WOMEN UP TO NO GOOD – Kickstarter Opportunity & Interview

Women Up To No Good is a series of anthologies of dark fiction by marginalized voices—women and other authors of marginalized sex and gender identities, and we additionally strive for diversity in race, national origin, sexual orientation, and ability. The stories themselves are sharp and horrific, sometimes funny and sometimes grim.

The writers of the two anthologies we’re kickstarting span the globe, based in or hailing from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, Spain, and all over the United States. Between them, they’ve won the Aeronautilus, Andre Norton, Encouragement, Eugie Foster Memorial, Fresh Voices, Hugo, Lambda, Locus, Mythopoeic, Nebula, Prix Imaginales, Rhysling, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Awards!

Wow, that’s pretty impressive! What is your role in the process?

I am the editor of Broad Knowledge: 35 Women Up To No Good, and the publisher of both books. (The other anthology, Sharp & Sugar Tooth, is being edited by Octavia Cade, who is the author of Food and Horror: Essays on Ravenous Souls, Toothsome Monsters, and Vicious Cravings.)

As an editor, I basically curate the collection, and help the authors to get to the best version of their story. As the publisher, I design the interior and the book covers, and I do all the marketing. I hire other people to do printing and distribution. I’m a one-woman shop, so it’s a lot of work, but very rewarding.

Checking out the list of contributors, I’m impressed by the wide range of diversity you’ve managed to gather! What was the process like, finding contributors who exemplify the ideals for your project?

Thanks! It’s always a treat to see who submits. A few of the stories were specifically requested, but for the most part they came in through open submissions. I prefer to read blind, so I address diversity at the submissions stage. I make sure to mention the open submissions to a wide variety of groups online, in addition to sites like duotrope. FB groups include: Call For Submissions; Calls for Submissions (Poetry, Fiction, Art); Open Call: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Pulp Markets; Open Submission Calls for Horror/Paranormal/Mystery/SciFi Writers; Call For Submissions : QUILTBAG; Asian Science Fiction & Fantasy; Feminist Science Fiction; The State of Black Science Fiction; Women of Color Writers’ Community; and WOMPO (Women’s Poetry Listserv). Plus we post a bunch on Twitter with hashtags like #readwomen and #diversesff.

Because June is Pride Month, it’s particularly fitting that your Kickstarter is so inclusive, with a variety of sexual and gender identifying writers. Was this just auspicious timing, or was it planned that way?

It was auspicious timing! I’m really glad that it worked out that way, as I’m queer myself, but it wasn’t on my mind when I picked the month.

Your list of authors includes both well-known, up-and-coming, and unknown writers. I love the idea of such a wide range of experience. How did you decide to include all these types of writers?

As a reader, I love anthologies which have a good mix of folks I know and like, so I know I’ll enjoy at least some of the stories, and authors who are new to me, so I can seek out their other work. And as an editor, it’s pretty exciting to feel that you’ve discovered somebody (although really, they discover us, and we’re just fortunate to be the person to whom they submitted). I think we hit a good balance in these anthologies, from superstars like Catherynne M. Valente (whose novel Space Opera has just been optioned by Universal Pictures, with La La Land’s Marc Platt producing with Star Wars: Episode IX co-writer Colin Trevorrow) to relative unknowns like Betsy Aoki, for whom this is her first speculative fiction publication.

Finally, what types of stories can we expect to find in these anthologies?

With 57 stories, there’s quite a range. A few are quite funny (Marie Vibbert’s “Infinite Boyfriends,” about a woman who pulls alternate versions of her ex from alternate universes in search of one who isn’t a jerk, really made me laugh), while others are quite grim (like “Liquid Glass” by Argentine author Teresa P. Mira de Echeverría and translated by Lawrence Schimel, which is set during the Black Plague).

Most of the really dark ones show a lot of heart, with ways out of darkness, even if the protagonist doesn’t quite make it. There’s a little gore, but it’s not the focus. I’m particularly excited about Jasmyne J. Harris’s “What the Bees Know About Discarded Girlish Organs,” in which men literally consume the women they love, and which I find myself thinking about at odd hours even months after first reading it. Another I think about often is “Mary in the Looking Glass” by Laura E. Price, which takes the legend of Mary Whales (or Mary Worth, depending on where you grew up) and mixes in a miscarriage and divorce and a love affair which saves both Mary and the protagonist.

My main criterion for selecting a story was that I found myself saying, “wow!” when I finished it, and I think we succeeded in creating two really excellent anthologies!

JOANNE MERRIAM is an immigrant to Nashville from Nova Scotia, whose writing has appeared in The Glaze from Breaking (Stride, 2005), and in dozens of magazines and journals, including Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Fiddlehead, The Journal of Unlikely Entomology, Pank, and Strange Horizons. She runs Upper Rubber Boot Books, administers Small Press Week, volunteers for Postcards to Voters and More Than Medicine, and runs a surgical fellowship and the lives of four oncologists for a local hospital.

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Thanks so much, Joanne! You can learn lots more about the Kickstarter by clicking this link. Joanne and fellow editor Octavia Cade share a short video about the project, and you’ll find a list of all 57 contributors and their stories (and I know you’ll recognize some of them!) I’m headed over myself to support this awesome project, and I hope you’ll consider doing the same!