I will be attending and on programming at Readercon in Quincy, MA! My schedule is as follows:

Thursday July 11

Reading — 9 PM, Salon C

Friday July 12

Panel: The Horrors of Being Female — 3 PM, Salon 4
Gillian Daniels, Gemma Files, Gwynne Garfinkle, Arkady Martine, Kate Maruyama (mod), E.J. Stevens
Horror and dark fiction frequently reflect the everyday indignities and dehumanization of women living in patriarchal cultures—especially women who are also minorities. For example, GOH Tananarive Due writes about the fears of black women, while Caitlín R. Kiernan and Shirley Jackson depict the stigmatization of mentally ill women in ways both overt and subtle. How can authors find ways to describe the terrorizing of women without crossing over into objectification? What makes these works resonate with, and even empower, women readers?

Panel: The Etiquette of Criticism — 8 PM, Salon B
John Clute, Lila Garrott, Barbara Krasnoff (mod), John Langan, Arkady Martine
In 1938, critic Cyril Connolly advised writers to listen for "the critic's truth sharpened by envy, the embarrassed praise of a sincere friend, the silence of gifted contemporaries." How does etiquette influence criticism, and conversations among critics about criticism? How does the critic's place within (or outside of) the field or community influence their criticism and how it's received? This panel will tackle these and other thorny questions of critical etiquette.

Autographs: Arkady Martine & Vivian Shaw — 9 PM, Autograph Table

Saturday 13 July

Panel: I Don't Know Why I'm on This Panel — 2 PM, Salon 4
Jeffrey Ford, Elizabeth Hand, Arkady Martine, Cecilia Tan (mod), Sabrina Vourvoulias
This phrase is often spoken during panelist introductions at conventions. In this case it's literally true: the panelists have no idea why the program staff have put them on a panel together or what they're supposed to discuss. They may try to figure it out, or they may have a totally unstructured chat for an hour. Either way, it's sure to be entertaining.

Panel: You Know, It Kinda Grows on You — 3 PM, Salon B
James Patrick Kelly (mod), Marissa Lingen, Arkady Martine, Eric Schaller, David G. Shaw
Spaceships that are giant plants, humans whose brains rival supercomputers, lizards bred to function as flying flamethrowers—these are just a few science-fictional examples of how humans might manipulate their bodies and environments to support the human race's spread throughout the universe. This panel will examine imagined technology that lives and breathes, and how human life might change and grow alongside it.