Worldcon Starts Over: But Will It Be Enough?

Fellow Sci-Fi/Fantasy book friends, we need to talk. The slowly stewing mess that is WorldCon 76 caught itself on full fire on Sunday when the preliminary programming emails went out. This is a drama, like so many, playing out all across social media — Twitter subtweets, Facebook apologies, and Instagram head shots. For the basic facts, as I saw them unfold on my feed myself, I’ll direct you to this quick round-up from The Daily Dot: Worldcon faces backlash for sidelining marginalized authors. Too Long; Didn’t Read:

One of the nominees who has non-binary gender pronouns clearly displayed on social media, had their bio altered to mis-gender them. Concerns around accessibility to panels, especially the Awards ceremony, have gone unheeded. Panel programming has been a long, delayed process, leaving creators and attendees un-informed about their status — which is particularly trying for those with tight budgets who can least afford last minute travel changes. Nominees for the Hugo Awards who *happened to be* immigrants/queer/of color were not placed on panels because “they weren’t well known”.

And that’s the short list.

Y’all mistakes were made. The WorldCon 76 San Jose chair has issued a full apology on all the relevant sites, promising to re-design the programming plan from the ground up. In the meantime, high-profile white attendees like John Scalzi are giving up their seats on panels so they can be re-staffed to be more diverse. With only a month left to the conventio…