The Work of Diverse Voices: an idiot's screed.

I recently had a conversation with an editor regarding equity in TOC's of anthologies stemming from a statement I made about how sad it makes me to see an invite-only anthology that is ¾ men. Offense and outrage was taken where it wasn't intended, but answering required me to put my thoughts on the matter in order and I think they are worth restating.

First off, please note that I come at this as a fan of horror literature in particular and speculative literature in broad. Yes, I write some stuff. However, if my only concern was getting myself published, I imagine that it would behoove me to support more male-centric publishing. Even better if I supported more cis-white-hetero-nuerotypical-physically average centric publishing. Doing so would be to support a significantly more limited pool of competitors.

But, as a fan, the lack of diverse voices in so many anthologies disappoints me. I don't have much money, so I have to be picky about what I buy and, if I am buying an anthology, I want as much variety in the stories as I can get. One of the ways I can tell how much variety there is when just looking at a book is by looking at the TOC, because then I can at least see if there are authors from a variety of backgrounds that will flavor their stories. 

I don't say these things because I want to start drama. I don't say these things beause I want someone to feel bad about themselves. I don't say these things because I want these anthologies, which often do have some great stories in them, to tank completely.

I say these things because I love this genre. I love the ideas and experiences that can be expressed within it and I want it to continue to grow and to continue to be an important voice within our culture. Also, I know that one of the ways that we do this is to show people from a wide variety of communities and backgrounds that their voices and their stories matter. 

and I get that it is hard work to get more women, members of the lgbtqa community, neurodiverse writers, differently abled people and people of color to work with you. But I also get that this is largely because they are people who are not seeing people like themselves get published and so, often, don't even consider it an option. 

So the work has to be done. 

My work, as a fan, is to be sure to use my meager monies to buy stuff by those authors and to scream their names from the rooftops when they spew out that pure fire of hell that horror can be. I have to put in the effort to search out these voices that I haven't heard before and give them a shot. I admit that this isn't as hard for me as I try to pretend, when I have such a limited budget.

For editors and publishers, the work seems a bit tougher. Their work is to reach out to more people in those communities. Sometimes convincing them that their voices matter. Sometimes convincing them that there may be something interesting for them to say in this genre. Sometimes it is a matter of showing them that people will buy work from someone like them.

Regardless, the work is hard. And it is not a short road to walk. This is building the foundation for future writers to feel like they have a place by showing them work from writers who have lived experiences similar to theirs so that those future writers can kick the doors off the hinges with stories we can't even conceive of at the moment. But those stories are the reason the work is worth doing.

As an aside, I want to take a quick second to give my thanks to those publishing houses that have been doing the work of bringing a wide variety of voices and experiences to my greedy, greedy eyeholes for years. Publishers like Apex, Raw Dog Screaming, Tor and Clash. I know there are others out there doing it, too. Keep it up, buckaroos, and keep signing over my paychecks.