The changing of the guard in the early 2000s and the euthanization of the reactionary Sad Puppy movement in the early 2010s should have ushered in a new era of speculative fiction, an era of creative freedom and experimentation. It did not. Instead of welcoming and mentoring a new generation of authors from all walks of life, the current publishing establishment primarily supports friends who can afford to attend the same costly private workshops, MFA programs, and industry galas. This pay-to-play model hurts any writer without economic privilege, but it hits oppressed people particularly hard, since people of marginalized backgrounds are statistically less likely to be affluent than their white, cisgender, heterosexual counterparts.
A Rite Gud Minifesto
A Rite Gud Minifesto
A Rite Gud Minifesto
The changing of the guard in the early 2000s and the euthanization of the reactionary Sad Puppy movement in the early 2010s should have ushered in a new era of speculative fiction, an era of creative freedom and experimentation. It did not. Instead of welcoming and mentoring a new generation of authors from all walks of life, the current publishing establishment primarily supports friends who can afford to attend the same costly private workshops, MFA programs, and industry galas. This pay-to-play model hurts any writer without economic privilege, but it hits oppressed people particularly hard, since people of marginalized backgrounds are statistically less likely to be affluent than their white, cisgender, heterosexual counterparts.