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theatredirectors · 5 years

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Iris Sowlat

Hometown?

Wilmette, IL.

Where are you now?

Chicago, IL.

What's your current project?

Underworld Anthem for Prop Thtr’s RhinoFest. Underworld Anthem is a devised piece that tells the story of Orpheus in the Underworld using a cycle of poems by Chicago poet Alex Ranieri, with text from Ovid’s “Orpheus and Eurydice,” an Orphic Hymn (found and translated by dramaturg Emma Pauly), original music, dance, clown, and other media. The play explores what compels one to seek out the Underworld, to leave it, to relish it, to rule it, to create within it, to gives oneself to it, and to attempt to escape. This story investigates ideas of the original myth by examining plot shifts such as: What if Orpheus lost his poetry and music in addition to his beloved? What if Eurydice had a choice, and chose the Underworld willingly? How much other the “underworld” is actually below the Earth, above it, and in our own minds? What role does Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, who is bound to travel between the Underworld and Earth, play in the story?

Underworld Anthem runs at Prop Thtr’s RhinoFest through February 21.

Why and how did you get into theatre?

I started taking beginning acting classes at Piven Theatre in Evanston, and from there, I was completely hooked! Growing up, I was a strange combination of being an incredibly introverted young person with a huge imagination and a LOT of stories to tell. I was drawn to theatre specifically because it provided the framework for a world of sheer possibility. I could be anything I wanted, and tell any story I wanted.

In college, I discovered my passion for directing and honed my craft by directing four shows at my University’s student-run theatre spaces. I was specifically drawn to directing because a director has the chance to decide exactly what story they get to tell, or through what lens to tell an existing story. Learning directing in this kind of self-led space gave me the tools I needed for a career of DIY and storefront work in Chicago.

What is your directing dream project?

I have several dream projects, so I’ll share just a few here:

- Jane by Paula Kamen: In the 1960s, before Roe vs. Wade, a group of young women at the University of Chicago started an underground abortion service which bloomed into the “best kept secret in Chicago.” This fresh, relevant, suspenseful docu-drama tells their story.

- Life, and a Lover by Natalie Meisner: A magic realism historical drama about Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West, and the life and death of Woolf’s character Orlando.

- feminine octagon [or, aristotle can eat me] by Amy Gijsbers van Wijk: An immersive kaleidescope of femininity, gender, and sexuality…. with lots of glitter :)

- Kristina, the Girl King by Michel Marc Bouchard: So many things to explore about the choices women in certain positions make, and the lens through which they are seen, that are super relevant today.

- Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story by Stephen Dolginoff: An elegant, erie two-man musical about Chicago’s gay 1920s “thrill klllers.”

If anyone wants to hire me to direct one of these plays, I would love to chat with you :)

What kind of theatre excites you?

I am excited by theatre that uses highly theatrical or unexpected storytelling devices to get to the heart of often unspoken or silences truths in society. The work I make is usually a mix of social relevance and magic realism. I like to be surprised. I like playing with unexpected storytelling forms, such as the use of non-linear stories, heightened language, or multi-genre/interdisciplinary works. Most of all, I am excited by work that leads the audience to have a very specific “OH! Shit.” moment of surprise.

What do you want to change about theatre today?

The default (in programming, leadership, Boards, casting, production teams, and “target” audiences) is still overwhelmingly white, cisgender, male, and upper-middle-class. Unfortunately, this is systemic, and a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. But, fortunately, so many theatres, especially in Chicago, are working towards bridging that gap (on and off stage) and creating more access and inclusion for artists, arts leaders, and audiences of all identities. Theatre is for everyone. Theatre - especially in the areas of executive and artistic leadership - needs to reflect the diversity and intersectionality of the communities it is being made in. Theatre is inherently a place of possibility, and if some institutions continue to limit who gets representation, to a very narrow default, everyone misses out.

What is your opinion on getting a directing MFA?

I plan to apply to MFA programs in the next year or two.

My reasons for applying are that I crave the balance of Space and Structure that an MFA program can provide.

“Space” means, a wide open artistic playground where I can make the art I want to make, with the freedom to make mistakes, or change something mid-process, without some of the constraints that directing outside of academia can impose.

And “Structure,” means the support of an institution and a faculty who are some of the highest caliber in the country posing challenging questions that allow me to re-frame how I think about my work and my choices, questions that I would not think to ask myself.

Who are your theatrical heroes?

Will Davis, Mary Zimmerman, Julie Taymor, Ariane Mnouchkine, Olivia Lilley, Sean Graney, Jo Cattell, Marti Lyons, Vanessa Stalling, Molly Brennan, Isaac Gomez, Caridad Svich, Charles Mee, Tina Landau, Anne Bogart, Rohina Malik.

Any advice for directors just starting out?

My advice would be to:

1. Move to the type of city where you see the kind of work you want to make

2. See as many plays as you can, on all scales of production and all genres. Just immerse yourself in it - that’s how you will be even better at articulating exactly what you like.

3. Go make stuff! Don’t wait for someone’s permission for you to create something. If there is a play you want to direct, just go do it, even if it’s on a very small scale. Give yourself permission to make a mess. Give yourself the freedom to make something glorious.

4. Know your worth.

5. I don’t know who first said this, but: If no one is giving you a seat at the table, instead of trying to squeeze in, just build your own table and invite people to it.

Plugs!

You can see updates on my work on my website, www.IrisSowlat.com If you would like to reach out to me, please use the comment box on my website or email me at [email protected]

#Iris Sowlat #ask a director #theatre directors

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kevin-magnussen · 3 years

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oh my god alex lyon my beloved

#flyers lb

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whitenikes · 6 months

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hello bestie i am here (https://www.tumblr.com/whitenikes/735062784371523584) to ask about the 3435. please thank you 🙏

DARLING thank you I love talking about my beloved freaks <3333

I started a fic some time ago (around the time of preseason when the media team asked the guys how many pillows they sleep with and lyon just started rambling about how many pillows he uses) based on the trope of Goalie Nesting

so lyon starts to nest and doesn't want to leave the net and really only wants ville by his side for comfort. and he gets into the nesting mood because he's been so unmoored by bouncing between teams, going from nhl to minors all the time. he doesn't have a rooted spot, basically

and ville, their beloved starter, just has to tell alex he's Good, that he's special to the team, he's worthwhile and he can make a home with detroit, the net is Their Net as starter and backup (because in my mind I'm firing reimer into the sun)

so specifically with the post you linked, alex being cuddly and snuggly and just wanting love and approval, giving ville gentle little kisses on the back of his neck

and yeah there's porn in there. as a treat

#3435 #very watered down summary i think because i dont wanna scare the hoes (metaphorical) by being too freaked up about these guys #thank you thank yoi for asking i love talking about things even if i think they dont make sense

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turkiyeecom · 5 years

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Press, Morgan score to lead USWNT past England and into Women's World Cup final - ESPN

Graham Hays covers college sports for espnW, including softball and soccer. Hays began with ESPN in 1999.Tom HamiltonCloseSenior Writer• Joined ESPN in 2011 • Covered two Olympics, a pair of Rugby World Cups and two British & Irish Lions tours • Previously rugby editor, and became senior writer in 2018LYON, France -- History says the United States wins when it scores in World Cup semifinals.More recent history indicated doing that would be easier said than done in Tuesday's semifinal against England without the player responsible for every U.S. goal in the knockout round.And history didn't have anything at all to say about VAR.Without Megan Rapinoe -- the star of the tournament to this point and the emotional talisman who was missing with a hamstring injury against England -- the U.S. women still found a pair of goals for the third game in a row. And they held on for dear life in a 2-1 win, with a little help from VAR and their goalkeeper.For the fifth time, the United States will play for the World Cup title. And it has its chance to win back-to-back titles for the first time.-- Rapinoe (hammy) expects to be 'fit for the final' -- Why is Lyon getting all the love in this year's Women's World Cup? -- Women's World Cup 2019: Everything you need to knowStarting for just the second time in the tournament, Christen Press put the U.S. women in front with one of the team's increasingly trademark early goals in the 10th minute.And after England pulled level soon after, Alex Morgan scored in the 31st minute to put the United States in front again. Scoring for the first time since a record five-goal outburst in the opening game, she is tied for the lead in the race for the Golden Boot as the World Cup's top scorer.In a tournament that began with a controversy about celebrating goals and only got stranger from there, it is perhaps fitting that an explanation of a goal celebration summed up the route to Sunday's final.After scoring what proved to be the deciding goal, Morgan mimicked drinking England's beloved tea. She said she felt responsible for keeping celebrations interesting with the ever-creative Rapinoe out of the mix."I feel like this team just has had so much thrown at us," Morgan said. "I feel like we didn't take the easy route to the final this tournament."Never easy. Also not yet over.The U.S. women now await the winner of Wednesday's semifinal between the Netherlands and Sweden. The Dutch are the reigning European champion and yet another team from the continent on the rise. The United States beat Sweden in the final game of group play, but that final would again bring up memories of the 2016 Olympics, when Sweden eliminated the U.S. women in the quarterfinals.VAR giveth and Alyssa Naeher taketh awayThe U.S. women had never allowed two goals to slip away in seven previous World Cup semifinals. They still haven't, but their mark was saved by literally a matter of inches.England's Ellen White appeared to tie the score 2-2 with a goal midway through the second half, getting behind the American back line off a deflection from England's Jill Scott. The crowd roared, England celebrated and both teams took their positions around the midfield stripe.Then came the check. Replays showed White was the slightest bit offside. And as FIFA refereeing czar Pierluigi Collina said in a VAR briefing last week in Paris, there is no "almost" offside. The check came back quickly: no goal.But VAR wasn't finished, and neither was White. After Demi Stokes slipped behind the U.S. back line with about 10 minutes to play and put a cross in front of goal, White appeared to whiff on the ball as Becky Sauerbrunn slipped behind her. But after a U.S. sub, the referee again brought the game to a stop for VAR. The result was a penalty for England a yellow card for Sauerbrunn."I thought it was a ... 100 percent chance goal scoring opportunity, so I know I had to make a play on the ball," Sauerbrunn said. "I haven't seen the foul, but VAR deemed it a PK. So it gave Alyssa a chance, and she came up huge and saved the team."England captain Steph Houghton took the penalty, but Naeher got down quickly to her right to save what was a relatively weak penalty. So much for missing Hope Solo."Just try to get a good read on it," Naeher said of her thought process. "Try to take a few deep breaths and get focused on the ball, focused on the play."There was little Naeher could do on England's goal in the first half, when White appeared to almost mishit a shot that banked in off the post after slipping between U.S. defenders. But with the prospect of extra time looming if Houghton converted the PK -- and those extra minutes for a team that had such limited rest in this tournament -- Naeher made her mark."We all had so much faith in her," Rose Lavelle said. "We see what she does in practice every day. She saves our own penalties, to our frustration."No Rapinoe, no problem ... for nowplay1:39ESPN's Julie Foudy expects USWNT star Megan Rapinoe to be fit for the World Cup final after she missed the semifinal because of a hamstring injury.Rapinoe's omission looked like the story that would dominate the night. Instead, as big as her status remains moving forward with what she described as a minor hamstring strain, the lineup changes, with Press and Lindsey Horan taking the field, shaped the game.It's difficult for Press to be at the center of a heated controversy. She's too thoughtful, calm and generally introspective. Heated controversy has no oxygen to ignite. But Press has for years been a puzzle for fans. So good at the club level, first in Sweden and now back in the NWSL, she never seemed to land on the right side of the depth chart for the national team.Press started and scored in her World Cup debut in the team's opening game of the 2015 tournament but eventually dropped out of the rotation en route to a title. She missed the final penalty kick in the quarterfinal exit against Sweden in the Olympics. Press never seemed to catch the break her talent suggested was inevitable.She sure seemed to seize this moment."I think that the most proud moments I've had in my career are after failures," Press said, "When you kind of learn that the sun also rises and the world keeps spinning when you fail and when you succeed. And that kind of has built for me a steadiness, a calmness. The World Cup is crazy -- it's intense, it's emotional. And for me, that doesn't serve the way I play well."So I've tried to create a steadiness through it. I have to be prepared to play 90 minutes. I have to be prepared to not play at all. I have to be prepared to play four minutes and close out a game. You just never know what you're going to get. And you can't let any of those circumstances affect you or what you can do. You have to be confident and believe in yourself."Her role in the goals was obviously vital, first scoring a rare header and then playing a part in the buildup for Morgan's goal. But her energy tracking back all game was equally instrumental Tuesday. Rapinoe has gotten vastly better at that, but it's not her bread and butter."She was stretching the back line," Morgan said of Press. "She could also play the nine role, so there were a lot of times we were interchanging, sometimes naturally throughout the game. We didn't have to go back to that usual position with me as the nine and her as the 11. We kind of just let the game take it."I think both her and Lindsey Horan stepped in and played their roles tremendously."A curious omission from the starting lineup the past two games, Horan showed one of the reasons she's so valuable with the pass that Morgan finished for the second goal.The entire sequence of the second goal was a thing of beauty, starting with Abby Dahlkemper's 45-yard cross-field pass to Press. But the final pass that Horan almost seemed to place on Morgan's head was the masterpiece. It's the kind of pass that the U.S. women lost without Lauren Holiday -- and the kind of thing they regained with Horan coming into her own.After the game, Rapinoe said, "I'll be ready for the final."England's defensive frailties exposedRose Lavelle will be in the England players' nightmares. Her ability to play in just about every position in the midfield and front three means she is so unpredictable and hard to track. Far too often, England played into the United States' hands. When the U.S. women were stretching their defense with long balls into the box and neat play on the flanks, England got sucked in and lost its shape.Carly Telford is a wonderful shot-stopper, but it looked like communication was sometimes an issue in the box, with Telford and Houghton colliding in the first half when trying to clear a cross while they left the U.S. threats unmarked for their first-half goals. In other matches England has looked on occasion vulnerable at the back -- but the U.S. women made them pay.England struggled to cope with Morgan in that deeper role and its frustrations eventually got the better of England when Millie Bright was shown a second yellow card late on for her tackle on the U.S. forward.England had the chances but lacked composureThe U.S. women are masters of winding down the clock. It's in their inherent winning nature. And England let frustration get the better of them in the closing stages.But England had chances to equalize against the United States. White had an effort well-saved close in, and then there was Houghton's penalty. And England also had the goal ruled out through VAR.England had far more chances in the second half, but will rue a first 45 where it, in the opening exchanges, looked a little overawed by the occasion. England's policy of playing out from the back saw it camped in its own half for stages and again, England lacked a Plan B.Phil Neville's decision to play Nikita Parris through the middle also, with the benefit of hindsight, did not work, as England lacked her lethal touch down the right despite Rachel Daly's brilliant distribution. You simply have to convert those opportunities at this level.The penalty curse continuesEngland has had four penalties in this World Cup and has missed three. How long ago it seems when Parris ran to the touchline after hammering home England's first goal of this World Cup against Scotland.Houghton, England's captain and one of the team's best performers here in France, saw her 83-minute penalty well saved by Naeher. That follows Neville during the week saying Parris was England's first-choice penalty taker despite missing efforts against Argentina and Norway. Something isn't quite right with the psychology around those penalties -- that, or the goalkeepers are now performing at such a level where regardless of the VAR limitations, they are now outperforming the attacker in those dead-ball situations.Who needs rest?This was the third consecutive game that the U.S. women played with at least one fewer day of rest than their opponent -- and these were some of Europe's best, not Thailand and Chile. On another warm night in Lyon, if not quite as severe as during the recent heat wave, that should have affected the oldest team in the tournament. But there was Tobin Heath, 31, sprinting past England's Demi Stokes early in the first half. There was Morgan, the day she celebrated her 30th birthday, absorbing another long night of contact and getting up every time to remain a presence as a center forward or out wide (the same role she played at times in the same stadium during her time with Lyon).Alex Morgan scored the game winner and moved to the top of the Golden Boot standings :muscle: pic.twitter.com/BUBEKhEMSq- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 2, 2019It isn't the most glamorous thing to talk about on a team full of such talent and personalities, but American fitness is again one of the biggest reasons that the United States has a chance to retain its title. Rapinoe's injury is partly such news because it is the exception to the rule for the U.S. women during this tournament. The fitness is first and foremost the work of the players, as well as an indication of how much competition for roster spots forces them to stay in peak form. But also spare a thought on this night for Dawn Scott. The U.S. high-performance coach isn't a name known to many, but U.S. players swear by the work she does behind the scenes.On short rest yet again, that advantage again stood out Tuesday. SOURCE NEWS SITE Read the full article

#Women's #World

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Blood Feuds and All the Feels: TorCon 2021 Highlights

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This piece is sponsored by

For the second year in a row, Tor Books and Den of Geek have presented TorCon, a virtual convention bringing the exciting panels and dynamic conversations of a book convention to your computer screens. This weekend built on the success of the inaugural con with over 30 authors from Tor Books, Forge Books, Tordotcom Publishing, Tor Teen, and Nightfire matching wits and being candid about their emotional, scary, and hopeful writing processes.

The weekend started off spooky, with horror trivia and thoughtful conversations from female thriller writers, then transitioned into a bevy of gay delights by way of deep dives into emotional storytelling in SFF and upcoming fall reads to make you shiver with antici…pation. Panels ran the gamut from one-on-ones (with assists from Den of Geek moderators) to panels playing games in real-time, all for your entertainment. Check out the highlights below, with links to relive the livestream fun or check out the events for the first time if you missed them live!

Visit the TorCon Bookstore here.

Catriona Ward in Conversation with Gillian Flynn

Listening to one of today’s gutsiest thriller writers Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, Dark Places) chat with Catriona Ward, author of the highly-anticipated The Last House on Needless Street, felt like listening in on the pivotal conversation in a mystery, where everything slots into place. “No one goes from skipping along the street to becoming a monster,” Ward said, “it’s incremental. You turn around and look back at your footsteps and you don’t realize you’ve walked the path to monsterhood.” Between this empathy for the monster and their frank discussion of female culpability in horror, it’s no surprise to learn that Gone Girl‘s ending was the easiest of Flynn’s shocking conclusions to come up with.

Moderated by Den of Geek Books Editor Kayti Burt, the conversation tackled the inherent creepiness of unreliable narrators and whether the authors know their books’ dynamic twists when they first sit down to write. A sense of place is extremely important to both writers, from the eponymous house—and its Bible-reading house cat—in Ward’s forthcoming book to the themes that ground Flynn’s stories. “Whether it’s about what it’s like to grow up in extreme poverty in the ’80s with Satanic Panic and reclaim that mentality, or female aggression and violence and what it looks like cyclically,” Flynn said, “it just happens that the mystery is the way for me to attach an engine to it and give me the discipline to actually tell this story.”

Rewatch Here!

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Chaotic Storytelling—Take 2!

Last year’s most chaotic panel returned with a new batch of ambitious authors ready to pants, not plot, their way through a speculative story in front of a live audience. How do you get from Gladys the tortured mummy in Stephen King’s castle to one of Keanu Reeves’ many incarnations saving the day? By tripping over some security lasers that emit glitter, of course. Enjoy this glimpse into the minds and creative processes of J.S. Dewes (The Last Watch), Jenn Lyons (The House of Always), Christopher Buehlman (The Blacktongue Thief), Andrea Hairston (Master of Poisons), and Neil Sharpson (When the Sparrow Falls), with plot twists and surprise d20 rolls supplied by moderator Drew Broussard of LitHub.

And while most of the panelists agreed that they were unlikely to collaboratively co-write a novel—unless it was a project like Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar’s This is How You Lose the Time War—they relished the opportunity to tap into their more unpredictable sides and go with the first plot ideas that popped into their heads without that self-editing voice. After all, as Lyons reflected, “sometimes fun is destroying stuff.”

Rewatch Here!

Nightfire Family *Blood* Feud

Tired: Family Feud. Wired: Gathering a temporary coven of authors from Macmillan’s newest horror imprint Nightfire to answer horror trivia submitted by the Tor staff. Guided by moderator Lee Mandelo (Summer Sons), these masters of thrills and chills had to answer burning questions such as… What’s the most common hiding spot in a slasher film? Which tropes are the most beloved? Who’s the scariest serial killer? (Spoiler: The shark from Jaws makes the list.)

In addition to guessing at their editors’ and publicists’ answers, the panelists let us into their own brains for some fascinating insights. Thomas Olde Heuvelt (HEX, Echo) once passed out while giving blood, while Cassandra Khaw (Nothing But Blackened Teeth) has a soft spot for Sophie Kinsella’s rom-coms. Gretchen Felker-Martin (Manhunt) has to purposely scare herself to get in the zone, while Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Certain Dark Things) fondly told childhood stories about a spot known as Blood Alley.

“We like to be scared because we all have our little dark sides to ourselves,” Olde Heuvelt said, with Khaw praising how the genre creates a space for people to process fears. Moreno-Garcia pointed out that horror doesn’t necessarily have to scare to be effective, that its tropes are in conversation with other genres and familiar stories retold. And Felker-Martin summed it up best: “Horror is about looking at things you don’t want to look at until you can expand your sphere of empathy enough to encompass them.”

Rewatch Here!

James Rollins in Conversation with Holly Black

Holly Black kicked off our conversation with the thrilling news that she’ll be publishing her first adult novel, Book of Night, with Tor Books! While Black is embarking on a new stage in her writing career with this series, for James Rollins it was like coming home: The thriller writer returns to epic fantasy with The Starless Crown, the first installment of the ambitious Moon Fall series in which he applies his love of scientific discovery on the fringes with a story that he carried in his head for over a decade before putting pen to paper.

With Den of Geek contributor Natalie Zutter moderating, the conversation delved into the authors’ shared love for the band Dead Can Dance as well as the appeal of liminal spaces—from the Faerie court to a twilight realm on a tidally-locked planet—and characters with a foot in two worlds at once. Both authors enjoy writing fantasy characters who fail to honor that old adage to be careful what you wish for, with magic bringing as much potential for world-ending disaster as for life-changing joy. As Black pointed out, “The difference between curses and wishes is just shading.”

Revisit the discussion for talk of non-Chosen Ones, fantasy jewelry, swamp bats we would die for, and the pop culture getting these authors through the pandemic. To that end, could there be some Lupin-esque heists in Book of Night? “Maybe” Black teased. “I hope so!”

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All the Feels: Emotional Storytelling in SFF

“With all due respect,” Becky Chambers (A Psalm for the Wild-Built) said to the more stoic authors on this panel, “if you’re not crying when writing a book, then what is the point?” Kerstin Hall (Star Eater) joked about how to “hack” readers, but quips aside, moderator TJ Klune (Under the Whispering Door) guided these authors in a soul-searching conversation about how they put themselves into the emotional highs and lows of their SFF stories. “It’s all about contrast, isn’t it?” asked T.L. Huchu (The Library of the Dead), comparing their writing to how artists work with light and darkness on the same canvas. “If you have these highs, when the really messed-up stuff happens, you’re bringing the characters down from a height, which creates a greater effect.”

From infusing the worldbuilding with feelings to constantly stepping back from the text and taking the temperature, these authors of everything from cozy sci-fi to cannibalistic family sagas never lose sight of the intense relationship on both sides of the page. Part of being a writer, as Alex Pheby (Mordew) pointed out, is letting readers meet you partway by “letting them have space in the text where they can engage their own feelings” instead of being prodded by the author to feel a certain way. Most important when writing from a place of trauma, Lucinda Roy (The Freedom Race) said, was for the author to be sure that they had come to terms with their own emotional starting point: “Have I reconciled my spirit to this trauma in such a way that I can stand back from it and write about it in a way that will be useful to others?”

Despite the name of the panel, it was still a heartstring-tugging surprise to see the panelists get emotional over their brief time together. When asked about inspiration, Roy said of her fellow authors, “Those kinds of people are my people.” Aww, right in the feels.

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Ethereal & Eerie: A Glimpse at Captivating Fall Reads

Bless all the authors on this panel for candidly saying that in most cases they would not want to live in the worlds they’ve created—especially because for many of them, like Catherynne M. Valente (The Past is Red, Comfort Me With Apples) and Lee Mandelo (Summer Sons), their books are set in a version of our present. As moderator Seanan McGuire (Where the Drowned Girls Go, Across the Green Grass Fields) pointed out, “Would I have written a book about where I am now if I wanted to stay?”

The panelists spoke about how they set the proper atmosphere for their novels, from Valente cribbing from an actual Florida HOA agreement to Freya Marske (A Marvellous Light) recreating a real manor house she visited in England. The most pressing question is which came first, the world or the characters? For Alix E. Harrow (A Spindle Splintered), it was walking out of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and saying, “I want to Spider-Verse a fairy tale.” While Zin E. Rocklyn (Flowers for the Sea) drew upon her “very deep respect” for the water (“that shit is scary and it’s our least explored area of the Earth”) to create the world first, her character came immediately after: “I wanted to mess with something that was catastrophic and bleak.”

What with releasing new books during spooky season, of course talk turned to tried-and-true Halloween reads and especially favorite eerie bookish characters, including We Have Always Lived in the Castle‘s narrator Mary Katherine Blackwood (Shirley Jackson sure knows how to write ’em) and the eponymous protagonist of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi. And how do these authors get in the proper eerie mindset? Everything from Rocklyn’s Spotify playlists to Valente and Mandelo each needing to do no more than step outside into a nearby cemetery. It’s gonna be a great fall ahead.

Rewatch Here!

Charlie Jane Anders in Conversation with TJ Klune

If this were an in-person con, Charlie Jane Anders (Victories Greater Than Death) and TJ Klune (Under the Whispering Door) would have been all over the place, appearing on and/or moderating in a variety of other panels. It was such a treat, then, to see the two of them in devoted conversation, led by Kayti Burt. The two found a lot of common ground, from writing for both YA and adult readers, to debating the benefits and drawbacks of standalones versus series, to speaking candidly about trans identity and asexuality.

As Burt astutely pointed out, both authors go to great lengths to depict kindness and empathy even within their more traumatic or grim stories. That intentionality is for the readers’ sake, Klune said, speaking about his YA superhero series The Extraordinaries and the second installment Flash Fire: “Queer kids deserve to have a book about queer kids that isn’t about the angst of coming out and homophobia; queer people should be able to read about happy queers who do stupid things.” And while Anders often finds that she establishes the tone at the start of a project, she’s aware that tropes can sometimes lead the story in a darker direction and that she as the writer can choose to diverge from where a story may seem like it’s turning grim: “Most tropes aren’t the boss of me! They work for me, not the other way around!”

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Space is Gay!

With books like Everina Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit, Charlie Jane Anders’ Victories Greater Than Death, and Ryka Aoki’s Light From Uncommon Stars, it comes as no surprise that space is becoming increasingly gay. But moderator K.M. Szpara (First, Become Ashes) keenly started off the panel by asking the authors to define what they even mean by space. For Aoki, it was the sense of needing space: “If there’s any world you sometimes need a break from, it’s the world we live in as queers.” Anders likened the genre, with its interstellar jaunts and gallivanting, to one of the very best romance tropes: “It’s like there’s only one bed, but with the entire cosmos around you.”

“There’s only one pod!” the panel chorused, and we knew this was going to be a gallivant for the ages even if we were stuck on terra firma. But it wasn’t just riffing: When asked what should be made gay after space (dinosaurs and cyberpunk came to mind), Aoki brought up the necessary point that our work in space was not done: “Don’t just make it gay,” she said, “make it queer and trans.”

This panel had some of the most sparkling witticisms of the con, with this self-appointed starship crew of authors plotting a gay space heist involving tactical ballgowns, robbing Elon Musk’s inevitable space bank, and knowing exactly where to hide a body on a space station. Even when discussing more serious topics such as the need for queer scientists and educators (in addition to sci-fi writers), Aoki had the panel and audience cheering: “Imagine Bill Nye the Science Bi!”

Rewatch Here!

Conjuring the Diaspora: Myths, Legends, and Classics Reimagined

Moderator Lily Philpott began this panel, about the intersections between the Asian diaspora and speculative storytelling, by acknowledging how vast the diaspora is, inviting the panelists to each speak about their ancestors and formative myths and legends. With these authors based on three different continents, no two people had the same perspective on identity. To wit, in discussing the disparate influences on Light From Uncommon Stars, Ryka Aoki said, “I’m not doing that to show you how many places I can be, I’m doing this to show you how many places I am.” With regard to rediscovering one link to her family history in Japan while losing another, Aoki said, “I refuse, with this book and with many of my books, to see myself as fragmented.” Whereas Nghi Vo (The Chosen and the Beautiful), whose family is Vietnamese and Hakka Chinese, said that while she appreciated the discussion of wholeness, “I have no interest in being whole. I have plenty of identity in fragment.”

As for what drew them to SFF, for Aliette de Bodard (Fireheart Tiger) it was because it’s fun! “I think on some level what I’m trying to find were these stories my grandmother would tell me as a child,” the French-Vietnamese author said, “and that sense of wonder you had when finding a dragon or turning a mountain and meeting the mountain spirit.” Interestingly, Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun started out as more historical palace drama but eventually turned fantastical, especially playing with the what-if aspect by adding magic. “One of the appeals of fantasy for me is you can approach issues side-on,” said the author, who grew up in a Cantonese-speaking Malaysian-Singaporean community in Australia. “With fantasy, you can conjure up characters who evoke those same issues, like with gender, but it’s cloaked by a softening layer that makes it vague. So many true people with their own experiences can see themselves in it.”

“The experience of the diaspora is one of monsters,” Vo said. “If you start with monsters, you start in horror and SFF. When you’re operating from a place where monsters want to eat you, and realize you’re a monster as well, you have to figure out how you’re gonna eat everyone else—that’s where I’m writing from.”

Rewatch Here!

Jo Firestone in Conversation with Joe Pera

Unfortunately, this is the only TorCon event that was truly live in the sense that there isn’t a link to rewatch Adult Swim star Joe Pera (Joe Pera Talks With You) and Punderdome creator Jo Firestone dryly yes-and their way through discussing Pera’s first book A Bathroom Book for People Not Pooping or Peeing but Using the Bathroom as an Escape. A boon for socially awkward and/or overstressed readers everywhere, the book was a challenge for Pera in translating stand-up from the stage to the page, and a delight in collaborating with illustrator Joe Bennett.

Kayti Burt led the audience Q&A, featuring such pressing questions as the best wood on which to display this book in a bathroom (teak). Pera hopes that the book, intended to be read in the duration of a short but much-needed bathroom break, will be a meditative guide but not necessarily recognizable by name: “Sometimes, like with stand-up, it’s best when someone stumbles upon it and has no idea who you are,” he said, “and feels like they’ve discovered something more personal that talks to them.”

The post Blood Feuds and All the Feels: TorCon 2021 Highlights appeared first on Den of Geek.

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