Brewing Community with Paul Weimer

Brewing Community is a series of guest posts in which readers, writers, artists and fans are invited to share their experiences of community. Whether online or in person, these groups bring a great deal of support and sometimes stress to their members. The aim of Brewing Community is to share the joy and find ways to brew stronger communities.

The series first ran in 2015. In returning to it after several years, I wanted to focus on how these experiences of community may have changed in recent years, and how people would like to see them change, as well as delving into what books and media have brought comfort in difficult times.

My first guest is, to borrow his own phrase, a force for Genre Goodness. Paul Weimer is a prolific, Hugo-nominated reviewer. I’ve had the very great pleasure of working with him both at The Skiffy and Fanty Show and now at Nerds of a Feather. He’s the sort of person who builds community wherever he goes — introducing people and enthusiastically sharing their work — and he has been a fantastic mentor to me.

( Interview with Paul Weimer )

Photo courtesy Peter West Carey

A 2021 double Hugo Finalist (Best Fan Writer and Best Fancast) and the 2017 Down Under Fan Fund Delegate from North America to Australia and New Zealand, Paul Weimer has been exploring and talking about genre since the early days of blogs. Having honed his genre reviewing and criticism skills at the award winning SF Signal blog and podcast, Paul Weimer now writes for (and podcasts at) The Skiffy and Fanty Show, SFF Audio, Nerds of a Feather and Tor.com. He is the writer of “What I did on my Summer Vacation: The 2017 Down Under Fan Fund Report”, which set a record for number of photos in a fan fund report of any type in addition to documenting the National SF conventions of New Zealand (Lexicon 3) and Australia (Continuum 13). And of course, a visit to Hobbiton amongst many other adventures.

Paul Weimer lives in a city lying between Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota, USA, where the long winters provide plenty of time to read as well as plan his photographic adventures. He is best found on social media sites, from Twitter to Instagram to Discord under the name princejvstin, and his website is http://www.princejvstin.com