ONLINE: Benjamin Rosenbaum

press release: A Room of One's Own welcomes Benjamin Rosenbaum, author of The Unraveling, for a virtual conversation on Crowdcast with award-winning novelist Nisi Shawl!

About The Unraveling: In the distant future, somewhere in the galaxy, a world has evolved where each person has multiple bodies, cybernetics has abolished privacy, and individual and family success are reliant upon instantaneous evaluations of how well each member conforms to the rigid social system. Young Fift is an only child of the Staid gender, struggling to maintain zir position in the system while developing a friendship with the acclaimed bioengineer Shria—a controversial and intriguing friendship, since Shria is Vail-gendered. Soon Fift and Shria unintentionally wind up at the center of a scandalous art spectacle which turns into a multilayered Unraveling of society. Fift is torn between zir attraction to Shria and the safety of zir family, between staying true to zir feelings and social compliance . . . when zir personal crises suddenly take on global significance. What’s a young Staid to do when the whole world is watching?

Benjamin Rosenbaum has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, BSFA, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards. He is the author of the short story collection The Ant King and Other Stories, and the Jewish historical fantasy tabletop roleplaying game "Dream Apart." Originally from Arlington, VA, he lives near Basel, Switzerland with his wife and children.

Nisi Shawl is a writer of science fiction and fantasy short stories and a journalist. They are the author of the alternate history novel Everfair and co-author (with Cynthia Ward) of Writing the Other: Bridging Cultural Differences for Successful Fiction. Their short stories have appeared in Asimov’s SF Magazine, Strange Horizons, and numerous other magazines and anthologies. Their story collection Filter House co-won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 2009 and their stories have been shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, the Gaylactic Spectrum Award, and the Carl Brandon Society Parallax Award.