The Pragmatical Princess
Princess Ousmani had fallen asleep in her chains, from boredom. She woke to the weight of a dragon’s head resting uncomfortably on her stomach. One rough, scaly paw kneaded her left shoulder, pricking at her skin.
Nisi Shawl
Nisi Shawl’s story collection Filter House, lauded by Ursula K. Le Guin as “superb,” and by Samuel R. Delany as “simply amazing,” won the 2008 James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Shawl is the coauthor of Writing the Other, a guide to developing characters of varying racial, religious, and sexual backgrounds, and one of the founding members of the Carl Brandon Society, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the representation of people of color in the fantastic genres. She is Reviews Editor for new literary quarterly The Cascadia Subduction Zone, editor of Aqueduct Press’s WisCon Chronicles 5: Writing and Racial Identity, and a coeditor of Strange Matings: Octavia E. Butler, Feminism, Science Fiction, and African American Voices, forthcoming from Seven Stories. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. In May 2011 she’s the Guest of Honor of the feminist science fiction convention WisCon. Shawl blogs at http://nisi-la.livejournal.com.