Reporting & Essays

Genre Grapevine

• I write a regular column covering the science fiction and fantasy genre. You can access the columns through my Patreon.

Selected Reporting

• The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion
  This report co-written with Chris M. Barkley about censorship and exclusion in the 2023 Hugo Awards went viral and resulted in coverage around the world, including in The New York Times, NPR, The BBC, The Guardian, and NBC News.

• Genre Grapevine's collected 2023 AI Coverage
  Creativity in the Age of Machine Learning covers how machine learning programs might affect writers and artists in the coming years along with ways to deal with these systems. In addition, these reports delve into the linguistic manipulation used to describe these systems, the reactions from writers and artists to these systems, and examine the motivations of the people in charge of implementing these systems. The book also dives into the day-by-day news across 2023 on all these issues.

  • Download as a PDF file

  • Download as an epub ebook

  • Download as a mobi ebook

• #SFF2020: The State of Genre Magazines

  My report #SFF2020: The State of Genre Magazines provided a detailed look at science fiction and fantasy magazine publishing in this day and age, including interviews with the publishers, editors and staff at nine genre magazines. This report is available online and in the following formats:

  • Mobi file for Kindle

  • Epub file for E-book Readers

  • PDF file

• Lax Security and Moderation at Goodreads Allows Trolls to Spoof People, Harass Authors (January 2020)

• Questionable Sales Surround Writers of the Future Anthologies (April 2018)

Selected Essays

• Excavating Harlan Ellison’s Last Dangerous Lies (November 2020)

• The Literary Scams my Grandfather Faced Nearly a Century Ago (May 2020)

• How to Hire a Good Freelance Editor (May 2020)

• An Author’s Guide to Understanding BookScan (December 2019)

• My Thoughts on ChiZine Publications and the Genre’s Troubling Wall of Silence (November 2019)

• Is Cyberpunk Alive or Dead? (May 2019)

• A Look at the Science Fiction Market in China (January 2019)

• Translating Dempow Torishima’s Sisyphean into English (October 2018)

• Harlan Ellison, SF’s First Angry Writer (June 2018)

• Foreword to Eclectica Magazine Speculative Edition: Celebrating 20 Years Online (Eclectica Publishing, December 2016)

• "Disturbed by Lovecraft, Whose Racism and Hate Weren't Merely a Product of His Times" (Czech magazine XB-1, 2016)

• "So Goes the Love-Hate Relationship Between Science Fiction and Kurt Vonnegut"
  (Medium.com, Sept. 2014. Originally published in the Czech magazine XB-1.)

• "Don’t Cliche Yourself into Becoming a Hack Writer"
  (Medium.com, Jan. 2014)

• "Singing the Songs of Distant Earth"
  (SF Signal, June 21, 2011)
  (Originally published in a slightly different form as "Singing the Songs of Arthur C. Clarke's Distant Earth" in The New York Review of Science Fiction, October 2008, Number 242.)

• The World's Smallest Essay on Our New Miniaturization of Literature (April 10, 2011)

• Why We Write Literary Reviews and the follow-up essay Why It's Worth Expressing Opinions on Literature
  (November 2010)

• World Fantasy Convention's Authors and Ideas Panel
  (November 2010)

• The Bad Writer's Tripping Point
  (July 2010)

• Living in a World Where Most Writers Suck
  (May 2010)

• Will Online Magazines End the Eternal Slugfest Between Genre and Literary Fiction?
  (SF Signal, May 2010)

• "The Liar's Review of James Frey's Bright Shiny Morning"
  (Monsters and Critics, May 16, 2008.)

• "Dipping Their Toes in the Genre Pool: The U.S. Literary Establishment's Need-Hate Relationship with Speculative Fiction" (The New York Review of Science Fiction, June 2007, Number 226. You can also read Matthew Cheney reaction to my essay in "The Shibboleth of "The Literary Establishment," the combination of which resulted in coverage in places like The Guardian newspaper in England.)

• "T. Coraghessan Boyle and Surviving the Baby Boom"
  (The Pedestal Magazine, Issue 28, June 2005. Reprinted in storySouth.)

• "How to Expose New Writers: Online Versus Print Magazines"
  (storySouth, winter 2002.)

• "Returning Insight to Stories: Science, Stories, and Loren Eiseley"
  (Cosmoetica, revised and reprinted in storySouth, winter 2003.)

• “Who Wears Short Shorts? Micro Stories and MFA Disgust”
  (Cosmoetica, revised and reprinted in storySouth, fall 2004.)
  
  

More Essays on Science Fiction and Fantasy

• "Space Operas Boldly Go to the Heart of the Human Soul" (Czech magazine XB-1, 2016)

• "What Happens When the Science Fiction Worldview Goes Universal?" (Czech magazine XB-1, 2015)

• "Why Humanity Is Going to Spock"
  (Czech magazine XB-1 and Medium.com, 2014)

• Our Science Fiction Isn't Your Father's SF
  (August 16, 2010)

• The Noticing of SciFi Strange
  (August 12, 2009)

• The Online SciFi Strange Anthology
  (August 19, 2010)

• For Students: A few Words on Genre and Literary Fiction
  (August 10, 2010)

• On the Learning Tool That Is Genre Gossip
  (July 7, 2010)

• Why Science Fiction Predictions Hold Back the Genre
  (June 17, 2010)

• Positively Positive that Positive SF Doesn't Have to be Positive to be Positive
  (December 19, 2009)

• Is the Term SciFi Still Derogatory?
  (August 27, 2009)

• To Dump or Not to Dump
  (January 10, 2009)

• Singularity Blues, or How Science Fiction and Humanity Will Survive the Not So Looming Technological Crunch
  (March 11, 2008)

Author Interviews

• Interview with Larry Eisenberg
  (SF Signal, Nov. 23, 2009)

• Interview with Tobias Buckell
  (Monsters and Critics, August 15, 2007)

• Interview with Jim C. Hines
  (Monsters and Critics, March 6, 2008)

• Interview with Matt Cook
  (Monsters and Critics, Oct. 8, 2007)

Book and Magazine Reviews

• Review of Brave New Worlds, edited by John Joseph Adams
  (SF Signal, May 18, 2011)

• Review of Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
  (SF Signal, December 20, 2010)

• Review of I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (pseudonym of James Frey and Jobie Hughes)
  (SF Signal, August 9, 2010)

• Review of Dark Faith anthology, edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon
  (SF Signal, July 26, 2010)

• Review of And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer
  (SF Signal, February 15, 2010)

• Review of Tokyo Godfathers, directed by Satoshi Kon
  (SF Signal, December 24, 2009)

• Review of Booklife by Jeff VanderMeer
  (SF Signal, October 29, 2009)

• Review of Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
  (SF Signal, October 8, 2009)

• Review of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
  (SF Signal, Sept. 8, 2009)

  • Translated into Romanian for the Romanian Science Fiction & Fantasy Society

• Featured book review of Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
  (Monsters and Critics, October 28, 2008)

• Featured book review of Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by John Joseph Adams. (Monsters and Critics, May 16, 2008)

• Featured book review of Paolo Bacigalupi's Pump Six and Other Stories.
  (Monsters and Critics, Feb. 26, 2008)

• Featured book review of Matthew Cook's Blood Magic.
  (Monsters and Critics, October 8, 2007)

• Review and essay on The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
  (Flak Magazine, November 2, 2002)

Essays About Life

• "When Failure Is the Only Way Forward"
  (Medium.com, May 2014)

• Remembering the Dead Through the Pattern of Their Words
  (September 27, 2010)

• In the Future, Will Anyone Care That You Have an Opinion?
  (July 22, 2010)

• How to Waste Your Life
  (November 21, 2009)

• Ageless Arts (storySouth, fall 2003.)

• Radio Wave Ethics and Back-Woods Beatings (storySouth, winter 2004.)

• Not So Posh Corps (storySouth, summer 2004; reprinted in Abroad View Magazine.)