The LGBTQ+ Speculative Experience: Part 4
(Kind of like the Star Trek Experience—lots of diversity that some accept, some fight, and others never see)
by Elle Ire
Concluding Mission
Our exploration of the experiences of various members within the LGBTQ+ spec-fic community concludes by examining the professional writing organizations our interviewees have had experience with and how welcoming or inclusive those organizations have been. (Editor’s Note: Read the previous installments here.)
Did you seek membership in any of the larger organizations that represent your genre(s), or did you stick to LGBTQ+ organizations, such as the Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS)? Why or why not? What struggles, if any, did you face when branching out to the genre-based or general writing-based communities?
Elle Ire
Most Recent Publication: Harsh Reality (2022)
I will say that my personal experience with the non-LGBTQ+ specific organizations has been, overall, very positive. I am a member of GCLS, which focuses on readers and writers of Sapphic fiction, and I’ve won awards there. But I am also a member of SFWA, and while I have not won or been considered for a Nebula, I have no reason to believe it is due to my genre or my sexual orientation. SFWA has been very welcoming to me—this blog series being a case in point.
In addition, I belong to my statewide writing organization: the Florida Writers Association (FWA). Despite state politics, my work has won awards in the FWA writing competition, both in the LGBTQ+ category and in the genre-specific categories. My novel, Dead Woman’s Pond, was first runner-up for their Book of the Year in 2022. Kudos to FWA for their continued acceptance and open-mindedness, even when their membership skews toward a considerably older and more conservative crowd. That said, when attending the annual conference last weekend, I did overhear transphobic discussions between members in the hallways, and I’ve heard a few other comments suggesting distaste for the LGBTQ+ community at other events where their members have been present. Ah, Florida.
Scott Coatsworth—Rainbow Award Winner
Most Recent Publication: The Dragon Eater (2023)
I’ve joined a few writer/publisher organizations and have had great experiences in all of them. Locally, I’m a part of the California Writers Club and haven’t felt a whiff of homophobia at any of the events I’ve attended. I joined the Independent Book Publishers Association, mostly for the free Ingram Spark upload codes, and have also been pleasantly surprised by how welcoming they’ve been and all the great marketing programs they offer. And I’ve dreamed of being a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association member since I was a kid—yeah, I was one of those little sci-fi nerds who knew what SFWA was when I was seven—and now I am the Indie Author Committee chair. SFWA had a deservedly bad rep for indie authors for a long time, but that’s changing, and Jeffe Kennedy, the current president, is a hybrid author herself. I’ve never personally had an issue there, either as a gay man or as an indie author/small press owner.
Nicola Griffith—Author of Hild
Winner of World Fantasy, Lambda, Nebula, and Tiptree Awards
I’ve always belonged to wider literary organizations: International Thriller Writers, SFWA, Society of Authors, PEN, and Historical Writers Association. The only queer org I was part of was the Lambda Literary Foundation (LLF) when I joined the board of trustees to drive the creation of their web presence.
I’ve always felt very welcome in those organizations—though, oddly, perhaps a little less comfortable in queerspace like the Lambda Literary Awards. But that wasn’t a lack of welcome; it was simply that, although I understood UK queerspace, US queerspace was really, really different—much more moneyed and male and glitzy—and I felt like a stranger.
These days I’m equally at home in all writing spaces. I write what I write, and look how I look, and people either like it (and me) or they don’t. Either way, it’s not my problem. I just dive into new spaces and assume good intent. I’m lucky—nine times out of ten it’s worked.
Jose Pablo Iriarte—Author of “Proof by Induction”
Nebula, Hugo, Locus, and Sturgeon Award Finalist
I’m a member of SFWA and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). I didn’t really know about other organizations. I think it comes down to having come of age in a landscape where publishing seemed more monolithic than now. I aspired to SFWA membership for decades before I became eligible. My SFWA experience has been solidly positive. I felt welcomed and even embraced. (And I think they do terrific work in the community and I’m proud to belong!) I also set PAL membership (ed. note: traditional publication qualification) in SCBWI as a marker of accomplishment. When it came to that target, I felt like my publication history of primarily short fiction was a bigger barrier than my queerness or the queerness of my characters.
Virginia Black—Debut Author of Consecrated Ground
Apart from GCLS, I’ve never considered membership in any organizations because I was certain my work wouldn’t meet their content requirements. Most of the genre-based organizations seemed to suggest a work must be exclusively one category—entirely science fiction, paranormal, or Sapphic romance—and since most of my work blends these categories, I thought I was excluded from consideration. I also believed thousands of sales or hundreds of earned dollars (at minimum) were necessary in order to qualify for membership, or that my work would be invalid unless it appeared in specific publications with even more stringent submission standards. All of this led me to believe these options were closed to my work.
Conclusions?
From these responses, one might assume that for the most part, LGBTQ+ authors have found acceptance and positive experiences within the major organizations, although some of those organizations may need to work harder at getting the word out to those authors that they will be accepted and encouraged to join. This is especially true for organizations that have been less welcoming in the past and are seeking to increase their membership diversity. Some of the doors have been closed and locked for so long, that we may not check the knobs again to see if they turn, unless we are expressly invited to do so.
When she isn’t taking shooting lessons, cave swimming with bats, or ziplining down a mountain, Goldie award winner Elle Ire writes science fiction and paranormal romance featuring kickass women who fall in love with each other.
