Benjanun Sriduangkaew Explained

Benjanun Sriduangkaew
Birth Place:	Pattani Province, Thailand
Occupation:	Writer
Subjects:	-->
Spouses:	-->
Partners:	-->
Years Active:	2012–present

Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a Thai science fiction and fantasy writer, who is also known for her controversial online criticism. She was a finalist for the 2014 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer^[1] and the 2014 BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction, for Scale-Bright.^[2]

Life

Sriduangkaew was born in Pattani province in southern Thailand. After attending university in Bangkok, she worked in Manila, Jakarta, and Hong Kong.^[3] 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.^[4]

Work

Sriduangkaew began publishing short fiction in 2012, with "Courtship in the Country of the Machine Gods",^[5] and established a name for herself with a string of high-profile short stories in Clarkesworld Magazine and elsewhere, which led to her nomination for the John W. Campbell Award.

Her first long-form publication was the urban fantasy novella 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, Niall Alexander described it as "an achievement without equal", appreciating its "delicately drawn characters", "affecting narrative", and the author's prose skills.^[6]

Her second novella, Winterglass, was published in 2017.^[7] It is a science fantasy retelling of the story of the Snow Queen. A Publishers Weeklys 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".^[8]

Her third novella, And Shall Machines Surrender, was published in 2019. It is a science fiction story focusing on artificial intelligences and their relationships to humanity. Reviewing the novella in The Future Fire, J. Moufawad-Paul 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”.^[9]

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 violent critiques of what she considered to be racist, sexist, heteronormative, or colonial themes in works of science fiction and fantasy; these critiques included both personal insults and threats of murder and rape. Media outlets and social media users referred to Sriduangkaew as a "notorious troll". Many of her targets were themselves young, female, transgender, and/or persons of color.^[10] ^[11] In reporting on Sriduangkaew's online activities, the Daily Dot wrote that it is not certain whether or not she is indeed a Thai writer, or whether Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a pseudonym or her real name.

In October 2014, Sriduangkaew posted an apology^[12] 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. She shut down her original "Requires Only That You Hate" blog but started another under a new title, which remained active until 2020.^[13]

A blog post^[14] by fellow writer Laura J. Mixon critiquing Sriduangkaew's behavior won Mixon the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer.^[15]

Reaction to the revelation of Sriduangkaew's alternate online identities caused consternation among science fiction writers and fans. In a blog post in 2015, Sriduangkaew claimed she had become the target of harassment and cyberstalking campaigns after her internet identities were revealed, while conceding that "I've been shitty in the past".^[16]

Bibliography

Novels

Machine’s Last Testament, Prime Books (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),
Shattersteel, Apex Book Company (2021),
Now Will Machines Devour the Stars, Prime Books (2022),
More Than Utopia, Prime Books (2022),
Shall Machines Bite the Sun, Prime Books (2022),
If Else Paradise, Prime Books (2023),

Novelettes

Then Will the Sun Rise Alabaster, Prime Books (2019),

Collaborations

Methods Devour Themselves (with J. Moufawad-Paul), Zero Books (2018),
The Gunrunner and Her Hound (with Devi Lacroix as Maria Ying) (2021),
The Spy and Her Serpent (with Devi Lacroix as Maria Ying) (2022),
The Grace of Sorcerers (with Devi Lacroix as Maria Ying) (2022),
The Might of Monsters (with Devi Lacroix as Maria Ying) (2022),
Shadow of Gorgon (with Emily Faas as Selene Tang) (2023),
The Ruin of Beasts (with Devi Lacroix as Maria Ying) (2023),
Blood of Gorgon (with Emily Faas as Selene Tang) (2024),
The Hades Calculus (with Devi Lacroix as Maria Ying) (2024),
Memory of Olympus (with Devi Lacroix as Maria Ying) (2025),

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",

External links

- Sriduangkaew's blog

Notes and References

http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2014-hugo-awards/ 2014 Hugo Awards
Web site: BSFA Awards 2014 – Shortlist Announced. Donna. Scott. 13 February 2015. 16 March 2019. 27 March 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190327195041/https://bsfa.co.uk/bsfa-awards-2014-shortlist-announced/. dead.
Web site: Cormick. Craig. Author Query – Benjanun Sriduangkaew. A Fantastical Librarian. 13 August 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150429230733/http://www.afantasticallibrarian.com/2014/08/author-query-benjanun-sriduangkaew.html. 29 April 2015. dead.
Web site: Sriduangkaew . Benjanun . Different Frontiers: Taking Over English . Strange Horizons . 25 November 2013 . 21 October 2020.
http://futurefire.net/2012.24/fiction/machinegods.html Courtship in the Country of Machine Gods
News: Alexander. Niall. Among Myths: Scale-Bright by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. 9 November 2014. Tor.com. 22 August 2014.
Web site: Winterglass. Apex Publications.
News: Fiction Book Review: Winterglass by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Apex, $10.95 trade paper (130p) ISBN 978-1-937009-62-5. 26 December 2017. PublishersWeekly.com. en.
News: Moufawad-Paul. J.. Sriduangkaew, And Shall Machines Surrender (2019). 1 June 2020. The Future Fire. 8 August 2019. en.
http://www.dailydot.com/geek/benjanun-sriduangkaew-revealed-to-be-troll-requires-hate-winterfox Acclaimed sci-fi writer exposed as notorious Internet troll
Web site: Ansible 328, November 2014. news.ansible.uk.
Web site: apologies and finality. 15 October 2014 .
https://beekian.wordpress.com/
Web site: Mixon. Laura J.. A Report on Damage Done by One Individual Under Several Names. 6 November 2014. 23 August 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151210203525/http://laurajmixon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/A-Report-on-Damage-Done-by-One-Individual-Under-Several-Names.pdf. 10 December 2015. dead.
Wallace. Amy. Who Won Science Fiction's Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters. 23 August 2015. Wired. 23 August 2015.
Web site: Sriduangkaew. Benjanun. Six Months and Counting. https://web.archive.org/web/20150318173543/https://medium.com/@talkinghive/six-months-and-counting-13d331912b81. dead. 18 March 2015. Medium.com. 8 July 2015.