Uncanny Magazine wins a Hugo Award!

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The Hugo Awards are something that happens each year as a part of Worldcon, one of the world’s oldest science fiction and fantasy conventions if not THE oldest (it begain in 1939, with a hiatus for WWII). The Hugos are run by a separate group from the convention, so that folks are not overwhelmed, and you can learn more about award history and recipients on their web site.

The finalists in our category were (fantastic publications all!):

Best Semiprozine

  • The Deadlands, publisher Sean Markey; editors E. Catherine Tobler, Nicasio Andres Reed, David Gilmore, Laura Blackwell, Annika Barranti Klein; proofreader Josephine Stewart; columnist Amanda Downum; art and design Cory Skerry, Christine M. Scott; social media Felicia Martínez; assistant Shana Du Bois.
  • Escape Pod, editors Mur Lafferty and Valerie Valdes, assistant editors Premee Mohamed and Kevin Wabaunsee, hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart, producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht; and the entire Escape Pod team
  • FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, publisher and executive editor DaVaun Sanders, poetry editor B. Sharise Moore, art director Christian Ivey, acquiring editors Rebecca McGee, Kerine Wint, Egbiameje Omole, Emmalia Harrington, Genine Tyson, Tonya R. Moore, sponsor coordinator Nelson Rolon
  • khōréō, produced by Zhui Ning Chang, Aleksandra Hill, Danai Christopoulou, Isabella Kestermann, Kanika Agrawal, Sachiko Ragosta, Lian Xia Rose, Jenelle DeCosta, Melissa Ren, Elaine Ho, Ambi Sun, Cyrus Chin, Nivair H. Gabriel, Jeané Ridges, Lilivette Domínguez, Isaree Thatchaichawalit, Jei D. Marcade, M. L. Krishnan, Ysabella Maglanque, Aaron Voigt, Adialyz Del Valle Berríos, Adil Mian, Akilah White, Alexandra Millatmal, Anselma Widha Prihandita, E. Broderick, K. S. Walker, Katarzyna Nowacka, Katie McIvor, Kelsea Yu, Lynn D. Jung, Madeleine Vigneron, Marie Croke, Merulai Femi, Phoebe Low, S. R. Westvik, Sanjna Bhartiya, Sara Messenger, Sophia Uy, Tina Zhu, Yuvashri Harish, Zohar Jacobs
  • Strange Horizons, by the Strange Horizons Editorial Collective
  • Uncanny Magazine, publishers and editors-in-chief: Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas; managing editor Monte Lin; poetry editor Betsy Aoki, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky

Lynne Thomas and I each accepted a statue and as is tradition, brought them to the afterparty and the hotel bar (mostly so people who want to check them out, can. ) The designer had created a wooden base and fancy glass thing for under the rocket that I was completely afraid of breaking the whole time I was onstage and walking around with, and it was a relief to turn into con ops for packaging and shipping.

As you might expect, Uncanny is entirely a team effort – Lynne thanked folks and I made sure to thank our submission editors as well as making personal thanks.

Readings and Events for Breakpoint in 2022-23!

If you want to schedule me for a future virtual or in-person reading, please use the contact form at betsyaoki.com!

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March 24 AWP panel and book signing at terrain.org booth

March 12 Writers with Drinks, The Makeout Room, San Francisco.

April 1 Virtual Reading with Erin Malone and Aby Kaupang, for Elliott Bay Books (Video)

April 25 5 p.m. Pacific Virtual Reading with Joe Wilkins and Scott Edward Anderson hosted by Terrain.org on Zoom.

April 29 5 p.m. Pacific Virtual 580 Split’s “Fever Dreams” reading

May 10 7 p.m.- 8 p.m. PDT In-Person Kundiman’s FREE reading at Hugo House (Full writers’ bios and registration here.)

June 4 1-2 pm PDT “The Language of Machines” hosted by Seattle Public Library and Open Books. Featuring Betsy Aoki, Neil Aitken, Margaret Rhee.

YouTube recording with closed captions!
Register today at Third Place Books!

July 8 7 p.m. PDT In-Person In conversation with Cookie Hiponia (Author of We Belong), at Third Place Books Ravenna, 6504 20th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98115, USA

REGISTER: https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/betsy-aoki-cookie-hiponia

October 12 12 PM EDT (not PDT!) Fall for the Book

“Video Games and Coding Poetry” presentation

Learn more about Fall for the Book at fallforthebook.org

In her “techno-lit” poetry collection, Breakpoint, game designer Betsy Aoki leads readers into a world of Halo, Japanese folklore, robot factories, and code as poetry. Attendees will use their own tech to generate poetry in this interactive event. Breakpoint blends technology and the Asian-American experience in what poet Colleen J. McElroy calls, “an evocative mixture of sensual experiences, and mathematically infused linguistic patterns.” Aoki makes machines speak, while also giving voice to the women who are part of the technological future.

Location: Johnson Center, 3rd Floor, Meeting Room C, 4477 Aquia Creek Lane, Fairfax.

Fall for the Book Lecture Resources

November 20 3:30 PM EDT (not PDT!) Miami Book Fair

Sunday, November 20 @ 3:30 pm

Room 6100 (Building 6, 1st Floor)

300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

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February 21, 2023 6:30-8pm EST Virtual STEM Poetry Series Farmingdale College

Technology poetry reading with Rebecca Durham, the author of two award-winning poetry books, Half-Life of Empathy (New Rivers Press, 2020) and Loss/Less (Shanti Arts, 2022.

Access Link:  https://tinyurl.com/kd5jsv45  External link

Learn more about the series

Our panel accepted for AWP 2023! Thursday March 9, 2023. Noon-1:25pm

Rooms 433-434, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 4.

Race to Machine: Asian-Americans Write Tech, Colonialism, and Dystopia (Shankar Narayan, Franny Choi, Betsy Aoki, Neil Aitken, Margaret Rhee)

In-person event

The tech tsunami transforming our world isn’t new—but change is accelerating.  Tech may feed into intersectional crises in race, environment, disinformation, and intolerance, amplifying inequity and colonialist tropes. Five Asian-American voices tackle all of the above, drawing on roots in the tech space and in their race, gender, immigrant, and sexual identities.  We’ll explore the challenges of writing about tech with courage and authenticity, while exploring humanity’s love affair with tech.

Breakpoint wins the Bibby First Book Prize!

On Facebook they presented this…

(embedding messes with the fonts, so while I will replicate link below, image above)

Tebot Bach Announcement on Facebook. (Also serves as alt-text for the image). Excerpted from the Tebotbach.org web site announcement:

“Congratulations to Betsy Aoki, winner of the 2021 Patricia Bibby First Book Award for her poetry manuscript, Breakpoint.

Final judge Dorothy Barresi called Breakpoint “cutting edge” and praised its many “moments of brilliance.”

By day, Elizabeth (Betsy) Aoki leads tech teams to build social applications, search/metrics products and video games. By night, she writes fiction and poetry, and contributes poetry book reviews to the International Examiner.

A 2019 National Poetry Series finalist, she’s received grants and fellowships from Clarion West Writers Workshop, The City of Seattle, Artist Trust Foundation, Jackstraw Writers Program, and Hedgebrook.

Her work has been included in two anthologies Fire On Her Tongue: An Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry (Two Sylvias Press) and Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves: A Contemporary Anthology of Asian American Women’s Poetry (Deep Bowl Press). Her chapbook, Every Vanish Leaves Its Trace was published by Finishing Line Press.

Other publications include (alphabetical order):Asian Pacific Journal, Calyx, Enizagam, Hunger Mountain, Nassau Review (2015 Writer Award,) Nimrod Journal of Prose and Poetry, Phoebe, Poetry Northwest, Seattle Review, Southern Humanities Review (finalist for Auburn Witness Poetry Prize), The Seattle Times, Strange Horizons, Terrain.org (Letters to America series), and Uncanny Magazine. She has a poem forthcoming in ASIMOV’S Science Fiction.”

Link to Tebot Bach web Site Announcement is here.

Thanks for stopping by!

There are a number of reasons you might find me here – my technology projects, social media, public speaking, or my writings (technology or creative).  Though most of my post-MFA creative energy has been devoted to poetry, I was fortunate to join the speculative fiction writing community by  attending Clarion West in 2016. I work on technology projects by day, and dream up new worlds at night. :)

For the most part, social media channels are the most active (and timely!) ways to reach me, or you can use the contact form on this Web site.

Live it vivid!