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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

I've won the Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize

From the press release:

The Lambda Literary Foundation, the nation's leading national nonprofit organization promoting LGBT literature and writers, is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2013 James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize. This year the Mid-Career Prize recognizes Nicola Griffith and Trebor Healey
"Trebor Healey and Nicola Griffith are both writers who are unafraid to take risks in their writing, stretching the strictures of genre to ask bigger questions. They use the lens of their LGBT experience as a prism through which universal themes of love, society, and the meaning of life are refracted, disassembled and reassembled in ways that are at once challenging and rewarding to the reader. Their work deepens and enriches the tapestry of LGBT literature: worthy of a place in the modern canon of English literature while expanding the notions of what LGBT literature can be."
The Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize, made possible by James Duggins, PhD, consists of two cash prizes of $5000. To qualify, recipients must have published at least three novels or two novels and substantial additional literary work such as poetry, short stories, or essays.  The awards will be handed out on June 3, 2013 at the 25th Annual Lambda Literary Awards ceremony in New York City.

"The judges made excellent choices from among a field of strong candidates," said LLF Board President, Dr. Judith Markowitz, "The writing of both Nicola and Trebor pushes readers to leave our assumptions behind so that we might feel, think, and imagine in new ways."
I only heard the news on Monday; it's still sinking in. I am very, very pleased about this and no doubt by the time I pick up the award (and cheque!) at the Lambda Literary Awards ceremony, I'll have recovered my aplomb. Meanwhile, a big Thank You to all those who gave me this vote of confidence and congrats to Trebor.

For now: woo hoo! See you in New York!
This blog has moved. My blog now lives here: http://nicolagriffith.com/blog/

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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Time off

I won't be around for the next little while; I'm pulling the internet plug for a few days. Have fun, preferably doing something simple and idiotic. Like bouncing a ball in the sun, or building something meaningless out of logs. It's spring. Go enjoy it.

Spring in the ravine
This blog has moved. My blog now lives here: http://nicolagriffith.com/blog/

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Monday, April 15, 2013

Do you want a Hild ARC?

My box of Hild ARCs* arrived on Friday.


Many of them are already spoken for but I have a handful extra. So who wants one?

If you're a loyal reader, I'll be doing a random giveaway later just for you, just because. I'm saving two copies for that purpose. But the rest of the non-earmarked ARCs are for Influential Book People: reviewers, book and feature editors, producers, booksellers, librarians and professional readers with a blog and/or big following on some a book-friendly social media platform. Sorry to be blunt but these puppies are expensive to produce and I've promised to distribute wisely.

So if the Influential Book Person label fits you, and if for some reason you don't plan to get hold of an ARC through the usual channels, i.e. Farrar, Straus and Giroux's sales and marketing department, my agent (Stephanie Cabot, The Gernert Company), or my publicist (Kathy Daneman, FSG), read on.

Please fill in the nifty Google Docs form below. There are only eight questions. (All responses will come directly to me and will be completely confidential; you won't be added to any lists.) I'll let you know in a week or ten days if you're going to get an ARC.


And as a reward for filling in the form, or as consolation for not being eligible at this time**, enjoy these photos.
Hild spread
Hild tower
Hild henge!
If I'd had more time—and books—I'd have tried a whole henge. Though perhaps that's something for the sturdy hardcover. Meanwhile, hey, a mastaba is probably doable...

* Advance reader's copy. The text hasn't been proofread, it lacks a map, Author's Note, and Acknowledgements, but it's essentially the same novel you'll get in the final edition.
** But everybody will be eligible for the giveaway in a few weeks. And I mean everybody. I'll pay for shipping to Russia, or China, or Australia—though it might travel slowly, and if you're on the International Space Station we'll have to get creative...
This blog has moved. My blog now lives here: http://nicolagriffith.com/blog/

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Sunday, April 14, 2013

Two ways to look at the restored Rijksmuseum

There's the Economist's blog article on the brilliantly restored Rijksmuseum, with thoughtful, luscious videography.

And then, when your Sunday latte has woken you up, there's this splendid flashmob:



Happy Sunday!

This blog has moved. My blog now lives here: http://nicolagriffith.com/blog/

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Friday, April 12, 2013

Hild ARCs!


So, the Hild ARCs are here. That is, I only have one right now but hopefully next week I'll get a boxful. Which means I'll have one or two to give away.

I'll decide the who, when, why, how, and why of the giveaway when they arrive. For now let me whet your appetite.
I love the subtle pattern in the spine and back copy. And as you see the cross has a trompe l'oeil effect.
Here's a shot of the back, too, because, well, I just love the whole thing.
If you expand that last photo you'll see some of the stats on the book. Stay tuned for next week's giveaway.
This blog has moved. My blog now lives here: http://nicolagriffith.com/blog/

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Friday, April 5, 2013

The personal consequences of growing up queer

I just watched this video, the stories of LGBT seniors' lives :



Most people who meet me think I'm lucky to have escaped the prejudice of the world. I don't look damaged. I don't look like a victim. I don't behave—or write—that way.

But every year or two I wonder: who would I be, how might my life have turned out, if I hadn't grown up facing a strong wind and having to walk uphill?

Some years ago I had a conversation with a friend (she is still a friend; she will remain nameless) who thought that prejudice was a thing of the distant past, something for the history books that maybe only happened to a vague and shadowy group of Disadvantaged. I told her that, no, it happened a lot. It happened to me. She just couldn't accept it: I don't look or behave like a victim. I'm not a victim, I said. She asked me some questions.

This is a paraphrased transcript of our conversation.

Well, have you ever been physically injured because you're queer?
Yes. I was beaten by several men in a club and ended up in the emergency room with a broken nose, concussion, etc. Also, three men tried to burn the house down, and rape me to show me what I was missing. Oh, and someone threw a brick through my window (I got out of bed and cut my feet to ribbons). And two men shotgunned the bedroom window of the flat I'd just moved out of. And, well, the list, frankly, is almost endless. (Seriously, one day, when I have nothing better to do, I'll write it all down. I bet I could come up with more than a hundred incidents.)

Have you ever been denied education for being queer?
Yes. I had to give up my degree course because my parents wouldn't fund their part of the cost (this was in the UK before there were such things as student loans). "Why bother?" my mother said. "No one will give a lesbian a job, anyway." And the fact is, no one would give me a job.

Have you ever been denied benefits for being queer?
Yes. I had to fight for five years to be able to get my Green Card. It cost somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 (at a time when, between us, Kelley and I were earning less than $30,000 a year; we maxed out three credit cards). My case made new law. It took years to get free of the psychological stress (I had nightmares) and the burden of debt. If we had been legally married it would have been smooth and automatic and virtually free. In addition, I couldn't get health insurance on Kelley's employee ticket; this was before domestic partnership provisions. We were monumentally broke. I couldn't get a job. I was sick. I had no health insurance. All because I'm queer.

Have you been been denied access to healthcare for being queer?
Yes. A gynecologist once tried to refuse me a Pap smear. Also, once in a very scary health situation, Kelley was told she would have no say should anything go wrong. Fortunately, we could leave. We did. (Again, I could make a list.)

There were many other questions with the same basic thrust: Did I really have a hard time? And all my answers were the same: Yes, I really did; I have been harmed physically, mentally, emotionally, legally, financially.

I don't generally dwell on this. I am not a victim. I am not a pitiable figure. I choose—willfully, daily—to focus my energies on moving forward, on staying open, on interacting with the world as humanly as possible. I've seen what it does to those who get bitter and wary and overly defended. They retreat further and further from the mainstream. They become even more Othered. I honour activists who live in the war zone, and I understand those who retreat behind their fortress walls, but that's not my path. My choice is to remain as undefended as possible, to share—in person and through my work—how it feels to be me, to help others understand and empathise. To be human not Other.

Perhaps because so many of us have somehow managed to weather this tide of prejudice without visible damage it's easy for some to believe We're All Equal Now. We're not. Yes, as a class queers are becoming more politically significant. But those who argue (go listen again to the Supreme Court arguments about same-sex marriage) that we don't need to dismantle prejudicial legislation right now are wrong. Individuals can and do still have a very hard time. Anti-queer prejudice is real. The legal and therefore social issues involved in the fight for marriage equality go far beyond being able to have a fabulous wedding.

Anti-queer prejudice in most parts of the US and UK is less than it was, certainly. But many of us over a certain age carry scars that influence our interaction with the world. I am smart. I love my work. I have a partner I trust with my life and heart. I have a home. I have a community (I have several interconnected communities). I have a vocation. I have friends and family. In most ways I am lucky. I have a magnificent life. And still, sometimes, every few years, I wonder how it might have been. I wonder how the world will change when we have marriage equality and its concomitant rights. A change in the law will lead to even faster and deeper change in the culture. It will make life easier, safer, richer (literally and metaphorically). It might help some of us let down the barriers, just a little. And then, oh, the world will need to get ready. There will be such a flowering of human art and joy and innovation...

For me and millions of others, tens of millions still to be born, this is not an academic exercise.

This blog has moved. My blog now lives here: http://nicolagriffith.com/blog/

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