I’ll be at Readercon in a couple weeks, as usual. Here’s what I’m doing:
Afrofuturism and Solarpunk in Dialogue
Rob Cameron (mod), Bill Campbell, Michael J. DeLuca, Tananarive Due, Cadwell Turnbull
Thu 8:00 PM, Salon A
Afrofuturism: an African-American creative movement that reimagines the past, present, and future. Solarpunk: subverting the cyberpunk future, it explores sustainable solutions to global environmental crisis. Both have a strong “maker” tradition and are, at their core, hopeful. Panelists will brainstorm converging issues, technologies, and ideas that would make for compelling solarpunk Afrofuturist stories.
Rob has been talking about this panel idea for years and I’m very excited to be part of it. I’m representing solarpunk, in case that wasn’t completely obvious. In which role I expect I’ll be keeping quiet and listening carefully.
The Implications of SFWA’s Rate Increase
Scott H. Andrews, Pablo Defendini, Michael J. DeLuca (mod), Paul Levinson, Romie Stott
Sat 12:00 PM, Salon 3
SFWA will be be raising their designated qualifying rate for fiction from 6 to 8 cents per word in September. It might seem a small change, but it has the potential to alter the field significantly for a lot of writers, readers, editors, and publishers. This panel, led by Michael J. DeLuca, will discuss what the change means for specific markets, who’ll be able to meet the new rate, who benefits and who doesn’t, and how this relates to the broader economic and political climate.
I wrote the above panel topic sometime in February. I’ve been fundraising and applying for grants in hopes of raising Reckoning’s rates to match, and my thinking about this has changed quite a bit since. I hope we’ll get to think together about what pay rates actually mean for writers, readers, editors and publishers, whether an increase means more of the kind of writing each of us wants and why.
Reading: Michael J. DeLuca
Sun 1:30 PM, Salon C
I expect I’ll read a bit from a novella about Detroit I’ve been working on.
I’ll also be in the dealer’s room for most of the rest of Friday, Saturday and Sunday selling books (including Reckoning) at the Small Beer Press table. Please come on by! I might be lonely.
What is Solarpunk? from Commando Jugendstil on Vimeo.