Malinda Lo

It’s been two weeks since the fabulous Sirens conference and I’m still thinking about it. That’s how great it was! Today I’m going to recap the roundtable I led, which was about “queerness and fairy tales.”

A roundtable is not the same as a panel. It involves one person leading a discussion about a specific topic. I had a list of questions prepared and was hoping to discuss not only feyness, queerness, and their differences/similarities, but also put together a reading list of fairy stories that include queer themes.

Hahahaha. The best laid plans …

No, seriously, it was an awesome roundtable, but about 30 people showed up and it soon turned into an unwieldy but joyous mob of people gushing about queer stuff in fairy tales, then fantasy, then in general. My takeaway from this is that people really want to talk about this. The time is ripe — RIPE! — for some serious queerness talk at conferences, online, etc., because everybody seemed to have at least one book to recommend and about a zillion questions/themes/rants/opinions about “queerness” in fantasy in general.

So, I’m not going to recap the discussion since it was so freewheeling and energetic. But I will list here all of the books and stories that were recommended. I tried, at first, to limit the recommendations to fiction about fairies (or faeries), but the enthusiasm was such that ultimately we expanded to fantasy in general. I haven’t read most of these, but if they’re on the list they were definitely recommended by someone at the roundtable. In some places my notes were a little sketchy, so if I list a book that actually does not include queer characters/themes, please let me know in the comments and I will edit the list.

Novels

Bear, Elizabeth — The Promethean Age series: Blood and Iron (2006), Whiskey and Water (2007), Ink and Steel (2008), Hell and Earth (2008)

Bradley, Marion Zimmer — The Mists of Avalon

Duane, Diane — The Door Into Fire (1979)

Flewelling, Lynn — Luck in the Shadows (1996)

Hoyt, Sarah A. — Ill Met by Moonlight (2001)

Kushner, Ellen — Swordspoint (1987)

Lackey, Mercedes

• Arrows of the Queen
• Bedlam’s Bard: Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, and Summoned to a Tourney
• The Last Herald Mage Trilogy: Magic’s Pawn (1989), Magic’s Promise (1990), Magic’s Price (1990)

Lackey, Mercedes, and Andre Norton — Elvenbane (1991)

Larsen, Jeanne — Silk Road (1989)

Lo, Malinda — Ash (2009)

Reisz, Kristopher — Tripping to Somewhere (2006)

Rice, Anne — The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (1983), Beauty’s Punishment (1984), Beauty’s Release (1985)

Sherman, Delia — Through a Brazen Mirror (1999)

Tarr, Judith — A Fall of Princes (1988)

Valente, Catherynne M. — Palimpsest (2009)

Short Stories

So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction edited by Steve Berman (2007)

“Am I Blue?” by Bruce Coville in Am I Blue?: Coming Out From the Silence, edited by Marion Dane Bauer (1994)

Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue (1997)

“The Behold of the Eye” by Hal Duncan

“How the Ocean Loved Margie” by Laurie J. Marks (2004)

“The Faerie Cony-catcher” by Delia Sherman in Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (1998)

*  * *

I will conclude by saying that next year’s theme at Sirens is monsters, which is an awesome theme and one that, I believe, lends itself so, so easily to portrayals of queer people in fantasy. The guests of honor are Justine Larbalestier, Laini Taylor, and Nnedi Okorafor, which makes Sirens 2011 even awesomer. Right now I don’t know if I can go, even though I really want to, but time and budget constrains even me (I know, shocking!).

However, I will say this: If you think that monstrous queerness should be a topic of discussion at Sirens 2011, I think YOU should propose a panel. Now, I do not speak for the conference organizers, and this is coming entirely from me. In my own experience, I have sometimes wondered why conference programming in general is not more representative or diverse. At some point, I realized that I can be part of the solution. So if you want to see diversity included at a conference — particularly a panel on the monstrous queer, which I think would be totally fantastic and if you have one, please videotape it and put it on YouTube in case I can’t be there — my answer is this: Go and represent yourself. I guarantee it will be appreciated.