Shame On You, Canada Council for (Some of) the Arts

The Canada Council for the Arts has seen fit to deny On Spec – in my mind, Canada’s premier spec fic journal – funding. Apparently, they have been warning On Spec that the work published is not of a high enough quality.

In a word: bullshit.

I really like living in our socialist paradise, but even the fucking Soviets supported spec fic.

The reasoning provided – – “the quality of writing remained low . . . copy-editing errors, and poor production, design and layout quality” sounds like self-serving justification to this reader. Instead, this just looks like a removal of funding because of a distaste for the genre. The Canada Council of the Arts is likely staffed by the same kind of people who thought Joseph Conrad published silly adventure stories.

Listen, I read literary fiction as well, but let’s be frank: science fiction inspired NASA and the space shuttle. Literary fiction inspired. . . more literary fiction.

I will be writing to the Canada Council for the Arts and explaining to them – in less lurid language – how back asswards this decision paints them. It is the Council for the Arts, not the Council of Literary Snobbery. I understand that there is some level of quality control required, but maybe they ought to look to luminaries like Robert Sawyer, William Gibson, and Guy Gavriel Kay to judge the quality of On Spec rather than judges who are likely biased against spec fic.

Because prejudice is the only explanation I can imagine for this decision.

You can find contact information for the Canada Council for the Arts here.

You can find more information about this decision here.

You can find On Spec here.