Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Last updated

Benjanun Sriduangkaew
Born Pattani Province, Thailand
OccupationWriter
NationalityThai
Genre
Years active2012–present
Website
beekian.wordpress.com

Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a Thai [1] writer of science fiction and fantasy who is also known for controversial online criticism. She was a finalist for the 2014 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer [2] and the 2014 BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction, for Scale-Bright. [3]

Contents

Life

Sriduangkaew was born in Pattani Province in southern Thailand. After attending university in Bangkok, she worked in Manila, Jakarta, and Hong Kong. [4] In 2013, Sriduangkaew said that she had earned her bachelor's degree "some twelve years ago" and that she had not been fluent in English at the time. [5]

Work

Sriduangkaew began publishing short fiction in 2012, with "Courtship in the Country of the Machine Gods", [6] and established a name for herself with a string of high-profile short stories in Clarkesworld Magazine and elsewhere, [7] which led to her nomination for the John W. Campbell Award.

Her first long-form publication was the urban fantasy novella Scale-Bright, published in 2014. A follow-up to her three Sun-Moon Cycle stories, it is a love story about a young woman from Hong Kong who has to rescue her sister from Heaven. Reviewing the novella for Tor.com , Niall Alexander described it as "an achievement without equal", appreciating its "delicately drawn characters", "affecting narrative", and the author's prose skills. [8]

Her second novella, Winterglass, was published in 2017. [9] It is a science-fantasy retelling of the story of the Snow Queen. A Publishers Weekly 's reviewer considered that the "promising novella" provided "variations on the theme of strong female characters" but was marred by an "uneven plot and some missed opportunities for complex worldbuilding". [10]

Her third novella, And Shall Machines Surrender, was published in 2019. It is a science fiction story focusing on artificial intelligences and their relationships to humanity. Reviewing the novella in The Future Fire , J. Moufawad-Paul wrote: “And Shall Machines Surrender is the perfect example of how much can possibly be packed into a novella. The equal depth of style, story, characterization, and world-building is quite striking”; and, “Due to the strength of And Shall Machines Surrender — its clarity and intricacy, its ability to compress complexity into a minimalist structure — it is almost criminal that Sriduangkaew is not a household name”. [11]

Online activity

In 2014, Sriduangkaew was revealed to have been the controversial blogger and book reviewer "Requires Hate" (also known as "Requires Only That You Hate", as well as "Winterfox"). Using these internet identities, she published violent critiques of what she considered to be racist, sexist, heteronormative, or colonial themes in works of science fiction and fantasy; these critiques included both personal insults and threats of murder and rape. Media outlets and social media users referred to Sriduangkaew as a "notorious troll". Many of her targets were themselves young, female, transgender, and/or persons of color. [12] [13] In reporting on Sriduangkaew's online activities, the Daily Dot wrote that it is not certain whether or not she is indeed a Thai writer, or whether Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a pseudonym or her real name. [12]

In October 2014, Sriduangkaew posted an apology [14] on her blog, admitting to being "a horrendous asshole" and causing pain to others, while also denying certain allegations that she had made rape threats, stating that other accounts had impersonated her. She shut down her original "Requires Only That You Hate" blog but started another under a new title, which remained active until 2020. [15]

A blog post [16] by fellow writer Laura J. Mixon critiquing Sriduangkaew's behavior won Mixon the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. [17]

Reaction to the revelation of Sriduangkaew's alternate online identities caused consternation among science fiction writers and fans. [12] In a blog post in 2015, Sriduangkaew claimed she had become the target of harassment and cyberstalking campaigns after her internet identities were revealed, while conceding that "I've been shitty in the past". [18]

Bibliography

Novels
Novellas
Novelettes
Collaborations
Short fiction
Collections

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References

  1. ↑ "Courtship in the Country of Machine–Gods". Apex Magazine. 1 July 2014.
  2. ↑ 2014 Hugo Awards at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved 31 July 2014
  3. ↑ Scott, Donna (13 February 2015). "BSFA Awards 2014 – Shortlist Announced". Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  4. ↑ Cormick, Craig. "Author Query – Benjanun Sriduangkaew". A Fantastical Librarian. Archived from the original on 29 April 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  5. ↑ Sriduangkaew, Benjanun (25 November 2013). "Different Frontiers: Taking Over English". Strange Horizons. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  6. ↑ Courtship in the Country of Machine Gods, by Benjanun Sriduangkaew, originally published in the Future Fire #24, 2012; reprinted in Apex Magazine, 1 July 2014, and The Apex Book of World SF 3 edited by Lavie Tidhar.
  7. ↑ "Archives", clarkesworldmagazine.com
  8. ↑ Alexander, Niall (22 August 2014). "Among Myths: Scale-Bright by Benjanun Sriduangkaew". Tor.com . Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  9. ↑ "Winterglass". Apex Publications.
  10. ↑ "Fiction Book Review: Winterglass by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Apex, $10.95 trade paper (130p) ISBN 978-1-937009-62-5". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  11. ↑ Moufawad-Paul, J. (8 August 2019). "Sriduangkaew, And Shall Machines Surrender (2019)". The Future Fire . Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  12. 1 2 3 Acclaimed sci-fi writer exposed as notorious Internet troll, by Aja Romano, at The Daily Dot ; published 12 November 2014; retrieved 13 November 2014
  13. ↑ "Ansible 328, November 2014". news.ansible.uk.
  14. ↑ "apologies and finality". 15 October 2014.
  15. ↑ https://beekian.wordpress.com/
  16. ↑ Mixon, Laura J. (6 November 2014). "A Report on Damage Done by One Individual Under Several Names" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  17. ↑ Wallace, Amy (23 August 2015). "Who Won Science Fiction's Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters". Wired. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  18. ↑ Sriduangkaew, Benjanun. "Six Months and Counting". Medium.com. Archived from the original on 18 March 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
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