Should Authors Write Characters Different From Themselves?

Discussions of diversity in literature, media, and narrative often boil down to a version of this basic question: Should white creators write characters of color? Should cisgender creators write trans characters? Should abled creators write characters with disabilities? Should heterosexual creators write LGBTQIA+ characters? The list goes on.

Though framed as a yes or no question, the answer is complicated and complex. Yet it’s the same one for every permutation that gets asked. In this webinar, authors Nisi Shawl and K. Tempest Bradford will give you the answer.

Who Should Take This Class?

The webinar is appropriate for all writers (fiction, plays, comics, TV, movie, and games included) from all backgrounds and any skill level.

This online seminar is not only for white writers, or cis writers, or men, it is for any writer who wants to take steps toward writing more inclusive, representational narratives.

Who Are The Instructors?

Nisi Shawl is the author of Everfair, Talk Like A Man, and dozens of short stories--many of which can be found in the James Tiptree, Jr. Award winning and World Fantasy Award nominated collection Filter House. Nisi is the co-editor of Stories for Chip, Strange Matings: Octavia E. Butler, Feminism, Science Fiction, and African American Voices, and most recently New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color. They edit reviews for The Cascadia Subduction Zone, a literary quarterly from Aqueduct Press. They are a founding member of the Carl Brandon Society and has served on the board for the Clarion West writing workshop.

Nisi developed the original Writing the Other workshop with Cynthia Ward, and has taught it for over a decade in person and online.

K. Tempest Bradford is a teacher, media critic, and author of fantasy and science fiction steeped in Black Girl Magic. Her short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies and magazines, including In The Shadow of the Towers and Strange Horizons. Her media criticism and essays on diversity and representation have been published at NPR, io9, Ebony Magazine, and more.

Tempest began giving talks and teaching classes on representation and creating diverse narratives in 2014 for Writing the Other and has been invited to teach at Clarion West, LitReactor, universities, and gaming companies. She’s the recipient of the 2020 LOCUS Special Award for Inclusivity and Representation Education and has been nominated for FIYAH Magazine‘s IGNYTE Community and Ember Awards.