We're here, we're queer, we're looking to the stars! This track is dedicated to celebrating and exploring LGBT themes, characters and creators throughout SFF media and fandom - including Steampunk, comics, games, fanfic and much more. We will be presenting an inclusive, intersectional programme of panels, workshops and socials for queer fans, creators and their allies to get together and share ideas and knowledge. Expect discussions of everything from explorations of sexuality and gender in science fiction, to queer representation (or lack thereof) in your favourite fandoms, to the role of fandom itself in queering media and culture.
To contact us about the programme or anything else, email queer@nineworlds.co.uk. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr for track updates and discussion, and tons of queer geeky goodness!
PROGRAMME
Note: the schedule can also be found on lanyrd under the Nine Worlds Queer tag. This version will be kept up to date up to and during the weekend, and you can join or track sessions, and use the mobile app while at Nine Worlds.
FRIDAY
3:15-4:30 - Queer High Tea
Come and find out what the Queer Fandom stream's all about, meet others interested in things geeky and queer, and discuss what's on over tea and scones.
5:00-6:30 - Queers Dig Time Lords Book Party
'Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who By The LGBTQ Fans Who Love It' brings together essays by award-winning writers to celebrate the phenomenon that is Doctor Who. Come and meet the authors, get the book signed, and discuss the importance of Doctor Who for queer fans over a glass of wine. Tell us what Doctor Who means to you for a chance to win a copy of the book and and its sister anthology 'Chicks Dig Time Lords'! With Gary Russell, Hal Duncan, Sarah Groenewegen, David Llewellyn, Martin Warren and Neil Chester.
6:45-8:00 - Workshop: Telling Our Own Stories
Expressing our identities and communicating our experiences in writing can be difficult in a world filled with heteronormative media. Come and explore these issues and ways of overcoming them in a workshop dedicated to writing from queer perspectives, led by writer Tori Truslow.
8:30-9:45 - Electric Spectra: a queer poetry gathering
A friendly evening poetry session in our cosy Queer Library. Grab a pint, bring some friends, and share some poems! (Rated 18+)
SATURDAY
10:00-11:15 - Queer Comics Show & Tell
This session is a chance to flick through, and discuss, queer comics of all varieties. We'll look at a collection of comics from the early kink comics of Eric Stanton and the kink themes in DC's Wonder Woman, through the lesbian and gay comics of the 1980s and 90s (e.g. Leonard and Larry, and Dykes to Watch Out For), to bi, trans* and queer themes in Strangers in Paradise, Love and Rockets, and the Sandman series, to today's queer comic writers both online and offline. Bring along your favourite examples to share. Tell us why they are important to you. Discuss what you're looking for in representations of LGBT&Q in comics. Find out about new comics from others who are passionate about them. Explore the possibilities for producing your own queer comics. Led by Meg Barker and Rebecca Hobbs.
11:45-1:00 - Why is the Future so Binary?
With the endless potential for reimagining the world that science fiction offers, why do so many imagined futures stick to heteronormative, binary conceptions of sexuality and gender? Come and discuss the implications of futuristic technology for queer, trans* and genderfluid characters, and share recommendations for work exploring these possibilities. With Tori Truslow, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Jude Roberts and Cel West.
1:30-2:45 - New Goggles: Diversity in Steampunk
'Anachrotech' genres like Steampunk give writers, makers, and musicians a chance to tinker with the past, resulting in, at best, a way to reclaim and subvert popular historical narratives and tropes; at worst, a nostalgia that uncritically repeats those tropes. Let’s trade in those rose-tinted monocles for new goggles, and discuss the importance of queering and diversifying the genre. With Zen Cho, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Maki Yamazaki and Sam Kelly.
3:15-6:15 - We Are The Media: short talks
A triple-bill of talks on subjects where media, fandom, and queer & feminist issues intersect. Dip in and out or stay for all three!
3:15-3:45 - Building New Sodom: Hal Duncan suggests that, with recent controversies putting a spotlight on prejudice in fandom (and the world at large), misrepresentations and exclusions in narrative play no small part in fostering inequality, that if we want a (sub)culture that's truly inclusive, we need to acknowledge a systemic problem in fiction itself, recognise that a fifty-year long struggle is not over yet. (16+)
4:00-4:30 - Trans*forming the 'Realms: Queer readings of the Forgotten Realms and beyond: Christina Richards explores the trans* potentials of the Forgotten Realms.
5:00-6:15 - Games For Us: The Rise of LGBT and Feminist Indie Gaming
Video games offer the potential to create and explore an infinite range of worlds, stories and characters – so where’s the LGBT and feminist representation? While the mainstream is grappling with growing demand for diversity, independent developers are taking advantage of increasingly accessible technology to present games that challenge assumptions. Are you looking for games that speak to your experience, or is there a game you love and think other queer and feminist fans should know about? Come and hear from the people who make and play games that deal with gender and sexuality, and bring your questions and recommendations to share with the audience. With Cara Ellison, Gemma Thomson, Laura Kate Dale, Peter Silk, and Maki Yamazaki.
60:30-8:00 - Revolution Girl Style Now: riot grrrl past and present'
Kirsty Lohman and Ruth Pearce explore the Riot Grrrl movement, its limitations and its legacy, including contemporary events, art and music. The talk will be followed with a collaborative zine-making session (no experience necessary!).
6:45-8:00 - Queer All The Things!
Fandom offers fans from across the queer spectrum a way to reclaim popular narratives. Here we'll discuss the role of fanworks in representing marginalised sexualities and gender identities, and to what extent this contributes to the queering of mainstream pop culture. With Sarah Groenewegen, Neth Dugan, Ollie Starr, and Emily (Writcraft).
8:00 to late - Bifröst! Queer Cabaret & Rock Night
A night of geektastic fabulosity hosted by MC Elaine Scattermoon, kicking off with the Nine Worlds Queer Cabaret featuring Roz Kaveney, Doctor Carmilla, Lashings of Ginger Beer Time and more, followed by an queer alt/rock disco with the inimitable DJ Ruth Pearce. In honour of Bifröst, the shimmering, burning rainbow sky-bridge of Norse legend, rocking hard and wearing glitter are both highly encouraged.
SUNDAY
10:00-11:15 - Better History = Better Fantasy: Writing Outside the Binary
Fantasy worlds based on historical periods often lack gay, trans* and other queer characters. Blaming this on our own world’s history is a mistake: history is full of people living outside normative sexualities and gender roles! Sappho (and the queer women who wrote about her), sworn virgins, monks and nuns, Two Spirit people, shamans, the Chevalier d’Éon, and many more! Come and discuss queer people in history – and how to research them to make your fantasy worlds better. With Alex Dally MacFarlane, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Koel Mukherjee and Hel Gurney.
11:45-1:00 - Putting the Fem in Slash: Queer Female Visibility in Fanfic
Queer women make up a large subset of fanfic readers and writers, but face difficulties finding representation in fandoms focused on cis males. How can we increase queer female visibility? With Roz Kaveney, Amy (such heights), Iona Sharma and Cleo.
1:30-2:45 - Kinda Gay: LGBT Representation In Genre TV
Pansexual time travellers, teen lesbian witches, and gay Battlestar lieutenants: genre television has featured some high profile queer characters in the last few decades. Join a panel of TV critics and fans to discuss how successful these portrayals are, and what the future might hold for LGBT representation on our screens. With Alex Fitch, Roz Kaveney, Gary Russell and Cleo.
3:15-4:30 - Workshop: Writing the Other
How do you write 'the Other' without falling into common traps, harmful tropes, and clichés? Join writers Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and Stephanie Saulter for a workshop exploring this issue, with exercises, discussion and a Q&A. (Limited spaces - attendees must sign up in advance! Email queer@nineworlds.co.uk)
5:00-6:15 - Library Hour
Come and wind down in the Queer Library. We'll have a take-one-donate-one media library in Queer HQ, accessible throughout the weekend, but this is an hour dedicated to browsing, chatting about your favourite queer-positive media, and sharing ideas, recommendations, and resources.
6:45 onwards - Queer End-Of-Con Drinks
Meet up in Queer HQ and head to the bar for a final Queer Fandom get-together for drinks, chat, and a chance to tell the track crew what you thought of the programme and what you'd like to see next year, before heading to the After World party.
GUESTS
Roz Kaveney
Roz Kaveney is a writer, critic, and poet, best known for her critical works about pop culture including Reading The Vampire Slayer and From Alien to the Matrix: Reading Science Fiction Film. The first instalment of her Rhapsody Of Blood fantasy tetralogy, Rituals, was shortlisted for the Crawford Award, and the second instalment, Reflections, will appear this summer.
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz is a Filipino writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her short fiction has appeared in a variety of online and print publications including Interzone, Fantasy Magazine and Weird Tales, and her story 'The Song of the Body Cartographer' was nominated for a BSFA Award in 2013. A graduate of the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop, Rochita was the recipient of the 2009 Octavia Butler Scholarship, and the first Filipina writer to attend Clarion West. She writes Movements, a column that looks at genre from a non-western/postcolonial perspective, for Strange Horizons magazine.
Alex Dally MacFarlane
Alex Dally MacFarlane is a writer, editor and historian of varying gender, with fiction and poetry in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld Magazine, The Other Half of the Sky, Heiresses of Russ 2013: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction and Here, We Cross: A Collection of Queer and Genderfluid Poetry from Stone Telling 1-7, and a debut anthology Aliens: Recent Encounters out now.
Zen Cho
Zen Cho is a Malaysian writer of fantasy and romance based in London. She is a finalist for the 2013 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Sarah Groenewegen
Sarah Groenewegen has had short fiction published in Big Finish's Doctor Who range and holds an MA (Hons) from having written a thesis about Doctor Who fans from a queer theory perspective.
Hal Duncan
The award-winning author of The Book of All Hours diptych, along with various other works of long and short fiction, poetry, and even a couple of musicals, Hal proudly goes by the title "THE.... Sodomite Hal Duncan!!" as bestowed on him by homophobic hatemail.
Maki Yamazaki
Best known for her work as the lesbian-vampire-in-space, Dr. Carmilla, Maki Yamazaki is a retrospective-futurist musician, producer, artist, maker and games developer with a strong focus on DIY, intersectional feminism. For more info, visit http://drcarmilla.com