Welcome to the new era.

Should we call it the Trumpocene? Love him or hate him, The Donald is tromping about the world, shaping everything to his agenda. From war zones to commercial zones, change is on the rise.

Or maybe not. While the business world and even media are starting to settle down and accept the inevitable, the entertainment world is still fighting back, often as rebels without a cause – or a clue. It’s entirely reactionary in many cases, but in some situations it seems to have a clear purpose.

Case in point: the white male. No one today is more demonized than the white male (except maybe the white redneck, my personal roots). It’s so bad that a publishing company has arisen to publish exclusively white male works. Awards seem to be ruling out white males, and in many cases even literary agents are saying white males need not apply.

I, a racially ambiguous woman, am appalled. I have been in love with stories since I was a very small child, and many of my favorite works were written by men: Tolkien, Carroll, Lewis, MacDonald, Shakespeare. Sure, I love Jane Austen, but let’s face it: most of the Western literary tradition – and canon – has come from the now-deprecated white male writer. 

I can promise one thing: we will never, ever choose a story on the basis of a writer’s sex, ethnicity, orientation, or any other stupid classification used by bigoted and small-minded people. Instead, we will publish good stories that cannot be published elsewhere in the publishing industry because Reasons. Sadly, this category seems to be expanding every day.

For now, be my guest to read some of the fiction and essays in our free magazine, Sonder, available at the link below. Keep fighting the good fight!