Verb Noire

In case you haven't already heard about this via Torque Control, it looks like there's a new indie press on the scene, Verb Noire, established with an aim to "celebrate the works of talented, underrepresented authors and deliver them to a readership that demands more." Specifically, they're looking to cater to the audience of sf/fantasy fans who've "grown tired of the constant whitewashing of these genres", and to provide an outlet for writers with stories about "a POC girl/guy/transgendered character". They've taken an inclusive stance, deciding to "accept works from white authors as long as the central characters are of color and/or LGBT". (I guess that actually means "white and/or straight", but we'll see if and when that's clarified explicitly.) Anyway, it's a laudable enterprise and they're looking for donations towards the start-up costs, so if you've got some spare dosh to throw at a good cause, go for it.

It must be a mark of how I've managed to cut down on my interwebs time-wasting that until yesterday I was completely unaware of the big online stramash that this was born out of. I don't have time to post about that right now, but I might have something to say about it in the next day or so. And in the meantime, that Torque Control post has some good links by which you can get the lowdown, assuming you haven't already.