Nisi Shawl awarded the James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award for Filter House
J M Johnson
Nisi was guest-blogging at theangryblackwoman.blogspot.com for awhile as
well. Check out her archived posts there.
I'm reading Filter House now. First story blew me away with its
beautiful simplicity. Order it form your (independent) bookseller today!
Jessica
First Tiptree Award given to a woman of color
http://www.tiptree.org/index.php?see=award&year=2008
Filter House
Nisi Shawl , Aqueduct Press 2008
Publishers Weekly, which selected Filter House as one of the best books
of 2008, described it as an "exquisitely rendered debut collection" that
"ranges into the past and future to explore identity and belief in a
dazzling variety of settings." Tiptree jurors spotlight Shawl's
willingness to challenge the reader with her exploration of gender
roles. Juror K. Tempest Bradford writes, "The stories in Filter House
refuse to allow the reader the comfort of assuming that the men and
women will act according to the assumptions mainstream
readers/society/culture puts on them."
Juror Catherynne M. Valente notes that most of Shawl's protagonists in
this collection are "young women coming to terms with womanhood and what
that means in terms of their culture, magic (almost always tribal, nuts
and bolts, African-based magical systems, which is fascinating in
itself), [and] technology." In her comments, Valente points out some
elements of stories that made this collection particularly appropriate
for the Tiptree Award: "'At the Huts of Ajala' struck me deeply as a
critique of beauty and coming of age rituals. The final story, 'The
Beads of Ku,' deals with marriage and motherhood and death. 'Shiomah's
Land' deals with the sexuality of a godlike race, and a young woman's
liberation from it. 'Wallamellon' is a heartbreaking story about the
Blue Lady, the folkloric figure invented by Florida orphans, and a young
girl pursuing the Blue Lady straight into a kind of urban priestess-hood."
Tiptree Award is:
In February of 1991 at WisCon (the world's only feminist-oriented
science fiction convention), award-winning SF author Pat Murphy
announced the creation of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, an annual
literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores
our understanding of gender. (To read her speech go to PatMurphy.pdf.)
Pat created the award in collaboration with author Karen Joy Fowler. The
aim of the award is not to look for work that falls into some narrow
definition of political correctness, but rather to seek out work that is
thought-provoking, imaginative, and perhaps even infuriating. The
Tiptree Award is intended to reward those women and men who are bold
enough to contemplate shifts and changes in gender roles, a fundamental
aspect of any society.