This month's Behind the Zines interview features the amazing Suzan Palumbo. I am so honoured and grateful that she took the time to answer some of my questions about her work in the speculative fiction community.
More about Suzan Palumbo:
Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Suzan Palumbo is a
writer, active member of the HWA, co administrator of the Ignyte Awards and a
member of the Hugo nominated FIYAHCON team. She is also a former associate
editor of Shimmer. Her work has been published in The Deadlands, The
Dark Magazine, PseudoPod, Fireside Fiction Quarterly, PodCastle,
Anathema: Spec Fic from the Margins and other venues. She is officially
represented by Michael Curry of the Donald Maass Literary Agency and tweets at
@sillysyntax. When she isn’t writing, she can be found sketching, listening to
new wave or wandering her local misty forests.
Q. What’s your background?
Suzan Palumbo: I was born in Trinidad and Tobago and immigrated with my
mother to Toronto Canada when I was a preschooler. I grew up in a Toronto
neighbourhood that was primarily made up of Caribbean and South Asian
immigrants. I was immersed in Caribbean culture, and we maintained ties with my
mother’s family in Trinidad. I had a rough childhood generally. My family was
quite poor, and we lived in government subsidized housing my entire childhood.
I have B.A. in English Language and Literature. After
University, I went to college to learn how to teach ESL. I taught ESL for many
years, eventually becoming the director of the private school in downtown
Toronto where I worked. In that position, I designed curriculum, interviewed
and hired people and planned school events. I enjoyed teaching quite a bit. I
might even have been good at it!
Q. Were there any particular books, movies, or shows, or
something else that first attracted you to speculative fiction?
SP: I didn’t have access to many books as a very young child and I think
that is partially why I was a “later” reader. I had trouble reading until
something clicked for me in grade three. But, I grew up hearing bits of
Caribbean folktales from my mother and her family. Those oral folktales have been
a major pillar of my interest in speculative fiction. I’ve written several
stories with Trinidadian folkloric characters: Soucouyants, Douens, La
Diablesse and other jumbies. When I was little, I was scared of these
characters. But, jumbies aren’t simply malevolent monsters or ghosts. They are
spirits with tragic histories. They are often marginalized people who were
forced to barter their humanity to survive or who died tragically. I think that
backstory element is what sparked my love of gothic fiction.
In terms of actual media, I watched a lot of Scooby Doo,
He-Man and She-ra, Thunder Cats, Gargoyles and X-Men. I
adored the Addams Family film and The Last Unicorn movie. I had
an obsession with Batman the Animated Series. When I was in my early
teens I read a lot of the classics such as: Frankenstein, The Monk, Jane
Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Phantom of the
Opera and Rebecca etc.. When I was a bit older, I got into the
dystopian classics like 1984 and A Brave New World. I’m intrigued
with speculative fiction’s ability to reflect our world and relationships and
its function as a tool that helps us examine our global, political, social,
emotional and personal flaws.
Q. You are one of the co-founders of the Ignyte Awards,
In the description of the awards it says, “The Awards seek to celebrate the
vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction,
fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and
outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre.” Can you tell us a bit
about how the Ignyte Awards were conceived and born. What was happening
behind the scenes (and on the scene!) at that time?
SP: Yes! I cofounded the Ignyte Awards along
with the incomparable L.D. Lewis. I’m going to speak about my part in the
award’s conception but want to highlight foremost that I am only part of the
story. The Ignyte Awards would not exist with out FIYAHCON which was born in
the Summer of 2020 in the aftermath of the police murders of George Floyd and
Breonna Tayler. FIYAHCON was conceived by L.D. Lewis and members of the FIYAH
Literary Magazine team. It “is a virtual convention centering the
perspectives and celebrating the contributions of BIPOC in speculative
fiction.”
That same summer I had publicly questioned the Sunburst
Awards, which are a Canadian Speculative Awards series, as to why their
finalist list had “absolutely” no BIPOC representation. I was very wrong in
that assumption. The list did have quite a few BIPOC in many of the categories
and I was rightly and publicly corrected for the inaccurate statement and the
erasure of those writers. That said, I still felt that the award could do
better in terms of representation. I don’t think I was wrong for pushing for
more diversity. You can’t have too much diversity in my opinion. I offered to
help the organization and wrote a multi page proposal outlining how I would
increase BIPOC engagement and participation with the awards and bring in more
community support. I submitted that document to the contact I had. I haven’t
received a response to that proposal at present. The following year, the Sunburst
Awards announced that they would be going on hiatus for understandable
reasons that were pandemic and workload related.
It was with that mindset that I watched the live stream of
the 2020 Hugo Awards where the host, George R.R. Martin, mispronounced
several of the nominees’ names, made a transphobic joke and centered the
achievements of white male authors of the past. I’m not going into specifics of
exactly what he said here. Those events are easily searchable on Google. He did
offer a partial apology for some of his remarks afterwards. But by that point I
felt I couldn’t keep quiet any longer about wanting SFFH awards to do better.
If no one was going to let me help or volunteer with the established awards to
make them more inclusive, respectful and diverse, then I was going to make my
own awards and try my best to treat everyone it served with respect.
I’d been aware that FIYAH was planning a convention
but did not know L.D. Lewis or any of the con committee personally. I messaged
L.D. and asked if FIYAHCON was interested in running an SFFH awards and
suggested that we could call it the Ignyte Awards. L.D. and the FIYAHCON
team had already been thinking of including an award ceremony as part of the
convention, so she invited me to join FIYAHCON.
We put on those awards together in just over two months. We
collected the pronunciation of every nominees’ name and practiced them with our
host. We wrote the script and remarks together to ensure the ceremony was
inclusive and fostered the joy and sense of community we wanted people to feel
while watching. Speaking for myself, the Ignyte Awards is probably one
of the most important projects I’ve been apart of. BIPOC and other marginalized
creators are doing great work and I’m not sorry to say that I think they
deserve to be proud of themselves and come together and celebrate how wonderful
they are.
I’m not perfect and can’t guarantee that we will never have
a situation where a name is mispronounced but I care deeply about being
respectful and am open to constructive criticism and feed back. I’m not certain
that some of the legacy awards are open to receiving and acting on constructive
criticism from the general SFFH community in the same way.
Q. Two of the Ignyte Awards I particularly love
are: “The Ember Award for Unsung Contributions to Genre” and the “Community
Award for Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in
Genre”. What were your thoughts when you decided to include these Award
categories? Because they seem specifically designed to award people for work in
the spec fic community that isn’t always recognized.
SP: They are very much designed to award people for
work in the spec fic community that isn’t always recognized. Short fiction
magazines, professional organizations, conventions, forums, critique groups and
so many other facets of this industry rely heavily on volunteer labour. They
depend on other people’s kindness and willingness to help. I don’t see how
SFFH, particularly the short fiction ecosystem would function without people
volunteering their time. We wanted to draw attention to this work because
it has value. No one gets to where they are alone and for underrepresented
groups, a lot of us wouldn’t be published at all without others advocating for
us. I am nothing without community.
Creating an award for a specific person was L.D.’s idea. I
came up with the name Ember. For me the name represents someone who kept working
to help and inspire others even when they themselves didn’t have that same
encouragement and support. It's important to thank people in the present while
we can and not put that off until they get to some lifetime of service
achievement age. Why not celebrate them now? Why not say thank you now?
Q. I know from following you on social media that you
have some strong opinions about how cons should be run, and the problems with
how many of them are run. What are some things you’ve learned from FIYAHCON, and
what are some things you’d like others to learn from your experience?
SP: I am going to focus my attention on one specific
point because I could write a book on this topic. I think virtual tracks for
cons are vital and essential for accessibility. Any con that does not include
some type of thought-out virtual component is silently saying we only care
about parts of the community that are physically and financially able to attend
our event. It may actually be the case that some cons only want certain people
to be present at their events. If that is so, they shouldn’t be offended when
they are told they are inaccessible or upholding exclusivity or gatekeeping, as
the case may be.
FIYAHCON, under L.D. Lewis’ direction, proved that a virtual
con could be engaging, educational, entertaining, and accessible. Flights of
Foundry also runs a multi day, completely virtual convention that is time
zone accessible to participants all over the world. Over the past couple of
years, I’ve listened to many seasoned in person convention attendees bemoan the
fact that virtual conventions don’t have the same atmosphere or dynamic as
their beloved in-person events. There has also been a lot of talk around making
virtual conventions feel like in-person ones.
My question in response is: Why should a virtual convention
feel like an in-person convention? It is not an in-person convention. With
FIYAHCON being the first event I was able to attend because of accessibility,
like many of the attendees, I had no idea what an in-person convention felt
like. Further, many in-person convention spaces are not physically or
financially accessible for people in North America and around the world. Many
are not welcoming to BIPOC. I understand wanting to get together with old
friends in real life but then perhaps you should call the event: “Old friend
get together” instead of “convention”. Shrugging off virtual components shuts
out so many people from participating in community.
If conventions care about diversity and inclusion, they
should bring in people who know how to plan and run virtual events and listen
to their advice and opinions. I am baffled at how backwards looking and
resistant to incorporating technology SFFH convention culture is, especially
since the community it serves is interested in speculating about the future.
Please keep supporting and having virtual programming
alongside in person events so that people who have been historically excluded
can participate! You can do it, if you try! *steps off soapbox*
Q. You’ve been involved in a lot of different work behind
the zines, for example as a slush reader at Shimmer. What advice would you give
to someone else who might be interested in getting involved with a zine, or a
writer’s organization, or breaking new ground like you’ve done with Ignyte?
SP: I think doing community work in any capacity is
rewarding and educational. It’s important to consider how much time you have to
devote to whatever project or organization you want to join and what your goals
are regarding the experience. You have to be honest with yourself about how
much work you can balance.
I learned a lot from reading slush. As a person who’s never
had a regular critique group and had never been part of a writing workshop,
being a first reader helped me learn to identify the strengths and weaknesses
in other people’s fiction and articulate those in a concise way. When I first
started reading slush, it required a lot of my time. That time commitment
lessened as I learned to recognize which stories fit Shimmer’s aesthetic.
That said, while I was reading slush, I didn’t get a lot of my own
writing done. I was okay with that back then because I was absorbing so much.
Having that bit of a fallow period helped me be a better self editor.
Regarding running larger projects such as the Ignyte
Awards: We need people who are willing and able to do ground-breaking work.
It’s one of the ways change happens and the industry evolves. That said, when
you run an event like this, the time commitment is significant, and you have to
have a handle planning out your schedule months in advance. You have to be
creative and good at thinking on your feet and problem solving because nothing
ever goes according to plan when you’re trying to organize an event. You have
to be patient and respectful when dealing with people and be prepared to work
in a team. You have to be prepared for individuals to not take you seriously at
first because you are not a traditionally lauded or respected event with a
venerated history. The best way to stay on course with all these considerations
swirling around, I find, is to make sure you believe deeply in the goal you are
working toward. Knowing that the Ignyte ceremony will be a moment of joy for
everyone is what gets me through all of the other hard work.
With that in mind, I want to emphasize that you don’t have
to do something ground-breaking by yourself to have a positive impact in the
community. Everything counts. I tend to have big ideas that I want to implement
and announce them loudly but helping out with smaller things that take less of
your time is valuable and appreciated. We have a small team with the Ignyte
Awards that helps with emailing and vetting nominations. This doesn’t
require a large time commitment and is crucial to putting together our ballot.
I have to thank Eboni Dunbar and Leah Weyland for their assistance with this
because I couldn’t do that by myself.
Finally, I’ll say if someone wants to be involved in a zine
or a project or organization that they care about and isn’t sure how they can
join in, you can always just ask. Contact them and ask respectfully if there is
anything that you can do to help. Whenever I’ve asked if I could join or help
out people have always responded enthusiastically. A lot of the time I put out
a question on twitter and get several responses as to how I can get involved.
Q. How has your view of the speculative fiction
community, such as it is, changed since you decided to get more involved in the
“business” side of things? There are a lot of barriers, and lot of built-in
biases, on every level in this business. What are your thoughts on that?
SP: My thoughts are: Yes there are a lot of built-in
biases everywhere on many intersectional axes and barriers. I’d like to see
more representation. I’d like to see editors, magazines and publishers move
towards embracing Non-Western Story telling modes. I’d like for them to go
beyond repeating: “I want an active protagonist” because their definition of
active is very narrow and limiting. I’d like to see more diverse acquiring
editors at magazines and publishing houses. It’s not enough to have diverse
slush readers when the person who has the power to buy the stories has a very
narrow view of what constitutes a good story. I’d like to see more diverse con
chairs so that diversity is baked into every con space.
That said, I think change is happening and I am hopeful. I’m
seeing so much great work being published. I’m going to point to F&SF.
Before, as a writer, I had zero hope of ever being published in F&SFbecause
the editorial vision was extremely biased towards white western story telling.
Yes, BIPOC were published by that magazine, but those numbers were low.
Under Sheree Renee Thomas, the representation in the magazine has
increased. People who never wanted to submit to F&SF because they
had no hope, some people who are fantastic writers and who had been submitting
for twenty years are finally being published. Everyone is benefiting from this
change in editorial vision.
Workshops are becoming more diverse. They are offering
online options. There are more grassroots groups getting together to help each
other. Some conventions are moving past basic diversity panels. The community
is trying and I give them credit for that. I have a lot of opinions on what can
be improved but as I said earlier in my answer about the Ember Award, it’s
important to acknowledge the work people are doing now. There is much good in
the SFFH community. I am grateful for it.
Q. Is there any advice or insight you’d give to your
younger self after all the experience you’ve gained?
SP: Honestly, I’d just hug my younger self. I think
to give myself advice would imply that I could have saved time or done
something differently and I don’t think I would have done anything differently.
I’m happy with where I am with my writing work and my other community projects.
But sometimes even when you are working towards a worthy goal, you can become
tired or discouraged and feel lonely. I wish I could have kept myself company
during those times.
Q. What is something about your job with Ignyte you think
most people DON’T know, but which is a major part of it when you’re active
behind the scenes?
SP: I deal with most of the people/public facing work
with the Ignyte Awards. That means I supervise the inbox, draft a lot of
the communication emails, organize and communicate with the jury members, and
answer questions or pass questions that I can’t answer on to L.D. Lewis. I also
write the first draft of the script and go over it with the host and practice
pronunciation with them.
Perhaps it would be surprising for people to know that I
spend time assuring nominees that they are in fact eligible for the award and
deserve to be nominated. I also help them with nerves or anxieties related to
writing a speech and the possibility of having to deliver that speech. For the
record, no one is required to give a speech. We would never force anyone to do
something they weren’t comfortable with but sometimes people need to hear: The
viewers will love whatever you have to say, as a form of encouragement and
reassurance. Sometimes they need a mental hug!
Q. To turn toward the writerly side. You write horror and
dark fantasy, and one of your stories, “Laughter Among the Trees” was just
included in a Best of Dark Fantasy and Horror anthology. You have a
short story collection coming out, and your book “Countess” is coming in 2024.
Tell us a bit about these upcoming projects.
SP: Yes! My short story collection “Skin Thief” will
be published in the fall of 2023 by Neon Hemlock Press. It includes a
lot of my previously published work such as “Laughter Among the Trees” along
with a 10K word unpublished novelette called “Kill Jar”. “Kill Jar” is a queer
gothic tale set on an isolated estate in rural Ontario. It has green houses,
snakes and a girl uncovering a dark family secret! The collection is very
representative of the short work I’ve been producing over the past five years
and has an arc and theme. Here is my pitch for the entire collection for those
interested:
“Skin Thief” is a dark fantasy/horror short story
collection. The book is named for a group of characters that appear in the
collection’s first story, “The Pull of the Herd”. The stories feature queer
women of color grappling with the complexities of identity, racism,
immigration, oppression and patriarchy. Themes such as nature, gothic
hauntings, Trinidadian folklore and shape shifting are interwoven throughout
and are used to explore these struggles. The order of the stories in the
collection mimics the peeling away of an assimilated Western identity or skin.
Stories at the beginning of the book are set in Canada and are written in
Canadian English. As the reader moves through the collection, the Canadian
voice and settings gradually fade. The middle of the collection is composed of
diaspora stories such as "Laughter Among the Trees" which contain
some Trinidadian English. The last section of the collection features stories
set in Trinidad with larger portions of dialect. Samantha, the narrator of the
final story, entitled “Douen”, narrates in full Trinidadian dialect. Thus
metaphorically, the collection reenacts the process of shedding a stolen or
assumed identity, mirroring the themes of the individual stories themselves.
“Countess” my novella, will be published by ECW press
in spring 2024. It is a queer, Caribbean, Count of Monte Cristo retelling,
space opera. I love this little book very much and feel it is the story I’ve
lived my whole life to write. I have never read or watched a space opera with
an indo-caribbean woman as the protagonist so in many ways, this may be me
breaking new ground on the publishing front. Even if it isn’t, I put my entire
heart into it. Here is my elevator pitch for it!
Virika Sameroo lives in colonized space under the Acerbot
Empire, much like her ancestors before her in the British West Indies. Working
hard to rise up the ranks of the empire's merchant marine, she's finally become
the first lieutenant of an interstellar cargo ship. But her captain falls ill
under suspicious circumstances and Virika must salvage the mission and the
shipment of iridium that is integral to the functioning of the Empire's
military fleet. When she returns to the capital, Virka is arrested and charged
with treason despite her lifelong loyalty to the empire. This sets her on a
path of revenge where she will confront personal trauma, intimate betrayal and
prejudice as the fate of her people hangs in the balance.
Can’t wait to read that collection and that novella. Huge
thanks to Suzan Palumbo for doing this interview!
About Behind the Zines:
In this interview series, I talk to people working behind
the scenes at various speculative fiction publications. My goal is to
highlight the work that goes into keeping these publications alive, and to
share insights from the people doing that work. Each interview is available
exclusively on my Patreon for one week, and is then posted here at Maria's
Reading.
If you want to support my work, check out my Patreon or Ko-Fi.
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