'Art is a very powerful force. And the state would inevitably like to wield the wielder.
It wants its posterity. Most of all it wants its safety.'
- C. J. Cherryh
As names go, I think AltPunk's pretty self-explanatory. Still, for the benefit of automated web catalogers, I’ll throw out a few more labels, starting with: Queer SF, Queer-Content SF, Alternative SF, QueerSpec, GLBT SF, GLBT-Content SF, Gay/Lesbian SF, and Transgendered SF.
I have no AltPunk Manifesto. I have nothing clever to say about it. I just like it. I’ve also noticed that I have a lot of trouble FINDING IT. In fact, one of the more frustrating aspects of life for the average AltPunk fan is that GLBT-content SF has to be tracked down by a kind of underground voodoo wire. Mainstream SF publishers are rarely comfortable marketing SF titles as “gay/ lesbian” fiction. GLBT booksellers may want to carry GLBT SF, but they have to rely on non-SF-oriented publications like the Lambda Literary Review to find it ... and these publications often don’t review SF novels until they’ve attracted major attention in the “straight” literary scene. SF-oriented magazines and reviews aren’t much better, frankly; I’ve seen (and gotten my share of) reviews that managed to spend pages discussing “characters” or “relationships” without ever mentioning that the characters and relationships in question weren’t hetero!
So where’s a reader in search of AltPunk to turn?
Below you’ll find a short list of my favorite AltPunk sites and AltPunk-friendly bookstores, as well as the names of my favorite AltPunk writers. I hope you’ll check out both the links and the writers...
I also review GLBT-content SF for GLBT Fantasy Resources at www.glbtfantasy.com as and when the mood strikes me. I’ve reviewed some of my favorite writers there, including C.J. Cherryh, Michael Chabon, Geoff Ryman, and M. Shayne Bell. I don’t want to steal the sites’s thunder, though ... so if you’re interested in reading those reviews, and checking out other reviewers’ favorite AltPunk picks, go there.
AltPunk WEB RESOURCES
The Web has been a great boon for AltPunk fans, putting fellow fans and their personal pages at our fingertips. In recent years a number of more official AltPunkish sites have entered the field. Here’s a brief and unabashedly uncomprehensive listing...
The Gaylactic Network. This organization is the place to start, both on-line and at the many SF Conventions where it puts on events. Their Mission Statement says it all:
- To promote science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and other related genres (SF/F/H) in all forms, with particular attention to materials of interest to Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered (GLBT) people.
- To provide forums for GLBT people and their friends to share their interest in SF/F/H.
- To promote the presence of GLBT elements within SF/F/H and within fandom.
- To promote SF/F/H within GLBT communities.
Lambda Awards. The premier GLBT-community literary awards. Their SF category award has been given to Nicola Griffith, among other writers.
Spectrum Awards. A newer but increasingly high profile annual award for SF with positive GLBT content. The Spectrum and Lammy awards’ backlists are excellent places to go hunting for great AltPunk titles you may have missed when they first came out ...
Wavelengths Online. “A review journal for science fiction, fantasy, and horror of special interest to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered people and their friends!” Their site includes GLBT fandom news, lists and reviews of new GLBT-content SF. Edited by Rob Gates, who is also one of the moving forces behind the Spectrum Awards.
Strange Horizons. A highly-respected on-line magazine that features GLBT-content SF, fantasy and horror.
GLBT Fantasy Fiction Resources. A well-put-together and comprehensive site that covers GLBT SF and Fantasy alike. It includes reviews, essays and author interviews. The homepage’s News Items feature and the Rainbow Readership discussion group are also good places to spot upcoming events or publications.
Gaylaxicon. The “annual national gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered & friends science fiction, fantasy, horror, comics & everything else” convention. The 2004 Gaylaxicon is being held in San Diego and the guest of honor is DAvid Gerrold. If you can spring for the airfare, then be there!
lesbiansciencefiction.com. This site has a vast and growing list of bi/lesbian content sf and fantasy. It's become my de facto SF "to read" list over the course of the last year or so ... highly recommended.
Mary Ann Mohanraj's Page which has one of the more comprehensive lists of alternate sexuality sf books, stories, moves, etc . . . .
www.angelfire.com/ny/gaybooks/ genre.html. This site has a hefty listing of GLBT SF, suspense and horror.
Faster Than Life/Jim Clark Media Pages. The genre page of Jim Clark's extensive site covers “transgender and GLBT SF, fantasy and horror.” There’s also an associated reading group and newsletter, as well as a GLBT films page.
SPACEDOUT. The e-zine of the Melbourne- based GLBT fan club DIVERSE UNIVERSE. There’s an intriguing piece here on the minority-within-a- minority position of GLBT fans, complete with the pithy observation that “parents do not encourage [teens] to seek a psychiatric "cure" for cyberpunk.” Yes, Virginia, this is why we’re still surfing the web after all these years...
AltPunk-friendly Booksellers
Lambda Rising. This DC-area chain is the biggest (to my knowledge) of the GLBT booksellers. They are a general bookstore, but they do stock SF titles. In particular I recommend their Norfolk, Virginia store (no jokes about sailors on leave, please!) whose manager, Erik Swallow, is a fount of information and recommendations.
AltPunk WRITERS
Here’s a shortlist of favorite GLBT-content SF. It ranges from full-on QueerSpec to mainstream SF that simply depicts sympathetically drawn same-sex relationships. And it’s not exhaustive by any means ... just what I happen to have read and enjoyed. It’s also worth noting that several of these authors aren’t exclusively or even officially marketed as SF writers. But it’s my list, so too bad...
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Happy reading! And let me know if you find any great new stuff. Like everyone else, I’m always looking...