Sarah Guan

Someone please write me an epic, thorny, political science fiction or fantasy novel with these protagonists, thanks. #MSWL forever!

Somebody write me the #SFF novel inspired by Fatima al-Fihri and her groundbreaking university. #MSWL

A meeting today made me think: I’d LOVE to see a huge, sweeping pre-Columbian epic fantasy novel in my inbox.

Before the Europeans landed and ruined everything, there were vibrant, sophisticated, and competitive empires in the Americas. That’s as epic fantasy as anything. #MSWL

This artwork is incredible. I would buy a book with this warrior woman on the cover!

In other words, #MSWL: a fantasy novel with this protagonist.

YES—give me “Bring It On” at wizard (or space) school! #mswl

I want #SFF stories about socioeconomic disparities at academic institutions.

Public school zoning on Mars? Affirmative action at fantasy college? Exploitation of student athletes at interstellar universities? PLEASE.

How about an anticolonial twist on the scholar-hero who seeks “lost” or “underutilized” arcana from cultures not their own? #MSWL

Read this @hopkins_exhibit article on the questions that one #SFF work, #BlackPanther, asks of the museum studies field:
jhuexhibitionist.com/2018/02/22/why…

I can’t stop thinking about this.

Someone write me a reverse, PoC Howard Carter #SFF novel where cultural artifacts are repatriated to their rightful inheritors. Give me the fantasy or future tech inverse heist novel. #MSWL twitter.com/_iwakeli_i/sta…

This painting is mindblowingly beautiful and gives me such Lady of Qiao Guo (岭南圣母) vibes, I can’t even. Somebody write me the #SFF book to go with this artwork, please! #MSWL

Yes, this! #MSWL #SFF

Elders who contribute meaningfully, whose experience & wisdom are respected. Collective policymaking (even in monarchies).

Just because Western (esp. American) narratives default to youthful, heroic individualism doesn’t mean it’s the only way to build a protagonist.
#MSWL #SFF

Domesticated species, architecture, etc. that make sense for the terrain/biome depicted. Even—or rather, especially—in #SFF, consistency in worldbuilding makes a story that much better.

Yes, I want more battle rhinoceroses. I admit it. #MSWL

Addendum: anger that masquerades as love, as idealism. Characters who persuade themselves of the righteousness of their own cause, who rationalize extremism born of a seed of compelling truth—because that’s how it so often begins.

You know what I’m talking about.
#MSWL #SFF

Different types of love & loyalty at war with each other, esp within the same person. Romantic love. Familial love. Love of country. Love for one’s people. Love for the downtrodden.

Love is stronger than hate, and opposing loves often make the most powerful conflicts.
#SFF #MSWL

Beautifully choreographed fight scenes that advance plot, develop character, and worldbuild.

Yes, #BlackPanther has the advantages of a visual medium. It’s harder in prose fiction, but it can be done so, so well. (See @FondaJLee.)
#SFF #MSWL

Accents, dialect, and non-English languages in English-language fiction, used in ways that enhance characterization and worldbuilding rather than othering or exoticizing the speaker. #SFF #MSWL

White characters interacting with non-white societies at a disadvantage. Non-white civilizations that do not exist for the white gaze, that treat with outsiders on their own terms. #Wakanda, and hundreds more nations like it. #SFF #MSWL

Postcolonialism 2.0: multifaceted conflicts that go beyond colonizer and colonized. Give me diaspora, give me infighting on all sides, give me vehement disagreement about a nation’s future that is borne of genuine patriotism and idealism. #SFF #MSWL #BlackPanther

Economically realistic motives for colonialism & war. Vibranium is spot-on as an analogue for resources that drove (historical & current) conquest: oil, gold, tea, slaves, spices...

#SFF is full of war stories; give ‘em better reasons than righteousness & border conflicts.
#MSWL

Female characters of all stripes with interior lives and motivations that don’t revolve around the male main character. Even if the male protagonist is supposed to save the world. #SFF #MSWL

WOC in science who are brilliant, fearless, multifaceted, and celebrated for their contributions. (This last point is important.)

Shuri is the Disney Princess of my dreams. (I was a STEM kid; I have FEELS, ok?) #MSWL #SFF #BlackPanther