The creative writing program where I did my MFA, and for which I now work, won’t go near so-called genre writing, including speculative literature.  Actually, I’m not sure if that’s as strictly the case now as it used to be; nevertheless, I didn’t encounter a single example of spec lit or other types of genre writing in my two years there.  This has always bugged me.  I grew up reading fantasy and sci-fi and I’ll argue ’til I’m blue in the face that there are plenty of examples of speculative literature that are every bit as literary, intelligent, innnovative and beautiful as the best examples of “literary” writing.  There are also many authors who’ll write speculative work but won’t call it that.  It’s a complicated discussion and I could go on and on about it, but the purpose of this post is to point out that top-notch Canadian literary journal Room (formerly Room of One’s Own) is dedicating an entire issue  (Spring 2009) to speculative literature.  This makes me very happy indeed, and I hope it’ll encourage the wider writing community to accord more respect to quality speculative writing.  I know some of you Vary the Line contributors write speculative poetry, so I’d encourage you to check this out.  The deadline for submissions is January 19, 2009.  Room is a woman-run journal and it only publishes work by women.