
Alpha Fandoms
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Marvel’s Captain America
20/20 Promise
A queer, transgender, neurodivergent, and disabled person; activism through words and stories profoundly shapes Zee’s desires and goals, as a creator and analyst of media. Even though nerdy culture has provided tremendous comfort and community, there is still deeply entrenched bigotry and exclusion in “fan spaces”, and broadly across society. While Karl Popper’s “Paradox of Tolerance” dictates exclusion of those susceptible to bigoted propaganda, there’s an obligation to make room for redemption, with a critical eye to genuine contrition. It’s been a driving force behind Zee’s diverse creative endeavors, as well as a large portion of their larger social activism. Qualified as a multiclass healer, rather than up-front fighter, Zee’s grown into their role as a social justice Paladin, embracing it with the balanced perspective that belies the stereotypes.
Zee Bowditch
Writer. Performer. Senior Creative Staff.
“The young student sits with his head bent over his books, and his mind straying in youth’s dreamland; where prose is prowling on the desk and poetry hiding in the heart.” – Rabindranath Tagore, Lover’s Gift
The written word has a number of formats, from novels and short stories, prose and poetry, fiction and nonfiction, to books and games and improv. All of these have been Zee’s constant companions through thick and thin. Having bounced around in school and mundane work in retail and restaurants, Zee has maintained their love of literature. Currently enrolled in Salem State University in Massachusetts, for a Bachelor’s in English (with an eye towards a teaching career), their contributions are manifold. These include, but are not limited to, helping design a comics writing class for tweens at Red Oak Summer Camp in Boston, and tutoring middle-school students in Shakespeare.
Fandom has been a driving force of Zee’s community involvement and creativity, with the impetus beginning from a young age. Learning to read via The Hobbit, Zee insisted on bringing their family to see the Return of the King in theaters. This opened the floodgates to even more passions: a 2-and-a-half-year long D&D campaign in high school, LARPing, costume design, and spending 5 years as a GM in various tabletop formats, including homebrews and custom work. Zee has taken on professional stints as a shop assistant for steampunk props maker Gartisan Works, been a blogger focusing on feminist takes on pop culture, and moonlighted as a costume designer and cosplayer of both established fictional works and of original characters.
Zee’s community has always been geeky, nerdy, and creative, and their work with SFS is yet another form that has taken. After joining the firm as a core writing pool contributor, they have since transitioned a member of senior creative staff and served as manager of the firm’s in-house social media team for its varying brands, before transitioning to manager of the core writing staff. As an aspiring educator, this feels like a natural extension of their goals in life and is an exciting new part of their growing responsibilities here with SFS.
In their time with the firm, they immediately gravitated to performance cast and modeling, having participated in shoots across almost as many sub-brands of The Living Multiverse as Ms. Kennedy and Mr. Gupta. Recruited in 2016 for the core writing staff, Zee rose quickly through the ranks, distinguishing themselves immensely with some of the heaviest workloads that beginning staff is ever tasked with. Taking to the firm’s proprietary storyline generation method with gusto, they quickly began guesting on the Senior Creative meetings. Following a year or two of that additional responsibility, and executing it admirably, Zee was then were groomed into a management role; first with Team Kitsune (the social media squad), and then with Team Owlbear, the very same that they first joined. Having written one series “Generation Zee” and in the process of working on “Maker Break”, Zee’s offerings here to The Unconventional are no less vital than they’ve been to the firm’s other endeavors.
Whether it’s posing as “All the snake-people” (long story) or on-boarding the latest crop of rookies, Zee can be found doing as they’ve always done: getting involved. Whether it’s creating worlds or standing up for those with no voice of their own, Zee is a tireless advocate for eclectics who refuse to say “enough”, when cautioned about scope creep. So say we all.