I often use the metaphor of a hallway to describe the liminal space which I inhabit psychologically, emotionally, and historically. It is an in-between space that offers a tenuous connection to two worlds separated by language and culture. I can enter the two rooms that this hallway connects, but in either one I still feel like I’m in the hallway. This sensation follows me everywhere and informs my writing, which is my attempt to understand it.  

Not a Typical Immigrant Story

Some would say that this is the typical immigrant story. But it isn’t. 

As Puerto Ricans, we are American citizens (since 1917) and our departure from the homeland is not fraught with struggles other immigrants faced. We boarded ships or planes and came here without passports. We could just as easily return home. That was not the case for millions of other immigrants who traveled thousands of miles to escape hardships, most vowing never to return. 

Once in the States, Diasporicans find that we are second-class citizens and face racist and ethnic bigotry. If we return to the homeland, as I did for fifteen years, our brethren admonish us for not being real Puerto Ricans. You can see how this would make anyone feel left out in the hallway. 

Writing about experiences straddling two cultures is nothing new in “American” literature, which is fundamentally multiethnic (and, one could add, multiracial). Much of the “American” ethos is about navigating between two cultures and the conflicts inherent in doing so. 

MFAs, the Publishing Industry, and BIPOC Writers

That continues today as publishers have seen the demographic future of the country and seek to supply the increasing demand for multiethnic and multiracial material. As a BIPOC author, committed to writing stories about my community, I would like to share some thoughts about what it means to write from this subject position and strive to improve your craft while remaining true to your purpose.

I received my MFA from Columbia University in 1981, when there were roughly fifty such programs. Today, with more than 350 creative writing programs operating across the country, it seems that admission to one of them is a given for young, aspiring writers. Although the MFA has its benefits, especially if you want to teach, one can learn to write and publish professionally with the many resources available today. DIY MFA is a viable alternative, for sure. 

No matter what route you take, BIPOC writers will find obstacles and challenges that their white counterparts will not.

In 2014, Junot Diaz wrote a piece in the New Yorker criticizing MFA programs for being “too white” (besides too male and heteronormative). He argued the student population usually contains a sprinkling of BIPOC; faculty is almost always all white; and there is no instruction dealing with race, racism, or the concept of whiteness and white bias. This blindness to race and whiteness often leads to what Diaz calls “blind spots” and assumptions concerning these crucial topics and how they impact publishing and writing. 

His comments were valid then and seven years later still hold true. There is little progress in this area, because a white majority’s values and ideology dominate the academy, as every other major institution in America. This dominance filters to every aspect of the MFA program, including the workshop. As Diaz illustrated, many BIPOC students in these programs have experienced some racist or biased comment or sentiment expressed by either their peers or the instructor during workshop. 

Discussions initiated by BIPOC writers about race and white privilege often meet stiff resistance and are identified as “political” and not “literary.” Essentially, the dynamic within these workshops, and the MFA programs in general, is the embedded, white-privileged conviction that white writers can write about anyone and anything with impunity. Meanwhile, committed BIPOC writers are only being didactic, dogmatic ideologues more interested in politics than creating “Literature.” 

This attitude has not changed much today, except that white student writers and faculty in MFA programs are now versed in the “woke” nomenclature and deflecting strategies outlined so well in Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility.

If you are a BIPOC writer, you might assume that you can avoid these problems if you skip the MFA. But you will find racism and vestiges of white supremacy in publishing whether it’s literary agencies, marketing, publicity, editors, or the commercial and small houses. Never assume that seemingly progressive institutions in the United States have liberated themselves from racism. Consider the minimal diversity in Hollywood and television, and how little recognition these “liberal” institutions give to BIPOC writers, directors, and actors (the same goes for women and LGBTQ communities). 

What BIPOC Writers Can Do to Learn Their Craft and Publish

Support BIPOC authors committed to writing about their communities. 

Buy their books and study their craft. Follow them on social media. Learn how they convey the authenticity of the culture or community they write about. Be attentive to how they handle themes and topics related to racism, sexism, and otherism in their work and in public. 

Support literacy in your community. Buy books from community bookstores. Organizations like the Bronx Is Reading, help expand readership and book culture. 

Sometimes, unfortunately, BIPOC writers unconsciously write characters and situations in their work that follow mainstream stereotypes and racialized tropes. I personally avoid these writers because their objectives do not align with mine.

Build a community of BIPOC writers and progressively-minded allies.

Join a writing group that is receptive and responsive to the material you are writing. You want supporters who give you honest feedback but admit when they do not know enough about it. Find culturally sensitive readers willing to ask questions without committing microaggressions. 

Seek sites exclusively for BIPOC writers or which support them. Look for positive signs that go beyond the usual wokespeak you find on a site’s mission statement. Is the site’s staff diverse?  Do they feature articles and material that reflect a genuine diverse agenda? Investigate various grants, retreats, and organizations (like VONA, which Diaz co-founded) that nourish, promote, and advocate for BIPOC writers. 

Learn your community’s history.

A deep knowledge of history not only benefits you, but also provides a trove of ideas for your writing. Avoid the pitfalls of stereotyping your own characters and writing racialized cultural material and themes. These can easily slip into your work because we inhabit spaces that constantly bombard us with adverse representations of our communities. Conversely, develop and explore new ways to handle your material. The challenge is to stay true to the lived experience of your characters while placing them in fresh scenarios and situations that ring credible and authentic. 

Find ways to expand the borders of the fictional world that the publishing industry has constructed for your community. Stay faithful to your vision and mission, as well as your aesthetic. Do not come across as didactic or preachy. You are an artist, not a propagandist. 

Challenge the racialized and biased tropes associated with your community, especially the subtle ones that the mainstream finds acceptable and worthy of publication. When you are ready to publish a manuscript, research publishing houses with a track record of publishing BIPOC writers. If you cannot find a publisher, consider self-publishing.

In another article for this site, Ana Maria Spagna writes about being a committed writer who believes in the transformative power of literature. I agree with her, especially because as a BIPOC person and a Diasporican writer, it is imperative to tell the stories of people like me. 

Every marginalized group in this country needs voices to give their group visibility, agency, and hope. The current political and social climate in this country calls for all artists to think critically about how they plan to utilize their talent. I cannot think of a higher calling for a writer than to serve that purpose

J.L. Torres is the author of The Family Terrorist and Other Stories, the novel The Accidental Native, and the poetry collection Boricua Passport. His latest collection, Migrations (2021, LARB Libros), received the inaugural Tomás Rivera Book Prize from the Los Angeles Review of Books. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in the South Bronx, he now lives in Plattsburgh, New York, where he has taught American literature, US ethnic literature, and creative writing at SUNY Plattsburgh. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. You can reach J.L Torres at his website at  https://jltorreswriter.com/, or on Twitter at @Rican_Writer.

The post A Dispatch from the Hallway: Advice for Committed BIPOC Writers appeared first on DIY MFA.

Ken Liu

Ken Liu is author of the Dandelion Dynasty silkpunk series and the translator behind Liu Cixin’s Three Body Problem and Death’s End. He’s written a Star War, too, but the book I’ll direct you to is his short fiction collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. The titular story is about a boy whose mother makes him origami animals that appear to come to life when she breathes on them. “The Paper Menagerie” was the first piece of short fiction to win the triple crown of science fiction and fantasy awards, the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Award.

Nghi Vo

The Chosen and the Beautiful is Nghi Vo’s debut novel (published June 1, 2021), but she’s had great success with her novellas, The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Hugo, Locus, and Ignyte Award finalist, winner of the Reddit Stabby and IAFA’s Crawford Awards) and When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain.

She’s also published a lot of short fiction. Read her at any length you choose; Nghi Vo’s one to watch.

Aliette de Bodard

Aliette de Bodard has won three Nebula Awards, a Locus Award, a European Science Fiction Society award, a British Fantasy Award and four British Science Fiction Association Awards for her short fiction, novellas, and novels. She is of French and Vietnamese descent and though her first language is French, she writes in English.

Last year the sapphic romantic fantasy Fireheart Tiger was released, in which a diplomat princess faces her former lover and must decide both her future as well as that of her country.

Isabel Yap

Isabel Yap is a Filipino writer of speculative fiction and poetry. Her first collection of short fiction, Never Have I Ever, contains 13 stories that entwine fantasy, horror, and science fiction to explore monsters, Filipino folklore, immigration, and queerness.

In “A Cup of Salt Tears,” Makino’s mother warns her of the dangers of making deals with kappas even though a kappa saved Makino as a child. When Makino’s husband becomes ill, she seeks out her savior. In “Hurricane Heels (We Go Down Dancing),” a group of five girls befriend one another at a summer camp when a goddess charges them with protecting the world from darkness.

Yap admits to liking ambiguous endings, so be prepared for a few of those when you pick this collection up.

Yoon Ha Lee

Yoon Ha Lee’s space opera trilogy, The Machineries of Empire, is comprised of Ninefox Gambit (2016; Locus Award for best first novel, Hugo and Nebula finalist), Raven Stratagem (2017; Hugo finalist), and Revenant Gun (2018; Hugo finalist).

Phoenix Extravagant is a standalone fantasy set in a world reminiscent of Korea during the Japanese occupation of the early 1900s. Jebi is a nonbinary artist hired by the Ministry of Armour to paint magical sigils onto masks for the conquering government’s automata. Jebi doesn’t consider themselves political, but after befriending a pacifist dragon automata (as one does), Jebi decides they’ll do whatever it takes to keep the dragon from becoming a weapon of war used to kill and subdue their people. Unfortunately, Jebi discovers that sometimes you have to choose a side.

Ted Chiang

Ted Chiang’s work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award (now the Amazing) for Best New Writer, and four Locus awards. His short story “Story of Your Life” was the basis of the film Arrival (2016).

In Exhalation, Chiang examines technology’s effect on humanity. The opening story, “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” a portal leads people 20 years into the future or 20 years into the past. Time-travel shenanigans of the best kind.

Fonda Lee

Fonda Lee’s debut young-adult novel, Zeroboxer, was nominated for the 2016 Andre Norton Award. Her second novel for young-adults, Exo, was nominated for the 2018 Andre Norton Award. Her debut novel for adults, Jade City, was a finalist for the 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novel and won the 2018 World Fantasy Award.

Jade City, the thrilling first book in the Green Bone trilogy takes place on the gangster-controlled island of Kekon, where magical jade grants superhuman powers to those who can wear it. The Kaul family is one of two major crime syndicates that control the city. When a rival syndicate threatens their authority, the three Kaul siblings must band together to protect their power. Jade War was published in 2019, and the third novel, Jade Legacy, will be published in November of 2021.

Gabriela interviewed Fonda Lee about world building for DIY MFA radio.

Shveta Thakrar

Shveta Thakrar characterizes herself as a part-time nagini and full-time believer in magic. Her work has appeared in magazines and anthologies including Enchanted Living, Uncanny Magazine, A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, and Toil & Trouble. Her debut young adult fantasy novel, Star Daughter, is a finalist for the 2021 Andre Norton Nebula Award.

In Star Daughter, Sheetal Mistry is (surprise!) the daughter of a star, but she manages to live a mostly normal life until her nascent abilities surface and will not be denied. When, through a surge of uncontrolled magic, Sheetal’s father ends up in a coma, she and her friend embark on a journey to the stars to seek her mother’s help. What Sheetal finds when she arrives is political turmoil and … a magical music competition.

Roshani Chokshi

Roshani Chokshi’s New York Times bestselling series include The Star-Touched Queen duology, The Gilded Wolves, and Aru Shah and The End of Time, which was recently optioned for film by Paramount Pictures. Her work has been nominated for the Locus and Nebula awards.

In The Star-Touched Queen, a YA fantasy rich in world building and Indian mythology, Maya lives a relative life of freedom thanks to a cursed horoscope that predicts death and destruction following her marriage. Then her father marries her off and she becomes the queen of Arkan. Romance and hijinx (preventing the aforementioned death and destruction) ensue.

Renée Ahdieh

Renée Ahdieh is an American-Korean author, best known for her New York Times best-selling duology The Wrath & the Dawn. Imagine Entertainment optioned the film rights to the duology in 2017. Ahdieh says she loves to wreak havoc on the lives of her characters.

In the first novel of the duology, The Wrath & the Dawn, Ahdieh reimagines The Arabian Nights. The evil Caliph, Khalid, marries a new woman every night and murders her in the morning. When 16-year-old Shahrzad’s best friend becomes one of his victims, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to become his next bride. Every night she spins tales to her husband to postpone her execution but, as night follows night, Shahrzad fails to find the monster she expected in Khalid.

Read with Purpose

One of the core tenets of the DIY MFA philosophy is to read with purpose. In reading the works of AAPI authors, you may encounter plot structures or storytelling techniques that are different from, but equally effective to, the western ones you’ve become familiar with. The core myths and legends from which these stories derive may also be unfamiliar. Expand your writerly horizons and dig in.

These authors and their stories deserve both your reader brain (enjoyment) and your writer brain (analysis).

Until next time, keep speculating, and see where it leads you!

Melanie is an instructional designer by day, SF&F author-in-progress and ink alchemist by night. She is the third generation of Marttilas to live in her little house on the street that bears her family name. She blogs at https://www.melaniemarttila.ca and you can find her on Facebook and
Twitter.

The post Ten AAPI Sci-Fi/Fantasy Authors to Read Right Now appeared first on DIY MFA.