’s happening now and who you should be reading/watching. I’m currently reading A Small, Charred Face as prep.

Sunday 1400 – Mother of Invention launch
I am in this book so I might be reading something from it.

Sunday 1500 – Utopia From Dystopia
Which seemingly utopian ideas are really dystopian? And how do we construct a utopia for the 21st century? I will be on this panel with Cat Sparks and Sangeetha Thanapal who are both really excellent writers and speakers and thinkers. This should be fun!

I have also coordinated and programmed the Deep Dive stream. This stream is an informal, pop culture-focussed take on an academic stream. I’m SO proud of it. Anytime you want to find me on Sunday and Monday, I will probably be in there checking out how it’s going and obsessing over its success and whether it works. It’s a series of solo papers, there’s such an interesting array and I’m very excited. I hope it goes well.

In other news:

The con hasn’t started yet and I’m already feeling those early stirrings of ‘ooh this is gonna be a problem’ wrt microaggressions and racism. I’d just like to remind everyone that cons are often hotbeds of misogyny, racism and ableism, and those of us who need to navigate it are often on edge, getting drunk in restaurants and bitching about the microaggressions we received in that half of the day.

I would like to thank the committee (which…I am on) for actively working in this space, including letting me write a guide to actions for being an ally in the face of microaggressions at a con, which will be available in the con book.

I’ve already started thinking up panels for next year. I’m going to do a series on white privilege in specfic, to move beyond 101:

1. The author is sadly not dead: privileging the voices of the coloniser (the history of english language literature and the theft of ideas)
2. Rummaging through your dirty laundry: cultural appropriation is your burden to recognise and rectify (please don’t push it back on me in the guise of appreciation when it’s theft)
3. Own Voices: marginalised voices and how to fucking hear them
4. I bet you think this stream is about you (I list books and movies that are culturally appropriative and recite them like spoken word)

Am I kidding? Look at my face and ask yourself that question.

Anyway see you at the con! Let me know if you’re around (especially if you are poc, my friends).