Grace Dillon
American academic and author
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grace L. Dillon is an American academic and author. She is a professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies Program, in the School of Gender, Race, and Nations, at Portland State University.[1][2] She received her PhD in literary studies with an emphasis in sixteenth-century literature, and her recent research regards science fiction studies.[3]
Grace Dillon | |
|---|---|
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Thesis | Carefull Verse in Watchman's Song: A Study of Spenser's Prophetic Voice (1997) |
| Doctoral advisor | Stanley Stewart |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Portland State University |
| Notable works |
|
Similar to the concept of Afrofuturism that was created in 1993, Dillon is best known for coining the term Indigenous Futurism, which is a movement consisting of art, literature and other forms of media which express Indigenous perspectives of the past, present and future in the context of science fiction and related sub-genres. Although Grace Dillon first coined the term “Indigenous Futurisms" in 2003, the first publication of its kind with a focus on Indigenous Futurisms, Walking the Clouds, was not published until 2012.[4]
Academic work
Dillon is the editor of Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, which is the first anthology of Indigenous science fiction short stories, published by the University of Arizona Press in 2012.[5][6][7] She organized the collection with the following sub-genres: Native Slipstream, Contact, Indigenous Science and Sustainability, Native Apocalypse, and Returning to Ourselves.[6] The anthology includes works from Gerald Vizenor, Leslie Marmon Silko, Sherman Alexie, William Sanders and Stephen Graham Jones.[6] The anthology brings together multiple stories from authors who are Native American, First Nations, Aboriginal Australian, and New Zealand Maori.[6]
Previously, Dillon has edited Hive of Dreams: Contemporary Science Fiction from the Pacific Northwest, which was published in 2003 by Oregon State University Press.[8][9] This is an anthology of science fiction from writers living in the Pacific Northwest, and features works from authors such as Greg Bear, Octavia Butler, and Molly Gloss.[8] She also coedited The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms with Taryne Jade Taylor, Isiah Lavender III, and Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay.[10] This book was published in 2023 by Routledge.[10] The book dives into different forms of futurisms, such as Latinx Futurisms, Afrofuturisms, and Indigenous Futurisms.[10]
Selected works
- Hive of Dreams: Contemporary Science Fiction from the Pacific Northwest. Oregon State University Press. 2003.[9]
- Indigenous Scientific Literacies in Nalo Hopkinson's Ceremonial Worlds. GL Dillon. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 2007.[11]
- Walking The Clouds: An Anthology Of Indigenous Science Fiction. University of Arizona Press. 2012.[7]
- The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms. Routledge. 2023.[10]
