Etched with Soma's Pen

Service announcement

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 14:39:37 GMT

Reblogging this because, yeah. Info. Also closing comments though. Need to stop using the spoons on things other than going through the inbox.

Originally posted by rose_lemberg at Service announcement

I have updated our index page, our about page, and our guidielines. Each of those pages now prominently contains "co-edited by Rose Lemberg and Shweta Narayan." I also re-emphasized that we are a diversity-oriented venue.

I hope never again to have to address this issue.

We remain perfectly happy with "Dear Editors," "Dear Stone Telling", or no salutation. However, if you are mentioning a name, then the person doing 50% of the work selecting submissions should get 50% of the address in official correspondence.

The person of color co-editing a diversity-oriented venue should get 50% of the address line and 50% of the credit for selecting submissions, should they be honored with mentions and awards.

It is important not for personal reasons, but because PoC are so often erased in our society. It is a pervasive societal problem. I am sad, but not surprised that I have to reiterate this.

I hope this issue is now closed. I am closing comments. Thank you for your time and attention.

Minimal pairs and gaze: IMPORTANT.

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:48:52 GMT

Closing comments here because spoons, but reblobbing because, as Rose says, IMPORTANT. This isn't really about me. It's symptomatic of a much larger issue. That's why it is so important. -s

ETA: comments are open over at Rose's lj; they're only closed here.

----

Originally posted by rose_lemberg at Minimal pairs and gaze: IMPORTANT.

I am continuing the discussion of editorial address from the previous entry, because it is important to me. I think it is important, period, but importance is relative. Yet if you are a reader of this blog, I really do want you to read it.

This entry has two parts. I know, it is long, but both parts of this entry are important. The first one deals with minimal pairs, and the second with gaze.

Thank you.

This entry is not about the Rhysling, but the Rhysling is an acknowledgment of our editorial work. At Stone Telling, two people choose all the poems; two people pitch money to pay for the website, the poems, and the non-fiction entries. Stone Telling is co-edited and co-funded by Rose Lemberg and Shweta Narayan. Receiving a list of nominated poems is to say "here, you did well selecting these poems. Good job!" It is polite to congratulate the people responsible by name, but it is also just fine to address Stone Telling or Editors, or skip even that and go for Hi!

Clearly, the officer who emailed us thought it was important to congratulate the editors by name. That person looked at our About page, the only place in the magazine where we list our names. That person then wrote an email addressed to Rose Lemberg only, glossing over my co-editor, Shweta Narayan. The person then suggested that the website is not clear enough.

The website is clear. This is about something else, which happens to be quite demonstrable in this case.

Shweta and I have complex identities. In many ways, each of us is pretty unusual and non-mainstream in multiple ways. But considered together, we are, in terms of our identities, very much a minimal pair in the phonological sense.

Both of us are female assigned at birth.
Both of us the same age.
Both of us bisexual.
Both of us genderqueer.
Both of us immigrants, and immigrants *multiple times.*
Both of us struggle with issues of language loss.
Both of us spoonies.
Both of us linguists.
Both of us did graduate work at UC Berkeley.
Both of us worked with Eve Sweetser.
Both of us fantasists often working in the mythic tradition.
Both of us neo-pros.
Both of us poets, and published in the same magazines.
Both of us Rhysling award nominees.

Sure, there are some differences. I am a mother. Shweta is considerably better published. But looking at our bios, there is only one major difference between us: one of us has an Anglo-Western name, and the other does not.

This is the distinguishing feature in our minimal pair.

Almost nobody ever does this intentionally. To have intent to exclude is to have malice. Though I have seen and experienced, in this community, such things directed towards me with intent, most people are not malicious. Most people are good people. Most people’s will is good. Most people want to be good to each other.

There is agency, which is to say intent, deliberation. Then there is gaze.

Unlike intent, which involves an act of thinking and deciding, gaze is societally conditioned. Gaze is a set of learned behaviors and reactions that we assume towards each other, internalized from what society tells us.

Male gaze is when men are societally conditioned to see women only as objects of desire, and themselves as agents of this desire. Women, male gaze is the thing that often makes important men in your life evaluate you first or only by how good or young you look, i.e. as sexual objects, and not as individuals with autonomous will, wishes, hopes, and dreams. We push against male gaze. We have a long, long way yet to go. But we talk about it and recognize it. Yet women as well as men buy into the male gaze and defend it, because it is the societal default and it is easier not to push against it.

When the person who is the subject of the gaze encounters a person who is the object of the gaze, the subject’s eyes gloss over. Instead of a person seeing a person, the subject sees an object. It is very hard to push against it, but it is possible with effort. You need your agency, your will, your intent, to push against societally learned knee-jerk reactions that make us glaze over people who are not like us.

Most of us are subjects of some gazes, while being objects of other gazes.

Women, we push against the male gaze because it denies us personhood.

Disabled people, we push against the able-bodied gaze because it denies us personhood.

Queer people, we push against straight gaze because it denies us personhood.

Non-cisgendered people, we push against cisgendered gaze because it denies us personhood.

Immigrants and internationals, we push against US-centric gaze because it denies us personhood.

People of color push against the white gaze, because, by golly. By golly, it denies personhood.

Most times this is not intentional. We need intent here. We need to push against these gazes. We need to do more than this: we need to examine the ways in which these different, societally conditioned, othering gazes have caused harm, often unintentional harm, but harm – that is cumulative and ongoing. It is not enough to see people as individuals and not objects, though it is a crucial first step. It is also important that we consider how each of us has been harmed by the gazes of which we are objects. How we have been cumulatively harmed by them.

Then, summon your power of decision, your willpower, to make an effort to really see people even when you do not have to, because you are the subject and not the object of this particular type of gaze.

Update on the bit about addressing me in ST subs

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:26:21 GMT

For reasons Rose goes into, from here on out we shall return submissions or other official communications that specifically address themselves only to her (or, theoretically, only to me, though that has never happened.)

we are fine with no salutation, mail addressed to "editors", "hi", etc. The issue is when people selectively address it to one editor as if the other does not exist.

Because yeah, this does matter. It's quite clearly part of a bigger problem.

NOTE This refers to initial communications only. If one of us specifically addresses you about something, it's totally cool to address your reply just to them; what we're Really Done With is this pretense on certain people's part that it's so very hard to discover my existence & unfair of us to expect them to notice it.

That's all.

Whle I'm here...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:28:37 GMT

...let's just say this last taper is being hard, hm? & leave it at that. That way I won't bawl all over anyone over having yet. another. frickin. cold. on top of it.

But yeah, that's the reason for my continued absence. two steps forward, who even KNOWS how many back.

Reminder re: Stone Telling editorial board

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:23:53 GMT

Thank you to Rose for posting this! <3 I feel a bit awkward bringing it up myself, especially since I'm sure nobody on my flist does this! But, it's a general FYI cause the issue is getting a bit ridiculous by now.

edit to add: the forms suggested below are not the only ones that are okay! But we're really not in favour of people only addressing subs to Rose.

----

Originally posted by rose_lemberg at Reminder re: Stone Telling editorial board

When you are sending a submission to Stone Telling, the following forms of address are ok:

Dear Editors,
Dear Stone Telling team,
Dear Rose and Shweta,
Dear Shweta and Rose,
Dear Ms. Lemberg and Ms. Narayan,
Dear Ms. Narayan and Ms. Lemberg

(Also, I am a Dr. (of Philosophy!) so if you are so moved, Dr. Lemberg and Ms. Narayan is fine, but it is by no means required.)

The following forms of address are not ok:

Dear Rose,
Dear Ms. Lemberg,

Stone Telling has two editors. Please address your submissions to both.

Thank you.

P.S. Jennifer Smith is also an important part of our team, though as a rule she does not make editorial decisions. Some people like to address their submissions to all three of us, and that's good, though not a requirement.

P.P.S. If we accept your submission, you might be corresponding with one of us more than the other; we operate on the "spoons available" basis.

Stone Telling 9: Menagerie is HERE!

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:22:31 GMT

Originally posted by rose_lemberg at Stone Telling 9: Menagerie is HERE!

Dear Friends of Stone Telling,

After many delays due to overwhelming life circumstances beyond our control, the ninth issue of Stone Telling is finally LIVE! It features JT Stewart with five poems, an introduction by Eileen Gunn, and a review by Amal El-Mohtar (tithenai); it also includes poetry by Dominik Parisien (domparisien), Alyza Taguilaso, Lisa M. Bradley (cafenowhere), Mat Joiner (ashlyme), Bogi Takács (prezzey), Brianna Belle Sulzener, Ishita Basu Mallik, Michele Bannister (selidor), Minal Hajratwala, and Neile Graham (neile), as well as an article by Kari Sperring (la_marquise_de_), a review by Mike Allen (time_shark) and a roundtable led by Julia Rios (skogkatt).

As always, enormous thanks to my teammates Shweta Narayan (shweta_narayan), Jennifer Smith (dormouse_in_tea), and Julia Rios (skogkatt) for their tireless work.

Starting on March 1, 2013 we will be reading for Body. From the guidelines: "We are hoping to feature such themes as (dis)abilities both physical and mental, neuroatypicality, queerness, aging, body acceptance, perceptions of beauty, as well as many others. If you are not sure if something fits, please try us. We are also at this time accepting non-fiction proposals to fit this theme."

Again, if you are unsure, please send us it. :)

Someone overindulged last night...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 04:25:09 GMT

buddhistmippo found a good-sized tankard of mead...

and demonstrated his lack of alcohol tolerance.

But to nobody's surprise, he's happy and dapper when drunk.

Goblin Fruit!

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:07:37 GMT

It's fabulous and I'm proud to be in it :)

That's all from me for now. Tooo tired to go into every awesome poem (cause they ALL are), sorry. Trying to figure out if I've picked up cold #4(5?) since getting to CA. Probably I have. Blah. Hopefully it's a mild one, dunno how I'll travel on weds. if it's bad.

edit: OH RIGHT forgot to say, image is a link!

all the things, plus a mippo

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 23:44:46 GMT

Hi! I am still (again) sick. Big surprise. But still not dead, lj evidence to the contrary.

1) Am in California, catching all the fun California bugs. *wet rag wave* Still no immune system.
2) The Bloodchildren anthology is out and looks fabulous! And I'm in the also-fabulous-looking We See A Different Frontier antho :)
3) Am writing again! Except when I'm catching the bugs. "What manner of crime do you suppose a storyteller can commit?" asks the bird.
4) Jahanara pic is REALLY TRULY DONE (view image for big pics)

buddhistmippo attests to this:

5) Did I mention I'm writing again? My brain it is coming back. Till the next time I taper. There are steps forward along with the back. Soon I will resemble a hoomin and not an overused dishrag.
5b) But for now, nospoons so no responses guaranteed sorry.
5c) Also "soon" means "within the year I hope" not "tomorrow".

Bloodchildren anthology for Octavia E. Butler Scholarship Fund

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:17:38 GMT

Originally posted by nisi_la at Bloodchildren anthology for Octavia E. Butler Scholarship Fund

I've been editing and publishing and making happen this anthology called Bloodchildren, and it's coming out in about a week. So time to release the TOC, and a thumbnail of the cover, and tell you two more things:

Bloodchildren is a fundraiser for the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund at $8.01 a crack

and

Bloodchildren is glorious!

Cover art by Laurie Toby Edison and cover design by Candra K. Gill

TOC

Nalo Hopkinson - Introduction

Before Conception
Octavia E. Butler - Speech Sounds
Vonda N. McIntyre - Octavia Estelle Butler

2007
Christopher Caldwell - My Love Will Never Die
Shweta Narayan - Falling into the Earth

2008
Caren Gussoff - Free Bird
Mary Elizabeth Burroughs - Impulse

2009
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz - Dancing in the Shadow of the Once

2010
Kai Ashante Wilson - "Legendaire."
Erik Owomoyela - Steal the Sky

2011
Jeremy Sim - /sit
Dennis Y. Ginoza - Re: Christmas, Bainbridge Island

2012
Indrapramit Das - The Runner of n-Vamana
Lisa Bolekaja - The Saltwater African

Nisi Shawl - Acknowledgements

Contributor Biographies

Announcement: ST10 submissions

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 12:17:19 GMT

Originally posted by rose_lemberg at Announcement: ST10 submissions

Dear friends of Stone Telling,

Due to circumstances outside of our control, we need to postpone the reading period for ST10 (Body) until early 2013. We will let you know as soon as we are ready to reopen to submissions.

Thank you very much for understanding.

Announcing: Stone Telling 9 Lineup

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 12:06:37 GMT

Originally posted by rose_lemberg at Announcing: Stone Telling 9 Lineup

It's materializing late in the year, but it's a hell of an issue. The order is subject to change.

Feature: JT Stewart

Foreword by Eileen Gunn

Poetry:
Weaver
Ancestors
Cinderella Begins Her Memoir
The Novice Takes Notes For Going South
Kiss me / Change me

Review of JT Stewart's chapbook Promised Lands, by Amal El-Mohtar

Main issue:

Let me show you you, by Dominik J. Parisien
Aphasia, by Alyza Taguilaso
embedded, by Lisa M. Bradley
A Black Dog, by Mat Joiner
The Tiny English-Hungarian Phrasebook For Visiting Extraterrestrials, by Bogi Takács
Returns, by Brianna Belle Arnette
flood, by Ishita Basu Mallik
Foam, Braided with Teeth, by Michele M. Bannister
The Unicorn at the Racetrack, by Minal Hajratwala
With Bats in our Belfry, Dear, Earth Water and Sky, by Neile Graham

Article:
"The Laughter of Women: on Carol Ann Duffy as Poet Laureate" by Kari Sperring

Review:
Kelly Rose Pflug-Back's "These Burning Streets" by Mike Allen

Roundtable, with Julia Rios

The issue is hopefully going to go up in about two weeks or so.

hey maybe this is actually done now?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:23:49 GMT

eta: okay it has one more tiny fix to be done verysoon.

Barring comments/fixes suggested now I guess it's done?
It even contains an easter egg (not a literal easter egg, though it probably could)

(Even if it's done, I still need to do a better printout and figure out how to stick it to the outer picture etc. But still, done?)

Still extraordinarily splat but making some progress on ST as well as this so I guess I'm doing better than it feels like I'm doing. Which of course means (dun dun DUUNNNN) that it's time to taper again. SIGH

this cold is bad

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 10:55:35 GMT

Doubling cortisol a second time, since I've had a week now of not getting better.
This is a solution that comes with its own problems of course, but if my immune system can't deal, I figure I have to help it some more :/

Apologies for all the lack of responses with Stone Telling, and haha on progress with anything else, I've been hearing myself wheeze for 2 days straight now and am a wreck.

taking today off

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 11:23:41 GMT

cold is v bad and so is asthma, need to give body a rest.

Thank you guys so much for comments, sorry for lack of response

nearly done!

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 15:01:31 GMT

apart from last fiddly adjustments, I think this is DONE!

----
ETA1:
- elephant gear's circumference should be thicker
(and I'll ponder cross-bars)
- might need something in second gear from right @ top & bottom both
- and right side top corner and above the bttom gear need something
- and possibly middle bottom just below the painting
- cannot do another colour; the paper's wrong for it.
-----

So this is the part where I welcome critical comments, bearing in mind that I can add gold but not subtract.

I think the top right corner needs more, possibly also the bottom right above the gear, possibly also the bottom middke where the bud is. Yes/no/elsewhere?

some Jahanara-pic blasts from the past, and a health musing

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 11:12:57 GMT

So thanks to someone asking on tumblr, I went looking for the (English-version) poem that's on the picture, and I found:

February 25 2011: A scholarly essay about the political implications of the painting

March 4th 2011: Footnotes to stanza 1, without poem -- and a note that I was starting the medication tapering.

March 5 2011: Footnotes WITH poem

17 January 2012: here's where I was on the hand-painted part --

So! I think these are fun in and of themselves, and it gave me grins to see them again; thus the links back in time. But also.

That taper, March 4th 2011, was from Flovent to Alvesco; I had to adjust to that (took a month iirc) before tapering the cortisol pills at all. I'm still tapering the cortisol pills.

So I started this painting in, what, October 2010? And by March 2011 the inner picture was DONE. Since then I've done the computer-borders and am still doing the hand-borders. And there is a lot to them, granted, but not more than there is in the inner picture. So I think this is a pretty good measure of how I've been doing the last 2 years.

Hopefully by 04 March 2013, I'll be mostly done tapering. But with any luck, I won't have this sort of pictorial log of how the last few months go because this painting will be done, I hope! Though of course, not unless I get to doing it.

horrible asthma day, but, progress

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:29:01 GMT

sorry for not responding to previous comments, I have a miserable cold and am v wheezy. Which kept me up too late last night. Today I feel hungover

Wanted to say though, I really appreciate the support and encouragement - I don't think I could do this without you guys :)

And! Progress! And pics taken (barely) in daylight, which is now mostly gone.

I'm going to have to adjust some of the bits right around the central image; note how right now the bit just outside its top left is much busier than the bottom left. But, will adjust that after I've done the whole.

And a closeup of less lonesome ellyphant, who now has vine friends:

progress (could have sworn I gave this ting a title)

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 15:11:20 GMT

& pics taken by daylight :)
Didn't do so much today because, cold. And getting the large gears right is HARD.
But a bit every day...

Well pretty much right I guess. There will be enough around it that you won't notice all the dents after this, I hope :D

sotired

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:37:39 GMT

but, pics!

Did a bit more than that on the other side but, pic after dark, really does not work so well.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring a daytime picture.

better photos, and some progress

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:58:44 GMT

Amazing what a difference it makes to take pics during daylight hours! :)
I may do some more tonight, though I'm pretty wiped so might just curl up with a MG book or something.

And close-up:

progress

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:14:53 GMT

Today was hard. The ~~picture~~ photo is bad sorry
But, progress.

Today I was brave

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:09:31 GMT

And ended up with actually-visible progress! Now I just (haha) have to fill it all in...

The bubbles will be gears when they grow up.

*bounce bounce splat*

so I did something, anyway

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 17:09:12 GMT

Can't really tell but I put another 3 hours work into this today

...Yeah I still need to get it done! :D

Anyway, me out. Arm hurts now. Hiiiiii.

well, so far the new year isn't being helpful

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:06:47 GMT

I did mean to reply to everyone individually for the Divali post but

I got a cold
doubled cortisol accordingly
and got a migraine.

I don't know it's linked, but I suspect. Still have to keep cortisol doubled though on account of cold.

Anyway no more bright screen for me. Pick one!

- thank you :)
- Yay for things being better for you!
or
- UGH I feel that :/

accordingly.