SFM | Episode B: What does fiction mean to you? Amy Goodman
SFM | Episode B : What does fiction mean to you? Amy Goodman: Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! shares what fiction means to her.
SOSOADAE : FM is a show about fiction, Blackness, and how it forms our world.
Music Credits: “African Skies,” Joel Holmes, “Feestyle,” BenJamin Banger
Damn you are good. Did you get this interview when you drove to Cali in 2016? You did good! I’ve been thinking about women writers I respect or even loved. Margaret Atwood and Ursula K. Le Guin stand the most. They write or wrote the most cutting and clear critiques of our flawed society, and did so in speculative fiction. Fiction is where we can tell the truth.
Wow. You remember that? I’ll take it. Thanks (blushing). I met Margaret Atwood in Canada and wish I’d had more to say at the time. We also connected via GoodReads. She’s definitely had her finger on the pulse of a flawed society for some time.
I’m struck by the idea that fiction can create a better world, that it can address the ills of society and help to rectify them. This concept makes me think of how I feel after reading a good novel, one that moves me, inspires me, and leaves me in a better place.
Yes!
I’m a pretty big nerd, and I’m eclectic with my nerdiness. Science-fiction is one of my favorite genres and I had never really considered how white science-fiction was…at least for me…until I started attending more author events like Tucson Festival of Books, Denver’s MileHigh Con, and Phoenix Comicons. Author panels are typically white and male. And when I would look around rooms, I’d see a whole bunch of white people. Audience members started asking for more diversity and the white men on the panel agreed. When those ridiculously hateful Sad Puppies tried to manipulate the Hugo and Nebula Awards, I was relieved that so many authors and fans rallied together to honor quality work, including diverse work! So my point…I am definitely looking forward to your premier and learning more about different authors, different approaches to fiction, and just different perspectives.
Thanks so much for taking me that long, nerdy, and wonderful way around to your point. The Tucson Festival of Books last year was ‘OK’ insofar as Black representation (and diversity in general). I, in fact, volunteer-escorted for the EIC of Kirkus Reviews and was able to sit in on his talk and nudge the Q & A so that he could talk a bit about diversity in publishing. He validated my concern that diversity in publishing is presently over-occupied with children’s lit. I specifically designed African dramatic form to be geared toward adult fiction creation and literary education/ imagination first and foremost. So, I hope to get a hold of TFoB and participate as a speaker/presenter next year and think ADF will make a great topic at Phoenix Comicon as well. I went to the last one, and it did lack diversity insofar as non-euro centrality. Anyway, I totally love to geek out on fiction craft. Thanks!
I’m intrigued by your graphic of the African Dramatic Form. I’d like to think back to stories I heard in Africa and view them with new eyes.
That sounds wonderful. I am revisiting the stories I have been told as well!