[Plura-list] Nalo Hopkinson, Science Fiction Grand Master

[Cory Doctorow]

Today's links

* Nalo Hopkinson, Science Fiction Grand Master: Writer, teacher, mentor.

* This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing
projects, current reading

_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

🧀 Nalo Hopkinson, Science Fiction Grand Master

Every year, the Science Fiction Writers of America declares a new "Grand
Master," an honor named for the organization's founder, Damon Knight.
The 37th Grand Master has been announced and I was delighted and excited
to learn that it is the amazing Nalo Hopkinson.

https://www.sfwa.org/2020/12/01/nalo-hopkinson-named-the-37th-sfwa-damon-knight-grand-master/

I've known Nalo for most of my life. When I was a teenager in Toronto,
we worked on different floors of the North York Central Library. We
attended the Clarion Workshop in successive years (under the tutelage of
Damon Knight)!

I drove her and her partner - David Findlay, who went to high-school
with me! - to Clarion for its 30th anniversary, and she was immensely
patient with my neurotic, frightened driving. Today, we both live in
(greater) Los Angeles.

She.

Is.

Fantastic.

Not only has Nalo written an absolute *string* of brilliant books with
not a dud in the batch, from her 1998 debut Brown Girl in the Ring to
her latest, 2013's Sister Mine. Her literary accomplishments are nothing
less than towering.

But - as SFWA president Mary Robinette Kowal points out - Nalo's
prodigious accomplishments as a writer are rivalled by her
accomplishments as a teacher and mentor of writers.

That's especially fitting given that the award's namesake, Damon Knight,
had a similar double life as a writer and a shaper of writers. Nalo has
trained a generation of writers, just as Damon did.

Not just Damon, either. Science fiction is a craft, and it abounds with
generous mentors who pay it forward, not least Judith Merril, our fellow
Torontonian, the doyenne of Canadian sf, who created so many enduring
institutions to nurture new writers.

Judy even had a hand in the founding of Bakka Books, the science fiction
bookstore that Nalo and I both worked at (Judy convinced Charlie McKee
to open the store in 1972 - it's still going).

Nalo comes from a family of celebrated artists - playwrights, poets -
and so her life weaves in multiple traditions of art, mentorship,
authorship. I couldn't be happier for my old friend. What a fantastic
choice for SFWA's 37th Grand Master.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSpTWbD5S1o

_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

🧀 This day in history

#10yrsago Tea Party Nation President proposes taking vote away from
tenants
https://web.archive.org/web/20101203083137/https://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/30/tea-party-voting-property/

#5yrsago A profile of America’s killingest cops: the police of Kern
County, CA
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/01/the-county-kern-county-deadliest-police-killings

#5yrsago Rosa Parks was a radical, lifelong black liberation activist,
not a “meek seamstress”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/12/01/how-history-got-the-rosa-parks-story-wrong/

#5yrsago Mozilla will let go of Thunderbird
https://techcrunch.com/2015/11/30/thunderbird-flies-away-from-mozilla/

#5yrsago Vtech toy data-breach gets worse: 6.3 million children
implicated
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jpgx4p/hacked-toymaker-vtech-admits-breach-actually-hit-63-million-children

#5yrsago Newly discovered WEB Du Bois science fiction story reveals more
Afrofuturist history
https://slate.com/technology/2015/12/the-princess-steel-a-recently-uncovered-short-story-by-w-e-b-du-bois-and-afrofuturism.html

#5yrsago The word “taser” comes from an old racist science fiction novel
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/30/history-of-word-taser-comes-from-century-old-racist-science-fiction-novel

#1yrago A former pharma rep explains how the industry pushes doctors to
overprescribe
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i-was-a-drug-rep-i-know-how-pharma-companies-pushed-opioids/2019/11/25/82b1da88-beb9-11e9-9b73-fd3c65ef8f9c_story.html

#1yrago As news outlets were shutting down for Thanksgiving, the
University of North Carolina quietly gave white nationalists $2.5m to
settle a lawsuit that hadn’t even been filed
https://threader.app/thread/1200914334152568832

#1yrago Veteran Boeing manager was transferred to 787 production; based
on he saw there, he won’t fly in a Dreamliner and begs his family not to
https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/john-barnett-on-why-he-wont-fly-on-a-boeing-787-dreamliner/

#1yrago Podcast: Party Discipline, a Walkaway story (Part 1)
https://ia803106.us.archive.org/17/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_317/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_317_-_Party_Discipline.mp3

_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

🧀 Colophon

Today's top sources: SFWA (https://sfwa.org).

Currently writing: My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel
about truth and reconciliation. Yesterday's progress: 543 words (89454
total).

Currently reading: The City We Became, NK Jemisin

Latest podcast: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (part 24)
https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/11/23/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-24/

Upcoming appearances:

* After the storm: A post-election analysis of UK-US digital trade, Dec
4,
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/after-the-storm-a-post-election-analysis-of-uk-us-digital-trade/

*  Monopoly, Not Mind Control: What's Really Happening With
"Surveillance Capitalism," Dec 8,
https://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20201208-doctorow/

* Colloquium on Information Security, Dec 14
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-31st-hphpe-virtual-colloquium-on-information-security-tickets-128859336745

* Keynote, NISO Plus, Feb 22-25,
https://niso.plus/cory-doctorow-to-keynote-at-niso-plus-2021/

Recent appearances:

* A More Competitive Web (Techdirt Podcast):
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201201/10183045801/techdirt-podcast-episode-264-more-competitive-web-with-cory-doctorow-daphne-keller.shtml

* Big Tech Podcast:
https://www.cigionline.org/big-tech/cory-doctorow-true-dangers-surveillance-capitalism

* Nerdcanon Podcast:
http://nerdcanon.com/episode-25-cory-doctorow-and-attack-surface/

Latest book:

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone
technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political
cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution
and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet
analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a
solution.
https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies
here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime,
gender, and kicking ass. Order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed
copy here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.

This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially,
provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link
to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are
included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the
basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

_,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,__,.-'~'-.,_

🧀 How to get Pluralistic:

Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

Pluralistic.net

Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

https://pluralistic.net/plura-list

Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

https://mamot.fr/web/accounts/303320

Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and
advertising):

https://twitter.com/doctorow

Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising):

https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic

*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla* -Joey "Accordion Guy"
DeVilla

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 195 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://mail.flarn.com/pipermail/plura-list/attachments/20201202/1819de50/attachment.sig>