Dr. Shaun Duke, Professional Nerd

Editor. Writer. Professor. Host.

Gender, Non-Binary, and Things (or, the Likelihood of Failure)

As you may have heard, I changed my review guidelines so I could join my podcast, The Skiffy and Fanty Show, in its 2015 “Women and Non-Binary in SFF” theme.  This post isn’t really about that so much as the related subject of life and getting things right. Or, rather, getting things wrong and hoping […]

Great SF/F Books by Female Authors: A Massive Twitter List! #sffbywomen

Earlier today, I posted seven sf/f books by women worth checking out for International Women’s Day.  This led to a tweet asking folks online to list a single sf/f work by a woman that they think is exceptional.  Folks promptly ignored the “single” part and sent me a lot of suggestions.  You can add your […]

On the SFWA Bulletin Petition Thing Nonsense

(Note:  I’ve listed links to other posts on this topic at the end.) I won’t have anything extensive to say on this “anti-political-correctness” petition thing.  That’s mostly because Radish Reviews has pretty well covered it… That said, there are a few things I’ll address: 1) I’m utterly baffled by the difficulty certain members of this community […]

Moderating the Community and the Cost of Respect

In a recent blog post, Alastair Reynolds took on what he perceives to be the instantaneous vitriol that peppers (or, perhaps, consumes) the SF/F community on a regular basis.  Hence the title:  “Does it have to be this way?”  It’s essentially an argument for moderation by way of a questioning of the current state of […]