Reviewer recommendations
Feb. 13th, 2015 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12Various things could be considered the catalyst for this post, but the most recent was the first in a series of posts by Malinda Lo for Diversity in YA on perceptions of diversity in book reviews. In the post, Lo makes the disturbing point that a large number of reviews of diverse books criticise their diversity as 'contrived' or 'implausible'. It's clear that these reviewers need to change their default assumptions, but Lo's conclusions also speak to a wider problem: we need diverse reviews just as much as we need diverse books. Our understanding is enriched by exposure to a multiplicity of perspectives, and the work of marginalised reviewers is crucial in this.
This post, then, is intended to serve as a place for recommendations. A couple of things:
1. I'm not interested in identity-policing anyone. There's no need to argue in the comments as to whether anyone's identity is sufficiently marginalised to warrant inclusion, nor do you need to state exactly how the recommended reviewer is marginalised. Use your own judgement.
2. Self-recommendations are perfectly okay.
3. I am particularly keen to gather recommendations for reviewers writing in languages other than English, or writing in English about non-US/UK or non-Anglophone literatures. I have intermediate reading knowledge of several European languages but am essentially a monolingual English-speaker. These recs aren't for me! They're for people who are not used to seeing their languages and literatures represented in (English-language) lists of recommendations, or not used to seeing their literatures explored with any great nuance in the Anglophone world. (And this goes for any recs you might choose to post. They don't need to be accessible to me, just be important to you.)
4. No platform is too small. Feel free to recommend reviewers writing for well-known, influential sites or tiny personal blogs with small readerships. I'm attempting to gather recs that go beyond the usual suspects.
5. This is a cross-post at Livejournal and Dreamwidth, so feel free to comment at either place.
This post, then, is intended to serve as a place for recommendations. A couple of things:
1. I'm not interested in identity-policing anyone. There's no need to argue in the comments as to whether anyone's identity is sufficiently marginalised to warrant inclusion, nor do you need to state exactly how the recommended reviewer is marginalised. Use your own judgement.
2. Self-recommendations are perfectly okay.
3. I am particularly keen to gather recommendations for reviewers writing in languages other than English, or writing in English about non-US/UK or non-Anglophone literatures. I have intermediate reading knowledge of several European languages but am essentially a monolingual English-speaker. These recs aren't for me! They're for people who are not used to seeing their languages and literatures represented in (English-language) lists of recommendations, or not used to seeing their literatures explored with any great nuance in the Anglophone world. (And this goes for any recs you might choose to post. They don't need to be accessible to me, just be important to you.)
4. No platform is too small. Feel free to recommend reviewers writing for well-known, influential sites or tiny personal blogs with small readerships. I'm attempting to gather recs that go beyond the usual suspects.
5. This is a cross-post at Livejournal and Dreamwidth, so feel free to comment at either place.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-02-23 11:57 am (UTC)* The Cascadia Subduction Zone as a venue. Their explicit focus is work by women, but they tend to be very diverse within that as well. An electronic (PDF) sub is $10/year, and back issues are posted on the site for free 6 months after first pub.
* CSZ reviews editor Nisi Shawl reviews for the Seattle Times, although there doesn't seem to be a good single archive page for ST contributors, so I resort to Google
* Sofia Samatar has a great blog here and contributes occasional reviews to Strange Horizons
* Aishwarya Subramanian blogs here, including mirroring her regular column from the Sunday Guardian, and is a reviews editor at SH (and occasionally reviews there as well)
* Mahvesh Murad contributes occasional reviews to Tor.com and has a great regular podcast there
* Abigail Nussbaum blogs at Asking the Wrong Questions (this post on Israeli fantasy and criticism thereof might interest you if you haven't seen it already)
* Bogi Takacs blogs here and does regular diverse story/diverse poem reviews on Twitter
* Nandini Ramachandran blogs here and publishes in various places, e.g. this SH discussion of Fire in the Unnameable Country
* Brit Mandelo reviews at Tor.com
* Also everyone in this discussion of inclusive reviewing that I haven't mentioned so far (and see this related essay by Nisi Shawl)
no subject
Date: 2015-02-23 02:44 pm (UTC)That essay by Nisi Shawl is fantastic, and covers a lot of the points that were at the back of my mind when I was prompted to make this post. I was particularly interested in the thoughtfulness with which she matches works and reviewers, and I think we need to see a lot more of that in order to avoid some of the glaring errors, failures of imagination or damaging default assumptions that are the hallmark of poor reviews of diverse works. I was particularly struck by her closing remarks:
When we review literary works marked as significantly different from more familiar representatives of the field, we have to be simultaneously aware of these underscored differences and of our subjects' similarities—to the writing we're doing, to what we've read and covered in the past, and to what our audiences need, want, and expect to experience in a book. We have to demonstrate—not merely describe—how essential it is to read and understand what the dominant paradigm calls marginal, what it casts as being as peripheral to literary concerns as a set of blueprints.
Exactly. Exactly.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-23 05:24 pm (UTC)It is a great essay. I have (finally!) got hold of the issue of Paradoxa mentioned, so I can read that review of Afro SF for myself.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-24 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-23 10:05 pm (UTC)Edit: And the reason this post felt so familiar is tat I already commented on the LJ mirror. Sorry.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-24 04:22 pm (UTC)In fact, would you mind if I subscribed to your Dreamwidth blog? I really like your reviews, and that you're writing them regularly.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-25 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-13 03:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-13 04:56 pm (UTC)Does she also write reviews? I think diverse books are important, but I think our experience of those books is enriched by a diverse range of responses to them, so I'm really keen to set up a space for review/reviewer recommendations.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-13 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-15 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-13 04:31 pm (UTC)Superficial Darkness and Luminous Ink (http://www.starshipreckless.com/blog/?p=7760) (Sabrina Vourvoulias and grimdark)
Space Operas and Gender Shoals (http://www.starshipreckless.com/blog/?p=8618) (works of Mixon/Locke, Slonczewski, Ross/Wheeler, Leckie)
The Unknown Archmage of Magic Realism (http://sffportal.net/2011/08/evgenia-fakinou-the-unknown-archmage-of-magic-realism/#more-2612) (Evghenia Fakinou)
no subject
Date: 2015-02-13 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-13 05:17 pm (UTC)More seriously, many thanks for your words and your effort!
no subject
Date: 2015-02-15 03:04 pm (UTC)And you are very welcome. Thank you for continuing to speak, on this, and on other things.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-14 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-15 03:05 pm (UTC)