{"id":17201,"date":"2024-05-19T21:33:33","date_gmt":"2024-05-19T13:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/how-seattle-science-fiction-pioneer-vonda-n-mcintyre-blazed-a-trail-for-diversity\/"},"modified":"2024-05-19T21:33:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-19T13:33:33","slug":"how-seattle-science-fiction-pioneer-vonda-n-mcintyre-blazed-a-trail-for-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/how-seattle-science-fiction-pioneer-vonda-n-mcintyre-blazed-a-trail-for-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"How Seattle science-fiction pioneer Vonda N. McIntyre blazed a trail for diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"449\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/vonda-sea2-630x449.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-823418\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/vonda-sea2-630x449.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/vonda-sea2-768x547.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/vonda-sea2.jpg 1258w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Seattle author Vonda N. McIntyre\u2019s science fiction reflected an imaginative view of other worlds. (Illustration: SFWA \/ Microsoft Copilot \/ Media.io)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Decades before the current debates over gender and sexuality, the late Seattle science-fiction writer Vonda N. McIntyre flipped the script on those subjects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn many of her stories, there are characters that, by the end of the book, you go, \u2018You know, I don\u2019t think it was ever established whether they were male, or female, or something in between,&#8217;\u201d fellow science-fiction author Una McCormack says in the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast. \u201cAnd it\u2019s done with such a light touch that you would never notice.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: How a sci-fi star blazed a trail for diversity\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/0DR0WXxExqJG6oXaVS9Dsu?si=j3E7BnaqQmutO7NCkeEMCQ&amp;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Five years after McIntyre died of cancer at the age of 70, McCormack is playing a lead role in shining a spotlight of her legacy for a new generation. She helped arrange for the publication of \u201cLittle Sisters and Other Stories,\u201d an anthology that includes McIntyre\u2019s first published short story (from 1970), her last piece of published fiction (from 2015) and eight more tales from the decades in between.<\/p>\n<p>McIntyre made her mark on science fiction in several ways: She wrote three novelizations of Star Trek movies (II, III and IV), plus two original Star Trek novels. She founded Seattle\u2019s Clarion West Writers Workshop, which will be celebrating McIntyre and the new anthology with a virtual panel presentation next month.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"293\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/sisters.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-823452\" style=\"width:200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/sisters.jpg 293w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/sisters-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/sisters-200x307.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/sisters-65x100.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 293px) 100vw, 293px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cLittle Sisters and Other Stories.\u201d (Goldsmiths Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Perhaps most significantly, McIntyre was part of a movement that brought feminist perspectives to science fiction \u2014 and often put women characters at the center of the action. (Another noted Pacific Northwest author, Ursula K. LeGuin, was also part of the movement and frequently collaborated with her.)<\/p>\n<p>McCormack argues that McIntyre\u2019s writings weren\u2019t just about feminism. \u201cShe was extremely ahead of the curve in the representation of disability, or \u2018other-bodied-ness,&#8217;\u201d McCormack says. \u201cIn \u2018The Exile Waiting\u2019 [McIntyre\u2019s first novel], we see a huge diversity of shape and form that humanity can take. So I think she\u2019s ahead of the curve on a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McIntyre turned to science-fiction writing after studying biology and genetics at the University of Washington \u2014 and her interest in those subjects shows through in some of the stories included in \u201cLittle Sisters.\u201d (\u201cElfleda,\u201d for example, is told from the point of view of a genetically engineered centaur who has been created to cater to the whims of tourists.)<\/p>\n<p>McCormack, whose 11th Star Trek novel is due to come out in November, says she got a kick out of how McIntyre wrote about humpback whales in her novelization of \u201cStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe material with Spock meeting the whales, and the whole whale encounter with the alien probe \u2014 it\u2019s all wonderful, and radically decenters the humans in the story,\u201d McCormack says. \u201cIt\u2019s like they\u2019re not relevant to this.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/mccormack.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-823451\" style=\"width:200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/mccormack.png 300w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/mccormack-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/mccormack-100x100.png 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Una McCormack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The bottom line? Even when McIntyre wasn\u2019t writing about Star Trek, her stories reflected the philosophy that Mister Spock lived by: infinite diversity in infinite combinations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I draw from this is a robust statement of the reality of human diversity,\u201d McCormack says. \u201cWe make the case that it\u2019s a good thing \u2014 but it\u2019s also a true thing. Humans are diverse. We are diverse in terms of how our bodies move and operate, how they change, in our sexualities, in how we were in the past, how we were in the future. She states this robustly as fact. She doesn\u2019t get into the arguments. It\u2019s the basis on which her stories operate.\u201d <\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<p><em>\u201cLittle Sisters and Other Stories\u201d by Vonda N. McIntyre is set for release on May 21. Clarion West is presenting \u201cThe Roots and Future of Feminist Science Fiction,\u201d a free virtual panel discussion focusing on McIntyre\u2019s work and other major influences on the genre, at 11 a.m. PT on Saturday, June 8. In addition to McCormack, the panelists include Nicola Griffith, SJ Groenewegen and Nisi Shawl. Advance registration is recommended.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The lead illustration is based on a photograph of McIntyre from the Science Fiction Writers of America, which was converted into a watercolor-style artwork by Media.io, and then augmented with images of a \u201cfuturistic neon Seattle skyline with the Space Needle\u201d generated by Microsoft Copilot.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>S<\/i><em style=\"font-style: italic;\">tay tuned for future episodes of the&nbsp;Fiction Science podcast via Apple, Spotify, Player.fm, Pocket Casts and Podchaser.<\/em> <em>My co-host for the Fiction Science podcast is Dominica Phetteplace, an award-winning writer who is a graduate of the&nbsp;Clarion West Writers Workshop&nbsp;and currently lives in San Francisco. To learn more about Phetteplace, visit her website,&nbsp;DominicaPhetteplace.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seattle author Vonda N. McIntyre\u2019s science fiction reflected an imaginative view of other worlds. (Illustration: SFWA \/ Microsoft Copilot \/ Media.io) Decades before the current debates over gender and sexuality, the late Seattle science-fiction writer Vonda N. McIntyre flipped the script on those subjects. \u201cIn many of her stories, there are characters that, by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4418,4419,4482,21,4495],"class_list":["post-17201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-books","tag-fiction-science","tag-science-fiction","tag-space","tag-vonda-n-mcintyre"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}