WisCon Schedule — in…

WisCon Schedule -- in case any of you want to come by and say hi!

FRIDAY:

• Writers' Workshop: Fri, 9:00 am�12:00 pm (you had to register in advance for this)
• Long Form Writers' Workshop: 12 noon - 4 p.m. (a few of us are getting together to crit each others' long form works)
• Carl Brandon party: 9 p.m. - 1 a.m.

SATURDAY:

• Body Acceptance: From All Sides (scheduled) participant Sat, 10:00�11:15 am Capitol B
  Body love movements have been gaining momentum recently, but for many people on the margins, the discourse needs to be expanded. The current movement of body love fails to account for persons with disabilities, people of color, trans and gender nonconforming people, pregnant and postpartum people, and fat people, among many others. We aim to discuss how (and in some cases, whether) body love and acceptance apply beyond a purely gendered analysis and expand to nonnormative bodies.

• Keep Calm and Carry On (scheduled) participant Sat, 4:00�5:15 pm Capitol B
  How do you remain cool, calm, civil, and on point when involved in heated discussion, both in real life and on the Internet? Especially in an election year? We've got Fox News, the Tea Party, in-laws, co-workers, Internet trolls, etc. to contend with. It can be easy to get caught up when arguing on a topic which you are passionate about and sometimes stoop to ad hominem attacks and name calling. How do we avoid that while still engaging in dialog?

• Crowdsourcing Your Creative Arts Project with Kickstarter (scheduled) participant Sat, 10:30�11:45 pm Conference 3
  Author Mary Anne Mohanraj, who has previously published with HarperCollins and multiple small presses, discusses why she decided to try crowdsourcing her latest book, and how, last October, she succeeded in raising $8,000 in donations in one month, meeting her pledge goal. She'll address why people donated (she took a survey afterwards!) and also talk about the budget breakdown for that book, a single-author collection of erotic SF stories.

• Riots of Blooms Party, 9 p.m. - 1 a.m.: Book launch by a variety of writers of color -- I'll be taking pre-orders for The Stars Change

  SUNDAY:

• Transformative Spaces (scheduled) participant Sun, 10:00�11:15 am Michelangelos
  A place can change you; where you are can deeply affect who you become in ways you might never have expected. From a world on the midnight brink of interstellar war, to a teenage girl forced into a dystopian fertility nightmare, from an abandoned feather who'll do anything for a part on the stage, to a place between worlds, where everything can change�join Liz Argall, Jed Hartman, Mary Anne Mohanraj, and Heather Shaw as they explore the transformative power of place through their fiction. Sometimes, it's both the journey and the destination that matters!

• Strange Horizons Tea Party, 629, 3:00 - 4:30 Strange Horizons' much-beloved tea party, now celebrating our eleventh anniversary! Come drink tea and eat yummy things while mingling with your favorite Strange Horizons staff and authors. Hosted by Susan Groppi, Karen Meisner, Jed Hartman, and Brit Mandelo.
• Metal, Beads, Fiber, Stone and High Geekiness, Part 2 (scheduled) participant Sun, 4:00�5:15 pm Conference 5
  "Geekiness" implies a high level of focus and knowledge. The history of women's art and crafts shows that jewelry, sculpture, and other "material" arts can have a complex and intense focus and intellectual content. Panelists will discuss their work in this context. They'll bring specific pieces to explain their choices and the history of their individual development. Audience members are encouraged to bring their work to add to the discussion.

  MONDAY:

• De-Gaying and Whitewashing: What Publishing Trends Mean for Writers (scheduled) moderator Mon, 10:00�11:15 am Assembly
  Can radically feminist and anti-racist works survive the "gate-keeping" process? Is there room in the mainstream for works that dramatically challenge the status quo? In the past year or so, the twitto-sphere has been abuzz with hashtags like "YESGayYA" and "YASaves". Articles about the "de-gaying" and whitewashing of YA literature have raised people's ire and ignited a volleying of retorts from writers and reviewers/agents/editors. Let's talk about some of these perceptions in publishing and what they might mean for writers, particularly those who want to challenge commonly held notions and beliefs.

• The SignOut (scheduled) participant Mon, 11:30 am�12:45 pm Capitol/Wisconsin