The WisCon Chronicles, Vol. 4: Voices of WisCon - Softcover

The word's been out for some time now that we re living in ''post-feminist'' times. And yet the world's largest feminist science fiction convention, held annually in Madison, Wisconsin, which many of the genre's luminaries attend, has become so popular that the ceiling limiting attendance to 1000 participants often tops out months in advance. People attend to meet up with friends from other parts of the country (or the world) whom they ve come to know online; they attend because the programming goes far beyond the ''feminism 101'' that is the most they can hope for from most other science fiction conventions. But above all they come to experience the kind of community they can t get elsewhere. Some participants even characterize it as ''four days of feminist utopia''--a reference to the communities created in the most famous feminist novels of the 1970s.
This volume of the WisCon Chronicles celebrates, challenges, and discusses the varied faces of WisCon 33. Its contributors include a mix of writers, scholars, and fans, among whom number Nisi Shawl, Nancy Jane Moore, Andrea Hairston, Jennifer Pelland, JoSelle Vanderhooft, MJ Hardman, and Beverly Friend. It also, notably, includes a handful of short stories. And as with previous volumes, it does not shy away from controversy. Its voices are those of ''first-timers and long-termers, there are women and men, there are POC and whites. There are reports in prose and reports in verse, reports from people who went to panels and reports from those who ran parties, reports that rhapsodize about WisCon 33 and reports that critique it, or indicate that it is not always a coming-home and recognizing-the-tribe experience. These are strong, clear voices showing that the experience of WisCon is multi-hued and complex.''