{"id":29401,"date":"2015-06-18T06:30:49","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T18:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=29401"},"modified":"2015-06-16T22:56:41","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T10:56:41","slug":"celebrating-christchurchs-sir-julius-vogel-award-success-a-j-fitzwater-best-new-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/06\/18\/celebrating-christchurchs-sir-julius-vogel-award-success-a-j-fitzwater-best-new-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Christchurch’s Sir Julius Vogel Award Success: A.J. Fitzwater, Best New Talent"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Amanda<\/a>

Amanda on the podium; photo Wei Li<\/p><\/div>\n

Yesterday, I posted Rebecca Fisher’s\u00a0 speech from Saturday’s event to celebrate Christchurch’s Sir Julius Vogel Award finalists and winners.<\/p>\n

Today I’d like to share A.J. (Amanda) Fitzwater’s speech, speaking to her award for Best New Talent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Amanda may also be cross-posting on her blog today, so I hope you’ll head on over and check out “her place”<\/a> and her work.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

A. J. (Amanda) Fitzwater: Best New Talent (2014)<\/span><\/h3>\n

“Best NEW talent is a very odd thing to wrap my head around, least of all it being my very first award win as a science fiction and fantasy writer. It doesn’t FEEL new to me. I started this writing journey five years ago now, and that seems a long time considering all that’s happened, and no time at all considering I’m just starting to “break in” to the industry now.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Photo,<\/a>

Photo, P Fitzpatrick<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In late 2009, a few perfect storms collided to set me on the journey I’m writing now. I had one of those existential “oh heck, what will I have to show for myself when I hit 40!” crises, I was starting to be around creative people who were prodding me to expand my creative horizons, and I was asking myself that age old question: what do I want to be when I grow up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Science fiction and fantasy has been a big part of my life since I was a teenager, and I was always a capable writer. But I’d never given myself the opportunity to find out if I was a GOOD one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of my journey has been retraining myself to understand success comes in many forms, and at ANY time in your life. There are many great authors who started and came to success later in life<\/span><\/p>\n

At that time 5 years ago I was also contemplating what I wanted to SAY. My reading and influences and life were shifting. I wanted to write what I hadn’t had the chance to read, whether by its absence, lack of availability, or through the history of women and LGBT authors who had been invisibilized. I actually had to spend a lot of those early times reframing and relearning the history of women, and feminism and it’s intersections in science fiction and fantasy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Photo,<\/a>

Photo, P Fitzpatrick<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

I discovered the cleansing, creative anger of Joanna Russ. The gender bending, and gender breaking, work and history of James Tiptree Junior. I’ll always be grateful that one of the first science fiction authors put in my hands was Anne McCaffrey. And I wouldn’t be where I am today without the sublime works and encouragement of a diverse range of women and genderqueer authors and editors. Having Catherynne Valente and Nora Jemisin voice their belief in my abilities was an uplifting experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

I learned it was time to raise my voice. And that’s what I implore of all authors and readers moving in from the margins: raise your voice in whatever way feels comfortable. Engage. Enjoy. We all have stories we’re looking for, stories to tell. Story telling is not a finite resource.<\/span><\/p>\n

Words can be swords and silk, and they can be life and world changing. They can also make “puppies” sad \u2013 if they’re yelling at you, or about your “kind”, you know you’re doing something right. And to that end \u2013 be safe. Be ready to stand tall, and if you can’t, there’s always someone else that has your back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you all for coming today, and your support of local speculative fiction. We are small, but mighty.”<\/span><\/p>\n

—
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Amanda\"<\/a>About Amanda:<\/h3>\n

The following bio is drawn from Amanda’s Sir Julius Vogel Award citation:<\/p>\n

\u201cA.J. (Amanda) Fitzwater is a Christchurch based writer whose short fiction has been widely published, including in <\/em>Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Crossed Genres Magazine, and <\/em>Wily Writers. Her acceptance into the US-based Clarion workshop in 2014\u2014one of only 18 successful applicants from 114 applications\u2014speaks to both the quality of Amanda\u2019s writing and her potential, as well as her dedication to her writing career. Amanda is a writer who continually pushes herself with new ideas, challenging techniques, and including characters from traditionally under-represented groups. Her writing draws on both her own experience and location, and a diverse range of literary influences, particularly speculative fiction written by women, and she is skillful in both acknowledges these but also using them <\/b>as a jumping off point for genuinely original work.”<\/em><\/p>\n

A full list of Amanda’s publications, including links to online work, is set out in her Bibliography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can also read a short excerpt via her profile<\/a>, featured here last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I posted Rebecca Fisher’s\u00a0 speech from Saturday’s event to celebrate Christchurch’s Sir Julius Vogel Award finalists and winners. Today I’d like to share A.J. (Amanda) Fitzwater’s speech, speaking to her award for Best New Talent. Amanda may also be cross-posting on her blog today, so I hope you’ll head on over and check out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20,19,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awards","category-events","category-funstuff","category-other-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29401"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29425,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29401\/revisions\/29425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}