Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a Thai writer of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

who is also known for controversial online criticism. She was a finalist for the 2014

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer The ''Astounding'' Award for Best New Writer (formerly the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer) is given annually to the best new writer whose first professional work of science fiction or fantasy was published within the two previous ...

and the 2014

BSFA Award The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) to honour works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members. More recently, m ...

for Best Short Fiction, for ''Scale-Bright''.

Life

Sriduangkaew was born in Pattani Province in southern Thailand. After attending university in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

, she worked in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

, and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. In 2013, Sriduangkaew said that she had earned her bachelor's degree "some twelve years ago" and that she had not been fluent in English at the time.

Work

Sriduangkaew began publishing short fiction in 2012, with "Courtship in the Country of the Machine Gods", and established a name for herself with a string of high-profile short stories in ''

Clarkesworld Magazine ''Clarkesworld Magazine'' (ISSN 1937-7843) is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It released its first issue October 1, 2006 and has maintained a regular monthly schedule since, publishing fiction by authors such as Elizabe ...

'' and elsewhere, which led to her nomination for the John W. Campbell Award. Her first long-form publication was the

urban fantasy Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy which places imaginary and unreal elements in an approximation of a contemporary urban setting. The combination provides the writer with quixotic plot-drivers, unusual character traits, and a platform for cl ...

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

''Scale-Bright'', published in 2014. A follow-up to her three ''Sun-Moon Cycle'' stories, it is a love story about a young woman from Hong Kong who has to rescue her sister from Heaven. Reviewing the novella for ''

Tor.com ''Tor.com'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on speculative fiction. From 20 ...

'', Niall Alexander described it as "an achievement without equal", appreciating its "delicately drawn characters", "affecting narrative", and the author's prose skills. Her second novella, ''Winterglass'', was published in 2017. It is a

science-fantasy Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scienti ...

retelling of the story of

the Snow Queen "The Snow Queen" ( da, Snedronningen) is an original fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published 21 December 1844 in '' New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection'' (''Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Anden Samli ...

. A ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

''s reviewer considered that the "promising novella" provided "variations on the theme of strong female characters" but was marred by an "uneven plot and some missed opportunities for complex worldbuilding". Her third novella, ''And Shall Machines Surrender'', was published in 2019. It is a

story focusing on artificial intelligences and their relationships to humanity. Reviewing the novella in ''

The Future Fire ''The Future Fire'' is a small press, online science fiction magazine (), run by a joint British- US team of editors. The magazine was launched in January 2005 and releases issues four times a year, with stories, articles, and reviews in both HTM ...

'',

J. Moufawad-Paul Joshua Moufawad-Paul is a Canadian academic and writer from Toronto, Canada. He is a professor of philosophy at York University. A Marxism–Leninism–Maoism, Maoist philosopher, Moufawad-Paul has written several works on the topic and regular ...

wrote: “''And Shall Machines Surrender'' is the perfect example of how much can possibly be packed into a novella. The equal depth of style, story, characterization, and world-building is quite striking”; and, “Due to the strength of ''And Shall Machines Surrender'' — its clarity and intricacy, its ability to compress complexity into a minimalist structure — it is almost criminal that Sriduangkaew is not a household name”. Most of Sriduangkaew's work is queer-normative and trans-inclusive, and foregrounds lesbian relationships and South-East-Asian themes or influences.

Online activity

In 2014, Sriduangkaew was revealed to have been the controversial blogger and book reviewer "Requires Hate" (also known as "Requires Only That You Hate", as well as "Winterfox"). Using these internet identities, she published critiques of what she considered to be racist, sexist, heteronormative, or colonial themes in works of science fiction and fantasy; these critiques were often expressed in personal language deemed insulting or threatening by readers. Media outlets and social media users referred to Sriduangkaew as a "notorious troll".Acclaimed sci-fi writer exposed as notorious Internet troll
by Aja Romano, at ''

The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Founded by Nicholas White in 2011, ''The Daily Dot'' is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown ...

''; published 12 November 2014; retrieved 13 November 2014 Some outlets speculated that Sriduangkaew could be fabricating her Chinese-Thai identity, though no substantial evidence for those claims has been provided. In October 2014, Sriduangkaew posted an apology on her blog, admitting to being "a horrendous asshole" and causing pain to others, while also denying certain allegations that she had made rape threats, stating that other accounts had impersonated her. The blog remains inactive. A blog post by fellow writer Laura J. Mixon critiquing Sriduangkaew's behavior won Mixon the 2015

Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer The Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer is the Hugo Award given each year for writers of works related to science fiction or fantasy which appeared in low- or non-paying publications such as semiprozines or fanzines or in generally available electroni ...

. Views on Sriduangkaew's behaviour and Mixon's article remain split. Detractors claimed that the Mixon article was a "hit piece" aimed at an up-and-coming woman of colour, conflating Sribuangkaew's insulting language with abuse, while ignoring the content of her criticisms against the status quo in science fiction and fantasy writing. In a blog post in 2015, Sriduangkaew wrote that she had become the target of harassment and

cyberstalking Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organization. It may include false accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity theft, thre ...

campaigns after her internet identities were revealed, while conceding that "I've been shitty in the past".

Bibliography

;Novels * ''Machine’s Last Testament'',

Prime Books Sean Wallace (born January 1, 1976) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologist, editor, and publisher best known for founding the publishing house Prime Books and for co-editing three magazines, '' Clarkesworld Magazine'', '' ...

(2020), ;Novellas * ''Scale-Bright'', Immersion Press (2014), * ''Winterglass'', Apex Publications (2017), * ''And Shall Machines Surrender'', Prime Books (2019), * ''Mirrorstrike'', Apex Publications (2019), * ''Now Will Machines Hollow the Beast'', Prime Books (2020), * ''Shall Machines Divide the Earth'', Prime Books (2021), * ''Where Machines Redeem the Lost'', Prime Books (2021), * ''Now Will Machines Devour the Stars'', Prime Books (2022) * ''Shall Machines Bite the Sun'', Prime Books (2023) ;Novelettes * ''Then Will the Sun Rise Alabaster'', Prime Books (2019), ;Collaborations * ''Methods Devour Themselves'' (with

Zero Books John Hunt Publishing is a left-wing publishing company founded in the United Kingdom in 2001, initially named O Books. The publisher has 24 active autonomous imprints, with the largest of these being the Zero Books imprint (styled Zer0 Books) fou ...

(2018), ;Short fiction * "Chang’e Dashes from the Moon" (2012) * "Courtship in the Country of Machine-Gods" (2012) * "Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon" (2012) * "Fade to Gold" (2013) * "Annex" (2013) * "The Crows Her Dragon's Gate" (2013) * "Vector" (2013) * "The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly" (2013) * "Silent Bridge, Pale Cascade" (2013) * "Autodidact" (2014) * "Golden Daughter, Stone Wife" (2014) * "When We Harvested the Nacre-Rice" (2014) * "Synecdoche Oracles" (2014) * "And the Burned Moths Remain" (2015) * "The Petals Abide" (2015), Clarkesworld * "The Insurrectionist and the Empress Who Reigns Over Time" (2015) * "The Occidental Bride" (2015) * "The Beast at the End of Time" (2016) * "Dream Command" (2016) * "The Finch’s Wedding and the Hive That Sings" (2016) * "That Which Stands Tends Toward Free Fall" (2016) * "Comet’s Call" (2016) * "Under She Who Devours Suns" (2016) * "The Prince Who Gave Up Her Empire" (2016) * "We Are All Wasteland On The Inside" (2016) * "Parable of the Cocoon" (2017) * "The Sun Shall Lie Across Us Like Gold" (2017) * "The Universe as Vast as Our Longings" (2017) * "No Pearls as Blue as These" (2017) * "After-Swarm" (2017) * "You and I Shall be as Radiant" (2017) * "The Owls of Juttshatan" (2018) * "Red as Water, White as Ruin" (2018) * "The Five Secret Truths of Demonkind" (2018) * "Tiger, Tiger Bright" (2019) * "Where Machines Run with Gold" (2019) * "That August Song" (2019) * "We Will Become as Monsters" (2020) * "The City Still Dreams of Her Name" (2020) ;Collections * ''The Archer Who Shot Down Suns: Scale-Bright Stories'' (2014), collecting the stories "The Crows Her Dragon's Gate", "Woman of the Sun, Woman of the Moon" and "Chang'e Dashes from the Moon",

References

External links

*
Sriduangkaew's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sriduangkaew, Benjanun

Benjanun Sriduangkaew Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a Thai writer of science fiction and fantasy who is also known for controversial online criticism. She was a finalist for the 2014 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the 2014 BSFA Award for Best Short Ficti ...

Living people Internet trolls

Year of birth missing (living people) Women science fiction and fantasy writers

21st-century novelists

21st-century short story writers