Shaun Duke
Shaun Duke is an aspiring writer, a reviewer, and an academic. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Digital Rhetoric and Writing at Bemidji State University. He received his PhD in English from the University of Florida and studies science fiction, postcolonialism, digital fan cultures, and digital rhetoric.
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2014 Hugo Nominee Ballot: Best Fan Writer
Reading Time
There are far too many amazing fan writers out there. This list began with 20-30 names, which I whittled down to 8. Then I flipped a bunch of 8-sided die to pick the final 5 (or something like that).
So, here’s what I picked this year:
Kameron Hurley
One of the things I love about Hurley’s writing is the way she uses personal anecdotes and analogies to address the issues throughout our genre, particularly as they relate to representation and gender. She also writes about the writing world and much more, but I think her strongest work involves her critiques of our genre’s representation problems, particularly this essay at A Dribble of Ink.
Foz Meadows
She is by far my favorite feminist writer in the sf/f world. Her analysis of the SFWA fiasco last year, for example, is well worth reading, if not because you need persuading, then at least to bask in the intensity of her rhetoric and the profound analyses she provides. Her “controversial” writing style probably works against her among certain circles, but I personally think she deserves to make it to the final ballot.
Paul Weimer
This is my only almost-traditional fanwriter selection. I should note up front that Paul is a friend, so I’m a tad biased. That said, there’s something about Paul’s all-encompassing involvement in sf/f that I think must be recognized. He is everywhere, adding his thoughts on everything from books to commentary to sf/f history to his personal connection to genre. He’s like the singularity of the fanwriter. He writes columns for multiple websites (including one of mine — The Skiffy and Fanty Show). He tweets more than any other human being on the planet (or close to it), reads and reads and reads and just shares his love for sf/f in a way that is exhausting, but also so endearing. Genre loves Paul. It must love Paul.
Abigail Nussbaum
Easily one of the best reviewers in the blogosphere, Nussbaum’s detailed and well-reasoned posts are responsible for her inclusion on this list. This review of Sofia Samatar’s A Stranger in Olondria, for example, is a glorious piece of work. Her many posts on films and literature are practically essential reading, so if you haven’t checked out her blog, you need to do so now.
Justin Landon
Remember when Justin wrote some thing about the Hugos and pissed off a bunch of people? Me, too. And it was beautiful. He writes about a lot of other things, too, such as books and what not, but I suspect he is best remembered for his criticisms of what he sees as the flaws or issues within our genre. And he has this extraordinary ability to spark conversation, which I think is hard to come by sometimes.
And that’s it. So, what did you pick?
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A Reading List of Dystopian Fiction and Relevant Texts (Apropos of Nothing in Particular)
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Duke’s Best EDM Tracks of 2024
And so it came to pass that I finished up my annual Best of EDM [Insert Year Here] lists. I used to do these on Spotify before switching to Tidal, and I continued doing them on Tidal because I listen to an absurd amount of EDM and like keeping track of the tunes I love the most. Below, you will find a Tidal playlist that should be public. You can listen to the first 50 tracks right here, but the full playlist is available on Tidal proper (which has a free version just like Spotify does). For whatever reason, the embedded playlist breaks the page, and so I’ve opted to link to it here and at the bottom of this post. Embeds are weird. Or you can pull songs into your preferred listening app. It’s up to you. Some caveats before we begin:
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