Atalissa Wells
When we read books or watch movies, we often find ourselves searching for someone who can represent us, someone we can look at, and feel as if we fit in their shoes, their story. However, this is not the case for everyone, including members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Charles Payseur, an Eau Claire resident who has written a plethora of stories and poems, has experienced the difficulty of lacking representation for the queer community. However, his short fiction pieces contain queer characters, providing him experience as both a receiver and influencer of LGBTQ+ representation in media.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Charles, addressing questions about the event, as well as information about his journey in writing out.
Atalissa Wells: The title of the event is “Writing OUT.” What does writing out mean to you?
Charles Payseur: So the title was meant to pull double duty, being both about writing out—writing and publishing while being an out LGBTQ+ person—and writing out—using writing as a tool to educate about, advocate for, and feature LGBTQ+ characters and themes in stories and books. Both things are important, and LGBTQ+ writers have to navigate the complexities of both, from how out to be personally and as an author (online and in business spaces) to how to portray LGBTQ+ themes and characters in their works. To me, writing out is a messy but interesting idea that I really want to talk about and examine.
AW: Can you tell me a little more about the panel's authors and publishers (J.M. Lee, Catherine Lundoff, and Kat Weaver)?
CP: All three are amazing writers, and all three are in rather different points in their careers and do a bit different things. I’m a big fan of all of them and I’ll allow them to sort of introduce themselves:
J.M. Lee spent his formative years searching for talking animals and believing he could control the weather. After pursuing nerdy interests in comparative film studies, screenwriting, and Shakespeare, he graduated with a much nerdier degree in linguistics. In addition to writing novels, he enjoys teaching his dog new vocabulary words and updating his snooty coffee blog.
Catherine Lundoff is an award-winning writer, editor, and publisher. Her books include Silver Moon, Blood Moon, Out of This World and Unfinished Business and, as editor, Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space). Her short stories and essays have appeared in such venues as Queer Weird Western Stories, Divergent Terror, Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives, Fireside Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, the SFWA Blog, and several World of Darkness anthologies and games. She is the publisher at Queen of Swords Press and teaches writing and publishing classes at the Loft Literary Center, the Rambo Academy and Clarion West Online. Websites: www.catherinelundoff.net and www.queenofswordspress.com
Kat Weaver is a writer and illustrator whose short fiction has been published in Apex Magazine, Timeworn Literary Journal, Lackington’s, and elsewhere. Currently, she is one of the senior fiction editors at Strange Horizons, a Hugo-nominated speculative fiction magazine. Neon Hemlock Press recently published her debut novella Uncommon Charm, co-written with her wife, Emily Bergslien. The two of them live in Saint Paul, Minnesota. You can find her on Twitter @anoteinpink.
AW: As the moderator, what do you hope to bring to your role in the discussion?
CP: A lot of my work as a critic, writer, and editor focuses on LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+ authored works. And in my work as a part of the Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center, I’m constantly thinking about ways both to help LGBTQ+ people find safety and success and ways to educate people about the complicated ways that LGBTQ+ media and LGBTQ+ themes and characters in media are related, and how things have changed over time, both for the better and, well, not so much. I hope to be able to guide the conversation through these rather thorny topics and give the panelists room to dig into what they do and how it’s amazing.
AW: What is one aspect of the importance of LGBTQ+ representation in media that you are most looking forward to the panel discussing?
CP: I am eager to get a bit more into the idea that LGBTQ+ representation goes beyond the characters that exist in stories and their identities. While that’s a hugely important thing, I also think when talking about representation we have to discuss presence outside the fiction, and how LGBTQ+ representation without LGBTQ+ presence (in the various creative and technical levels of publishing and media) can and has worked historically, and what progress might be getting made to work toward a wider and more diverse vision of what representation is and can be.
AW: Who is someone in the media (fictitious or real) that has impacted or inspired your own life and understanding of representation for the LGBTQ+ community?
CP: The works of LGBTQ+ creators have been incredibly impactful in my life. The short works of Sam J. Miller and R.B. Lemberg not only showed me what was possible to write about and portray, but also gave me characters and language that helped me to better understand myself. And they opened a door that had been largely closed to me because of the suppression of LGBTQ+ works, revealing histories and communities I hadn’t known I was a part of.
AW: How has the idea of representation in media influenced your own writing and the queer characters in your stories?
“It’s such a complex thing, because on the one hand there are stories you want to write to speak your truth, to really show something about yourself that doesn’t ever really get portrayed. On the other hand, those stories often have very difficult roads to publication, and can face resistance from editors and even readers who either aren’t comfortable with those stories, or feel they might lose business or revenue by publishing them.”
CP: It’s such a complex thing, because on the one hand there are stories you want to write to speak your truth, to really show something about yourself that doesn’t ever really get portrayed. On the other hand, those stories often have very difficult roads to publication, and can face resistance from editors and even readers who either aren’t comfortable with those stories, or feel they might lose business or revenue by publishing them. There can be a kind of pressure to tone things down, or write trying to appease an assumed “general reader” whose opinions on LGBTQ+ issues might not be compassionate or informed. And sometimes you write precisely out of anger and frustration about that assumed “general reader,” refusing to hide or take fewer risks. And sometimes that really pays off, and sometimes you end up with a story that never gets published.
AW: What is something you’d want people to know about the event before they arrive?
CP: That the panelists are amazing and that we’re all very lucky to have them here to speak! Beyond that, if people aren’t familiar with the panelists yet, I think there will be a chance not only to ask questions, but to purchase some of their work or get something signed. It’s going to be wonderful!
Join Charles, J.M., Catherine, and Kat in the Riverview Room at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library on February 25, 2023 from 11 am-1 pm to discuss the important topic of LGBTQ+ representation in media at the event Writing OUT.