Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers

Product Information

Angels Are Here To Help You" by Jeanne Thornton, about a mediocre programmer in a technocapitalist dystopia who embezzles from her celebrity cat to fund a money-making scheme involving a recently-discovered alien empathy drug--genuinely one of the best short stories I've ever read, with some strikingly resonant predictions about the future of everyday tech and feelings of tech inadequacy. Were many of the contributors to Meanwhile, Elsewhere new to writing science fiction and/or fantasy? If so, what strengths and/or challenges did that bring? A narrative on acceptance, belonging, and erasure. The prose is beautiful, in its own way, and the reflections land well. LOL, reading this book took me an entire year. Sci-fi and fantasy are really tough genres in any medium. You can’t pull off a story easily, and being transgender doesn’t guarantee a great story. I’ll give this book a pass because it exists and because it offers an important perspective, a fresh set of voices that both genres need. However, telling a good story should be the main goal here.

For over two decades, Truthout’s journalists have worked tirelessly to give our readers the news they need to understand and take action in an increasingly complex world. At a time when we should be reaching even more people, big tech has suppressed independent news in their algorithms and drastically reduced our traffic. Less traffic this year has meant a sharp decline in donations. In the Afterword, the editors point out they wanted a compilation of stories that center a trans reader, so no cis-splaining need happen. I think they achieved this, and it is what made reading through these most enjoyable. Not that all of the stories were enjoyable - I'm not really into zombie porn, punk squatters, or video gaming. But there is no universal trans experience or reader, so I appreciated what a huge variety there was. No Comment by Ayse Devrim - trans woman with a uterus implant fights for her right to get an abortion. Beyond incredible. I began waking up in the middle of the night from dreams where my sisters hated me or loved me for reasons I hated. I don’t think the author knew whether to place this in the realm of satire or serious social commentary. They went with a blend of both which I think was to their disservice. Every character apart from the protagonist is a caricature, and there’s multiple references to children’s media (Ex: Sailor Moon and Steven Universe) which clash garishly with the explicit violence and off-putting sexual horror of the story.If you have a three-dimensional, complicated, multi-faceted … character, it doesn’t matter if some of her nuances also fall into stereotypes.” — Casey Plett

Expect them to retain what they learned at home. Too often, homework is seen as something that can just be forgotten in class, which gives the wrong impression about its value. Taking the first few minutes to ask some hands-down questions or to set a small low stakes quiz can help instil a culture that homework is not optional or disposable. (Although if you set the homework a few days before, it is reasonable to give them a minute or two to remind themselves of the homework.)By completing these exercises, you should have a better understanding of how to use “elsewhere” and “meanwhile” in sentences. Remember to pay attention to the context of the sentence and use the word that makes the most sense. Conclusion Part One: The Doctor, Cass and Alex land to find out what's causing temporal anomalies with the TARDIS, and come across an uninhabited planet, a mysterious factory, and a weapon so dangerous, it could destroy the Universe. But things go catastrophically wrong… Imago" by Tristan Alice Nieto, a deeply unsettling zombie-POV revenge story featuring super cool robot butterfly vision--I don't read much horror but I think the stomach-turning-but-don't-stop vibe I got from this is probably why people are into that genre.

Delicate Bodies by Bridget Liang - When being transgender is so often treated by like a disease, and when so much of society treats you as a monstrous freak, maybe becoming a sentient flesh-eating zombie isn't such a bad thing. This was a fantastic story, equal parts dark and quirky, with a truly brilliant final paragraph.

Context Matters

Cooper Lee Bombardier - After the Big One: The characters here are so well-written, and I love (and uncomfortably relate to) the main character's feelings. I think anyone who's spent some time in trans groups will recognize a lot about the group When used as a noun: In some cases, “elsewhere” can be used as a noun to refer to a place other than the current one. For example, “I’m tired of living here. I need to find an elsewhere.”

After the Big One by Cooper Lee Bombardier - queer strangers turned found family while facing natural disaster/apocalypse. Collette Arrand’s dreamy stylised island quarantine of Themyscira is a good one to have a pause and a quiet think after; the crazy high-octane trash-cyberpunk of Sybil Lamb’s Cybervania was a personal, personal favourite; and of course the frail beauty and sweet mournful introspection of Tristan Alice Nieto’s lovely resurrectionist piece Imago. The history learnt in a school classroom is fascinating, vital, enlightening, challenging, complicated…and yet it only offers a small glimpse of the past.I lived with this book, carried it with me like a precious tome, whipping it out to evangelically read passages to various companions who shared my time while I dove in the worlds of these exciting new writers.