The Article, the Prize, and the Podcast

BUSY BEING GLAMOROUS

The world will insist on still existing, and so I continue to exist within it. Yet this genderfree giant hasn’t only been enduring, but thriving! I continue to be thrilled at being represented by Jonathan Villegas of Olswanger Literary, not least because he’s kind and conscientious with a in-depth knowledge of the industry. We make for a fantastic fit. And that’s not all, because I’ve been pretty busy over these past couple months.

THE LEAPFROG PRIZE

First of all, I was delighted to be announced the 1st runner-up for the Leapfrog Prize. Not as delighted as if I’d won, of course, but I was close! This is a real honour for me, as Leapfrog Press was established by Marge Piercy, and as those in my personal life surely know, I’m obsessed with her. I’ve lost count of the amount of papers I’ve given on her forward-thinking novel Woman on the Edge of Time, let alone how many times I’ve ranted about it to captive friends. Did I mention you should read Woman on the Edge of Time? Because you should.

Anyway, I feel privileged to have placed second among so many entries. It really feels like an accomplishment, especially when coupled with my being shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize earlier this year…

THE AMBITOPIA ARTICLE

Another thing I’m obsessed with is ambitopia. Let’s face it, dystopia and utopia are based in a stubborn old binary that we need to move beyond. And I’m not the only one who thinks so, as since I first talked about the term it’s continued to inspire people, with artworks, exhibitions, and essays. There’s even been a study examining ambitopia’s impact on attitudes toward climate change. It feels weird that an idea I had provoked a study.

Well, I’ve written another article on the subject, this time for the new magazine, Onlysky. In ‘Ambitopia: How to face an uncertain future’ I talk about the importance of maintaining an ambitopian mindset in dealing with our rapidly-changing world.

“We do not live in a world of binary choices, and we never will. Things won’t get worse before they get better—they will get worse and they will get better. And that’s something we need to get used to. Because the world of the future won’t be a utopia or a dystopia. It will be an ambitopia.”

Thanks to Onlysky for choosing to publish the piece. It’s a really exciting magazine, and I’m looking forward to seeing the future-oriented articles they come to host.

THE REVIEW

I’ve written a new review for Strange Horizons! This time I wrote about If the Stars Are Lit by Sara K. Ellis, an indie LGBTQ+ novel with a captivating premise that ultimately let me down a little. Still, I hope to see more from the author, and I won’t spoil the review here by writing too much about it. Hop on over to Strange Horizons to check it out for yourself.

THE PODCAST

That’s not everything from Strange Horizons though, as following the review I was invited onto magazine’s Critical Friends podcast. Joining host Dan Hartland and fellow guest Nileena Sunil, we talked about the nature of novels and novellas – including the choice between depth and breadth, as well as also my own ambitopian novel, Proud Pink Sky.

Dan is a fantastic host and the three of us had a wonderful time chatting together. You can have a listen to the podcast over on the Strange Horizons website, which also includes a written transcript. Simply click the linky right here.

That’s all for this entry, so it’s back to the word mines for me. There’s probably something I forgot to mention as there’s always something I forgot to mention.

Ooh, I have a reading for the Tapwater event at Z-Bar Berlin tonight, so wish me luck! Or if you somehow can’t manage that, then wish me an OK-to-average performance!

Alright, fine. Can you at least wish that I don’t somehow choke to death while still on stage as the audience passively sits and watches, only mildly entertained by my desperate, violet-faced demise?

You never know.

– Redfern

I Have an Agent – and Other News!

No long-running jokes about becoming a shut-in hermit writer today, I’m afraid – instead I’m just going to dive straight in and announce that I’m now represented by Jonathan Villegas of Olswanger Literary!

All right, that reveal might have been spoiled by the title of this post, but I still expect you to at least pretend to show shock and delight, not least because Jonathan is a diligent agent who’s dedicated to promoting LGTBQ+ authors as well as authors of colour. I feel incredibly fortunate to be rep’d by him.

Of course this is extremely exciting news, and together we’re already starting work on my latest project. There will be much, much more to follow. To mark this latest milestone, my good friend Alex Goldberg and I took some new author pictures this weekend, one of which will soon be on the main page of this website…

Sadly it won’t be this exciting action shot of me caught mid-word, but it will include me wearing the same pink eyeshadow. (By this point it’s the closest thing I have to a registered trademark.)

I’m also delighted because my good friend and editing partner Christiane Michaelis has just landed an agent too! We’ve spent the past couple years editing her amazing YA novel together, and it’s so wonderful that we’re now both represented. Her novel – which focuses on the climate crisis – deserves all the success.

AND OTHER NEWS

Things are certainly rosy this month, because I’ve been longlisted for the Leapfrog Prize. Anonymous judging is still ongoing so I can’t reveal which title is mine, but I’m very pleased to have made the 11-person selection. Fingers crossed for the shortlist!

In a bizarre and also fantastic twist, Christiane has also been longlisted for the same prize, under the Young Adult category! This can only point to some kind of shared destiny, which is unfortunate for Christiane because I fully intend to go out in a blaze of glory. Perhaps by being catapulted into the side of a national monument.

That’s all for now, but I’ll be sharing more soon – so be sure to quit your otherwise unimportant job so you can spend day after day clicking refresh on this page. What else are you going to do, figure out how RSS feeds work?

No one knows how RSS feeds work.

– Redfern

The Bristol Shortlist!

No witty preamble here, because I’m just too excited that my story ‘Borderline’ has made the shortlist for the Bristol Short Story Prize! ‘Borderline’ follows a character who lives in a Berlin that’s split in two – finally diving into their own divided gender by buying a forbidden lipstick…

Or, as the prize itself puts it:

The winners of the prize will be announced at the Waterstones Gallery in Bristol at 8pm on June 28! I will be attending via Zoom…

And the best part? The other finalists are a wide range of accomplished writers, which makes me feel the accomplishment even more strongly! You can read about them all by visiting the Bristol Short Story Prize website, or by clicking the link here.

Fingers crossed for this one!

Today’s post is a mini one, but stay tuned for another upcoming review, as well as news for the next secret project I’ve been working on… in the meantime I shall leave you with this picture I drew on a whim. It’s a scene from my novel Proud Pink Sky, showing the rooftop cottage that eventually becomes home for the teenager immigrants to the gay city, William and Gareth. In the foreground sits Henna, their hot-tempered but fiercely loyal neighbour. The background shows the ramshackle construction of the queer district, with the wealthier towers looming behind.

I’m not the greatest at drawing, but I do believe in playing around and experimenting with different forms of art. And to bring a piece to life in more than one way can be something very special indeed.

By the way, did I mention that I’ve been melting in this unbearably humid heat like a grotesquely sweaty Elphaba?

The book one, not the movie one.

– Redfern

A Salon, a Journal, and a Prize

It's been just under two months since my last blog post, and it feels like 40 years of history has happened in the meantime. And as the world continues to spin perilously out of control, I've been doing what we all do to get by: mostly continue on like things are normal, and that our personal accomplishments aren't going to be obliterated in yet another world war. So on that note... onwards and upwards!

A Salon

Image credit: The European Writers Salon

One positive development these past few months has been the founding of the European Writers Salon. As the world grows ever-more unstable, the EWS aims to unite writers across Europe, traveling the continent and organising readings and events – and I was very fortunate to be included among the 13 speakers chosen to read at Lettrétage in Berlin!

For the Berlin evening I read a particularly evocative scene from my novel Proud Pink Sky, one I’ve never performed in public before. The response was wonderful, and I really enjoyed meeting a range of poets and writers at an event that was at max capacity. This is a truly fantastic initiative that only seems to be gaining traction, and it’s one I fully support. Their next salon is in Brussels.

A Journal

I am absolutely thrilled that I have a new story in Nature, for their ‘Futures’ section. ‘Dear Leader’ follows the story of an old man made young, then thrown into an oubliette… This is a short, dark piece that I had a lot of fun with.

We are the same, Dear Leader. I realize that now. We’re both doomed, you and I.

You can read the full story on Nature’s website, though you may need a subscription.

A Prize

My final piece of news is that a story of mine has been longlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize! According to the Prize, my story one of 30 selected from over 1800 entries, with the shortlist to be announced in May. Sadly I can’t reveal which story is mine as judging is anonymised and ongoing, but I’m honoured to have been selected among such fierce competition. I can’t wait to read the resulting anthology!

The longlist is available here.

And that’s it for now! You only get a short post this time around because you displease me, and you are being punished. Join me next time when I’ll be live-doomscrolling the apocalypse, all while trying to think up the wittiest words that rhyme with ‘help help oh gods someone please help’.

You can follow me on Bluesky at @redfernjon.bsky.social and on Mastodon @Redfern. I’m also on LinkedIn if you’re kinky that way.

Yours in Terror,

– Redfern

The Horrors Persist But So Do I

Well, the world certainly got worse since my last post, but then again that’s been true of every post I’ve ever made. So maybe I should just say that the world is still getting worse, but I don’t even need to say that because by this point it’s simply a given. Thankfully we introverts are adept at hiding ourselves indoors, which will be a useful skill once outside is filled with nothing but roving bands of marauders (bad) and crypto bros (worse).

So let’s try and focus on the positive – the past few weeks have been a productive time for your favourite two-metre-tall enby author, so go grab a coffee (or cup of stagnant puddle water if global trade has broken down by the time you read this) and feast your hope-starved eyes on mildly interesting news.

All About Ambitopia

All this talk of slow societal collapse is actually pretty relevant, as my number-one stalkers will remember that I once coined the term ‘ambitopia’ in an interview with Eleanor Tremeer and Laurie Penny. I then wrote an article about it for the British Science Fiction Association’s magazine, Vector, called ‘Ambitopia: Futures Beyond the Binary’ – where I further broke down the utopia-dystopia pairing in favour of depicting futures that are simultaneously radically better and worse. The concept has already garnered a lot of attention, and I was recently pleased to see that it has at least partially inspired an exhibition, at least according to magazines covering it.

Ambitopia has also been covered in an article by environmentalist media group Mongabay, on hope and fear in climate fiction.

I Went Out in Public

That’s right, I bravely ventured out into The Real World and did a reading at Tap Water Berlin. Hosted at Keith Bar, the event was presented by the wonderful Orla O’Hagan and featured a lovely audience.

Tap Water takes place once a month, and invites a variety of readers and performers to showcase their work. Speaking of which, I’m excited to be reading for the European Writers Salon next month! More to follow…

I Wrote Things!

In the past weeks I’ve had a few opportunities to write and comment on my favourite media. First up, Strange Horizons published my review of Ken Macleod’s latest work, Beyond the Light Horizon. The third in his Lightspeed Trilogy, the novel promises a conclusion to what had so far been a gripping, far-sighted geopolitical sci-fi series. It was a lot to live up to…

“The story moves so quickly, and the characters are so numerous, that cradling every single plot point from the previous two books becomes difficult-to-impossible, even with the helpful summary at the opening of Beyond the Light Horizon: There are three sides, three hundred characters … and an entire universe out there that’s ripe for colonisation.”

I was also pleased to contribute to Strange Horizon’s ‘Year in Review’, where their contributors comment on speculative media they enjoyed the past year. For 2024 I broke the trend of discussing books, movies, and shows in favour of a long-running pastime of mine: video games.

Speaking of summing up 2024, I was also pleased to provide my three favourite reads of the year for Shepherd, a Goodreads-style site for book recommendations. I’ve read a lot of great writing the past year, so it was a tough one, but I’m happy with my choices.

“Every now and then I read a book that expands my on perceptions of the world and those who dwell within it. A book that cuts through the distracting stress and division of life in the 2020s to awaken my curiosity and empathy…”

Nature is Coming

Lastly, there’s a date for the release of my latest short story, which will be published in Nature Futures – the sci-fi component of the journal Nature. This dark and haunting story will be coming out February 12th, and I’ll be posting about it here…

And that’s all you’re getting for this stage of the apocalypse! Join me next time once more social norms have eroded, as I’ll surely have been doing more things! Until then, fellow ambitopians…

– Redfern

Blue Skies, White Monuments, and Multicolour Eyelids

First of all, today was the first day of snow, and as everyone knows, that’s the day you don’t leave home until winter is over. If you don’t have enough provisions to last until thaw, try luring unsuspecting birds in through the window – or if you’re vegetarian like me, use a fishing rod to hook the groceries right out of pedestrians’ hands. It’s not stealing if they can’t see you.

So now that I’m safely ensconced indoors for the next five months, I finally have time to recap what’s been going on lately. And on things have been going, oh yes!

BERLIN’S SKY IS GREY, NOT BLUE

First of all, I am actually on social media. I’ve been on Mastodon for a couple years now, and I joined Bluesky several months ago, Before It Was Cool. And now that everyone has apparently been driven away from Twitter by some lump of sentient racist ham, I’ve been gaining a lot of new followers. You can follow me too, and enjoy the sight of my face painted with bright, shiny colours.

I also post about other things, but they’re mainly just filler in between each lusciously-rendered vision of my dazzling eyelids.

HUGO, GIRL! (HOW DID I ONLY JUST GET THIS PUN?!)

As long-time stalkers will know, sometimes I like to talk to people. Real actual people, who probably exist and aren’t just the embodied personifications of repressed emotions. Some of these flesh-and-blood people were the lovely cast of the Hugo, Girl! podcast, Lori, Haley, and Amy. We discussed Ursula Le Guin’s classic novel The Dispossessed, as well as my concept of ambitopia and how it relates to my book Proud Pink Sky. My publisher even made this lovely graphic for the event!

You can listen to the episode here.

ADVENTURES IN WASHINGTON D.C.

I was recently in the U.S. capital, staying with a dear friend of mine and visiting monuments that honestly could do with a dab more colour. Just think of it: the Capitol building in retro ’90s lime green, the Washington Monument in a kaleidoscope of neon, Statue Lincoln of the Lincoln Memorial in vivid, fleshy tones. Why does everything have to be in white?

While I wasn’t scaling national monuments with a bucket of paint in hand and a lot of people screaming at me (rude), I had the chance to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library – where I was touched to find a copy of Proud Pink Sky. I joke a fair bit on this blog, but here’s a rare shard of sincerity: it means a huge amount to me that my book about trans and nonbinary oppression is in such a beautiful location. It was wonderful.

IT’S IN MY NATURE

Finally, I have a lovely piece of news: I have another upcoming story in Nature Futures, the science fiction section of the journal Nature. It will feature alongside a piece on the inspiration for the story, and I’ll be sharing more news when I have it.

That’s all for now! Join me next time when I’ll be precariously dangling from my window, attached to a fishing line that’s somehow become caught on the back of a speeding bus.

Until then, Snow Fearers!

– Redfern

Talking to the Internet

If you know anything about me, it’s that I’m relentlessly charming, effusive, and witty. In fact, not a day goes by that people aren’t drawn to me in the street, laughing and pointing even though I haven’t had chance to tell a joke yet! And if you haven’t had the opportunity to hear the dulcet yet ogrish tones of my giant-person voice, then fear not! Because I’ve been talking to the internet! I’ve actually talked about all sorts of things, but not least the wonderful re-edition of my book The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights from Amble Press.

The Science Witch Podcast

This was an interview I was really looking forward to, not least because it’s co-hosted by my friend of twenty years, Enku Ide. Enku and I met when we were tiny baby queers living in Swansea, south Wales, and despite spending the next decades on different continents we’ve kept in touch ever since. Last year I even had the absolute pleasure of staying with him and his husband in rural Georgia, where we had a marvelous time exploring thrift stores the size of supermarkets and attending Savannah’s incredibly friendly pride event.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PHOTO CONTAINS PICTURES OF REDFERN SANS MAKE UP AND THUS IS ONLY AT 80% GLAMOUR

Anyway, in honour of the recent Giddy Death re-release I had the opportunity to chat with Enku, as well as his podcast co-hosts Ruby, and Anjel about everything from my novels, to LGBTQ solidarity, trans and nonbinary representation in fiction, pagan rituals, and even the impact of generative AI on writers. I had a fantastic time and the heartfelt and emotional discussion even brought one of the hosts to tears. The talk was something really special to me, and you can listen to it for yourself at any of the internet’s fine podcast vendors:

Click here for links.

Gender Identity Weekly

I also had the fantastic opportunity to talk with Amethysta Herrick for the Gender Identity Weekly podcast. The time absolutely flew by, and I was thrilled to actually talk about my doctorate, which I all-too-frequently forget I even have. This means we really got to delve into some queer history (I know things, I promise!) right back to the 18th century (spoiler: not a fun time for queer people!).

We also talked about both Proud Pink Sky and Giddy Death, as well as our favourite Pokemon (see obvious choice Jigglypuff on the shelf just behind me).

If you want the voice-only version, click the link here for the podcast website.

If you’d rather see our joyful faces, click here for the YouTube link.

Loveliness From 'Nathan Burgoine

Finally, I was really touched by ‘Nathan Burgoine’s Pride Roundup of books, which included Proud Pink Sky:

“…if there’s anything Redfern Jon Barrett knows how to do, it’s to take something binary—good or bad, gay or straight, you name the dichotomy—and then shatter the false binary into something way, way, way more nuanced and fascinating than you ever considered.”

To read the full post, simply click here.

In case that’s not enough, I shall leave you with this picture of myself with my big ol’ nonbinary books that was taken for International Non-Binary People’s Day. If you want more pictures of my face, you can find them on Mastodon: @Redfern or on Bluesky: @redfernjon.

Until the next mounting global crisis, friends!

— Redfern

The Giddy Release!

The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights finally has a new edition! Thanks to Amble Press, an imprint of Bywater, we now have an all-new version updated for the 2020s — featuring a foreword by the author and an afterword by queer author Meg-John Barker.

My publisher also made this wonderful graphic to celebrate!

You can pick up a copy from the following places (along with a lot of others)!
- Amazon
- Abebooks
- Alibris
- Barnes & Noble
- Bookshop.org

And of course, you can also buy it from Bywater Books directly.

That’s not all, because I have some exciting new events coming up, including a brand new interview I did with the Science Witch podcast – which was a truly lovely and emotional experience! Some secret projects have been in the pipeline too…

Yes, I’m going to tease you. I am cruel. But still, buy my book! BUY ALL OF THEM.

— Redfern

The All-New Giddy Death Releases Tomorrow!

This is a novel that really means a lot to me – first written back before I came out as nonbinary, it allowed me to express my ambiguous, confusing feelings about my gender through the character of Rutti. Though Rutti is a much rougher edge than I do, and a great deal more cynicism, The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights was instrumental in me coming to terms with… well, myself.

And what a reception it got! Though it received glowing praise from venues including Paste, Kirkus, Out in Print, My Gay Toronto, and the American Library Association, I was especially touched by individual fans of the book who took the time to contact me so they could let me know how much it meant to them. The novel clearly connected with a lot of people who otherwise felt marginalised, and I’ll never stop being proud of that fact.

While The Giddy Death was out of print, I’d frequently get emails from people trying to get hold of a copy of their very own, so I’m incredibly grateful to Bywater Books, and particularly to Salem West, for taking a chance on the re-edition. I’m also truly grateful to MJ Barker for providing the afterword, and I’m very pleased to count them as my friend.

The new edition also features updated pronouns – times change fast, and in the decade since the novel’s release singular ‘they’ replaced the myriad of terms like sie and hir, and the new version reflects that fact… I mean, I now use singular they myself, so it’s more than a little personal.

The second edition of The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights releases tomorrow, and is available most places, from giant mega-corporations to other giant mega-corporations, as well as indie bookstores and from Bywater Books directly.

Give it a go. As Paste said of the digital version: “It is truly impossible to describe this book in a way that does it justice; just download it immediately.”

I promise it’ll be one of the weirder and more heartfelt things you’ve read.

—Redfern

The Giddy Death – Re-Edition Out May 28th!

No jokey intro here – I’m just beyond happy to announce that The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights is getting a re-edition from Amble Press (an imprint of Bywater Books) with the release scheduled for May 28th!

The new edition features an afterword written by the wonderful Dr. Meg-John Barker, and a foreword written by myself. Here’s a brief preview:

It’s hard to convey how damaging it can be to your sense of self when everyone you see is straight, cis, binary, and monogamous—it’s like you don’t exist, or, worse, like you don’t deserve to exist. Without positive representation it’s easy to feel like a freak. Alison Bechdel once remarked on the importance of seeing yourself reflected in the cultural mirror, and for queer people of all kinds, that reflection is the surest antidote to shame and humiliation.

You are not a freak. There are many more of us out there, just like you.

And from MJ’s afterword:

This diversity of representation is deeply refreshing in a world where so few mainstream books include queer characters at all, and those that do often only include them in exoticising or tokenistic ways, while few queer books include characters who are not explicitly queer but who are also grappling with their gender, sexuality, and relationship style. As with masculinity/feminity, gay/straight, cis/trans, and dystopia/utopia, this is yet another binary that Redfern gently but firmly challenges in their novels.

Copies of the novel are already available for preorder from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all major booksellers.

Order one! Order twenty! Build a house from stacks of my books and you shall earn my everlasting gratitude.

– Redfern