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hugo awards
Blog Patch Notes

Big Hugo News!

It’s Hugo Awards nomination announcement season, so you’ve surely seen more than enough tweets, toots, and statuses about the rad people and things that have been nominated. I have spent most of the announcement day geeking out about the news, because among all the rad things on the ballot, FIYAH is nominated for Best Semiprozine!

The logo of FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, with a yellow banner beneath which reads, "Now with 100% More Hugo Nomination Flavor!"
This badass image courtesy FIYAH Art Director and Project Manager L.D. Lewis, who you should absolutely be giving money to forever and ever amen
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About me

Hello there! I’m Brandon O’Brien. I am a performance poet, science fiction writer and teaching artist living and working in Trinidad. This is my blog, where I share work, talk about my process, and generally geek out. Never miss out on new stuff.

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Popular Posts

Brandon O’Brien’s 2018 Awards Eligibility Post

November 23, 2018

I’m Mad At The Mountain

July 19, 2018
Brandon O’Brien’s 2019 Awards Eligibility Post

Brandon O’Brien’s 2019 Awards Eligibility Post

November 18, 2019

Brandon O’Brien’s Capricon 41 Schedule

January 22, 2021

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Recent Posts

Brandon O’Brien’s Capricon 41 Schedule

The System We Could Have Been Driving: Rage vs. Revolution Redux

The System We Could Have Been Driving: Rage vs. Revolution Redux

March 24, 2020
Brandon O'Brien's ConFusion 2020 Schedule

Brandon O'Brien's ConFusion 2020 Schedule

November 30, 2019
Brandon O’Brien’s 2019 Awards Eligibility Post

Brandon O’Brien’s 2019 Awards Eligibility Post

November 18, 2019

Brandon O’Brien’s Worldcon 2019 Schedule

July 27, 2019

Tag Cloud

Arisia assault Black Panther ConFusion 2020 COVID-19 fandom Hugo Awards intimate partner violence LGBTQ National Patriotism Month Performance Poetry revolution SFF Awards Season socialism Speculative Fiction Speculative Poetry The 2 Cents Movement Voltron: Legendary Defender

therisingtithes

Poet, writer, tabletop game designer, nerd. Trying to make something of himself. Preferably in pen.

therisingtithes
I did a panel at #PAXOnline2020 earlier this year I did a panel at #PAXOnline2020 earlier this year and it was really rad, so you know your resident pin-obsessed nerd had to get some swag. Including some new locking backs, and some dope pronoun hexes so I can try on ‘they’ more often in public!
Behold, my @fiyahlitmag #IgnyteAwards Finalist med Behold, my @fiyahlitmag #IgnyteAwards Finalist medallion has arrived! Still beyond blessed for all of it: for my poem simply being nominated, for FiyahCon—the very best con of this year—& for FIYAH in general, the best damn outlet in this whole damn genre. 🔥 🔥 🔥
Portrait of An Election Stain, 2020. Portrait of An Election Stain, 2020.
A book I cannot wait to eagerly consume. QUEEN OF A book I cannot wait to eagerly consume. QUEEN OF THE CONQUERED is finally in hand, and the sequel done preorder.
Guess what finally came in the mail! My copy of So Guess what finally came in the mail! My copy of Sovereigns of the Blue Rose! ‘Like Ice And Then Like Fire’ is a little ache of a story about how we mourn, and how we judge mourning. It’s surrounded by so many fabulous tales of the decades of the chosen sovereigns of the Kingdom of Aldis. The book looks amazing, inside and out.
Ordered a #Heckadeck to tinker with, but as soon a Ordered a #Heckadeck to tinker with, but as soon as I opened it, I was supernaturally compelled to #DestroyThisCard in particular. Don’t know what came over me.
One for each generation. ———— These @bozor One for each generation. ————
These @bozorobo pins are my absolute favourites. I just got the Kamen Rider Ichigo one on top, which completes the set. 
Kamen Rider, starting with Ichigo, seems to consistently argue that even when your power comes from a potentially dark place or has cruel origins, dedicating its use to destroying the forces of evil is what slowly turns that power into justice. Fascism denies you your own body? Reclaim it for the sole purpose of destroying fascism, and it becomes justice. Your space suit was made possible by revelations that led to the murder of your best friend’s father? Avenge him by thwarting evil’s plans while always smiling and sowing joy. Have you survived the trauma of unending hopelessness? Spare innocents that same pain by sharing hope wherever you go. Have you become a tyrant, forgetting to do good as power corrupts you? Then justice is the act of *literally* confronting yourself. Is time itself a record of the cruelties and selfishnesses of man? Then even break time against your heel.

I mean… it’s also not shy at all about how several antagonists are just mutant fascism, incapable of argument or compassion, only performing reason to keep their violence undetected, seeking power through force. Resistance, then, is in wielding the parts of you that are on the verge of collapse or corruption, and throwing them against the gears. Forge those dark portions in the fire of your own rage, tie them to your heel, and drop-kick all evil. 
I’m thinking about this as I work. What are the cruelties in my space that my body is unduly bonded to? And what parts of me do I wield in contrast to that cruelty? How do I transform myself, Darkness and all, into justice, resolve, compassion, and solidarity?

#kamenrider #enamelpins #resistance
#ConFusionSF was amazing. I got to give my mother #ConFusionSF was amazing. I got to give my mother the early birthday gift of her first trip to the States, her first live sight of snow, and her first con experience. I got to see snow for the first time, too, and even make a snowball (I’m good on that now, thanks). I got to link up with old friends, meet digital friends in person for the first time, and make brand new ones. I attended panels that actually made me think more deeply about what I make. I got to cohost a Speculative Open Mic, to talk about speculative verse, to ask deeper questions about how we write men with power or men with pain or both. @bogiperson even took us to this really neat black-owned bookstore in the area afterwards, and then @edebellauthor and Chris took my mother and I out for pizza after that! I adored the entire weekend. 
I’m particularly grateful that @miconfusionsf made me their Creative Guest of Honor this year. I tend to feel like I haven’t done enough, haven’t ‘made it’, but just knowing that I’m welcome in a fandom space seems to allay those fears. I’m grateful for those spaces. If ConFusion would have me back, I’d work my hardest to be there, any time.
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