Former Lake Tahoe Action editor selected to present at conference on popular and American culture

Reno writer and educator, Raymond Rugg, has been selected as a panelist for the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association's 33rd annual conference, slated for February in Albuquerque, N.M. He will be discussing his short story, tum' and the Agency school, at a panel designed to explore the combination of speculative fiction and indigenous peoples.

Rugg is the former editor of Lake Tahoe Action Magazine and a former staff member of both the Tahoe Daily Tribune and the Reno Gazette-Journal.

"The genres of science fiction and fantasy are often about our interaction with the 'other', whether it concerns aliens from outer space, creatures from out of the darkness, or elves from the land of Faery. Similarly, Native Americans are also often viewed in both historical and contemporary society as the 'other', with different traditions, governments, schools and even different places set aside for them to live," Rugg says. "So what happens when you mix the literature of 'the other' with the people who are seen as 'the other'?"

This is the question that is being asked more often in studies of popular culture, Rugg notes, as academics discuss topics such as the portrayal of indigenous peoples in comic books and science fiction movies, speculative fiction written by Natives, and genre literature about the indigenous experience.

Joining Rugg on the panel for presentation and discussion of Indigenous Science Fiction and Criticism are Mary Bachran, author of White Man's Medicine, and Brian Hudson, of the University of Oklahoma. The SW/TX PCA/ACA is the premier regional conference promoting the study of popular and American culture, and has been held annually in Albuquerque for more than a decade.

Although he is not a Native American, Rugg was raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation of Northwestern Montana. "I grew up listening to the story of Coyote and the Jocko Valley monster in school, going to the annual pow-wow in Arlee, eating frybread. It wasn't until I moved away from the reservation and lived in other parts of the country that I realized how little the mainstream of the American population knows about Native life."

His short story includes a nod to his upbringing; tum' is an approximation of the Salish word for "the mother of a girl," and the story is a look at a mother striving to do the best she can for her daughter in a future world of competing inter-planetary cultures.

Rugg currently works with schools throughout Northern Nevada and California as a representative for the scholastic journalism programs of Herff Jones Yearbooks, and is the author of the forthcoming indie-published book, Sales and Science Fiction.

For more information, visit the SW/TX PCA/ACA at www.swtxpca.org or e-mail Raymond Rugg at rkrugg@aol.com.