Tesseracts Nine: New Canadian Speculative Fiction

by Nalo Hopkinson

  The original Tesseracts anthology, the progenitor of this one, was many years ago the first volume I had ever seen devoted entirely to Canadian science fiction and fantasy. I believe it was among the first books I ever paid full price for as an adult, with money I’d earned myself. I usually borrowed my reading material from the library. But the original Tesseracts intrigued me enough to fork over the cash (it helped that the price was reasonable). I’d probably been only about five years in Canada, and this place was still alien to me. Actually, it still seems pretty alien; I’ve just gotten resigned to it. Five years in, it had become clear to me that Canada was not, as so many people from outside North America perceive, a low-rent USA. Yet I wasn’t sure quite what it was, other than the place where — at least in the corner of it I inhabited — I had to wear for my life a spacesuit eight months of the year and as little as possible the remaining four. Oh, and there was the very Canadian SCTV, which I found horribly bleak, and which depressed me utterly, rather than amusing me. It made no sense to me at all as comedy. This was Canada?

  Decades before I allowed myself to realise that I wanted to be a writer, I was a reader, and what I read was science fiction and fantasy. And now, there on the shelf in the bookstore, was a book which married one of my passions — science fiction — with my dilemma; what is Canada? What does it mean that I am here, instead of in a place where the rhythms of the language sit sweetly in my throat and on my tongue, and there’s more than one kind of mango, and Shakespeare is played by black actors?

  That original Tesseracts didn’t particularly answer my questions. That was not especially its reason for existence. But it did introduce me to a number of new writers, some of whom I have the pleasure of knowing today; some of whom I have the honour, with Geoff, of publishing again, many Tesseracts later. That original Tesseracts told me that there were people here who took pride in creating an artform I valued. That original Tesseracts is still somewhere in my personal collection.

  By now, it should be no secret that there are such things as Canadian science fiction writers; that there is a Canadian science fiction. And by now, we are perhaps beginning to realise that it’s not monolothic, but as varied as the writers who create it. What’s important is not the character of Canadian science fiction. What’s important is that it is.

  Biographies

  Timothy J. Anderson is the author of Resisting Adonis (Tesseract, 2000) and Neurotic Erotica (Slipstream, 1996) and has had short fiction and essays published in a variety of periodicals including the Prairie Fire Speculative Fiction Issue and Fantastika Chronika (in Greek translation). He has had more than a dozen works for stage professionally produced, two of which were nominated for Sterling Awards; and he has been a librettist-in-residence with the ­Canadian Opera Company. Timothy has edited books for The Books Collective since 1994, working with both new and established authors. His parallel career as a singer/actor has taken him across Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong as well as to New York’s Carnegie Hall. He has performed with opera companies and orchestras in rep from Bach to new works and is on the Canadian cast recording of Phantom of the Opera. He has degrees in journalism, political ­science and music as well as post-secondary certificates in arts management and music theatre. Timothy has taught creative writing for Metro Community College and University of Alberta Liberal Studies/Faculty of Extension and coached art song classes for Alberta College.

  René Beaulieu is a writer, essayist, translator (works by Moorcock, De Lint, O. S. Card, Heinlein and Vance) and anthologist (with Guy Sirois) since 1979, working in the different genres of imaginative fiction in Québec and in France. One time winner of the Dagon Award and two times of the Boréal Award, he has published a number of story collections: Légendes De Virnie, Le Préambule, Coll. Chroniques Du Futur, 1981; Les Voyageurs De La Nuit, Les Éditions De L’À Venir, 1997, and Un Fantôme D’Amour, Ashem Fictions, 1997. Two of his stories have been published in previous Tesseracts anthologies: “The Blue Jay” (Jane Briely, trans.) in Tesseracts Q and “The Energy Of Slaves” (Yves Meynard trans.) in Tesseracts 8. He is now working on two novels.

  Sylvie Bérard was born in Montréal in 1965. She ­obtained her Ph.D. from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1997 and she is now assistant professor at Trent University. As a scholar, she published many articles on women’s science fiction. She has been a regular contributor to Québec literary magazine Lettres québécoises and is a member of XYZ. La revue de la nouvelle collective. Her short stories have been published in magazines such as Solaris, Moebius and imagine..., as well as in anthologies such as L’Année de la science-fiction et du fantastique and Tesseracts. She co-authored with Brigitte Caron the novel Elle meurt à la fin (Paje, 1994) and she also translated, in cooperation with Suzanne Grenier, novels from Canadian authors Leona Gom and Nancy Kilpatrick. In 2003, her novella “La guerre sans temps”, which is part of her forthcoming novel Terre des autres (Alire, 2004), won the Boréal award and the Aurora award for best Canadian short story in French.

  E. L. Chen is also an artist, which means she’s pretty much screwed unless she marries rich. She has been previously published in Challenging Destiny, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Ideomancer, and On Spec, and her short comics have appeared in Say. Everything else that she doesn’t mind you knowing can be found at www.geo­cities.com/­elchensite.

  Candas Jane Dorsey’s novel Black Wine (Tor, 1997) won the Tiptree, Crawford and Aurora Awards. Her fiction ­includes Vanilla and other stories, (NeWest, 2000), A Paradigm of Earth, (Tor 2001), Machine Sex and other stories (Tesseract, 1988) and Dark Earth Dreams (Tesseract/Phoenix DiscBook, 1994). Her poetry includes: Leaving Marks (River, 1992) this is for you, Orion rising, and Results of the Ring Toss (blewointmentpress, 1973/74/76). She edited or co-edited four SF collections, served on boards/committees for several Canadian writers organisations, co-founded/edited The Edmonton Bullet arts newspaper 1983-1993, and in 1992 co-founded literary publisher The Books Collective and its imprint River Books. From 1994-2003 she was editor-in-chief and co-publisher, with Timothy J. Anderson, of Tesseract Books. A freelance writer/editor and founding partner of Wooden Door and Associates communications company, she has travelled widely to give readings, presentations, and teach, and has won arts achievement and book awards.

  Pat Forde resides in Waterloo, Ontario, in a house with an ambitious garden; the gardener is his lovely wife Kathleen. Pat has been a Hugo finalist, a finalist for the Sturgeon Memorial award and for the British Fantasy Award, and both his sales to Analog have won the magazine’s annual Readers Award. Pat is proud to be a member of the community of Canadian SF writers.

  Marg Gilks (http://www.scripta-word-services.com/) has a list of writing credits for poetry, articles, and short stories that spans twenty years and three countries (Canada, USA, and Britain). When not writing herself, she works as a freelance editor and writers’ mentor through Scripta Word Services, helping other writers hone their fiction and polish their prose. She considers speculative fiction the ultimate form of escapism — in what other genre can you create your own universe?

  Nalo Hopkinson has many nationalities and identities. This makes her as Canadian as they come. She is the author of three novels and a short story collection, any of which you may or may not agree is science fiction. She has edited two fiction anthologies and co-edited two more. She is the recipient of the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, the World Fantasy Award, and the Gaylactic Spectrum Award, and at this writing is currently shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Black Writing. She thinks plurality rocks.

  Sandra Kasturi is a poet, writer and editor. She recently edited the speculative poetry anthology, The Stars as Seen from this Particular Angle of Night, from The Bakka Collection/Red Deer Press. Her poetry has appeared in various magazines and anthologies, including several of the Tesseracts anthologies, On Spec magazine, contemporary Verse 2, Prairie Fire, TransVersions, Strange Ho
rizons, and 2001: A Science Fiction Poetry Anthology. She has three chapbooks out, and her most recent publication is the cultural essay, “Divine Secrets of the Yaga Sisterhood” which appears in the anthology, Girls Who Bite Back, currently available from Sumach Press. Sandra has received four Honourable Mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror and runs her own imprint, Kelp Queen Press. She is a member of SF Canada, SFPA, the League of Canadian Poets, and the Algonquin Square Table Poetry Workshop, and has won a Bram Stoker Award for her editorial work at the on-line magazine, ChiZine. Sandra enjoys single-malt scotch, the original cut of Aliens, elbow-length gloves and Viggo Mortensen.

  Nancy Kilpatrick has published 14 novels, about 200 short stories, and has edited eight anthologies. Her recent and upcoming works include the non-fiction The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined (St. Martin’s Press, October 2004); “Sleepless in Manhattan” in Hellboy: Odder Jobs (edited by Christopher Golden, Dark Horse, October 2004); the dark fantasy anthology Outsiders: An Anthology of Misfits, co-edited with Nancy Holder (Roc/NAL, October 2005); the novel Jason X: Planet of the Beast (Black Flame, October 2005). Check her website for updates: www.nancykilpatrick.com

  Claude Lalumière is a writer and editor born and based in Montréal. He’s the motivational force behind the webzine LostPages.net. A prolific critic and reviewer, his byline can be found most frequently in The Montréal Gazette and online at locusmag.com and InfinityPlus.co.uk. As an anthologist, his books include Island Dreams: Montréal Writers of the Fantastic, Open Space: New Canadian Fantastic Fiction, and (in collaboration with Marty Halpern) Witpunk. His fiction has appeared in Interzone, On Spec, The Book of More Flesh, Intracities, and other venues.

  Derryl Murphy writes, edits, and other stuff in a distant and frozen location far north of Vancouver. His short fiction collection Wasps at the Speed of Sound and Other Shattered Futures is now available from Wildside Press. Visit his blog at http://coldground.typepad.com. “Mayfly” is Derryl’s first collaboration, unless you count his kids.

  Jason Mehmel. So far, Jason Mehmel’s work has only appeared in small-press magazines and student-run theatre companies. Having finished a bachelor’s degree in theatre, he’s interested in working to meld science and the occult in an addictive substance he can market and sell as poetry. “The Fugue Phantasmagorical” is the free trial version.

  Anthony MacDonald is an innovative and brilliant composer, who is also a speed skater. His speed on the ice matches the quickness of his musical mind, and his contribution to “The Fugue Phantasmagorical” is woefully unheard in these printed excerpts.

  Yves Meynard. Since 1986, Yves Meynard has published 13 books and over 50 short stories in both English and French. He has won a baker’s dozen of awards for his work, including the Grand Prix de la Science-Fiction et du Fantastique Québécois, but still has to develop software for a living. He was co-editor of Tesseracts 5.

  Rhea Rose is a Vancouver, BC writer and a full time high school English teacher. In 1984, she participated in the Clarion West writers’ workshop and has been writing ever since. Most of her work has been published north of the 49th parallel. She thinks she’s the only writer to have appeared in the Tesseracts anthologies four times (two short stories and now two poems). Many of her pieces have been nominated for awards including the Rhysling Award for poetry, and, in the past, two short stories have received preliminary nominations for a Nebula award. A short story of hers appeared in David Hartwell’s, Christmas Forever anthology and her latest short story “The Lemonade Stand” appeared in TaleBones 22.

  Dan Rubin makes his home in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland where he works as a writer, musician and independent publicist. His short stories and poetry have won awards and been published in Convolvulus, OnSpec and Canadian Composer. He is the author of Salt on the Wind: the Sailing Life of Allen and Sharie Farrell, a biography published by Horsdal and Schubart (Victoria, BC) in 1996. Dan is also a recording artist with five albums of original music released to date. He welcomes input or questions from readers and can be contacted by email at secondstage@hotmail.com.

  Geoff Ryman carries a Canadian passport and finds it the most logical thing to describe himself as being. His novella Unconquered Country (first published in Interzone, then as a book in 1986) won the World Fantasy Award and British Science Fiction Association Award. His 1989 novel The Child Garden won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (first place). His mainstream novel Was won the Eastercon Award and was produced professionally as a play. The musical version of Was opened in Dayton, Ohio in 2004. 253 a novel for the Internet in Seven Cars and a Crash was the online form in 1996 (www.ryman-novel.com) and now more than looks its age. The 1998 book version 253 the Print Remix won the Philip K. Dick Award. His other novels include The Warrior who Carried Life (1985), Lust (2000) and Air (2004). He also led the web design team that designed the first websites for the British Monarchy and No. 10 Downing Street.

  Daniel Sernine was born in 1955 in Montréal, where he still lives. With 33 books published since 1979, he has established himself as one of the most prolific and versatile Québec writers of fantasy and science fiction, both for adults and young readers. He has also published over 80 stories and novellas in magazines, fanzines and anthologies in Québec, Canada, France and Belgium. He is the editor of a line of juvenile novels for Mediaspaul, as well as the publisher of Lurelu, a professional magazine devoted to children’s literature, and has been associated with the magazine Solaris almost since its inception in 1974. His works have repeatedly garnered prizes, including the Grand prix de la science-fiction et du fantastique québécois in 1992 and 1995. Five of his stories have appeared in translation in earlier Tesseracts anthologies, and four of his juvenile novels were published in English by Black Moss Press.

  Steve Stanton is the founding editor of Dreams & Visions magazine and the Sky Songs anthology series. His short stories have been published in Canada, USA and Australia. Steve lives with his wife, Wendy, on their riverfront retreat in Central Ontario.

  Jerome Stueart is a Canadian in training, processing through immigration as you read this. He has been published in Ice-Floe, Urban Coyote, Out of Service and the Missouri Folklore Society Journal. As a cartoonist he was featured in the Yukon News and an issue of Up North, Air North’s in-flight magazine. He has also flirted with journalism and teaching. Hailing from Missouri and West Texas, Jerome came up to the Yukon to work on a book of Kate’s adventures with bears and lemmings. He fell hard for the place and the people, and stayed for three years. Now, while waiting for Canada to let him return permanently to the north, he finishes a writing degree at Texas Tech University.

  Sarah Totton is a graduate of the Clarion and Odyssey workshops. Her short fiction has appeared in the anthologies Love Stories and Fantastical Visions III. In her spare time she works as a veterinarian specializing in wildlife disease.

  Élisabeth Vonarburg was born to life in 1947 (France), and to science fiction in 1964. She teaches French literature and creative writing on and off at various universities in Québec (since immigration, in 1973). A “Fulltime writer” since 1990, (despite Ph.D. in Creative Writing, 1987), i.e. translator, SF convention organiser, literary editor (Solaris magazine), and essayist. She still managed to publish five short story collections in French and one in English (Slow Engines of Time, Tesseract, 2001). Four novels translated into English, (The Silent City, In the Mothers’ Land a.k.a. The Maerlande Chronicles (1993 Philip K. Dick’ s Special Award and a finalist of the 1993 Tiptree Award), Reluctant Voyagers, and Dreams of the Sea: Tyranaël I. Eight novels of her novels have been published in French. The more recent volumes in the five-volume Tyranael series have received three major awards in Québec. Also writes for children and young adults. Numerous short stories in French and English. About thirty awards in France, Canada, Québec and the United States of America, most recent being the Prix du Conseil Québécois de la Femme en littératur
e, (1998), a one-time literary award given by the Québécois Council for Women’s Affairs on its twentieth anniversary, and a Boréal Award for “La course de Kathryn” (also nominated for a Grand Prix Québécois de la SF).

  Peter Watts (www.rifters.com), author of the faintly praised “Rifters trilogy” (Starfish, Maelstrom, and Behemoth, all from Tor), is a writer and biologist whose success in both fields can best be described as “marginal”. A collaboration such as “Mayfly” is something of an anomaly for the man, since he does not usually play well with others.

  Allan Weiss lives in Toronto. He has published both mainstream and SF stories in various periodicals and anthologies, including Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, Windsor Review, On Spec, Arrowdreams, and Tesseracts 4 and 7. His book of mainstream stories, Living Room, appeared in 2001. He is Assistant Professor of English and Humanities at York University, teaching courses on science fiction, and is the Chair of the Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy. The story X is part of the Castormond series. Another story in the series, “Journals” appeared in Prairie Fire.

  Alette J. Willis is currently undertaking a Ph.D. in Geography at Carleton University where her topic of choice is how the stories we tell about ourselves shape the world we live in. She is an alumnus of Odyssey — the six-week summer camp for adults who want nothing more out of life than to write speculative fiction — and has previous publications in Storyteller, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and Paradox.