Excerpt
Gripping the rubber molded around the machine’s metal handlebars she leaned it toward her and swung one skirted leg over the drop frame. Upright again, she aimed straight along the lane, the yellow-brown dust bright in the sun. The machine’s glossy paint shone. Tiny puffs of dust spurted from beneath the black rubber tires.
She raised her eyes. The vista opened wider, wider. The road laid itself down before her.
Up on the creaking leather seat. Legs drawn high, boots searching, scraping, finding their places and peddle! Push! Flying! Freedom!
Saplings, walls, and vines whipped by, flashes of greenbrowngreengrey as Lisette on her machine sped down the road, down the hill. Wind rushed into her face, whistled in her ears, filled her nose, her lungs, tore her hair loose of its pins to stream behind her. She was wild, a wild thing, laughing, jouncing over dry watercourses, hanging on for dear, dear life.
--from Everfair, my Belgian-Congo steampunk novel-in-progress
Bio
Nisi Shawl’s story collection Filter House won the 2008 James Tiptree, Jr. Award. She is the coauthor of Writing the Other, a guide to developing characters of varying racial, religious, and sexual backgrounds, and one of the founding members of the Carl Brandon Society, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the representation of people of color in the fantastic genres. Shawl serves as reviews editor for new literary quarterly The Cascadia Subduction Zone. Shawl edited The WisCon Chronicles 5: Writing and Racial Identity, a nonfiction anthology about WisCon 34, and was selected as WisCon 35's Guest of Honor. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Clarion West Writers Workshop.
Publications
Something More and More, Aqueduct Press (2011)
The WisCon Chronicles 5 (editor), Aqueduct Press (2011)
Pataki, Strange Horizons (April 2011)
Filter House, Aqueduct Press (2008)
Writing the Other: A Practical Approach, Aqueduct Press (2005)
Writing Description
People describe Shawl's writing as "synesthetic," "marvelous," "filled with voices," "remarkably satisfying," and "simply amazing." There is no one like her.
Goals
I want to write a new section of Everfair, my Belgian-Congo steampunk novel-in-progress. Colette, Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and E. Nesbit are the historical models for this section's characters. It will serve double-duty as a submission for Steam-Powered II, the second lesbian steampunk anthology edited by JoSelle Vanderhooft.
My fundraising goal is to convince eleven people to donate to Clarion West in support of my writing goal.
Website
