Tag: Diversity

September 1, 2025

An Interview with Nathan Frechette About “Whispers Between Fairies”

I rarely talk about my own work on Speculating Canada, but because I had the opportunity to co-write Whispers Between Fairies (Renaissance Press) with the wonderful Nathan Frechette, I thought this would be a good space to highlight his work. Whispers Between Fairies was written in collaboration with Nathan Frechette. For this collection, each of us would rewrite a fairy...

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December 6, 2023

An Interview of Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman About Folklore and Fairy Tales

Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman are both doctors of folklore and they run the Carterhaugh School of Folklore, and online school for teaching folklore in an accessible way. In our interview, we explore the diversity of folklore and fairy tales, examining things like shadow tales, the role of food in fairy tales, disability, and get a Folklore and Fairy Tales...

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November 21, 2023

An Interview with Simon Bacon About Vampires and the Monstrous

In this episode of Speculating Canada, I interview independent scholar and researcher Simon Bacon about the monstrous, and, particularly, about the figure of the vampire in folklore and popular culture. Simon Bacon is an independent scholar based in Poznań, Poland. He has written and edited 30+ books including Becoming Vampire (2017), Eco-vampires (2019), Nosferatu in the 21st Century (2023), 1000...

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March 8, 2021

Galactic Anthropology

A review of Julie Czerneda’s “Beholder’s Eye” (Penguin Random House, 2016) By Derek Newman-Stille In Beholder’s Eye, Julie Czerneda explores the possibilities of consciousness in varying shapes and forms. From pig-like creatures who communicate by clicking their hooves and by emoting smells to canid-like beings, to large cat-like beings, to a puddle of goo, Czerneda explores the diversity of bodily...

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October 20, 2017

Here Be Monsters

Here Be MonstersA review of Michal Wojcik’s “A New Bestiary” in Those Who Make Us: Canadian Creature, Myth, and Monster Stories edited by Kelsi Morris and Kaitlin Tremblay (Exile, 2016) By Derek Newman-Stille Michal Wojcik’s “A New Bestiary” is a posthuman tale about body modification. In this near future fiction piece, Mojcik presents a world where people are remaking themselves...

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October 11, 2017

Slavic Myths and Human Monsters

A review of David Demchuk’s The Bone Mother (ChiZine, 2017) By Derek Newman-Stille David Demchuk’s The Bone Mother brings together snippets of strange lives into a tale that hints at connections between these individual stories and provides shadows of a larger narrative tying them together. Each of Demchuk’s tales ties in with a snapshot shown at the beginning of the...

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February 18, 2016

An Interview with A.C. Wise

By Derek Newman-Stille. After reading A.C. Wise’s “The Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron Saves the World Again”, I could see that she had some great insights that would make for a fascinating interview. I hope that your enjoy our interview and all of A.C. Wise’s brilliant points. Spec Can: To begin our interview, could you tell readers a little bit about...

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December 14, 2015

Golden Age Superheroes in Modernity

Golden Age Superheroes in ModernityA Review of Epic Canadiana Volume 1 by Cloudscape Comics, edited by Bevan Thomas. By Derek Newman-Stille Epic Canadiana volume 1 delightfully connects the golden age of Canadian comics (the origin of the Canadian superhero comic) with modernity, creating a link through Canadian comic book history. Epic Canadiana re-introduces readers to an aged Johnny Canuck, modelled...

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November 2, 2015

A Love Leter to Can Con

A Love Letter to Can ConBy Derek Newman-Stille One of the things being talked about in academic circles currently is the issue of the “all male panel”, which happens far too often. I often expect academic conferences to be ahead of a lot of public conferences, but was increadibly excited when I heard Can Con planners talking about the issue...

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April 14, 2015

The Ad Astra Experience: A Reflection on Ad Astra 2015

By Derek Newman-Stille As an educator who engages in fandom, I see fandom as a teaching space, by which I mean it is a space for developing new ways of looking at the world. Ad Astra is nominally a Canadian SF writer’s conference, but there is some magic in the slippages between writer and fan, and in my case between...

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