11 replies to this topic

[Larry.]

Thought some of you might be interested in this project:

Quote

This project will fund a speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, & horror) anthology devoted to feminist themes. Editing the book will be Hugo Award winner Ann VanderMeer and World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer. Together respected and successful team has edited such anthologies Steampunk Reloaded, The New Weird, Best American Fantasy, and, most recently, The Weird Compendium, a 750,000-word, 100-year overview of weird fiction including writers from over 20 countries.
Release of the book will be a co-publishing arrangement with PM Press, an independent press devoted to provocative and engaging books, CDs, and DVDs via any means available, including distribution to the book trade (bookstores, libraries, etc.).
The anthology will emphasize women's speculative fiction from the mid-1970s onward, looking to explore women's rights as well as gender/race/class/etc. from as many perspectives as possible. The contributors are not yet established so we hesitate to name names, but rights  to reprint stories from Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia E. Butler, Joanna Russ, and James Tiptree Jr. would be sought in addition to a wealth of newer voices in the field. Ann and Jeff consider the anthology "to be an opportunity to contribute to the existing conversation about feminist speculative fiction, a conversation that has taken many forms over the years and has a long and established history." Funding covers the editors' fee, contributor fees/advances, book design, printing, as much advertising and promotion as possible. To help the project get off the ground the editors have agreed to take a small honorarium as their fee, with no share of royalties.

Nearly $2000 of the $12,000 goal has been raised.  Deadline is May 31st.  Have to admit that the editors are part of the selling point to me.  More details in the link above as to what certain pledged dollar amounts get you in swag.

[Sci-2]

posted a message to Valente and Jemisin's FB pages, hope it helps spread the word.

[David Selig]

Seems like an excellent project, too bad I am broke right now, still will probably contribute a few bucks.

Any guesses which classic short stories they will include? "The Women Men Don't See" and "When It Changed" seem obvious, unless they are going for lesser known works.

[Sheep the Evicted]

David Selig, on 24 April 2012 - 07:23 AM, said:

Seems like an excellent project, too bad I am broke right now, still will probably contribute a few bucks.

Any guesses which classic short stories they will include? "The Women Men Don't See" and "When It Changed" seem obvious, unless they are going for lesser known works.

Oh so the anthology just collects already written feminist stories? I thought it would be like the warriors anthology where well known/respected authors write a whole new (short) story for the anthology in question.

Either way I think it will be delicious to see the ensuing flame war when the first social justice blogger denounces the entire anthology as sexist and or lacking in strong female characters. Personally I will be pleased if there is even a single story that is not in about, contains or is in anyway related to rape and the threat thereof. Bonus points if it does something other then a masculine stand-in, larger than life chickass chick.

[Sci-2]

I do think they should have tried to give a better sense of what the anthology would contain. Could they not even mention what stories they'd ideally like to have in it?

[Grack21]

A poorly explained kickstarter project? Perish the thought.

[Larry.]

It's hard to pin down what could be in an anthology project due to rights issues.  It sometimes can take hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to land particular stories.  The more money available, the more stories/famous writers that can appear.  Sometimes, authors/estates can be a nightmare to work with (I heard of a case where the estate refused until an in-person plea was made), so until the stories go into print (and sometimes even after), there can be bits that come up with reprint anthologies (and even to an extent with original stories) that make it devilish hard, especially at the conceptualization stage such as this, to pin down what exactly might be in it.

But considering the editors, with whom I have worked as a translator for two stories, I would be very confident that a very good selection of reprint and maybe even a few original fictions (if that is the bent here) would be landed, but it ain't cheap to get those stories.  It often costs into the hundreds of dollars for particular stories and if the budget is low, that can mean either a slim anthology or cheaper alternatives having to be chosen.  Conversely, the more money donated, the likelihood of more and better-known stories increases as well.  You get what you pay for, pretty much.

[Sci-2]

Thanks Larry, good to know. Having been a follower of Weird Fiction Review, and having bought the anthology, I definitely trust in the Vandermeers to put together a quality product.

Was just curious.

[Sci-2]

Second push, seeing as there's less than $3,000 to go.

[kcf]

This was the firs kickstarter project I've supported (and so far the only)

[Sci-2]

less than $400 to go!

[Larry.]

400 people have pledged $11,966 toward the $12,000 goal.  I think it's going to be achieved tonight.  Not a bad way of paying for an e-book and print copy, to say the least.