Meg’s acceptance speech:
Writing something as personal as The Pill seems like it is the work of one person alone, but the opposite is true. Even novelettes have grandparents and aunties.
I must thank my writing group friends in both The Naming Convention and Finishing School for their early guidance and fearless reading.
I must thank the folks at PM Press for making this book happen: Stephanie Pasvankias and Ramsey Kanaan at the best Marxist/anarchist publishing house I know. Outspoken Author series editor Terry Bisson, whose attention to this story was a compliment of the highest order.
I must thank the booksellers and readers and reviewers who passed the word on this story from an indie-published collection so that it got read.
Finally, I want to dedicate this award to everyone who has reached out since this novelette was published to tell me that they would take the Pill if it were real. You came out of my deep and recent past, my close and casual relationships, from every corner of the culture in a body you can’t control to tell me that you wish my haunted house could be your escape pod. I dedicate this win to your eventual freedom, to your realization that there are no winners in this war. And to the fat people who didn’t come to tell me they wish my nightmare was for sale, this was always for you.
“The Pill” is part of Big Girl , the 25th addition to the Outspoken Authors Series. Designed to fit your pocket and stretch your mind, Outspoken Author Books are edited by award-winning SF author Terry Bisson, and include in-depth interviews, short stories and novella, essays, bios, and bibliographies.
