Archive for the ‘SFWA Blog’ Category

On Grants

by Gillian Polack   It’s suddenly harder to make a living as a writer. It was never easy. Setsu Uzumé recently wrote on the possibility of obtaining grants from regional or local governments. This article will walk you through some of the steps to get a local or regional government grant. I am Australian, so […]

Reasons to Publicize Your Award-Eligible Works

by Rosemary Claire Smith ‘Tis the season when many writers blog and tweet lists of what they’ve published this year in hopes of generating reader interest and consideration for awards. Full stop. Does the prospect of preparing a social media post touting your published work cause you to twitch and shudder? You aren’t alone. Nobody […]

Diversity Plus: Diverse Story Forms and Themes, Not Just Diverse Faces

by Henry Lien (This article originally appeared in The SFWA Bulletin #215.)   Something I’ve noticed repeatedly in my author appearances, conference panels, and lectures is that discussions about representation and diversity in the arts today focus on the importance of diverse characters and creators. As crucial as that is, diversity can and should also include […]

Navigating the Parallel but Uneven Ecosystems of Traditional Publishing and Self-Publishing 

by Evan Winter (This article originally appeared in The SFWA Bulletin #215.)   Not long ago, I was asked where traditional publishing spaces are failing self-published writers, and I think I may have an answer: everywhere. This is because traditional publishing spaces aren’t structured in form or objectives to value the needs of self-published writers and […]

Supernatural or Super Unnatural – An Examination of Postcolonial Horror

by Shiv Ramdas Supernatural Or Super Unnatural—an Examination Of Postcolonial Horror (This article originally appeared in The SFWA Bulletin #215.) When analyzing postcolonial horror in the context of the supernatural, it’s striking how disparate the terms “postcolonial” and “supernatural” are within the genre. On the one hand we have postcolonialism which finds itself standing beside the […]

Explicit Sex Scenes and the Work of Stories

By Sunny Moraine The origins of this piece lie in an annoyed Twitter thread I posted, in response to a tweet (possibly joking, I don’t know) to the effect of “movies shouldn’t have sex scenes in them, we’re past that now”.  The origins of my annoyance go back a lot further.  I’ve been writing explicit […]

Fine Weather, Isn’t It?

by Tochi Onyebuchi (This article originally appeared in The SFWA Bulletin #215.) What about the serial killers? What about the rapists? asks the skeptic in the face of the prison abolitionist. What about the violent crime and the predators? The real Bad People. You would just let them roam the streets? The questions are rarely […]