#Bryan Thao Worra

[thaoworra]

Scruffy poet is scruffy

[onequoteperday]

A single seed can turn into a forest. A single heart can transform a nation.

Bryan Thao Worra

[convergencecon]

Are you ready for CONvergence 2019: The Next Celebration? Don't forget to stay tuned to CON-Link for your CONvergence news! CVG-TV is prepping for another season of great programming including Guest of Honor interviews, and Host Gregory Parks is here to tell you about it!

[kristipetersenschoonover]

The Stars Were Right! at NECRONOMICON PROVIDENCE 2022

The Stars Were Right! at NECRONOMICON PROVIDENCE 2022

[s-n-arly]

Diversicon - Day 1

I’m up early, because that’s how my brain works, so here’s a quick look at yesterday’s brief adventure at the con.

The panel on fate and free will turned out a lot more Christian in nature than I’d expected. This is fine, but it’s not a topic that I consider myself remotely acquainted with. Fortunately the moderator and Bryan Thao Worra (who we drafted to join us) kept things moving, and once in a while I was able to contribute something.

Bryan is one of the writer guests of honor.  He’s an amazing poet and, as we say here in Minnesota, a heckuva nice guy.  If you ever have a chance to hear him talk about Laotian mythology, poetry, or cryptids in general, don’t pass it up. He’ll be on the Midwestern monsters of myth panel with me on Sunday afternoon.

@charliejane-anders is the other writer guest of honor, and I really enjoyed the interview with her.  She’s engaging and funny, but she’s also genuinely nice.  She shared a story about a past experience with the express desire that it not be recorded and shared online because she didn’t want anyone to feel bad.  Never mind that it says something about our culture that this kind of sensitivity is remarkable, this made me really happy.  She’ll have a YA trilogy coming out in the future, and I’m really looking forward to that.

I’m on a panel this morning with Charlie Jane Anders on the topics of science and magic, and I’m hoping my moderator skills are fully on, because this could be a ton of fun. 

[twincitiesgeek]

Positive Asian Representation in Comics Matters

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Bryan Thao Worra looks back at some notable (and notorious) examples of Asian and Asian American characters in comics history.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, established to recognize the contributions and influence of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. We first recognized the occasion in 1978. Over the years, this has been a challenging month for me as I tried to find ways to connect to my own journey as well as the…

[thenerdsofcolor]

Bryan Thao Worra on Lao Science Fiction (From CTRL+ALT)

Bryan Thao Worra on Lao Science Fiction (From CTRL+ALT)

In our final live edition of Hard NOC Life from the NOC Reading Lounge at CTRL+ALT — the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s pop-up culture lab in the former Pear River Mart location in SoHo, award-winning poet Bryan Thao Worra discusses the literature of the Laotian diaspora and explains why the Asian American literay canon needs more speculative fiction.…

[finishinglinepress]

FINISHING LINE PRESS BOOK OF THE DAY:

The Gates of Never by Deborah L. Davitt

$19.99, Full-length, paper

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-gates-of-never-by-deborah-l-davitt/

Deborah L. Davitt was born in Washington State, but was raised in Reno, Nevada where she graduated first in her class from UNR in 1997. She received her master’s degree in English with a focus on medieval and Renaissance studies from Penn State, and currently lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and son. She’s a prolific writer of poetry, genre fiction, and novels. For more about her work, please see www.edda-earth.com.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR The Gates of Never by Deborah L. Davitt

“With the Gates of Never Deborah Davitt offers us a sumptuous exploration of the cosmic and the mythic, the historic and the familiar. Her lines hum with memory and imagination, forging a distinctive landscape of voice and omen, whether it’s taking on sea wolves or ancient empires, the mysteries of the human heart or a single leaf. This is a finely-tuned collection for those who dare to dream deeply in a vast cosmos.”

–Bryan Thao Worra, NEA Fellow in Literature.

Rich in humanity and mythology, Deborah Davitt‘s stunning poetry collection THE GATES OF NEVER overflows with eloquence and dark beauty.

–Christina Sng, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A COLLECTION OF NIGHTMARES

In The Gates of Never, Deborah L. Davitt plumbs the everyday and the eldritch, ancient past and technological future, the dance of bone and skin, of seed and flower, of eros and thanatos: bodies cleaving — flesh joining and also splitting, stone and metal changing and reshaping — to form old and new lives and entities, based in magic and myth as well as rocket fuel and neon, a startlingly familiar amalgam of the sacred and the profane. Davitt’s exquisite poems will set your imagination on emerald fire.

–Vince Gotera, Editor, Star*Line and the North American Review

PREORDER SHIPS OCTOBER 11, 2019, RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-gates-of-never-by-deborah-l-davitt/ #flp #poetry #book

[thaoworra]

Over at Sahtu Press, we recently shared three speculative poems by Nigerian poet Hannu Afere: "We Do Not Wish To Scare You," "The Testimony of a Synesthete," and "XOXO" in part of our continuing efforts to engage with diverse communities developing their science fiction, fantasy and horror traditions, especially while working with Lao creators across the globe. We hope you find these poems interesting and compelling!

Hannu Afere is an author, animator and artiste whose work has appeared in several publications in Nigeria, China, Canada and the US. He co-authored the critically acclaimed graphic novel Trinity: Red October in 2018 and in 2019, his debut collection of short stories GrimGrin: WTF was published. His novella Dog Days of Rain was published in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic; and in 2021, he wrote the screenplay to The Adventures of Captain Blud, an animated series with the Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka. In 2022, his short story Dogz of War was nominated for the British Science Fiction Awards.

Presently, he is the Editor-in-chief of the Anthology of West African Literature (8th House Publishing, Montréal), and he is collaborating with the Lao Minnesotan Poet Laureate Bryan Thao Worra on a book of poems titled Laos N Lagos. When he's not creating or collecting art, he can be found spending quality time with his partner Didi, and their canine companions, Rain and Roulette. He writes from Lagos.

[onequoteperday]

A single seed can turn into a forest. A single heart can transform a nation.

Bryan Thao Worra (from Notes Regarding the Living Heart)

[convergencecon]

COMING TO CONvergence 2019: The Next Celebration!

BRYAN THAO WORRA!!!

Bryan Thao Worra is the Lao Minnesotan Poet Laureate and holds over 20 awards for his writing and community leadership. Throughout his career, Bryan has played a key role in helping to popularize an understanding of Southeast Asian mythology and legends. The author of ten books, his work appears internationally in over 100 publications. He has been a member of the International Carnivorous Plant Society and holds scholar status with the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.

Read more about Bryan Thao Worra: http://www.convergence-con.org/guests/bryan-thao-worra/

[s-n-arly]

Diversicon - Day 3

Originally planned to do this yesterday, but it was a good day for the paying gig, and I had LOTS of editing to do there.

I’ve been trying to attend a fiction reading by Rob Callahan for roughly five years.  He’s a really nice guy and we’ve been on panels together several times.  He was also  kind enough to talk to me about freelancing when I first started my own business. Once again, something got in the way, and I missed his 10 am reading, dangit.  I’m beginning to suspect a curse, and I will break it one of these days.

We had the honor of taking @charliejane-anders to lunch, which was a nice opportunity to get to know her better.  We picked up sandwiches from Nelson Cheese & Deli (if you haven’t been there, it’s a fantastic little local place) and found a table with some shade in the nearby, and mostly vacant, Minnesota State Fairgrounds. It was lovely time. In an effort to combat the odd genderfication of all things, we are trying to replace “guys” with “moops,” when used for groups of people not necessarily of a specific gender.  Eg: Come on moops, let’s get this done.  I’ve been trying to switch to “peeps” for a while, and it hasn’t quite stuck, so my brain clearly has some work to do.

I attended a panel on the use of fairy tales in science fiction and fantasy.  Much of this ended up being a platform for apologizing for past cultural appropriation and warning against future offenses.  Not quite what I was hoping for, but there were a couple of really good points that I hope to explore further in the future.

I spent most of my downtime tweaking stuff for my Midwest Mythologic Creatures panel with Bryan Thao Worra and Brian K. Perry.  Bryan and I had come up with this idea last Diversicon, and it’s always a ton of fun to be on a panel with him.  It took a little longer than anticipated to get through my intro questions on the creation and use of mythological creatures, so we didn’t get through even a quarter of our possible monsters and beasties.  Since I did a bunch of research, and found some wickedly cool North American creatures, I’m going to be posting some sort of series here with that information in the near future.  I just need to figure out the best way to share this information without it becoming an overload.

[danafraedrich]

I’ve been meeting such lovely people at TeslaCon this weekend, including the wonderfully kind Bryan Thao Worra, aka @bthaoworra , an excellent poet and fantastic person. He’s got loads of other great pics from this weekend on his feed, so go check out his feed! … #Repost @bthaoworra with @make_repost ・・・ Met author @danafraedrich at #Teslacon! #steampunk

[rosariumpublishing]

Rosarium to release “Sunspot Jungle” 2 volume anthology!

2018 will mark Rosarium Publishing's fifth anniversary. To celebrate, they will be releasing a two-volume SFF anthology, entitled

Sunspot Jungle: The Ever-Expanding Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

“I looked upon it as throwing a little party, so I invited some friends, some associates, and a whole lot of complete strangers to celebrate the field that has been so welcoming,” said publisher/editor Bill Campbell. “It's a massive project, but it really only scratches the surface of all the great writing that's out there right now. I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed putting it together.”

Sunspot Jungle will include the works of the following writers:

Basma Abdel Aziz, Yasser Abdel Latif, Saladin Ahmed, William Alexander, Charlie Jane Anders, Anatoly Belilovsky, Brooke Bolander, Vashti Bowlah, K. Tempest Bradford, Jennifer Marie Brissett, Maurice Broaddus, Christopher Brown, Tobias S. Buckell, Nadia Bulkin, Chesya Burke, Raquel Castro, Joyce Chng @blackwolfchng , John Chu, P. Djeli Clark, Zig Zag Claybourne, Elaine Cuyegkeng, Indrapramit Das, Teresa P. Mira de Echeverría, Claudia De Bella, Mame Bougouma Diene, Dilman Dila, Walter Dinjos, Tananarive Due, Hal Duncan, Corinne Duyvis, Berit Ellingsen, Amal El-Mohtar, Mélanie Fazi, Tang Fei, Fábio Fernandes, Jeffrey Ford, Clifton Gachagua, R.S.A. Garcia, Sergio Gaut vel Hartman, Max Gladstone, Jaymee Goh @jhameia​ , Hiromi Goto, Nick Harkaway, Margrét Helgadóttir, Carlos Hernandez, Nalo Hopkinson, Sabrina Huang, T.L. Huchu, Walidah Imarisha, Emmi Itäranta, N.K. Jemisin, Rahul Kanakia, Isha Karki, Csilla Kleinheincz, Tessa Kum, Clara Kumagai, Victor LaValle, Rose Lemberg, Ken Liu, Karen Lord, Karin Lowachee, Carmen Maria Machado, Nick Mamatas, Kuzhali Manickavel, Haralambi Markov, Juan Martinez, Brandon Mc Ivor, Foz Meadows, Hiroko Minagawa, Sunny Moraine, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Kristine Ong Muslim, Ramez Naam, Shweta Narayan, Iheoma Nwachukwu, Irenosen Okojie, Nnedi Okorafor, Malka Older, Chinelo Onwualu, Nene Ormes, Sanem Ozdural, Sarah Pinsker, Pavel Renčín, Rebecca Roanhorse, Yoav Rosen, Geoff Ryman, Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, Nisi Shawl, Eve Shi, Angela Slatter, Naru Dames Sundar, Jeremy Szal, Bogi Takács, Gabriel Teodros, K.A. Teryna, Natalia Theodoridou, Sheree Renée Thomas, Lavie Tidhar, Walter Tierno, Francesco Verso, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Subodhana Wijeyeratne, Bryan Thao Worra, and Carlos Yushimito.

Rosarium plans to run a Kickstarter campaign in February for a special hardcover edition of the anthology that will only be available to the supporters of the campaign. The paperback edition of Vol. 1 will be released in the fall of 2018 with the follow-up edition to be released in the spring of 2019.

Reviews of our other anthologies include: 

“Groundbreaking speculative fiction anthology that showcases the work from some of the most talented writers inside and outside speculative fiction across the globe.” – Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, Atlanta BlackStar 

“The Sea Is Ours opens the boundaries of what steampunk is, and it's a frequently beautiful and often sharp read.”  NY Journal of Books on The SEA is Ours: Tales from Steampunk Southeast Asia

“Here’s a tribute anthology to one of the greatest living science fiction authors, including works by Junot Diaz, Eileen Gunn, Chesya Burke, Nalo Hopkinson and Geoff Ryman, which play with sexual identity and race, while some essays also celebrate Delany’s work. Publishers Weekly gave this book a starred review, and SFSignal says these stories “honor the man of the hour in many of his facets without ever falling into kitsch or fawning.” i09 on Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany

For further information, contact Melissa Riggio at Melissa@rosariumpublishing.com.

[shwetanarayan]

awesome poem by Byran Thao Worra

which I meant to link in the funding post link but forgot so here it is instead :)

[twincitiesgeek]

Join Twin Cities Geek at CONvergence 2019!

Check out the freebies and panels Twin Cities Geek has on deck at CONvergence this year!

CONvergence 2019: The Next Celebration is almost upon us, and of course, Twin Cities Geek will be there! Here’s what we have going on this year.

Badge Backers

As we have in past years, we’ve teamed up with Fearless Comedy Productionsto bring you these nifty badge backers—the perfect thing to hang your ribbons from! One side has a new look this year thanks to Fearless’s new design. Get yours free…