Biography:Benjanun Sriduangkaew
Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a Thai[1] author of science fiction and fantasy, who is also known for controversial online criticism. She was a finalist for the 2014 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer[2] and the 2014 BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction, for Scale-Bright.[3]
Life
Sriduangkaew has said in an interview that she was born in Pattani Province in southern Thailand. After attending university in Bangkok, she worked in Manila, Jakarta and Hong Kong.[4] Other sources dispute this, claiming she is born in California.[5]
Work
Sriduangkaew began publishing short fiction in 2012, with "Courtship in the Country of the Machine Gods",[6] and established a name for herself with a string of high-profile short stories in Clarkesworld Magazine and elsewhere,[7] which led to her nomination for the John W. Campbell Award.
Her first long-form publication was the urban fantasy novella Scale-Bright, published in 2014. A follow-up to her three Sun-Moon Cycle stories, it is a love story about a young woman from Hong Kong who has to rescue her sister from Heaven. Reviewing the novel for Tor.com, Niall Alexander described it as "an achievement without equal", appreciating its "delicately drawn characters", "affecting narrative" and the author's prose skills.[8]
Her second novella, Winterglass, was published in 2017.[9] It is a science-fantasy retelling of the story of the Snow Queen. Publishers Weekly's reviewer considered that the "promising novella" provided "variations on the theme of strong female characters" but was marred by an "uneven plot and some missed opportunities for complex worldbuilding".[10]
Most of Sriduangkaew's work foregrounds lesbian relationships and South East Asian themes or influences.
Online activity
In 2014 Sriduangkaew was revealed to have been the controversial blogger and book reviewer "Requires Hate" (also known as "Requires Only That You Hate", as well as "Winterfox"). Using these Internet identities, she published violently intimidating and harsh critiques, which included death and rape threats, of many writers she believed to have paid insufficient attention to racism, sexism, heteronormativity, or colonialism in their fiction. Many of her targets were themselves young, female, transgender, and/or persons of color.[11][12]
A blog post about Sriduangkaew's behavior by fellow writer Laura J. Mixon[13] won Mixon the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer.[14] In reporting on Sriduangkaew's online activities, the Daily Dot wrote that it is not certain whether or not she is indeed a Thai writer, or whether Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a pseudonym or her real name.[11]
In a blog post in 2015, Sriduangkaew wrote that she had become the target of harassment and cyberstalking campaigns after her Internet identities were revealed, while conceding that "I’ve been shitty in the past".[15]
Bibliography
- Novellas
- Scale-Bright, Immersion Press (2014), ISBN:978-0956392497
- Winterglass, Apex Publications (2017), ISBN:978-1937009625
- Short fiction
- Chang'e Dashes from the Moon (2012)
- Courtship in the Country of Machine-Gods (2012)
- Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon (2012)
- Fade to Gold (2013)
- Annex (2013)
- The Crows Her Dragon's Gate (2013)
- Vector (2013)
- The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly (2013)
- Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade (2013)
- Autodidact (2014)
- Golden Daughter, Stone Wife (2014)
- When We Harvested the Nacre-Rice (2014)
- Synecdoche Oracles (2014)
- And the Burned Moths Remain (2015)
- The Petals Abide (2015), Clarkesworld
- The Insurrectionist and the Empress Who Reigns Over Time (2015)
- The Occidental Bride (2015)
- The Beast at the End of Time (2016)
- Dream Command (2016)
- The Finch’s Wedding and the Hive That Sings (2016)
- That Which Stands Tends Toward Free Fall (2016)
- Collections
- The Archer Who Shot Down Suns: Scale-Bright Stories (2014), collecting the stories "The Crows Her Dragon's Gate", "Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon" and "Chang'e Dashes from the Moon", ISBN:978-1311268914
References
- ↑ "Thai author Benjanun Sriduangkaew" – http://www.apex-magazine.com/courtship-in-the-country-of-machine-gods/
- ↑ 2014 Hugo Awards at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved July 31, 2014
- ↑ https://www.bsfa.co.uk/bsfa-awards-2014-shortlist-announced/
- ↑ Cormick, Craig. "Author Query – Benjanun Sriduangkaew". http://www.afantasticallibrarian.com/2014/08/author-query-benjanun-sriduangkaew.html. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
- ↑ "The Forgotten Story of How “Punching Up” Harmed the Science-Fiction/Fantasy World". https://quillette.com/2018/08/18/the-forgotten-story-of-how-punching-up-harmed-the-science-fiction-fantasy-world/.
- ↑ Courtship in the Country of Machine Gods, by Benjanun Sriduangkaew, originally published in the Future Fire #24, 2012; reprinted in Apex Magazine, July 1, 2014, and The Apex Book of World SF 3 edited by Lavie Tidhar.
- ↑ "Archives", clarkesworldmagazine.com, http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/author/Benjanun%20Sriduangkaew/
- ↑ Alexander, Niall (22 August 2014). "Among Myths: Scale-Bright by Benjanun Sriduangkaew". Tor.com. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/08/book-review-scale-brite-benjanun-sriduangkaew. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
- ↑ https://www.apexbookcompany.com/products/winterglass?variant=1137406935066
- ↑ "Fiction Book Review: Winterglass by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Apex, $10.95 trade paper (130p) ISBN 978-1-937009-62-5" (in en). PublishersWeekly.com. https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-937009-62-5. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Acclaimed sci-fi writer exposed as notorious Internet troll, by Aja Romano, at The Daily Dot; published November 12, 2014; retrieved November 13, 2014
- ↑ Ansible 328, November 2014, by David Langford
- ↑ Mixon, Laura J. (6 November 2014). "A Report on Damage Done by One Individual Under Several Names". http://laurajmixon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/A-Report-on-Damage-Done-by-One-Individual-Under-Several-Names.pdf. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
- ↑ Wallace, Amy (23 August 2015). "Who Won Science Fiction’s Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters". Wired. https://www.wired.com/2015/08/won-science-fictions-hugo-awards-matters/. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
- ↑ Sriduangkaew, Benjanun. "Six Months and Counting". Medium.com. https://medium.com/@talkinghive/six-months-and-counting-13d331912b81. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
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