Tawana Watson (Includes a Video Tribute to Elgin featuring Richard Magahiz, Diane Severson Mori, and Jean-Paul L. Garnier)
Suzette Haden Elgin was born Patricia Anne Suzette Wilkins on November 18, 1936, in Jefferson City, Missouri, and attended the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in the 1960s, where she used writing science fiction to pay her tuition. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in linguistics and was the first student to ever write two dissertations (one on English and the other on Navajo). Suzette created the engineered language Laadan for her Native Tongue science fiction series (a grammar and dictionary for the language were created in 1985).
Suzette was an American researcher in experimental linguistics, construction, and evolution of languages and was known for writing poetry and science fiction. Suzette founded the Science Fiction Poetry Association and is considered an important figure in the field of science fiction constructed languages.
Suzette supported feminist science fiction, saying “women need to realize that science fiction is the only genre of literature in which it’s possible for a writer to explore the question of what this world would be like if you could get rid of [Y], where [Y] is filled in with any of the multitudes of real-world facts that constrain and oppress women. Women need to treasure and support science fiction.” In addition, she published shorter fiction with overlying themes in them to include feminism, linguistics and the impact of proper language, and peaceful coexistence with nature (drawing from her Ozark background and heritage).
After becoming a professor at San Diego State University (SDSU), she retired in 1980 moving to Arkansas with her second husband George Elgin. She died on January 27, 2015, at the age of 78 from undisclosed causes.
Tawana Watson is a fledgling writer and poet in speculative poetry with a focus on afro-surrealism, horror, and true crime. She pulls a lot of her inspiration from anxiety and depression since she has been diagnosed with these disorders and lives with these issues daily. She is very curious about normality and what normality is and incorporates that in her writing. Her articles have appeared in the Call and Post Newspaper, Cleveland State University Student Newspaper and the Cuyahoga Community College Newspaper, and a host of blogs. She is a member of the SFPA and a minority mental health advocate, currently residing in Cleveland, OH.
Video Credits: Richard Magahiz is the current SFPA Treasurer, Diane Severson Mori is the SFPA Membership Chair, and Jean-Paul L. Garnier is the editor of Star*Line Magazine.
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