Press Release
AU 22/02/18 – Award-winning publisher Twelfth Planet Press announces the full list of contributors to the speculative fiction anthology Mother of Invention, which aims to showcase diverse, challenging stories about women as creators of Artificial Intelligence and robots, due for release in September 2018.
Among the final list of contributors to Mother of Invention are award-winning science fiction and fantasy writers from around the world, including New York Times bestselling and multi Hugo award-winning author SEANAN MCGUIRE; Hugo award-winning JOHN CHU; Tiptree award-winning NISI SHAWL; and Shirley Jackson award-winning Australian horror writer KAARON WARREN. In addition to the pieces initially commissioned, editors TANSY RAYNER ROBERTS and RIVQA RAFAEL are thrilled to announce ten acquisitions from the open call for submissions.
For some contributors, this is their first professionally published story and many stories are ‘own voices’ – by authors who have drawn from their life experience of marginalisation. “We’ve seen such great diversity in the stories submitted, hearing from writers who found the call for submissions particularly welcoming to them,” said editor TANSY RAYNER ROBERTS. “We’re especially pleased that many of our story submissions were from writers submitting for the very first time.”
The team received over two hundred submissions, many from diverse and marginalised writers. To compile the anthology, the editors considered the extent to which the stories interrogated traditional Artificial Intelligence narratives, and how the stories intersect with gender identity, parenthood, sexuality, war, and the future of our species. “Many submissions were very high calibre, so many that we couldn’t include them all in the anthology,” said editor RIVQA RAFAEL. “We were confident that new and marginalised writers would bring fresh perspectives, and we weren’t disappointed.”
TANSY RAYNER ROBERTS said, “We hope readers of Mother of Invention are inspired to explore new and innovative Artificial Intelligence storylines that go beyond the old-fashioned trope of ‘straight white cis-man as lone genius, creates woman as robot body or computer voice.’ Here at Twelfth Planet Press, we’re constantly aiming to expand our reach, and are aware that we can always do more to improve diversity in fiction. We hope to see even greater diversity represented in our future projects.”
The June 2017 Kickstarter campaign saw 594 backers pledge a total of AU$ 24,387 to make the project a reality, which smashed the team’s campaign goal and opened the call for submissions. Backers of the campaign can expect to receive their unique and handcrafted crowdfunding rewards from May 2018. Such rewards include exclusive hardback editions of the anthology and custom-made mugs, to Random Robot Jam, Artificial Reali-tea and knitted robots hand-made by publisher ALISA KRASNOSTEIN. The top pledge reward is the ‘Singularity’, a one-of-a-kind glitter robot, handmade by the editors to assist one lucky backer in their quest to take over the known universe.
Mother of Invention will be released for general sale in September 2018.
Full Table of Contents
- “Mother, Mother, Will You Play With Me?” — Seanan McGuire
- “Junkyard Kraken” — D.K. Mok
- “An Errant Holy Spark” — Bogi Takács
- “The Goose Hair of One Thousand Miles” — Stephanie Lai
- “The Art of Broken Things” — Jo Anderton
- “Sexy Robot Heroes” — Sandra McDonald
- “A Robot Like Me” — Lee Cope
- “New Berth” — Elizabeth Fitzgerald
- “Fata Morgana” — Cat Sparks
- “Bright Shore” — Rosaleen Love
- “Quantifying Trust” — John Chu
- “Reflecting on Indigenous Worlds, Indigenous Futurisms and Artificial Intelligence” — Ambelin Kwaymullina
- “Sugar Ricochets to Other Forms” — Octavia Cade
- “Kill Screen” — E.C. Myers
- “Living Proof” — Nisi Shawl
- “S’elfie” — Justina Robson
- “Knitting Day” — Jen White
- “The Revivalist” — Kaaron Warren
- “Arguing with People on the Internet” — E.H. Mann
- “Rini’s God” — Soumya Sundar Mukherjee
- “Tidefall” — Meryl Stenhouse
- “The Ghost Helmet” — Lev Mirov
(Note: the exact order is subject to change.)
Praise for Twelfth Planet Press:
“I know, because they have come from Twelfth Planet Press, they are going to be feminist as hell, no women are going to get fridged and I am going to damn well enjoy them.” Books and Pieces
