Brittney Griner, a prominent American basketball player, was detained in Russia in February 2022 after authorities found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.

She was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony, a harsh penalty that coincided with heightened geopolitical tensions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

government labeling her detention as wrongful and using her case to highlight the fraught U.S.-Russia relations.

During her incarceration, Griner faced challenging conditions in a Russian penal colony, described as a "labor camp" with inadequate facilities.

worked tirelessly to secure her release, with President Biden's administration proposing a prisoner swap involving Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer.

This proposal was part of broader diplomatic negotiations, reflecting the complex interplay of sports, gender, and international politics.

In December 2022, Griner was released in exchange for Bout, a move that sparked mixed reactions due to Bout's notoriety and the exclusion of other detained Americans like Paul Whelan from the swap.

Upon her return, Griner expressed gratitude for the support she received and announced plans to share her story through a memoir, aiming to raise awareness about other Americans detained abroad.

Her release highlighted the use of high-profile individuals as political pawns, underscoring the intersection of sports, gender issues, and international diplomacy.

Brittney Griner, a prominent American basketball player, was detained in Russia in February 2022 after authorities found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.

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Content: Diplomat Sparks Renewed Hope For Brittney Griner Prisoner Exchange

The situation surrounding Brittney Griner's case is looking a little less bleak, thanks to the recent developments brought about by negotiations between the U.S. and Russia.

In early November, the WNBA star had been transferred to a penal colony in the Russian republic of Mordovia. There, she began fulfilling her nine-year sentence for drug possession. As reported by Reuters, authorities initially arrested Griner in February 2022 after vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were discovered in her luggage at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. While she attempted to appeal the ruling, it was ultimately upheld by a Russian court.

"This has been [a] very traumatic experience, waiting for this day, waiting for the first court, and getting nine years for a crime that I was barely over the significant amount," she said at the hearing (via CBS News). "I don't understand the first court's decision to give one year less than the max when I've been here almost 8 months, and people with more severe crimes have gotten less than what I was given... I really hope that the court will adjust this sentence, because it's been very, very stressful and very traumatic to my mental and psyche, being away from my family and not being able to communicate." However, there is now renewed hope that Griner could be released, with a Russian diplomat claiming that a swap could happen sometime in the future.

Russian diplomat says there's 'always a chance' for a swap

Not all hope is lost, after all. According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, Russia is not turning its back on the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the U.S. As reported by the New York Post, Ryabkov told reporters that there is "always a chance" when asked about the likelihood of a swap taking place before the end of the year. However, he noted that in the past, there had been multiple instances when it seemed as if Russia would agree to a swap, only for the plan to fall apart. If the prisoner swap does take place, Ryabkov said it would "send a positive signal that not everything is hopeless in Russian-American relations."

In the meantime, it looks like Brittney Griner has her work cut out for her. Maria Alyokhina, a former member of the band Pussy Riot, didn't mince words when she spoke to NPR about her own experience at a Russian penal colony. "It has a bit better conditions than [the] original gulag system from the 1950s," she said, but added that it's still "a labor camp." She described the grim reality she endured while serving out her own sentence, calling it inhumane. "For 100 women, there are like three toilets and no hot water," she recalled, adding that the penal colony is merely a "legal slavery system."

According to a statement released by her lawyers (via BBC), she is trying her best to survive and is "doing as well as could be expected and trying to stay strong as she adapts to a new environment."

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Content: Skip to main content

Russian court sentences Brittney Griner to 9 years, raising pressure on Biden

A Russian court Thursday sentenced U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in a penal colony after convicting her on a drug charge, a harsh penalty that keeps her fate entwined with the geopolitical showdown over the war in Ukraine and ramps up already intense pressure on President Joe Biden to win her release.

The U.S. government contends that she is among several Americans who have been “wrongfully detained” by Russia, used as bargaining chips in the increasingly hostile relationship between Moscow and Washington. The Biden administration has offered a prisoner swap involving Griner, but Russian officials said it was premature to discuss a deal while her case was underway.

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Now that the trial is concluded, Biden faces a difficult choice between standing firm on his proposal to trade for Griner and another American, Paul Whelan, or sweetening the offer somehow, with either position liable to draw domestic criticism.

Meanwhile the Kremlin can use them as leverage, with no incentive to resolve the cases quickly. Griner’s supporters, voicing horror at the verdict and sentence, are clamoring for the president to do something, while the administration is wary of giving in to Russian tactics it has all but labeled blackmail.

“My administration will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home safely as soon as possible,” Biden said in a statement after the verdict.

Griner, 31, one of her sport’s biggest global stars, sat mostly expressionless, eyes downcast, leaning her long frame toward the bars of the defendant’s box in a cramped courtroom outside Moscow to hear as the words of the judge, Anna Sotnikova, were quietly translated for her. She had already pleaded guilty, and conviction is all but certain in Russian courts, so the verdict was a foregone conclusion; the real question was about sentencing.

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The answer was devastating. The sentence was near the 10-year maximum for her conviction for attempting to smuggle narcotics into the country, based on two vape cartridges containing hashish oil found in Griner’s luggage when she arrived in February, a week before President Vladimir Putin sent Russian forces to Ukraine.

She and her legal team had hoped for a more lenient penalty based on her guilty plea, her statement that she had not meant to take the cartridges to Russia, and testimony that she used the substance legally in the United States to manage pain.

“I made an honest mistake, and I hope that in your ruling that it doesn’t end my life here,” she said before the sentencing.

She told the court that while she took responsibility for her actions, “I had no intent to break Russian law.” She said that after recovering from a bout of COVID, she had packed hurriedly to rejoin the Russian team she plays for in the WNBA offseason, and had accidentally left the cartridges in her luggage.

Griner’s defense team called the ruling “absolutely unreasonable,” said the court had “completely ignored all the evidence of the defense, and most importantly, the guilty plea,” and vowed to appeal. Elizabeth Rood, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, attended the court session and called the result “a miscarriage of justice.”

Russian officials have insisted that Griner’s case is simply the justice system running its course, with no political overtones — a claim that their U.S. counterparts and many Western analysts dismissed as absurd.

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William Pomeranz, a Russia expert and acting director of the Kennan Institute, a research group in Washington, noted that Griner was sentenced not to a prison but to a penal colony, which tends to mean a more remote location — many are in Siberia — and harsher conditions.

“She’s probably going to go to a penal colony that’s in the middle of Russia where she won’t know anybody,” he added. “They won’t be able to come and visit. Penal colonies can sometimes be very severe. It will be a tremendous test of her mental state if she ends up going to a penal colony.”

The United States has few options, he said. “It will just depend on the Russians and how fast they want to make a deal.”

Fellow basketball players, male and female, and basketball executives took to social media to voice support for Griner and grief at the verdict. Griner’s team, the Phoenix Mercury, said in a statement: “We remain heartbroken for her, as we have every day for nearly six months. We remain grateful to and confident in the public servants working every day to return her to her family and us.”

With Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the indiscriminate destruction it has caused, relations between Washington and Moscow are more confrontational and bitter than they have been in decades. The United States has rallied the West to send arms and other aid to Ukraine, and to punish Moscow with economic sanctions, looking for opportunities to ratchet up the pressure.

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The two sides have made prisoner exchanges before, most recently in April, when Russia released Trevor Reed, an American held on what his family said was a bogus assault charge, in return for a Russian pilot convicted in the United States of cocaine trafficking charges. But rarely have proposed swaps come amid such tension, or involved anyone as prominent as Griner.

In a sign of how high the stakes are for Washington, Griner’s fate was among the topics discussed last Friday by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in their first direct conversation since before the invasion.

The Biden administration has offered to trade Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence for a 2011 conviction on a federal charge of conspiring to sell weapons to people posing as terrorists intent on killing Americans. Whelan, detained in Russia since 2018, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years.

Russia made an unspecified “bad faith” counteroffer, the White House said Monday, which U.S. officials said they did not consider serious.

John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, told reporters Thursday, “I don’t think it would be helpful to Brittney or to Paul for us to talk more publicly about where we are in the talks and what the president might or might not be willing to do.”

“Conversations are ongoing at various levels,” he added.

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If Biden sticks to his initial offer, he could face accusations of not doing enough.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, and other supporters have mounted an effective public campaign to pressure the president to win her release. Supporters worry about her treatment in a country where anti-American and anti-gay vitriol are deeply embedded in popular views and official propaganda. Images of a grim-faced Griner being led, handcuffed, in and out of court, towering over her armed guards, have become commonplace in U.S. and international media.

The administration could make a more attractive offer, but U.S. officials already worry that deals for prisoners could encourage hostile foreign governments to detain Americans on trumped-up charges in exchange for concessions like freeing their own wrongdoers. Some Republicans have already complained that Biden’s existing offer creates such an incentive.

A 6-foot-9 center, Griner won a college national championship with Baylor in 2012, a WNBA championship with the Mercury in 2014, Olympic gold medals with the U.S. team at the 2016 and 2020 games, and four EuroLeague championships with the Russian team UMMC Yekaterinburg. Like many players in the WNBA, where salaries are much lower than in the NBA, Griner — who also played one season for a professional team in China — has played overseas to supplement her income.

She was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony, a harsh penalty that coincided with heightened geopolitical tensions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

government labeling her detention as wrongful and using her case to highlight the fraught U.S.-Russia relations.

Title:

Content: - The Washington Times - Friday, July 1, 2022

As pressure mounts on President Biden to take more aggressive action to get Moscow to release jailed WNBA star Brittney Griner, the international chatter increasing points to a prisoner swap for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Russian media and Bout’s lawyer, Steve Zissou, say Russian officials want to secure Bout’s release and that Griner, who has been locked up in Russia since February, could be part of a deal.

“I would be surprised if any American was repatriated without Viktor Bout also being sent home to his family,” Zissou told The Washington Times.

Bout is serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison. He was convicted of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, delivering anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization, charges his lawyer disputes.

Another detained American, former Marine Paul Whelan, who was arrested in Russia on espionage charges in 2018, could also be part of a prisoner swap for Bout.

Mr. Zissou said the deal would likely have to include Bout. The lawyer met last month with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, who said that freeing Bout “was Russia’s number one priority,” according to Mr. Zissou.

Griner, meanwhile, made her first appearance in court on Friday and was accused of possessing “a significant amount of cannabis oil,” which is a banned substance in Russia. She faces likely conviction and a decade in prison when her trial resumes on July 7.

Griner, 31, was arrested at the airport in Moscow on Feb. 17 for allegedly carrying vape cartridges with hashish oil. She was visiting the country to play for a Russian basketball team after the conclusion of the WNBA season.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Griner is being held as a political pawn, The Associated Press reported.

“The facts are that the famous athlete was detained in possession of prohibited medication containing narcotic substances,” Peskov told reporters on Friday. “In view of what I’ve said, it can’t be politically motivated.”

Still, Russia’s desire to free Bout complicates matters for Mr. Biden, who is weathering intense criticism for failing to secure the release of Griner, a center for the Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Dozens of organizations, including women’s and LGBTQ groups, have pressed Mr. Biden to step up efforts to secure Griner’s release. They called on the president “to make a deal to get Brittney back home to America immediately and safely.”

While Bout’s lawyer disputes the charges against him, Bout was convicted of far more serious crimes than Griner’s drug charge, which could make it difficult for the Biden administration to agree to a swap.

Griner’s high-profile detainment comes at a historically difficult point in the diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Russia. Griner was arrested just days before Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine on February 24.

The U.S. has condemned the invasion and responded by providing Ukraine with weapons and other support to defend itself from Mr. Putin’s forces.

With Griner in detention, Russian officials are now intensifying efforts to secure the release of Bout, whose targeting and conviction by the United States has long been viewed as an attack on Russian sovereignty.

Russian media is reporting that a swap for Bout is on the table.

“Currently, talks are underway on exchanging Bout for Griner,” Tass news reported, citing an unnamed Russian source.

Nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” Bout was convicted in 2011 in a U.S. government sting operation of planning to smuggle arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The witnesses hired to portray FARC told Bout the arms would be used to target U.S. military serving in Colombia.

Bout, 55, is about five years from completing his sentence and is in failing health, his lawyer said.

Mr. Zissou said he is trying to elevate the circumstances surrounding his client’s case to improve his appeal as a candidate for a prisoner swap.

The U.S. targeted Bout while he was living in Moscow and retired from running an air transport company that also smuggled arms from one country to another.

The U.S. government paid more than $10 million to criminals as part of the operation to catch Bout.

“Entrapment is exactly what happened,” Mr. Zissou said.

Mr. Zissou said exchanging Griner for Bout is “a no brainer,” because his client will be freed in a few years regardless.

Last week, Russian officials extended Griner’s pretrial detention by six months. With Russia’s acquittal rate in criminal cases at less than 1%, it’s unlikely she will be able to return to the U.S. without a prisoner exchange.

Pressure is also on Mr. Biden to also secure the release of Mr. Whelan, 52, who is serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian prison camp.

“It’s certainly conceivable that a swap for Whelan and Bout gets agreed to, and then at the end of Griner’s trial, if she’s convicted, she just gets pardoned and sent home,” Mr. Zissou said.

In a statement provided to The Times, the State Department declined to provide details about the talks to free Griner.

“We have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” a State Department spokesman said. “The Department of State has determined that the Russian Federation has wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Brittney Griner. The U.S. government will continue to provide appropriate support to Griner and her family. We will continue to press for her release.”

• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.

Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

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During her incarceration, Griner faced challenging conditions in a Russian penal colony, described as a "labor camp" with inadequate facilities.

worked tirelessly to secure her release, with President Biden's administration proposing a prisoner swap involving Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer.

Title:

Content: US offers 'substantial' deal to swap Russian arms dealer for Griner, Whelan

By ANI | Published: July 28, 2022 02:38 PM 2022-07-28T14:38:16+5:30 2022-07-28T14:45:13+5:30

The United States has offered Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer known as the "Merchant of Death" in exchange for the release of US citizens Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, both held by Moscow.

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The United States has offered Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer known as the "Merchant of Death" in exchange for the release of US citizens Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, both held by Moscow.

Notably, Viktor Bout was given a 25-year prison sentence by the US in 2012.

The United States has put a "substantial proposal on the table" to facilitate the release of US citizens Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, both held by Russia in what the US has termed "wrongful detention", US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said.

Blinken on Wednesday said that he would soon press for the Americans' return in his first conversation with his Moscow counterpart for the first time since the Ukraine war.

The US, for the first time, had confirmed that it had made proposals to Russia to release the American basketball star, Griner, who was detained for months in a drugs case and Whelan, sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges in 2016, The New York Times reported.

The notion of trading Griner for Bout surfaced in Russian news media several weeks ago. US officials would not publicly discuss the idea at the time and stressed their concern about potentially incentivizing the detention of Americans abroad by foreign actors looking to win concessions.

However, on Wednesday, State Secretary said that the two countries had "communicated repeatedly and directly" about the proposal, though he would not provide details or describe the Russian response, saying he did not want to endanger sensitive negotiations with Moscow, reported The New York Times.

CNN was the first one to break the news that the United States, in June, offered to trade. Bout for Griner and Whelan. And US President Joe Biden, who has been under growing political pressure to free the Americans, backed the offer.

Blinken further said that he expected to talk with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov in the coming days and urge him to accept the proposal. The two ministers talked to each other before the Russia-Ukraine war, in January. Blinken avoided so much as shaking Lavrov's hand at a Group of 20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali earlier this month.

Biden has been under the pressure to secure the freedom of Griner in particular, whose wife, Cherelle, and several Democratic-aligned political groups have publicly urged him to strike a deal to win her release. Biden spoke to Cherelle Griner this month, according to The New York Times.

In mid-July, the Women's National Basketball Association players took to the court in Chicago at their All-star Game, wearing jerseys bearing Griner's number 42. The New York Times citing NBC News, reported that Trevor Reed, a former US Marine freed from a Russian prison in April after three years of detention, in which he said the White House was "not doing enough" to free Griner and Whelan.

In February, the Russian authorities detained Brittney Griner, on drug charges, after finding vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in her luggage while she was at an airport near Moscow.

In Russia, she was stopped at an airport near Moscow and since then, her detention has been repeatedly extended. Griner's trial began on July 1 and she pleaded guilty. Her lawyers have argued that the star had a medical prescription for the hashish oil and mistakenly carried the drug into Russia.

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

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This proposal was part of broader diplomatic negotiations, reflecting the complex interplay of sports, gender, and international politics.

Title:

Content: Brittney Griner pleaded guilty in Russia to marijuana charges, so what happens next?

WNBA star Brittany Griner pleaded guilty Thursday to bringing cannabis-derived oil cartridges to Russia, saying she had done so by accident. The move was significant as it shed the first light on her defense team's strategy, and it could potentially pave the way for a prisoner swap with the U.S. or a pardon that could see Griner freed.

"We of course hope for the leniency of the court," the basketball player's Russian lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, was quoted as saying by local media on Thursday outside a Moscow courthouse. "Considering all the circumstances of the case and taking into account the personality of our client, we believe that the admission of guilt should certainly be taken into account."

From a procedural standpoint, under Russia's legal system a pardon or prisoner swap can only happen if the individual has already been convicted. Moscow is unlikely to respond to any of Washington's requests for Griner's release until she has formally been convicted.

Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday that "there are no formal or procedural reasons to discuss further steps" until Griner's trial is concluded.

On Friday, Ryabkov indicated that Russia was interested in putting the ball in Washington's court — leaving the Biden administration to make an offer for a potential swap if the two sides can reach the stage of closed-door negotiations on an exchange.

"As for any exchange schemes, our position is the same: this needs to be done behind closed doors through the available channels," Ryabkov said.

Ryabkov signaled clearly that Moscow could be interested in negotiating a swap for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, the so-called "Merchant of Death," who has been in U.S. custody since 2008.

"I'm not sure that any additional activity, especially in the public sphere, will help a correct, balanced compromise and find a basis to alleviate the fate of a lot of our compatriots such as Viktor Bout, who has health problems, [or] such as Seleznev, and many others," he said, referring to Roman Seleznev, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence in the U.S. on cyber-fraud charges.

U.S. officials have repeatedly referred to Griner as "wrongfully detained," a label the Kremlin said is not "helpful" in negotiations.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Friday during an official visit to Indonesia that securing the release of Griner and another U.S. citizen, Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges in Russia, was a "number one priority" for the Biden administration.

Asked about Ryabkov's remarks suggesting Griner's trial would have to play out before there was any further movement on a potential prisoner swap, Blinken told reporters he was "not going to engage in hypotheticals."

"We'll look for ways to engage and do everything we can to bring people home as quickly as we possibly can," he said.

Even though Griner has entered a guilty plea it could still take weeks or even months for the judge to issue a verdict in the case. Griner is expected to give testimony during the next hearing, which is scheduled for July 14.

The admission of guilt could play in Griner's favor in the long term, as it may lead to a shorter trial than would be expected if her legal team were to mount a fierce resistance to the charges. That was the case with another American, Trevor Reed, who was recently released in a swap for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko. After fighting the charges against him for nearly three years while he languished in a Russian prison, Reed was reportedly still made to sign a paper admitting his wrongdoing before he was released.

Possession and use of marijuana are illegal in Russia. Statistically, very few criminal cases end in acquittal in the Russian justice system.

If any negotiations on a potential prisoner swap fail — or fail to even materialize, given relations between Washington and Moscow are currently at or near an all-time low — pleading guilty and asking the court for mercy could at least see any sentence imposed on Griner shortened.

"We're still in a wait-and-see posture as to how the trial proceeds,"William Pomeranz, the acting director of the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute in Washington and an expert on Russian law, told CBS News on Thursday.

"I think she pled guilty mainly to throw herself on the mercy of the court and to plead for leniency," Pomeranz said. He's previously told news outlets that that is often the best strategy to adopt with Russia's courts.

"We'll have to see if she gets the maximum sentence. Clearly this case has now become a political case, and there are already discussions, allegedly, about having a plea agreement and a prisoner swap with a Russian prisoner for Brittney Griner," he said. "We need to basically see whether this prisoner swap is in the cards, because if she indeed wants to get home as fast as possible, it will be only if there is a swap between Russia and the United States."

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In December 2022, Griner was released in exchange for Bout, a move that sparked mixed reactions due to Bout's notoriety and the exclusion of other detained Americans like Paul Whelan from the swap.

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Content: Brittney Griner freed from Russian prison in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout

The US and Russia have exchanged jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” officials said.

The swap was confirmed by US officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations ahead of an expected White House announcement, the Associated Press reports.

Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose months-long imprisonment on drug charges brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees.

She was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage - but she maintained it was an honest mistake.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed on Thursday morning they had already spoken by phone with Griner and she is said to have been in good spirits.

In a celebratory tweet, Mr Biden said Griner, a native of Houston, Texas, is on a plane home and is safe.

The Russian foreign ministry said it traded Griner for Russian citizen Viktor Bout, a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the US Justice Department once described as one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers.

Bout, whose exploits inspired a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that US officials said were to be used against Americans.

The deal, the second such exchange in eight months with Russia, procured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad.

The dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, however, did not include the release of Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges.

Mr Whelan's family and the US government say the accusations against him are baseless. He was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison.

Griner pleaded guilty in July, though still faced trial because admitting guilt in Russia’s judicial system does not automatically end a case. She acknowledged in court she possessed the canisters, but said she had no criminal intent and said their presence in her luggage was due to hasty packing.

Her status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community, infused racial and gender dynamics into the picture and made each development a matter of global importance.

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Title:

Content: Commentary

Press Secretary Touts Griner as 'Inspiration' to LGBT While Downplaying the Abandonment of Marine Veteran

Well, President Joe Biden has traded “the Merchant of Death” to Russia for a basketball player with a checkered past, all while leaving a former Marine to rot in prison.

But don’t worry, because White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has reassured us that it’s entirely worth it because the basketball player also is a hero to the LGBT community.

Yup, this is really where we’re at.

ICYMI, the now-former Russian prisoner is Brittney Griner, a 32-year-old WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist who was arrested in February in Russia on drug charges.

Griner arrived back in the United States — in San Antonio — early Friday after the Biden administration brokered a deal with the Russian government to trade her for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Trending:
Biden Gets Snubbed by Key Democrat Amid Speculation of a Party Switch

Meanwhile, Paul Whelan, a security executive from Michigan who was arrested in 2018 and convicted in 2020 on espionage charges that he and the U.S. say are baseless, remains in prison in Russia. He received a 16-year sentence.

So not only was Griner traded for an incredibly dangerous U.S. prisoner, but the Biden administration got her freed before Whelan despite supposedly trying for his release for much longer.

According to NBC News, the Biden admin was offered either Griner or no one in exchange for Bout. The outlet also said Whelan is being treated differently by the Russians because he was convicted of espionage, which is what Jean-Pierre told reporters when pressed about the trade.

“The choice was bring Brittney home or no one. The president will never stop working to secure Paul Whelan’s release,” she said during a press briefing.

“On a personal note,” she added, “Brittney is an important role model, an inspiration to millions of Americans, particularly the LGBTQI+ Americans and women of color.”

Jean-Pierre indeed is an authority on LGBT women of color, as she is the first openly gay and non-white White House press secretary, something one imagines she holds dear because she’s brought little else to the briefing room since taking over for Jen Psaki in May.

Griner, meanwhile, clearly is Jean-Pierre’s idea of American heroism — the press secretary also described the basketball player, who pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges in the United States in 2015 — as representing “the best of America.”

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Watch: Biden Won't Even Look at Reporters While They Try to Ask Him Questions

Whelan’s family members, who NBC reported were warned ahead of time that he would not be released in the one-on-one trade, were clear they did not hold the government’s failure to release their loved one against Griner.

“It is so important to me that it is clear that we do not begrudge Ms. Griner her freedom,” Whelan’s brother, David Whelan, told NBC. “As I have often remarked, Brittney’s and Paul’s cases were never really intertwined. It has always been a strong possibility that one might be freed without the other.”

Whelan himself was incredibly gracious about Griner’s release, emphasizing that it was better that her trade happen than “waiting for one that wasn’t going to happen.”

He is a credit to the military he served in, a military that seems to be consistently disgraced by our current administration.

Whelan’s Russian lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, also made the  interesting and chivalrous comment that it was “more humane” to release Griner because she is a woman and Olympic champion, while his client has been in the military, so therefore it would be “easier for him to be in custody.”

(Indeed, it reportedly was difficult for the 6-foot-9 Griner in the Russian prison, although her attorneys said this was due to her height.)

Let’s be real — it’s no wonder that Russia offered Griner or no one.

This couldn’t have been more perfectly designed by Russia to make the United States look absurdly weak on the world stage, and you cannot ignore the pressing question as to whether Griner’s release  actually was worth the trade of Bout, the brutal arms dealer.

In the middle of his country’s war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin trades a dangerous arms dealer for a basketball player, and the best Jean-Pierre can say is that Griner is an inspiration to the LGBT community?

Don’t get me wrong — I think it’s likely that Griner was imprisoned on trumped-up political charges, as she foolishly broke Russian law, and I don’t take her imprisonment lightly. I think it is a fine man who will celebrate the release of a female civilian from prison over himself.

Did Biden win the Griner trade?

But I don’t take his imprisonment lightly, either, nor the significance of my nation’s posture as it contrasts with the Russian regime in such a volatile juncture of world history.

Just as Russia’s testosterone-soaked military recruitment ads make a humiliating mess of our own “woke” recruitment strategy, furnishing a seriously bad dude in exchange for a woman whose best contribution to our country is playing basketball professionally and being a lesbian tells you everything you need to know about how Biden is making our country look to the world.

I can’t imagine the disgrace felt by Whelan and thousands of other heroes like him who signed up to protect our country and liberty worldwide but are being left to rot in Russian prisons so the president can increase his woke points.

This is what our country’s leaders now value. Sexual identity trumps not only national pride, but international security.

What a disgrace.

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Isa grew up in San Francisco, where she was briefly a far-left socialist before finding Jesus and her husband in Hawaii. She now homeschools their two boys and freelances in the Ozarks.
Isa grew up in San Francisco, where she was briefly a far-left socialist before finding Jesus and her husband in Hawaii. She now homeschools their two boys and freelances in the Ozarks.

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Upon her return, Griner expressed gratitude for the support she received and announced plans to share her story through a memoir, aiming to raise awareness about other Americans detained abroad.

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Content: Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
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Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude

Brittney Griner Is Ready to Tell Her ‘Unfathomable’ Story in New Memoir

The two-time Olympic gold medalist will finally tell the story of her Russian detainment.

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Ahead of her return to the WNBA, Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner has confirmed that she will tell the true story behind her wrongful detainment in Russia. According to The Associated Press, on Tuesday, the eight-time all-star announced that she is working on a memoir about her imprisonment. It is currently scheduled for release in spring 2024.

In February 2022, Griner was stopped in a Moscow airport when the police said they found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. The WNBA champion was charged with drug smuggling and possession. After a short trial, the basketball star was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison. Just as she was beginning her sentence in a labor camp, in December 2022 the U.S. and Russia conducted a prisoner exchange, with Griner coming home, while convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout was released into Russian custody.

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“That day (in February) was the beginning of an unfathomable period in my life which only now am I ready to share,” Griner said in a statement released by Alfred A. Knopf.

When she was arrested, Griner was headed back to Russia to join UMMC Ekaterinburg, the professional team she played for there. Most top WNBA stars play overseas the rest of the year, as they don’t earn much money competing in the United States.

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“The primary reason I traveled back to Russia for work that day was because I wanted to make my wife, family, and teammates proud,” she said. “After an incredibly challenging 10 months in detainment, I am grateful to have been rescued and to be home. Readers will hear my story and understand why I’m so thankful for the outpouring of support from people across the world.”

The two-time Olympic gold medalist went on to say that she hopes “her book would raise awareness of other Americans detained overseas.” In December 2022, the Baylor alum announced on Instagram that she planned to play during the upcoming season, writing, “I also want to make one thing very clear: I intend to play basketball for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this season, and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say ‘thank you’ to those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon.”

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In February, Griner re-signed with the Phoenix Mercury for a one-year deal. She will make her 2023 season debut on the road on Friday, May 19 against the Los Angeles Sparks.

Her release highlighted the use of high-profile individuals as political pawns, underscoring the intersection of sports, gender issues, and international diplomacy.


Wells, who explored themes like time travel and alien existence.

Wells criticized the lack of originality in early science fiction films like "Metropolis," highlighting the genre's struggle with clichés.

In the mid-20th century, science fiction began to address broader political and social issues, reflecting concerns about nuclear power, racism, and environmental crises.

This period saw the genre's expansion into diverse media, including cinema and comics, allowing for a wider exploration of themes.

More recently, science fiction has become increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative, often rooted in scientific research, as seen in projects like the Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project.

Jemisin emphasizing the importance of questioning societal norms and envisioning alternative futures.

Jemisin's work, along with others, highlights the impact of women and authors of color in reshaping the genre to include more varied perspectives.

The genre's evolution also reflects a shift from short-form to long-form narratives, with an emphasis on exploring the human condition and philosophical themes.

This shift has been accompanied by a growing acceptance of science fiction and fantasy as legitimate literary forms, breaking away from earlier stigmas.

Overall, science fiction has transformed from a niche genre focused on technological speculation to a diverse and inclusive field that challenges societal norms and explores complex human experiences.

Wells, who explored themes like time travel and alien existence.

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Content: (Credits: Far Out / Picryl / LSE)

Film

The classic science fiction movie that H.G. Wells hated: “Originality there is none”

Although the English author H.G. Wells wrote in many genres of fiction and also extended his writing to the realms of politics and social commentary, his contributions to the creative world of science fiction are perhaps what he is best known for and which led to him sometimes being considered the “father of science fiction”.

But it’s fair to say that the very nature of science fiction often makes it the perfect literary and artistic output to explore the ills and issues of a collaborative society, and Wells’ utopian works at points foresaw the rise in technology that seems to be almost symbiotic with humankind today, whilst his science fiction works explored concepts such as time travel and the existence of aliens.

Seeing as Wells’ science fiction work, including The Time MachineThe Island of Doctor MoreauThe Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds, are so well admired, we’d think that the writer would be well positioned to consider other notable efforts in the genre, whether in fiction or other mediums. With that in mind, it’s worth bringing to attention that Wells was no great fan of one of the most significant science fiction movies of all time, at least from a pioneering perspective.

Wells once reviewed Fritz Lang’s 1927 German expression science fiction silent movie Metropolis and called it “the silliest film” that he’d ever seen, claiming “it would not be possible to make one sillier.”

Via Wired, Wells wrote: “It gives in one eddying concentration almost every possible foolishness, cliché, platitude, and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general served up with a sauce of sentimentality that is all its own.”

Metropolis is one of the first-ever feature-length science fiction movies and takes place in a futuristic urban dystopia, focusing on the affluent son of a city’s master who tries to help the workers of the city rise up out of their lowly position in partnership with a saintly figure of the workers, Maria, and the city master, Joh Fredersen.

Upon release, Lang’s film was praised for its art direction and special effects, but the story was considered a touch naïve and cliched, which Wells also took issue with. The writer criticises Metropolis at great length, but some highlights from the review see him point out the production’s expensive cost, the film’s title, its characters and pretty much everything in between.

“Originality there is none. Independent thought, none,” he wrote. “The pity of it is that this unimaginative, incoherent, sentimentalising, and make-believe film, wastes some very fine possibilities.”

Evidently, Wells was no great fan of Metropolis and considered it “a waste of money”.

Wells criticized the lack of originality in early science fiction films like "Metropolis," highlighting the genre's struggle with clichés.

In the mid-20th century, science fiction began to address broader political and social issues, reflecting concerns about nuclear power, racism, and environmental crises.

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Content: Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts (Symposium, Toulouse)

Science Fiction and Politics in Literature and the Arts

The aim of this symposium run by the LLA-Créatis laboratory at the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès is to develop open thinking about “political” questions, in the broad sense of the term, that science fiction narratives allow. Different types of stories can be considered, in different literary genres or in cinema, video series and comics. It can be studied and interrogated from a historical, political and social perspective by involving, where appropriate, the possible contributions of different analyzes (anthropology, semiotics, feminist studies, postcolonial studies, etc.) Diversity of perspectives and questions raised by gender.

The entire twentieth-century period produced works in San Francisco that were marked by ideologies such as capitalism and its “communist” counterpart, but also by threats associated with civilian and/or military nuclear power, religious-related abuses, racism, minority liberation struggles, and pollution. , etc. These perceptions persisted, but in the period from the last 20 years of the 20th century to the first 20 years of the 21st century, other concerns were voiced: ecological pesticides, the climate crisis, demographic crises, resource depletion, or the danger. The scientific and technical potential (transhumanism, “artificial intelligence”, etc.) is being carried away.

The link to the realities of the times (as in the collection “Le Passager Clandestin / Dyschroniques”) can of course depend on one or more authors, take into account a work or compare several (especially in the case of short stories and short films). The broader perspective will consist in considering the basic ideologies, either in relation to the literary prizes awarded, or in relation to the works themselves, the semantics of these presenting themselves from the outset sometimes as criticism, sometimes as propaganda, the two being able to be combined according to modalities that tend to be ironic, Satirical, disruptive, etc.

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In any case, it would be a matter of highlighting the “exploratory potential” in these works, of identifying the “problematic tools” and of making the ideas put forward in fictional form productive from the point of view of political theory. (Y Rambhala).

Of course, it is advisable to include works belonging to different geographical and linguistic fields so that the panorama of this search is sufficiently realistic.

Provisional schedule of courses (date adjustments possible)

Oct 20, 2-4 PM / Nov 17, 2-4 PM / Dec 15, 2-4 PM / Jan 19, 2-4 PM / Feb 9, 2-4 PM / Mar 15, 2-4 PM / May 31 , 2-4 p.m

Contribution proposals must be sent Before October 1, 2023 To the following addresses: frederics[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

What time period produced science fiction works that included idealogies such as capitalism, and communism, and also threats of nuclear power, racism, pollution, and more?

This period saw the genre's expansion into diverse media, including cinema and comics, allowing for a wider exploration of themes.

More recently, science fiction has become increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative, often rooted in scientific research, as seen in projects like the Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project.

Title:

Content: Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project considers next steps for the genre

The project brings together authors and Dartmouth professors to collaborate on new speculative fiction work rooted in scientific research on campus.

by Sophie Chadha | 53 minutes ago

From April 13 to 16, speculative fiction authors from around the country came to Hanover to participate in the Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project, a series of events which included interdisciplinary activities between visiting authors and Dartmouth faculty, as well as readings and panel discussions open to the public. The project aimed to foster collaboration between authors and Dartmouth faculty – with a focus on designing stories rooted in scientific research – and addressed the present and future of the speculative fiction genre.

The project was co-organized by engineering professor Solomon Diamond, English professor Rebecca Clark, the Design Initiative at Dartmouth program manager Paula Olson, Hugo award-winning speculative fiction editor Liz Gorinsky and author and former visiting film and media studies professor Sharang Biswas Th’13.

According to Hugo and Nebula awards finalist Nibedita Sen, speculative fiction is a general term that provokes valuable questions.

“The term ‘speculative fiction’ … works as an umbrella term: It is fiction which imagines things that do not currently exist, things that may come into being through science or through magic,” Sen said. “It could be advancement, or it could be, ‘What if we went backwards? What if we stepped to the side?’ It could be a different dimension, a different timestream.”

In a Q&A panel on April 15, some authors touched on the exchange of knowledge that occurs between scientific researchers and speculative fiction writers. Author K.M. Szpara said he believes the future of speculative fiction will become increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative.

Nebula award-winning author Sam J. Miller  said we should reframe one stereotype about fiction — that it is dismissive of reality’s problems — and instead view its creation of a world without societal problems as proof of the possibility that our society could exist without them.

“It is as simple as, ‘ … And then the housing crisis is over … And then all the people standing in the way of progress are gone.’” Miller said.

Calvin George ’24, who attended the Q&A, said he was intrigued by Miller’s concept of speculative fiction as a tool for social change.

“It was really interesting to hear from these authors [about] how imagining worlds where a huge problem like climate change is gone can actually help us solve those problems by giving us a sense of hope that they are not absolute or inevitable,” George said.

Sen said she views fiction as an important lens through which we can better understand the reality of our problems.

“A lot of people view escapism as a form of writing that is less than, but I don't believe in that. Like Tolkien said: Is it not a prisoner's duty to try to escape? Fiction is the spoonful of sugar that helps the truth go down,” Sen said.

Sen said this belief manifested in her own writing following the results of the 2016 presidential election, when she pivoted into the realm of horror as a form of catharsis.

“[In 2016,] people like me were being viewed as monsters, so I decided, ‘Well, I will show you what a monster really is,’” Sen said.

Looking to the future of speculative fiction, teacher, linguist and author Rob Cameron points to the genre’s growth over the past few decades from a niche, isolated faction of enthusiasts to a universal mode of entertainment.

“With the popularization of science fiction through film, especially Marvel, ‘geek culture’ has become much more expansive — you do not have to be a geek to enjoy it,” Cameron said. “At the same time, authors’ expectations of their readers have changed with these new mediums: Are people really going to sit down and read this book? This kind of thinking sparks novel ideas like ‘choose your own adventure’ narratives, comic books, video games and more.”

According to Biswas, the Speculative Fiction Project came to life when pitched the idea of centering speculative fiction around scholarship at Dartmouth to Diamond. When selecting the authors for the panel, Biswas shared that the organizers primarily aimed to represent diversity in both background and writing experience.

“If you’re claiming to do a project that looks at the future of humanity, you need to represent diverse perspectives,” he said.

Biswas added that if the project were to happen again, he hopes it can bring together an even more diverse group of people with more funding.

“In the future, with better channels of funding, we hope to have more geographic diversity and be able to bring in international authors,” Biswas said.

The Speculative Fiction Project will continue as authors workshop their stories with their research partners. These works of fiction will be presented at a Dartmouth symposium in June and will subsequently be synthesized into an anthology in Lightspeed Magazine next year.

According to Clark, students will be invited to submit their own stories and up to four of them will be chosen and featured in the professional collection.

Jemisin emphasizing the importance of questioning societal norms and envisioning alternative futures.

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Content: Julia Nagel/Sun Photography Editor

Fantasy author N. K. Jemisin speaks at a Bartels World Affairs Lecture in Klarman Hall on Oct. 4.

8 hours ago

N.K. Jemisin Gives Bartels World Affairs Lecture, Speaks on Building a Better World

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N. K. Jemisin, best-selling science fiction and fantasy author well known for her book trilogy “The Broken Earth,” spoke about building a better world at this year’s Bartels World Affairs Lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 5:30 p.m. in a packed Rhodes-Rawling Auditorium. Jemisin spoke about how building fictional worlds helps her discuss the reality of our society, and concluded by calling on the audience to make choices in order to build the world they wish to see.

Following her talk, Jemisin joined a panel of Cornell faculty to kickstart the latest Global Grand Challenge: The Future. Global Grand Challenges bring together people and resources to understand and develop solutions to humanity’s most urgent challenges. The first challenge launched in 2019, and this year’s challenge, “The Future,” focuses on how to employ creativity to build a more equitable and sustainable future world.

Supported by the Henry E. and Nancy Horton Bartels World Affairs Fellowship, the Bartels World Affairs Lecture is an annual, signature event hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies that brings renowned individuals to Cornell’s campus to speak on international matters with students and faculty.

Seats at the event sold out and an estimated 330 people attended. In-person watch party tickets were made available as well, where attendees live streamed the lecture from an adjacent classroom near the auditorium. More than 270 local, national and international viewers who registered through eCornell also streamed the event live.

Vice Provost for International Affairs Wendy Wolford said that in addition to launching this year’s Global Grand Challenge, this event also fits into Cornell’s academic year theme of Freedom of Expression. Wolford explained that the world building, kindness and empathy in Jemisin’s work encouraged the Einaudi Center to select this event as the launch for the University’s new Global Grand Challenge.

“The theme of this new challenge is fittingly ‘The Future.’ With this challenge, we invite all of you, students, staff and faculty to step back from the immediate questions of your studies, your work and your research, to think about the world you want to live in,” Wolford said. “The Global Grand Challenge calls on us to go beyond the cutting edge… to imagine what the world would look like if we asked not just what can I do, but what do I want? What do we want?”

Jemisin began her lecture by describing her background in higher education, in which she spent 20 years working as a career counselor, academic counselor and director of experiential education before becoming an author. Jemisin writes science fiction and fantasy novels that explore a variety of themes, including power, cultural conflict and systems of subjugation.

“Many of the questions I tend to get are: Why science fiction? Why fantasy? Why would you, an ostensibly intelligent and mature person, write this kid’s stuff? And I tell people the same thing that Octavia Butler has said in interviews, which is in science fiction, I can do anything,” Jemisin said during her lecture.

Jemisin explained how people’s fears in a specific time period are reflected in their writing, especially in science fiction. She cited underlying fears of the sexual revolution displayed in 1960s feminist science fiction as an example.

“There’s another misconception out there that typically happens, which is that people think of science fiction as being about the future. They think of fantasy as being about the past,” Jemisin said. “It’s neither. Science fiction and fantasy are actually about our present world.”

Jemisin also described the process of science fiction worldbuilding on two levels — macro and micro. Macro worldbuilding involves creating the physical world of a story, including planets, continents, climate and ecology. Micro worldbuilding is crafting the society the characters will exist in, which includes species, morphology, racialization and power, among other things.

“The point of this [worldbuilding] exercise is to get people to start questioning their assumptions,” Jemisin said. “Understanding how our society functions is a lot more constructive than they think, so it’s important that I get across that all of this is changeable.”

Jemisin also spoke about how real people build worlds, and how our current world is not arbitrary, but rather the result of a series of choices. She emphasized that different choices remain possible, and that our understanding of ourselves and self-identity is evolving. Jemisin encouraged the audience to consider reasons for both creating and resisting change.

“We are being blasted with a constant firehose of disinformation which is fueled by a whole lot of money,” Jemisin said. “The only thing that we can do in order to resist this is begin to question and push back on how we became the society that we are and begin to recreate that society in our own design.”

Following her lecture, Jemisin joined a panel with Cornell faculty members Prof. Anindita Banerjee, comparative literature and feminist, gender and sexuality studies; Prof. John Albertson, civil and environmental engineering; and Prof. Kaushik Basu, international studies and economics. Each professor took turns briefly speaking about how their field of expertise relates to building a better world, and Jemisin followed with her thoughts.

“We see society now envisioning futures and being bold, making pledges of decarbonizing our energy supplies, decarbonizing our economy and setting ambitious timelines on which to do that,” Albertson said. “It’s relatively straightforward to plan the direct linear path of what you need to do there. But the question is: where are all the other parts of society that are touched by each of these changes?”

Asher Bergmann ’26 said his goal going into his sophomore year was going to more school  events, and was excited to find this lecture as someone who reads a lot of fantasy.

“I think she did a good job of not diving too deep into fantasy to where some people wouldn’t be interested, because while she’s a fantasy author, the point of this lecture wasn’t actually writing fantasy,” Bergmann said. “I think she did a good job of balancing her goal with what other people may have come here to see her speak about.”

Annabel Baniak ’24 decided to attend the event at the encouragement of both her professor  and her mom, whose favorite book is “The Fifth Season” by Jemisin. Baniak said she enjoyed the event and left feeling motivated and inspired to create change in the world.

Jemisin left the audience with a message to continue questioning the current world and to work towards building an ideal society.

“I have been having conversations all day with the students here, and they’re thinking ahead of me. I have to catch up. It is an innate part of youth to question our reality, and if the way that we live makes any sense,” Jemisin said. “I have to retain my own youthful questioning. They are right to question reality, and the rest of us need to keep doing that.”

Grace Liu ’27 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].

Jemisin's work, along with others, highlights the impact of women and authors of color in reshaping the genre to include more varied perspectives.

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

The genre's evolution also reflects a shift from short-form to long-form narratives, with an emphasis on exploring the human condition and philosophical themes.

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Content: Interview with Wang Jinkang, 2024 Hugo Finalist

INTRODUCTION: Eight Light Minutes(8LM) Culture of Chengdu has given permission for File 770 to reprint the series of interviews with Chinese science fiction writers which they have been running this week on Facebook. The first one is a question and answer session with Wang Jinkang, whose novella Seeds of Mercury is a 2024 Hugo Award finalist.

SUPPORTING CHINESE WRITERS SERIES (1): 2024 HUGO AWARD NOMINATION INTERVIEW WITH WANG JINKANG

Translated by Joseph Brant.

Wang Jinkang(王晋康) was born in Nanyang, Henan Province in 1948. He is a senior engineer, and a member of the Chinese Writer’s Association (CWA), The China Popular Science Writing Association (CPSWA), The Committee of Scientific Literature and Art, and the Henan Writers’ Association. Since the publication of his first story, The Return of Adam, in 1993, he has published over 90 short works, and 20 full novels, including Cross, We Together, Escape from The Mother Universe, Parents of Heaven and Earth, and Cosmic Crystal Eggs, totaling over six million words. He has won China’s Galaxy Award 16 times, as well as The Chinese Science Fiction Nebula’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He is considered one of Chinese science fiction’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’, and his emblematic work Seeds of Mercury was shortlisted for the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

Hello Mr. Wang! Before we start, I would like to congratulate you on Seeds of Mercury’s shortlisting for 2024’s “Best Novella” Hugo Award. This is news that has excited countless Chinese science fiction fans. Ever since the publication of Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History, readers have commented that your contributions have particularly appealed to them and would like to know more about your life and work. Hopefully, this long-awaited interview will provide some of the insights the sci-fi community has longed for.

Q1Mr. Wang, despite having produced many great works, this is the first time you’ve been shortlisted for the Hugo. How did you feel when you learned that you’d been shortlisted?

Wang Jinkang: Of course I was elated. Although I’ve won many awards in China, in fact the most Galaxy Awards in history, this is the first time I’ve been shortlisted for a Hugo. It felt like 31 years ago, when I first saw The Return of Adam in print, and when I won my First Galaxy Award. I think every author experiences these moments of excitement. It’s excellent that Chinese science fiction has reached a certain level, after years of growth, it’s now more and more visible internationally, which is fantastic. Of course, what we value even more, is these works transcending their era, and surviving the tides of time to reach future generations.

Religion and Science are enemies who love each other.

Q2Mr. Wang, as one of the ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ of Chinese science fiction, you’re already very well known in China, with a creative career spanning over thirty years, with works such as Leopard Man, Ant Life and Survival Experiment and so on. This shortlisted work is such a quintessential piece. However, this interview is not just intended for the Chinese sci-fi fans, but for readers around the world, who may not be familiar with Seeds of Mercury. Could I ask you to introduce it for the benefit of the overseas sci-fi fans?

Wang Jinkang: Seeds of Mercury is a two-threaded story. The first one follows a female scientist named Shawu, who discovers a new formula for life, and creates a fluid metal nano life form. When she dies, she entrusts that formula to Chen Yizhe, a businessman with a pure heart, along with the message “real life cannot be bred in pens. In the Solar System, there happens to be a suitable place for it to breed freely – Mercury”. Chen Yizhe accepts this monumental legacy enthusiastically, using his personal wealth to maintain the laboratory. In order take the next step, of “seeding Mercury”, he must turn to the society around him. Mr Hong, a multi-billionaire with a disagreeable personality but a benevolent soul, decides to liquidate his empire to facilitate the spaceship’s construction. Furthermore, Hong makes another astonishing decision: to relocate to Mercury, have his body frozen in the millennia-old ice caves of the planet’s north pole, to be awakened every 10 million years, to assist the evolution of these micro-lifeforms. In just 15 years, Chen Yizhe sends Hong to Mercury to seed the nano-life into the liquid metal lakes of Mercury, after which Hong settles down in its polar caves. Meanwhile, Hong’s lawyer, and soulmate named Yin, bids her painful farewells from the distant Earth.

The second storyline is set 100 million years later, when the Suola race have evolved on Mercury, their metal bodies adapted to the hundred-degree temperatures of the planet. They are sustained by light (drawing energy directly by photosynthesis). With no sense of hearing, they rely on the flashing of light through two orifices in their abdomen to communicate in binary. The entire Suola race are devout followers of Shawu, venerate the Star Father, the great god Shawu and her earthly incarnation. They have been initiated in science, and after studying their Holy Book, scientist Tu Lala discovers that much scientific knowledge has been disguised and hidden within. From this he deduces that life on Mercury originates from The Blue Planet. He implores the high priest to send an expedition to search for the Holy Site in the depths of the ice, with the excuse of reviving the incarnation of Shawu, as the Book prophesied. The high priest consents, sending a chaplain to supervise the mission. Tu Lala actually locates the Holy Site, and discovers the incarnation of Shawu (Mr Hong), frozen in the ice, along the sacred rites of “how to revive the incarnation of Shawu”.

However, unexpected occurrences, mainly due to the ignorance and blind devotion of the believers, result in Tulala’s unfortunate violent death (as metallic organisms, the Suola can easily resurrect after a sudden death, but those who do are considered an untouchable caste). In order to protect Mr Hong’s body, Tu lala risks the humiliation, but tragically, his student Qi Qiaqia denounces him, exposing his untouchable status, and inciting the crowd to him, During which time, Mr Hong’s body is destroyed in the scorching sunlight. To avoid blame, Qi Qiaqia suddenly declares that the incarnation of Shawu was a false god, which is why the Father Star could destroy it. This narrative is accepted by the devotees, who hail him as their new high priest. In the thousands of years that follow, Suola society descends into darkness, religious cruelly suppressing science, but from among the population comes a new “Sect of Repentance”, apparently founded by an untouchable. Silently they preserve everything related to science, awaiting the next rebirth of Shawu in future millennia.

Q3Seeds of Mercury was first published in 2002, and its appeal still endures, even after all this time. What inspired you to write this story?

Wang Jinkang: The initial inspiration probably came from a sad epiphany I had as a teenager. The human body is too fragile. Our proteins start to coagulate above 80°C, our brain suffers irreversible damage if we don’t breathe for five minutes, our body can’t withstand radiation, and we can die from disease, hunger, dehydration, drowning and freezing… It’s admirable that such a fragile life form has been propagated on for billions of years, but it also makes me apprehensive that humanity would not survive a disaster. Human civilisation is a great achievement, which is why we are proud of it; but it also makes me anxious, worrying that humanity may not survive the next cataclysm. I couldn’t help but imagine, what if a creator, or god of evolution, created a metallic life, invulnerable to fire and flood? Many years later, I combined these youthful imaginings with my subsequent concept of “Templates for Life” and turned it into this novella.

Q4Seeds of Mercury is a piece about the sublime act of Creation, and a reflection on the transitory nature of life. Did you write it with the intention of exploring the contradiction between Science and Religion? Or did that grow naturally out of the creative process? Also, do the sentient beings you write about reflect your own views and positions?

Wang Jinkang: I didn’t intend to construct that dichotomy between Science and Religion, but it’s exactly what happened on Earth, so when I created a history for Mercury’s civilisation, those episodes just appeared naturally. Religion and Science are enemies who love each other. European Papacy cruelly persecuted Galileo, Bruno, and other ‘heretics’, and strictly forbade the theory of evolution, but medieval Europe became the birthplace of modern science. When we look back at the history of Civilisation over millennia, you can’t help but sigh that history is full of paradoxes, and that The Creator is always full of mischief, making fun of the theories of Cause and Effect. As to whether this new life carries some of my own views or positions? Of course. Tu Lala is the heir to the human spirit, with his scientific rationality, adventurous spirit, sense of responsibility, fortitude, and self-sacrifice. In the story, when Tu Lala meets the holy body of Shawu Incarnate, and he figures out that the great god was a scientist. Thus, demonstrating that the intellectual spirits of all scientists are inter-relatable, even if they are alien. That is what I believe in my heart.

Today’s AI isn’t quite up to the standard of “Return of Adam”

Q5Mr. Wang, the world has moved on 22 years since the first publication of Seeds of Mercury. What changes do you think have occurred in science fiction writing in the present day, compared to the early years both in terms of the environment, and the core themes?

Wang Jinkang: These 22 years have brought great changes, and it could be said that civilisation has reached a critical point, that we’re on the cusp of drastic changes. However, for the science fiction writer, who is used to seeing the world from a god-like point of view (through the eyes of science) we think in millennia, so 22 years is too short a period to affect the themes of my work. For example, my debut story Return of Adam showed a society where AI had overcome natural humanity, though it had taken on a parasitic approach, augmenting the processing power (IQ) of the human mind to far outstrip the basic brain, and in fact, became the core of human consciousness. The rapid development of AI today, especially the LLM systems, is amazing, even frightening, but in general, today’s AI isn’t quite up to the standards of Return of Adam. Still, I’m saddened that some things I wrote about, which I assumed would be far in the future have come to pass in my lifetime. For example, in 1997, when many Chinese people asserted that AI could never triumph in the field of Weiqi (Go), I was convinced it eventually would, and wrote a scene of an ‘AI beating a human chess master’ in one of my stories, before it actually happened. I just never expected to see it in my lifetime.

Q6Before Liu Cixin appeared, you “held up half the sky” in Chinese Sci-fi. When you first appeared in China’s science fiction circles, you were relatively older, and more experienced. Do you think that maturity allowed your work to appear more rounded?

Wang Jinkang: My life and experiences have been quite unique. I’ve lived through a very special time in China’s history, worked as a rusticated youth, a miner and model maker. I went to university at 30, became a mechanical engineer, wrote literary novels, and only broke into the science fiction world by chance at 45, publishing my first sci-fi story. If anything, my near-fanatical reading of literature at university paved the way for my future writing. At that time, the reforms were already happening in China, and it was opening up to the world. A huge amount of foreign literature was pouring into the country, dazzling readers like me. There may be another special factor, which is, because I was studying engineering, I was standing atop this wall of science and watching this river of literature racing by, I had a sense of detachment. Add to that I only started writing SF decades after experiencing the rise, fall and distilling of the wave of literature. I suppose that’s why my writing style has a poised, bleak, and sombre character.

Q7What sort of stories do you think are expected from the current literary ecosystem? Which sci-fi genres do you expect to take off in the future?

Wang Jinkang: I have always felt that science fiction is unlike any other form of literature. The richness of mainstream literature does not necessarily coincide with the strength of a country. As the aphorisms go, “classics are born from chaos”, and “poets are fortunate when the country is not”. However, the success of science fiction is reliant on enough readers and authors being educated to a certain threshold, and so depends on the country’s economic, scientific, and technological development, which can be proven by the movement of science fiction’s centre from Britain and France to the United States over the last century. Over the past 40 years, China’s overall economic development has been good, and as one of the oldest sci-fi writers in the country, I’ve experienced this first-hand. I feel that as China continues to modernise and converge with the rest of the world, the creative environment of Chinese sci-fi will continue to improve. As for which themes, I feel will start to emerge? It’s expected that artificial intelligence and space themes, with more emphasis on exploring the human condition, are going to be the stories of importance, but other themes will also develop immensely.

Science fiction writers are used to seeing the world from a god-like viewpoint.

Q8 Mr. Wang, science fiction has taken root in China now for around a century, and you have played a pivotal role in the history of science fiction in the country. Irrespective of whether or not you win this Hugo Award, you have influenced a generation of sci-fi fans and creators. How do you view your own Creative Achievements?

Wang Jinkang: I’m flattered, but I only really played a leading and inductive role in the early stages of the so-called “New Generation” of Chinese sci-fi back in the 1990s. I’m content with the two aspects of my writing career, firstly, in forming the genre of Philosophical Science Fiction, which is based on the latest technological advances, and digs deep into the influence it has on alienation, civilisation, and so forth, to discover this genre’s philosophical uniqueness. This genre did not originate in my work, foreign writers including Mr. Arthur C. Clarke have long created excellent works of philosophical sci-fi, but these elements in my work are more concentrated. Furthermore, with regards science fiction as “the most cosmopolitan form of literature”, I consider my work, whilst still cosmopolitan, to be imbued heavily with Chinese styles and themes, which adds a certain flavour to the genre.

Q9Do you feel that science fiction writing is shifting from short-form to long form, and what difficulties do you feel are associated with that?

Wang Jinkang: In my experience there are three main issues faced when moving into the long-form. Firstly, there must be enough knowledge, from the accumulation of experience and information. Secondly, there must be a more mature view of Nature and human society, in their entirety. These are not necessarily the dominant trait of the novel but will play important roles in the story’s development. Thirdly, the ability to comprehend the entirety of the larger story. This ability to grasp the complete story is equally important to mainstream literary writers, but in science fiction, concepts always play a driving role in the whole work and should be logically consistent in themselves.

Q10In your eyes, what is the role of Morality and Ethics in Science Fiction?

Wang Jinkang: Science fiction authors often look at the world from a godlike point of view, and in the eyes of a creator, survival comes first, and morality and ethics are just auxiliary codes established by humans once they reached a certain level of civilisation. They are also conducive to the overall survival of the human race. As Humanity develops, and “co-operation” becomes more central to society, the role of morality and ethics becomes more and more important, but they certainly won’t stay the same, and the rules will certainly have additions and deletions. For example, once technology becomes suitably advance, the ethics of “strict prohibition regarding editing the genes of a human being” are very likely to change.

Q11Throughout your career, which of your stories are you most satisfied with?

Wang Jinkang: Of my short and medium length works, I like Seeds of Mercury’, Bee Keepers and The Song of Life, and of my longer works, I’m most satisfied with Ant’s Life and the Alive Trilogy (Escape From The Mother Universe, Parents of Heaven And Earth, and Cosmic Crystal Eggs).

Thank you, reader, for giving meaning to my life.

Q12Mr. Wang, some sci-fi fans have pointed out you are ‘the oldest non-American writer shortlisted for the Hugo Award’, which is an impressive feat. What are your hopes for the Hugo Awards?

Wang Jinkang: There’s a bit of a special circumstance here, where a story I wrote 22 years ago, was only translated into English last year, and shortlisted according to the translation’s publication date, even though, I’m very happy to hold this “World Record”. I hope it will go further than just being a finalist, but even if it doesn’t, I still consider it a great honour to be shortlisted.

Q13What would you like to say to the readers regarding the inclusion of Seeds of Mercury in the Hugo Awards shortlist, which was voted for by individual sci-fi fans one after another?

Wang Jinkang: I’ve always had a reverence for my readers. The two most common inscriptions I write to fans at signings are “The reader is the god of authors”, and “Thank you reader, for giving meaning to my life”. Out of the millions of publications each year, in a sea of stories, to have any number of people read your work, enjoy it, and keep it in their memory after that relentless tide of time, is a rare blessing. One might even call it a great gift from the readers to the author.

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What concepts does Ishiguro's literary science fiction novel bring up?

This shift has been accompanied by a growing acceptance of science fiction and fantasy as legitimate literary forms, breaking away from earlier stigmas.

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Content: INTERVIEW

"I want to believe": Alice Hoffman is always seeking magic, practical and otherwise

The author on her time travel novel "The Invisible Hour," thoughts on Nathaniel Hawthorne and "Practical Magic"

By Alison Stine

Staff Writer

Published August 20, 2023 8:00AM (EDT)

1998 Sandra Bullock and Nichole Kidman stars in the new movie "Practical Magic." (Getty Images/Warner Bros./Hulton Archive)

Alice Hoffman still believes.

The New York Times bestselling author of more than 40 works of fiction published her first, "Property Of," when she was just 21. That novel was swiftly followed by beloved collections of short fiction, works for teens and children, and novels like 1995's "Practical Magic," best known for its big-screen adaptation.

"It's a bad idea to write for the moment because the moment passes so quickly."

It's not the only one of her books to be turned into a film. She also wrote "Aquamarine," "The River King," and penned the screenplay for the 1993 indie film "Independence Day." But the 1998 movie adaptation of "Practical Magic," starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Stockard Channing, has acquired a massive following over the years.

Hoffman returned to the family of witches introduced in "Practical Magic" with several other books, including 2021's "The Book of Magic." And she returns to magic often, with witchy characters, rambling houses lush with flourishing plants (I always keep rosemary by my garden gate because of Hoffman), inherited curses, women telling their own truths — and a strong belief in what we cannot always see.

Her new novel, "The Invisible Hour" twists time. Lonely and ostracized Mia has been raised in the cloistered Community, a cult in western Massachusetts. Though books are outlawed by the Community, she finds secret solace in them. Specifically, one book: "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. And in the second half of Hoffman's novel, she finds herself going back in time to encounter the writer whose words she feels showed her a way to survive.

Hoffman talked with Salon about Hawthorne, writing during a time of COVID and finding magic in the real world still.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Your first novel was published when you were very young. Did you always know that you wanted to tell stories?

I think I was always a reader. That was what was important to me. I think I wanted to be a writer. I remember sending a short story someplace when I was in high school, so I must have had thoughts about that, but really I was mostly a reader. Then I took a creative writing class, and the professor was shockingly supportive. I just never expected it. I certainly didn't think you could do it for a living or it would be a profession.

I remember that I didn't know that until I read "Anne of Green Gables" by L. M. Montgomery. The main character was a writer, and I realized, oh, people actually do this.

I know, it's kind of a shock. I think nowadays people think about doing this, I don't know, but I certainly didn't think about getting published. That wasn't my thought.

You've written in a lot of formats. You've written novels for adults, YA novels, middle grade, short stories, a screenplay. Do you have a favorite form that you love to write in?

Honestly, I think I like connecting short stories, a novel-in-stories because you get to move around. There's so much freedom, and the way things connect can be so interesting.

That seems like a hard format to me.

Really? I think it's so much fun. And you just can create a whole gigantic world and move around so freely.

Well, that makes sense because you've returned to your worlds a few times. You've returned to the characters, so it makes sense that you would be drawn to it.

And this new book ["The Invisible Hour"] actually takes place in a town where I wrote a book of connecting stories about called "The Red Garden," so it's the same place. It's just a novel that takes place in that town.

Oh, that's so interesting. It's like there's something left over that you have to return to.

For me, it was very healing to go back to that town. I felt really comfortable there. It made it easier for me in a way to write the novel. It was so weird writing during COVID and so escapist for me. I think some people couldn't write, but for me I wrote more because where were we going to go? And I think the idea of time travel — I've always loved time travel books, but the idea that you could change things or go back, it's really interesting to me.

It makes sense that you would be thinking about time travel during COVID, too. I was going to ask you about time, and if that was important to your work.

It really is all about time. I thought a lot about time while I was writing this book and before this book because it was such a lousy time. I mean, there were good things that came out of it. I think some friendships became closer, but I just felt so sad for the people who were at certain phases of their life, were young, becoming young adults or were kids. And I just didn't really want to be in this time. I still don't want to be in this time, to tell you the truth.

Yeah, I understand that. How do you keep a sense of wonder in your writing, even when you're writing for adults?

I think it's because of the books that I read. I'm sure as a fiction writer you feel this too. The books that I read when I was younger are the books that wound up affecting me more than any others. They form who you are as a reader, as a person. And I read a lot of magic and a lot of Ray Bradbury.

I loved books that took place in the here and now, but also included magic so that it wasn't so far away. Back then, everything was genre-ized . . . Now that's changed, and [science fiction and fantasy] are more acceptable as literature, but it didn't used to be. I always feel like you should just write what you want to write no matter what's current because it doesn't really matter. It changes.

That's a good point. And I feel like that changed not too long ago. Even when I was in school, there was a lot of criticism from professors for genre writing. To write genre work was somehow bad. And I feel like that's been a recent kind of shift, thank goodness.

Really recent, I think. I remember I read Ursula K. Le Guin when I was a kid and loved her books, but they were definitely science fiction and fantasy. And then all of a sudden they became literature. Someone decided. But they were always literature. It's just they were put into these categories.

"Fiction is more believable than life in a way because when you're writing a book, you have to have it make sense."

I think it's a bad idea to write for the moment because the moment passes so quickly. The other thing about time is that what's right and what's good and what's accepted suddenly becomes not. I thought about that with the way women were treated in "The Scarlet Letter," the way that the Puritans blamed women, and they believed in original sin and that women were responsible for that because of Eve. It all changed, but then it changes back. And then it changes again. A lot of the things that women are coping with right now are not that different, really. The judgment against women.

That's very true. Why do you feel called to tell stories that have magic in them? I mean, you talked a little bit about your childhood reading. Is that why, or do you think there's something else that makes you feel like these are the stories you need to tell?

It's about my childhood and what I read, but I think it's also I want to believe. I want to believe that there's — not magic per se necessarily, but wonder and beauty and goodness and a moral universe and all those sorts of things . . . I feel like fiction is more believable than life in a way because when you're writing a book, you have to have it make sense. You can't just have random things happen for no reason, but that's not like life at all. I almost feel that's part of the comfort of reading fiction. Even with time travel, it has to make some kind of sense — and life really doesn't make any sense. I feel like I'm constantly trying to make it make sense.

And there's no closure in life.

No.

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There can be closure in books and you can also return to them, as you have. You can return to the world and get that healing that we really can't get in life. You have a new book out, "The Invisible Hour." How would you describe it?

It's about magic and women and time and loss. Sometimes I think you don't really know what a book is about until you finish it. I always feel like there's the inside story; there's the outside story. You don't necessarily know the inside story.

For me, I think it was a lot about my relationship with my mother and how difficult mother and daughter relationships are, how important they are, and how they change as people get older, as you more understand who your mother was and what she went through.

I always feel like you can't really know older people or your mother because you didn't know her when she was young. And even though I think people basically stay the same unless they're extremely traumatized, you're so different when you're young. So I feel like we can't really know our mothers.

"Better not to meet your heroes, your living heroes. Better to fall in love with a dead writer."

Again, there's so much about time and history in this book. Was Nathaniel Hawthorne an influence on you?

I've been thinking about writing about him for a long time. He's interesting because in some ways some of the things that he wrote were a little bit misogynistic, but "The Scarlet Letter" is such a feminist book. It's kind of shocking. His wife came from a family that was kind of a feminist family in a way for the time. He had two sisters and a mother that he was very close to.

He also had a lot of issues about writing and life — and hiding from life in writing. I think he was an extremely interesting person and writer. Sometimes, for people now "The Scarlet Letter" can be off-putting because the language is old-fashioned, but the heart of it really is about a woman trying to make decisions about her own life and society not wanting to allow that to happen.

Is there a book that helped you feel less lonely, as "The Scarlet Letter" helps Mia in "The Invisible Hour"?

There were a couple of books. One of those books was "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank when I was young . . . You know, sometimes you read a book and you feel known. I felt like I'm her or she's me . . .  I think that's why "Catcher in the Rye" was popular and meaningful for a lot of people because there was this sense that the character was talking directly to you. And so I have a couple of books. I think books in general make me feel that.

Is there a writer from history that you believe you could fall in love with, similar to what kind of happens in "The Invisible Hour?"

Well, I think a lot of people fell in love with Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was so incredibly handsome. So, maybe him.

When I interviewed the musician Amanda Shires, I knew that she loved Leonard Cohen, and she said that she sometimes felt she might have been born in the wrong time, that she and Cohen could have been together and made music together.

Yeah, and she would've been very miserable. I love Leonard Cohen, but –

She would've written some other great songs, but they might've been sad songs.

I think sometimes it's better not to meet your heroes, your living heroes. Better to fall in love with a dead writer.

We talked a bit about the pandemic, and I'm with you: at the start, I definitely found comfort in my fiction writing, but I also found community in it. I could kind of make up my own community when I couldn't leave the house. That's something that I see in a lot of your books: a small town or this found family. Is community or the idea of a village important to your writing?

I think I write about a lot of things that I don't have. I don't have a sister, I don't have a daughter. I'm close to one of my aunts and I'm very close to my nephews, but I don't have that kind of community. I don't live in a small town. I really long for that, and I think most people do have a need for it. I just think we live in such a fractured society. People move all over the country and you see them maybe once a year.

COVID really pointed that out to me because a lot of people kind of went into retreat with their families. If you didn't have a family, there were really not that many people to go into retreat with. I think a lot of my books are about longing for community.

Growing up my mother was very bohemian, and we were outcasts in our community. I think that made me long for it even more, and yet distrust it.

How do you create your characters? How do you make engaging people come to life?

That's a really scary question because I don't think I have the answers for it. I used to do things with my characters. I'd write down everything about them, where they went to school, what they dressed in and what music they listened to. But I don't really do that anymore.

Now, it's like they walk in through the door, and I just let them be. I have to rewrite them a lot, but basically, that definitely happened with "Practical Magic" where I remember writing it in this little shed on a marsh. I just felt like they walked through the door. It happened when I wrote "The Rules of Magic" too and Vincent appeared. I didn't expect him to be in the book. I didn't know anything about him, and he just kind of revealed himself. I really didn't have to do it. It just happened.

I guess the trick is you have to leave that door open. They might just walk in, but you can't close it.

You can't shut the door in their face. It's opening the door.

Are you surprised at how much cultural impact your books have had, like "Practical Magic?" That has such staying power. It's in memes; it just shows up all the time. Has that surprised you, that people have loved your story for so long?

I don't know. I wasn't thinking like that. I think some of that — maybe a lot of that — has to do with the movie, which was weirdly, extremely unpopular. Nobody went to see it when it came out. And every year it becomes more popular, which is so interesting to me. I almost feel it wasn't the right time for it. It was one of the first movies that had basically a cast of women. The men are there, but they're not as important as the relationships between the women.

Now there are more, movies like "Bridesmaids." But then, it didn't really exist. There was a very negative critical response to ["Practical Magic"], I think probably because it was very female and very much about sisterhood. And that's changed, so that's a good thing.

That goes back to what you were speaking about, how you can't write for the moment because the moment is going to move on. Maybe the moment will get you in a few years, but not right now.

That's right. It's like what are you writing for? Sometimes I'm afraid now: will there even be books? Or, will it be like one of my favorite books, "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, where books are too dangerous. They're not just banning books, they're burning books because books — it goes two ways. The writer opens the door for the characters, but the book opens the door for the reader.

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It's a scary time in the world right now with book banning and AI.

I don't feel like: oh, my books will last. Because I don't know if books are lasting. I just feel like they're here. But I want them to have this feeling of timelessness because that's how I felt when I read the books that I loved. Even when they were happening at a certain time, they didn't seem caught in time.

How does magic show up in your life now?

I am kind of still looking for it. I think I'm constantly looking for it. My connection with magic is about writing. This idea that characters walk through the door and this idea of creating something beautiful out of something terrible sometimes, or out of loss, or out of death. You can put letters on a page, and it becomes a world. And it means something so different to the writer and to the reader. The reader creates that whole world in their mind. For me, that's magic.

By Alison Stine

Alison Stine is a former staff writer at Salon. She is the author of the novels "Trashlands" and "Road Out of Winter," winner of the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award. A recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), she has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and others.

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Alice Hoffman Books Interview Magic Nathaniel Hawthorne Practical Magic The Scarlet Letter

Overall, science fiction has transformed from a niche genre focused on technological speculation to a diverse and inclusive field that challenges societal norms and explores complex human experiences.