Ferrett Steinmetz
Ferrett Steinmetz is the pen name of author William Steinmetz, who writes science fiction and urban fantasy and has been active since 2004. Biography. Steinmetz lives in Cleveland with his wife and dog. Literary career. While writing since about 1988, Steinmetz's literary career was "rebooted" by attending the 2008 Clarion Workshop, which "transformed [it] into something with intense focus ... and the ability to scale previously impossible publishing walls." His work has appeared in various periodicals, webzines, podcasts and anthologies, including "Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine", "Apex Magazine", "Asimov's Science Fiction", "Bards and Sages Quarterly", "Beneath Ceaseless Skies , Daily Science Fiction", "The Drabblecast", "Dragons, Droids & Dooms: Year One", "The Edge of Propinquity", "Electric Spec", "Escape Pod", "Fantasy Scroll Magazine", "Giganotosaurus", "GUD", "Kaleidotrope", "Leading Edge", "Lullaby Hearse", "Nebula Awards Showcase 2013", "Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show", "PodCastle", "Pseudopod", "Redstone Science Fiction", "Rocket Dragons Ignite", "Shimmer", "Soundproff Digest", "Space and Time", "Three-lobed Burning Eye", "Three-lobed Burning Eye Annual", "Uncanny Magazine", "Unidentified Funny Objects", "Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling", "What Fates Impose", and "Whispers From the Abyss Vol. 2". His recent novel "Sol Majestic" was reviewed in "The Wall Street Journal" as an example of the  sub-genre "hopepunk". Awards. Steinmetz's story “Sauerkraut Station” ("Giganotosaurus", Nov. 2011) was nominated for the 2011 Nebula Award for best novelette. 2008 Penguicon controversy. During the Penguicon convention in 2008, Steinmetz and a small group of other attendees partook in The Open Source Boob Project, where they would touch the breasts of consenting female convention attendees. According to Steinmetz, this was not sanctioned by the convention, largely went unnoticed by the majority of attendees, and was a positive experience for those participating. After the convention, controversy about the project developed online after Steinmetz posted about it and initially encouraged  other people to repeat the project at other conventions, before later issuing an apology and retraction in light of the controversy.