The Skiffy and Fanty Show

Colorism, root work, and history you should already know, oh my! Join Jen and Teri with special guest, Eden Royce, as they discuss the 1991 Julie Dash independent film, Daughters of the Dust. This is an incredibly intense and languid film about a Gullah family from Saint Helena Island and their preparations to migrate to the mainland and north in 1902. The team discusses the interweaving, non-linear storytelling, the significance of root work, the focus on hands, and the trauma, hopes, and roots of generations of a Black family in diaspora. We hope you enjoy the episode! Show Notes: Daughters of the Dust (1991)(IMDb) Eden Royce’s Things: Eden on Twitter Eden’s Website Feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page. Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Shaun talks to Charlie J. Eskew, author of the debut novel, Tales of the Astonishing Black Spark! Charlie tells us all about his new book, Black superheroes, dealing with contemporary issues through the superhero genre, tokenism, why he decided not to set his book in Metropolis, and so much more! Then Jen talks to Danny Lore, a queer writer of color with multiple published short stories, an acquiring editor at FIYAH Literary Magazine, a comic book editor, and more! Danny talks about how they use werewolves to tell stories about transformation, anxiety, and the Black experience, their work to bring Black stories to light through FIYAH, and all about their work editing The Wilds, a comic by Vita Ayala & Emily Pearson! We hope you enjoy the episode! Show Notes: Charlie J. Eskew (00:53 – 22:43) Charlie’s Website Charlie on Twitter Tales of the Astonishing Black Spark (GO BUY IT!) Danny Lore (22:57 – 42:26) Danny’s Website Danny on Twitter The Wilds (GO BUY IT!) Death of the Horror Kickstarter (GO SUPPORT IT!) If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page. Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Jen talks to C.L. Polk, author of the debut novel Witchmark from Tor.Com Publishing. We learn what inspired C.L. to set the novel in an allegorical post-WWI England, how she developed a complex governmental and class system around a simple magic system, what compels the m/m romance that is central to the plot, what we can look forward to in book two of the series, and more! Then Jen sits down with her boss over at Nightlight Podcast, Tonia Thompson. They discuss how Tonia’s work in horror has taken on a multi-media life, what makes the form of Twitter horror so compelling, why she started Nightlight Pod, what you can expect to find over there during the month of October and all year long, and much more! Plus, Tonia shares her favorite form of torture. We hope you enjoy the episode! Show Notes: CL Polk (00:55 – 16:22) C.L.’s Website C.L. on Twitter Witchmark (GO BUY IT!) Tonia Thompson (16:37 – 36:07) Tonia’s Website Tonia on Twitter Nightlight Podcast (GO LISTEN!) Nightlight on Twitter If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page. Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Hello, Rangers! Time to get back into the saddle after too long a wait to highlight the wonderful short story finalists from the 2018 Nommo Awards! The Nommo Awards are hosted by the African Speculative Fiction Society and “recognise works of speculative fiction by Africans.” They mean “mean science fiction, fantasy, stories of magic and traditional belief, alternative histories, horror and strange stuff that might not fit in anywhere else.” Trish, Brandon, and Elizabeth sit down to discuss each of the short story finalists. Be sure to go read the stories, and then check out this discussion to get the interesting perspectives of our international team of short story fans! (We also highly encourage you to check out the long list of short story nominees for The Nommos). We hope you enjoy the episode! Show Notes: The Nommo Awards – Short Story Finalists “On the Other Side of the Sea,” Nerine Dorman “A Door Ajar, ” Sibongile Fisher “Read Before Use,” Chinelo Onwualu “Snake Story,” Henrietta Rose-Innes “The Regression Test,” Wole Talabi If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page. Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

This month’s episode is especially exciting because Rachel has a co-host now! Daniel Haeusser is a professor of biology and regular Skiffy and Fanty contributor. You’ll also know him from the monthly short SFT reviews that he writes for the SFT website. This episode is much longer than usual, but also more interesting, and Rachel and Daniel talk about everything you need to know in the world of SFT, including the unusually-high number of anthologies out in September, the great variety of short fiction, and books/collections that they’re looking forward to. With new stories and books coming to our attention each week, make sure to check the SFT website for updates. Enjoy, and keep reading! A bientôt! Show notes: SFT Out in September “The Foodie Federation’s Dinosaur Farm,” by Luo Longxiang, translated from the Chinese by Andy Dudak (Clarkesworld, September 1) “Children of the Endless Sea” by Suvi Kauppila, translated from the Finnish by the author (Samovar Magazine, September 25). “The Wind Cave” by Haruki Murakami, translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel (The New Yorker, September 3). The Reincarnated Giant: An Anthology of Twenty-First-Century Chinese Science Fiction, eds. Mingwei Song & Theodore Huters (Columbia University Press, September 4) The Apex Book of World SF 5, ed. Cristina Jurado (Apex Publications, September 18) Zion’s Fiction: A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature, eds. Sheldon Teitelbaum & Emanuel Lottem (Mandel Vilar Press, September 25) Readymade Bodhisattva: The Kaya Anthology of South Korean Science Fiction, eds. Sunyoung Park & Sang Joon Park (Kaya Press, September 21) Reviews Daniel Haeusser’s Short SFT Reviews Rachel reviews Two of Six: A Captain’s Dilemma Tongues of Speculation reviews Two of Six: A Captain’s Dilemma Brian Cowlishaw reviews Vita Nostra Dale Knickerbocker reviews Typescript of the Second Origin Articles “The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 5” by Cristina Jurado (Apex Magazine, September 13) “When Swirsky Met Lem” by Jacek Borowski (The First News, September 16) Readers’ Corner Daniel is reading Vestiges in the original French Rachel is reading Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 7: Tempest Rachel is translating stories by Italian sf author Clelia Farris. Read one of her stories here. General Links Speculative Fiction in Translation website Speculative Fiction in Translation facebook page SFT on twitter: @Rcordas If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page. Our new intro and outro music comes “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

We know, we know. It’s been an age and a half since Shaun and Jen sat down to have a conversation, but we’re back to let you know about a very special month at Skiffy and Fanty — Black Speculative Fiction Month! October was designated Black Speculative Fiction month in 2013 by Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade (who also co-edited the anthology Steamfunk), and after hearing about it, we knew that we had to celebrate it. In consultation with Tonia Thompson of Nightlight Pod and our very own Teri.Zin (who has a new amazing essay over at Uncanny Magazine that you should go read immediately), we’re working on some amazing content for you guys. In addition to discussing our upcoming month of awesome, we also explain why we’ve been gone and briefly tackle the mess over at Goodreads regarding how they deleted two magazines, Fiyah and Anathema, by and for people of color. And, as always, we share some awesome things for our mini-boosts. We hope you enjoy the episode! Show Notes: Mini-Boosts Shaun’s Boosts: Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir by Ngugi wa Thiong’o Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction by Sami Schal Jen’s Boosts: Eye on Sci-Fi Podcast Nightlight Pod Additional Links: Happy Black Speculative Fiction Month This Month (And Every Month), Black Sci-Fi Writers Look To The Future Black Speculative Fiction Brought Out My Most Magical Self October is Black Speculative Fiction Month…Y’all Ready for This? All Issues of FIYAH Literary Magazine Removed from Goodreads If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page. Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Coyote, road trips, and ghosts, oh my! We’re very excited to start out Black Speculative Fiction Month with a fantastic interview with the Hugo, Campbell, and Nebula award winning Afro-indigenous author, Rebecca Roanhorse. Jen and Becca figuratively sit down with Rebecca to discuss how the Navajo creation story inspired the world-building of her debut novel, Trail of Lightning, how she created a space that was wholly absent of whiteness, why representation of Indigenous people in pop culture is particularly crucial, what her version of Coyote looks like, how Trail of Lightning fits into indigenous futurism, and so much more! We hope you enjoy the episode! Show Notes: Rebecca Roanhorse’s Stuff: Rebecca’s Website Rebecca’s Twitter Trail of Lightning (BUY IT!) Feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page. Our new intro and outro music comes “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Jen talks to to Rhonda Parrish and Greg Bechtel, the co-editors of Edge Publishing’s anthology Tesseracts 21: Nevertheless. They discuss how each got involved with this collection of optimistic speculative fiction stories, how the theme was impacted by the 2016 US election, how persistence, specifically, became a dominant message, and a little bit about how an editor of anthology comes up with a title and an contents order (hint: it might involve beer). Then Paul speaks with Peter Tieryas about his new stand-alone novel in the United States of Japan universe, Mecha Samurai Empire. They discuss the influence that Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle had on Peter’s books, delve into the main characters of Mecha Samurai Empire, explore how Kaiju play a roll in a surprising way, and hint at the connection to the Records of the Three Kingdoms from Chinese history. Also, Mecha!!! We hope you enjoy the episode! Show Notes: Rhonda Parrish & Greg Bechtel (00:55 – 19:43) Twelfth Planet Press’ Website Rhonda’s Website Rhonda on Twitter Greg’s Website Greg on Twitter Tesseracts 21: Nevertheless (GO BUY IT!) Peter Tieryas (19:58 – 46:23) Peter’s Website Peter on Twitter Mecha Samurai Empire (GO BUY IT!) If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page. Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Crystal lasers, pig people, and recycled costumes, oh my! In today’s episode of Torture Cinema, Paul, Alex, Daniel, and the prodigal son, Shaun, gather together to make absolutely sure that the destroyed civilization of Atlantis stays destroyed as they review the disastrous George Pal 1961 disaster movie, Atlantis: The Lost Continent. The team discusses everything from the shoddy world-building, the shaky special effects, the lazy misogyny, and the fact that this movie fails the Bechdel-Wallace test SO BAD that it technically couldn’t even hope to pass it. This movie is apparently so awful that even the director hated it, but Paul is such a clever salesperson that you might actually want to see it by the end of this podcast. Just don’t listen to Shaun. It’s not THAT bad. Really, we swear. (Don’t listen to the narrator of these posts. The movie is totally awful. –Shaun) We hope you enjoy the episode! Show Notes: Atlantis: The Lost Continent (1961)(IMDb) Feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page. Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

Hello, Rangers! It’s once again time to explore the Vorkosiverse with our intrepid Rangers. Paul, Alex, Stina, and Trish (safe from Hurricane Florence in the past), dig into what makes Brothers in Arms such a great addition to Lois McMaster Bujold’s Adventures of Miles Vorkosigan. It basically boils down to the fact that Bujold is willing to make big changes in order to propel her main character’s life forward and sideways and sometimes a bit upside-down. The team discusses new characters (hello, evil clone!) and old, a little bit about Earth as a construct within the Vorkosiverse, how Bujold lets things stick, why Miles is still terrible with women, and a lot more! Next time in our journey through the Vorkosigan Adventures, we’ll discuss Mirror Dance! It’s possible there are some minor spoilers for this book in this episode as well, because the two are very closely linked. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Show Notes: Brothers in Arms Chronological Reading Order of The Vorkosigan Saga (though we’re not totally using this) Mirror Dance Feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page. Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.