Genre Grapevine for September/October 2024

Note: This is my final catch-up column after dealing with the partial enshittification of my life over the last few months. From here on, my regular Genre Grapevine will return to its regular monthly schedule with special reports coming out as needed.

Ekpeki Responds to Allegations After Being Removed from SFWA Board

Award-winning author and editor Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki has responded to allegations raised by Erin Cairns about "unethical conduct," including submitting a story written by her under his name alone. In Ekpeki's response, he essentially says the story was co-written by both of them and he submitted it without her name due to "miscommunication and misunderstandings and assumptions on both sides from two people in not great situations." Ekpeki also says all the claims Cairns made were incorrect.

However, his argument doesn't hold up for me. I see it as semantics and legalese, trying to rationalize away what happened. For example, Ekpeki said in his report that "As for her name not being on the bi-line, even if that were true (which it isn't), it would not be theft, or even an attempt at theft, just an oversight, unless there was an intention to eventually publish it without her name on the bi-line." And he then says that the magazine he submitted the story to wasn't a Black voices publication because the magazine "caters to Africans and African diasporans. So there was no malfeasance there. She was eligible to be on the mag."

That claim is absolutely wrong. As a white person born in South Africa, Cairns specifically said she wasn't eligible to submit works to the magazine. And in screenshots Cairns shared, Ekpeki even stated the magazine was "an African exclusive space," indicating that he knew Cairns being a co-author on the submission would be problematic.

And as for this being merely an oversight, as Ekpeki claims, I know of no other writer who has ever made such an oversight with a co-author. Ekpeki even presents evidence that he submitted the story to other "prestigious, paying" magazines with her name on those submissions. If that's true, then how did the submission to this one Black voices magazine suddenly lack her name? 

Despite Ekpeki's response, the totality of the evidence Cairns shared strongly indicates what happened wasn't an oversight.

And Cairns' report also doesn't exist in a vacuum. Since the report came out, other writers such as Suyi Davies Okungbowa and L. D. Lewis have gone on the record with issues they've observed or had with Ekpeki. And when Ekpeki was removed from the board of directors of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association on October 27, that came after the SFWA board heard evidence related to "multiple ethics complaints" against him, not merely Cairns' report.

And other writers continue to share their negative experiences with Ekpeki. For example, Dare Segun Falowo said that Ekpeki "got verbally caustic with me over my support for Nuzo Onoh's campaign to give writers in anthologies shared credit for awards, won by editors. He accused me of being part of a mob that was after his life, (using the access he had to me through a friendship forged over being Nigerian writers of spec fic living in Nigeria) to cause me distress over a single comment made online." 

How we treat people matters. In Ekpeki's report, he talks about how he's published more than 120 writers in various anthologies and about all the work he's done to help authors across Africa. But I don't see these authors stepping up to defend Ekpeki's actions and behavior. To me, this speaks volumes. As do all the writers raising the issues they've experienced with Ekpeki. 

As I said in my previous report, I wish I had known all this a long time ago. I apologize to the genre and to any writers who felt or feared that they couldn't raise concerns about Ekpeki's conduct with me because I'd previously supported his fundraising efforts. 

Trust me, that will never happen again.

Instead of Fixing Serious Problems, NaNoWriMo Decides to Repeatedly Smash Itself in the Face with an AI Brick

In March I covered the many issues plaguing NaNoWriMo, a nonprofit organization that runs the annual National Novel Writing Month. These issues include volunteers leaving the organization, scam sponsorships by vanity publishers, "inaction against predators," questions about donations, and much more. For details on all this, see the second item titled "Is NaNoWriMo Soon to Be NaNoMore?" in this column.

Instead of fixing all these problems before the start of the National Novel Writing Month on November 1, NaNoWriMo decided that when life gives you lemons, let people use artificial intelligence to magically transform them into something else.

As reported by Slate, in early September NaNoWriMo released a statement "on the use of generative A.I. in writing (that initially said) A.I. can be a useful tool for those who are disabled or from marginalized communities who would otherwise not have access to the inner circle of the publishing industry." In particular, NaNoWriMo's original statement said that the organization believed "that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege."

After massive backlash to that statement, the organization amended it several times to try to clarify their position, at one point saying there are 'bad actors in the AI space,' but that they find 'the categorical condemnation for AI to be problematic.'" In the end, the statement was ultimately rewritten to say that "NaNoWriMo neither explicitly supports nor condemns any approach to writing, including the use of tools that leverage AI" and that the organization "made mistakes in our initial expression of this position."

Now that the annual NaNoWriMo month has begun, it will be interesting to see how many writers take part. There are already a number of people on social media refusing to do so, or warning people not to upload anything you write to NaNoWriMo because "Your work will be given equal promotion to any ai-assisted writing that pops up on their site, and anything you post has been greenlit for AI training."

And the AI spin from NaNoWriMo just keeps going. In a new article on Mashable about NaNoWriMo, the organization’s director Kilby Blades is quoted as saying "The dilemma of any global, online community is that there's no good way to have nuanced conversations. The fact that writers don't have a shared understanding of AI, or a shared understanding of what some of these writing tools do, shows how unstable some of the commentary is and how far from productive discussions we are."

Well that's an interesting response. Nuanced conversations? You mean like one where the director of NaNoWriMo states that writers don't understand how AI systems are ripping them off, and any comments raising concerns about this are "unstable"?

The Mashable article by Chris Taylor goes on to claim that NaNoWriMo was trying to be "neutral" on AI writing systems. Which is ironic when the original statements from the organization show they were trying to be anything but neutral. 

Toward the end of the article, Taylor writes, "The organization doesn't say this, but in the future it's possible that AI may alter the entire concept of NaNoWriMo."

Based on all that's happened this year with NaNoWriMo, perhaps that's exactly what the organization is hoping for.

Book Bannings and the Continuing Enshittification of Society

The term enshittification, coined by Cory Doctorow in 2022, initially referred to the degradation of online services over time. However, the term is now being used to refer to a similar process happening in other aspects of our lives and society. 

For example, Dahlia Lithwick's excellent Slate article "The Enshittification of Democracy" explores how Donald Trump and many others are attempting to destroy people's trust in the voting systems and processes used in the United States. Instead of seeing the hundreds of thousands of poll workers who support democracy in the country as community heroes, these workers are vilified and threatened with violence. Instead of people trusting in the security of their ballots, they are told that ballot security is a lie.

The hoped for result is to make people lose trust in the very system that allows them to have a voice in their government.

I haven't seen a similar article about how the current wave of book bannings are part of an attempt to enshittify this country's libraries, but I believe that's also true. And sadly, the same groups who support attacks on our democracy are behind these book bans and attacks on libraries.

Libraries used to have near universal support from their communities. Now, as reported in The New York Times, challenges and removals of books from schools and libraries have skyrocketed, "fanned by a network of conservative groups and the spread on social media of lists of titles some considered objectionable. Free speech advocates who track this issue say that in the past year, newly implemented state legislation has been a significant driver of challenges."

And as a recent report from the American Library Association says, "the number of documented attempts to censor books continues to far exceed the numbers prior to 2020."

An opinion column by Crystal Galvan in the Austin American-Statesman explains that these trends aren't being driven by local parents worried about what their children read. "Instead, they're being made by special interest groups that are advocating for the patent distrust of libraries as an institution." 

Sadly, I believe this is indeed the goal of the people and groups attacking our libraries. These people want to remove people's trust in yet another social institution in our communities. They want the enshittification of our libraries. And unfortunately, it's working as libraries become yet another victim of lies and manipulation in the United States.

As Galvan states at the end of that column, "Attacking our libraries threatens our access to information, thus threatening our very institution of democracy and freedom." 

When you hear about a new book ban, remember the term enshittification. Because that's the ultimate goal in all this.

SFWA Elects New President, Examines Changes to Nebula Conference

As reported in August, SFWA has seen a lot of turmoil lately, with two presidents resigning in a very short period of time. Anthony W. Eichenlaub took over as interim president and a new election was held in October, with Kate Ristau being elected SFWA president and Steven D. Brewer secretary. They assumed office yesterday and will serve through June 30 of next year.

I'm optimistic that as the new SFWA president, Ristau – who has experience as an executive director of a 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit – will continue the work of fixing the organization's problems. In an email to members, Ristau said that in the coming weeks members "will hear more from the Board about our strategic activities and long term goals, including staffing, transparency, and important upcoming changes."

And other changes to SFWA are already underway. In an email on October 15, SFWA's then interim president Eichenlaub said that the board had recently discussed new formats for the Nebula Conference "that will allow us to serve both members and non-members without burning out volunteers or staff. Our yearly event has taken many forms throughout the years, and we want to focus this year on a celebration of everything SFWA has accomplished over these past sixty years. None of the details are nailed down yet, but it will likely be a significant change from the Nebulas of recent years. We're focusing on the Midwest and we'll have more to share as soon as possible."

Eichenlaub's email also said SFWA has a new confidentiality policy, which was one of the major problems people raised about the organization in recent months.

Awards

• Anne de Marcken's Lasts Forever and Then It's Over won the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction.

• Somtow Sucharitkul received this year's Thailand's Public Diplomacy Award as a "National Artist, composer, and writer, whose renowned works have been globally admired and helped promote Thai characteristics for decades." 

• Winners of the 2024 World Fantasy Awards.

• Winners of the 2024 British Fantasy Awards.

• Winners of the 2024 Ditmar Award.

• Finalists for the 2024 Deutschen Science-Fiction-Preises.

• Winners of the 2023 Australasian Shadows Awards.

• Winners of the 2024 Prix Aurora-Boréal.

• Winners of the Dream Foundry 2024 Art and Writing Contests.

• Winners of the 2024 Dragon Awards.

• "A Bowl of Soup on the 87th Floor" by Kai Holmwood won the 2024 WSFA Small Press Award.

• Winners of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association's 2024 Poetry Contest.

• R.S.A. Garcia's story "Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200" won the 2024 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

• The deadline for submissions to the Clarke Award is December 31. "The prize is now open to novels written in English by an author of any nationality, provided that the novel is published for the first time by a UK publisher between 1st January and 31st December 2024."

Other News and Info

• The mainstream media is finally covering the allegations against Neil Gaiman, with The New York Times doing a big rehash of what had been reported in late September. In addition, two productions based on works by Gaiman, The Graveyard Book and Dead Boy Detectives, have been canceled while the third season of Good Omens was cut to a single 90-minute episode. However, Netflix's season 2 of The Sandman is still on track, with a behind-the-scenes sneak peak of the new season dropping a month ago. During the video Allan Heinberg, the show's executive producer and showrunner, ironically states that during the new season Dream is "determined to go back and account for his behavior in the past." Which is far more than Gaiman – who has yet to make a public statement on all this – appears willing to do.

• The website 270 Reasons, which focuses on why people should vote for Harris/Walz, includes very good essays from two prominent people in the SF/F genre, Charlie Jane Anders and Chris M. Barkley.

• As reported by Ersatz Culture on File770, Yao Haijun, who is the director of the magazine Science Fiction World along with being a two-time finalist for the Hugo Award and on last year’s Chengdu Worldcon committee, is "suspected of serious violations of discipline and law." It appears he is being investigated by the Sichuan Provincial Commission's "Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group".

• The summer 2024 issue of F&SF contained a note from publisher Gordon Van Gelder that read, "Ongoing production problems have led us to skip the Spring issue and to switch to a quarterly schedule. We apologize to our disappointed readers and assure subscribers that no one will be shorted any issues. Thank you for bearing with us during this rough stretch."

• Uncanny Magazine is the latest genre publication to be hit with a surge in AI submissions. Here's an interesting thread on how they are dealing with the issue.

• As reported by File770 in an excellent overview of what went down, in early October the "Horror Writers Association sent a draft artificial intelligence policy to members, inviting comments." Well comment they did, with members almost universally hating the draft. As Stina Marie stated, "So the HWA is ok w AI-assisted writing, is ok w throwing artists under the bus after we joined w writers in being anti-AI for ALL creatives, & is so out of the loop re: Dark Lit that they urge it be handled behind the scenes? WTF are they good for, besides taking $$ for dues & StokerCon?! FUCK AI" In response to a ton of criticism along these lines, the HWA sent an email to members stating that "The Horror Writers Association stands firmly against AI-generated creative work and will act diligently with organizational stakeholders to ensure the rights of our members and nonmembers within the writing, editing, arts, and publishing industries are protected."

• Mari Ness has a must-read essay about disability access to the Glasgow Worldcon and, by extension, all genre conventions. Despite an official statement that the 2024 Worldcon would be accessible, as Ness wrote, "It was not, in fact, an equitable experience for all disabled members of Worldcon." Among the issues Ness raised were issues with multiple lifts, disabled toilets at the convention center requiring a special key to access, no ramps to access stages, and no COVID requirements for vaccinations or masking. And despite Ness masking almost continually, like many others at the Worldcon she caught COVID. Ness also notes these issues are hardly unique to the Glasgow Worldcon, with other conventions such as the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle and the 2024 World Fantasy Convention facing a similar lack of accessibility.

• John Wiswell ‪raised a similar concern about the recent 2024 World Fantasy Convention, saying‬ "Sad to say I'm cancelling my trip to World Fantasy. They asked me to be on disability panels, but ignored months of my pleading with them to have a real COVID policy. Every recent major con has been a spreader. Many disabled attendees wrote to WFC with concern. The result? This non-policy." The non-policy Wiswell referred to, which he screenshotted, said that at World Fantasy, "We strongly recommend but do not require masks to be worn."  

• In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Strange Horizons, the magazine has launched SH@25, a year-long interview and feature podcast "that will delve into the archives, celebrate the work of past contributors and staff, and highlight the contributions of Strange Horizons to SFF publishing and the wider community."

• The United States Patent and Trademark Office canceled the joint trademark to "super hero" owned by Marvel and DC. As Dmitry Chestnykh said, the case was brought by a company named Superbabies and the trademark was overturned because DC and Marvel's strategy was "ripped straight from their own supervillains' playbook." For more on what this ruling means, check out this informative article.

• According to File770, Jon Del Arroz has been permanently banned from creating projects on Kickstarter for "violations of community guidelines."

• In an essay in The Guardian, Alan Moore explains why he believes "fan attitudes have toxified the world surrounding us, most obviously in our politics." 

• Tim O'Connell has been promoted to VP and publisher at Saga Press while Joe Monti has been promoted to VP.

• If you were considering seeing Francis Ford Coppola's new SF film Megalopolis, Nick Mamatas has thoughts. His review opens with "I object to every moment of this film. It is a crime against my senses and my cognitions" and proceeds from there to demolish every single part of the film.

• Reason number 1.37 million on why libraries are important: A reader in the National Library of Ireland discovered an unknown story by Dracula author Bram Stoker that was written shortly before his famous novel and contained similar themes.

• Tom Gauld ‪presented some truly horrifying monsters for Halloween, such as the floating skull who borrows books and never returns them.

Opportunities

• Two literary agencies have launched the Andromeda Award for unagented, unpublished full-length adult debut works of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction. The deadline for entries is December 18. The award is open to anyone based in the UK or USA. Details>>

• The Watermelon Grant offers a $2000 grant to an emerging Palestinian creator in the field of speculative arts and will be open for submissions until December 6. The grant is funded by L. D. Lewis and administered by Dream Foundry's Incubator Program. Details>> In addition, anyone wishing to donate to the project can do so here.

• Strange Horizons has partnered with Fight for the Future, Compost Magazine, and RightsCon in a submission call for stories that "interrogate the ways surveillance tech is being used to curtail the rights of communities around the world." Five stories will be purchased for publication in a special issue of Strange Horizons. In addition, one author will be invited to participate in an expenses-paid trip to the 13th RightsCon, the world's leading summit on human rights in the digital age, in Taipei, Taiwan from February 24-27, 2025. Deadline to submit is November 21. Details>>

• The deadline for submissions to the Horror Writers Association's Diversity Grants has been extended to November 10. You don't have to be an HWA member to apply for the grants, which are open to "underrepresented, diverse people who have an interest in the horror writing genre, including, but not limited to writers, editors, reviewers, and library workers." Details>>

• The 2025 Seattle Worldcon is holding a short story writing contest with adult and young adult entry categories. The winners in each category will be recognized at the convention, receive free memberships to the convention, and have their stories published in an upcoming anthology by Grim Oak Press. Stories must draw inspiration from the theme Building Yesterday's Future–For Everyone. Submissions will be open from January 5 to 20, 2025. Details>>

• Next year's Worldcon is soliciting interest from artists and designers who'd like to design the base of the 2025 Hugo Award statue. Deadline for submissions of interest is November 15. Details>>