A Firebell in the Night

Mary Robinette Kowal has posted “My Very Complicated Reaction to Issue 202 of the Bulletin”:

So, yeah, the fact that Malzberg and Resnick’s column can take all of the good work like that and GriefCom, and the Emergency Medical Fund, and contract reviews, and, and, and… and just eradicate it infuriates me. That fact that it makes all of SFWA seem unwelcoming and misogynist makes me do the whole gnashing teeth thing.  I was heartened by the official SFWA Presidential apology for the issue. I’m glad that there’s a taskforce that’s going to do the Bulletin overhaul that needed to happen.

I just wish that we hadn’t driven people away to get there.

The primary “complication” is Kowal’s belief in the good intentions of the SFWA Bulletin editor Jean Rabe.

I haven’t located a comment by Rabe herself, but Kowal and some others have speculated based on the articles she’s been running that she may have felt the solution was to seek balancing material (such as the Hines article in the current issue).

And speaking of Jim C. Hines, if you’re interested in links to a few dozen more heated blog posts on this subject, here is his list.