“Queer ecofeminist speculative fiction adventure.” If that sounds like your jam, read up on Peach Bottom, a series story by Jackie Snax that’s just that!
There’s a nuclear power plant in Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania.
It’s a small town. A bar, a church, a few trailers. A boiling cauldron, brimming with radiation. That kind of town.
Peach Bottom (the story) is a speculative fiction piece, which means a lot of things, but mostly: there is some great, incredible threat. That threat started with the power plant. It started with something solid.
What I came to realize the more I wrote, however, is that the threat of the power plant was redundant.
The realm of speculative fiction is dominated by men. Zombies and atom bombs and straight white males galore! It seems that folks like us never survive long enough to make it into the story. The villains are all fantastical – incredible and far off, removed from our reality. Because in speculative fiction, there must be a Threat.
To so many who have been published and remembered in the genre – that threat had to be imagined.
My heroes include a nonbinary queer mama, her gay daughter, and a trans lesbian activist. None are white, rich, or neurotypical. They all live on this great, drowning Earth, too. I don’t have to imagine a threat.
We’re already facing our villains. Our great and numerous threats – global climate change, institutionalized racism, transphobia, homophobia. The impossible climb out of poverty and debt. We already have too many things to beat. So, how would we win? How would we survive?
Beyond all that, I just wanna know, too – how would we be, in the future? So few stories have let us survive. How would we live, in a world drowned out by rising tides? How would we thrive, after war, famine, violence? What would our world be like? What would we be like?
More than the threat, speculative fiction is about surviving. It’s about overcoming.
I wanted that for us.
Peach Bottom is a serial story written by Jackie Snax, illustrated by Christine Kim, and designed by Heva Deer. PDF copies of the first issue can be bought here. Paperbacks coming soon! Check out peach-bottom.tumblr.com to read free content and get updates on what’s coming next!
Jackie Snax was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They traveled far, but always came home to their beloved city of red brick and startling honesty. Currently, they live in a crumbling ex work house with their pup daughter, artist bud, and cat roommate.