R308. Whose Truth?: Writing Alternative History in the Age of Alternative Facts

E145, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Thursday, March 28, 2019
4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

 

In the current political climate, many novelists have found that one sane response has been writing alternative history, a form that frees us to raise questions about religion, gender, race and class that challenge ideological orthodoxies. What are alternative history’s challenges, including the role of research, the tension between the actual and the imagined, and the implications of writing a counterfactual at time when facts themselves appear to be increasingly subjective or irrelevant?


Participants

Moderator:

Simone Zelitch teaches at Community College of Philadelphia where she founded their Creative Writing Certificate. She is the author of five novels including Louisa, an adaptation of the Book of Ruth, and most recently Judenstaat, set in a Jewish state established in Germany in 1948.

Nisi Shawl is the Tiptree Award-winning author of the story collection Filter House and of Everfair, a Nebula Award-nominated alternate history of the Congo. She’s a founder of the Carl Brandon Society and a Clarion West board member. Guest of Honor appearances include WisCon 2011 and SFRA 2014.

Edward Austin Hall coedited the anthology Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, which The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction suggested might be among the most important speculative anthologies of this decade. He also coedited a Philip K. Dick-themed issue of Art Papers magazine.

Ben H. Winters is the author of The Last Policeman trilogy, which won an Edgar Award and a Philip K. Dick Award, as well as the New York Times-bestselling alternate history thriller, Underground Airlines.

Alaya Dawn Johnson is a Nebula award-winning short story writer and the author of six novels for adults and young adults. Her novel The Summer Prince was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Her most recent, Love Is the Drug, received the Andre Norton Award.

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