The hashtag #DiversityinSFF was going around on Twitter today, discussing what people thought about this topic. Later that day, someone shared with me this survey, which I filled out:
A survey about SFF fandom | Mary Robinette Kowal
My thoughts about it afterwords was "Wow, almost all the fantasy I read is only by English speaking, Western authors."
That has always made me a little sad, being that one of my favorite writers is Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Since discovering his work, I've been eager to read more fantasy fiction from writers from all over the world. South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East. These are places I've either read very little from or not at all. This in part with me not being a multilingual. If translations existed from more of these places, I may seek out their fiction more often.
The topic also seemed to focus on depictions of gender and race in fantasy. We've had discussions about these topics with mixed results, but one thing that kept coming up on Twitter was the lack of diverse heroes SF and fantasy.
So when I read about this, I thought we as a community at Mythic Scribes should be discussing these things. In order for our fantasy horizons to be broadened (both as readers and writers) shouldn't we explore more outside our comfort zones? Shouldn't we seek out translations of writing from authors that represent a whole new approach to fantasy story-telling? Shouldn't we try to read more fiction about characters that don't look and act exactly like us? Isn't that how the genre grows and expands?
Chuck Wendig tackled this discussion and there are some comments about non-English speaking authors:
Crowdsourcing The Essentials: Non-US, POC Sci-Fi and Fantasy? « terribleminds: chuck wendig
My two questions are these:
1. What are some examples that you've seen recently that seem to show a positive shift toward more diversity in SF and fantasy (meaning authors, characters, worlds, etc.)?
2. What do you think could be done to improve diversity in SF and fantasy? (more translations from non-English speaking countries, more diverse characters when it comes to gender, race, or other backgrounds)
Let's keep this discussion friendly and productive!
A survey about SFF fandom | Mary Robinette Kowal
My thoughts about it afterwords was "Wow, almost all the fantasy I read is only by English speaking, Western authors."
That has always made me a little sad, being that one of my favorite writers is Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Since discovering his work, I've been eager to read more fantasy fiction from writers from all over the world. South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East. These are places I've either read very little from or not at all. This in part with me not being a multilingual. If translations existed from more of these places, I may seek out their fiction more often.
The topic also seemed to focus on depictions of gender and race in fantasy. We've had discussions about these topics with mixed results, but one thing that kept coming up on Twitter was the lack of diverse heroes SF and fantasy.
So when I read about this, I thought we as a community at Mythic Scribes should be discussing these things. In order for our fantasy horizons to be broadened (both as readers and writers) shouldn't we explore more outside our comfort zones? Shouldn't we seek out translations of writing from authors that represent a whole new approach to fantasy story-telling? Shouldn't we try to read more fiction about characters that don't look and act exactly like us? Isn't that how the genre grows and expands?
Chuck Wendig tackled this discussion and there are some comments about non-English speaking authors:
Crowdsourcing The Essentials: Non-US, POC Sci-Fi and Fantasy? « terribleminds: chuck wendig
My two questions are these:
1. What are some examples that you've seen recently that seem to show a positive shift toward more diversity in SF and fantasy (meaning authors, characters, worlds, etc.)?
2. What do you think could be done to improve diversity in SF and fantasy? (more translations from non-English speaking countries, more diverse characters when it comes to gender, race, or other backgrounds)
Let's keep this discussion friendly and productive!
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