I have some exciting news today! For the past year*, I've been working on a project I haven't talked publicly, but now I can share some of the details with you. I am going to be editing an anthology, with Holly Kench (of Stuffed Olive), which will be published by Twelfth Planet Press in 2016. Titled Defying Doomsday, it will contain apocalypse-survival fiction featuring disabled/chronically ill/neurodiverse/mentally ill characters.*Wow, I didn't realise it had been that long until I checked.
Apocalypse fiction rarely includes characters with disability, chronic illness and other impairments. When these characters do appear, they usually die early on, or are secondary characters undeveloped into anything more than a burden to the protagonist. Defying Doomsday will be an anthology showing that disabled characters have far more interesting stories to tell in post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction.
The anthology will be varied, with characters experiencing all kinds of disability from physical impairments, chronic illnesses, mental illnesses and/or neurodiverse characters. There will also be a variety of stories, including those that are fun, sad, adventurous and horrific.
The stories in Defying Doomsday will look at periods of upheaval from new and interesting perspectives. The anthology will share narratives about characters with disability, characters with chronic illnesses and other impairments, surviving the apocalypse and contending with the collapse of life as they know it.
About the Campaign:
Following the success of Kaleidoscope, Twelfth Planet Press's multi-award-nominated 2014 anthology, Defying Doomsday will be funded via a Pozible campaign, with
the assistance of a Crowbar grant from Arts Tasmania. The campaign will
run from April 1 2015 to May 1 2015, with a funding goal of $13,000 to
cover production costs, reward items, and the funds to pay authors a
professional market rate.About the Editors:
Tsana Dolichva is a Ditmar Award-nominated book blogger and Holly Kench is the managing editor of Visibility Fiction. As editors and readers of science fiction who also live with disability and chronic illness, Tsana and Holly have often noticed the particular lack of disabled or chronically ill characters in apocalypse fiction. They are excited to share Defying Doomsday, an anthology showing that people with disability and chronic illness also have stories to tell, even when the world is ending.Twelfth Planet Press:
Twelfth Planet Press is an award winning Australian publisher, championing underrepresented voices in speculative fiction. In 2011, Alisa Krasnostein won the World Fantasy Award for her work with the press, and Twelfth Planet books and stories have won Shirley Jackson, WSFA Small Press, Aurealis, Ditmar, Chronos and Tin Duck awards.Social Media links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DefyingDoomsdayWebsite: http://defyingdoomsday.twelfthplanetpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DefyingDoomsday
Tumblr: http://DefyingDoomsday.tumblr.com
Sounds awesome, I'm in!
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