It isn't often that a student gets to turn the tables on a professor and ask questions about something the professor has written. It also isn't often that a fan gets to see inside the writer's mind about the symbolism of certain events in a particular work of fiction. Last night, Geekerati host Christian Johnson got to do both of these things in an interview with SF/F author Susan Palwick.Susan Palwick holds a doctoral degree from Yale and is an associate professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has written three novels, Flying in Place (Tor Books, 1992, reprinted 2005), The Necessary Beggar (Tor Books, 2005), and Shelter (Tor Books 2007). A collection of many of her short stories, The Fate of Mice (Tachyon Publications 2007) was published earlier this year. Flying in Place won the Crawford Award for Best First Fantasy Novel, presented annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. The Necessary Beggar received starred reviews from PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, BOOKLIST and LIBRARY JOURNAL (which also named it one of the best genre books of 2005). Additionally, The Necessary Beggar was honored with an Alex Award from the American Library Association, won a Silver Pen award from the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, and is a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award. Shelter recently received a starred review from LIBRARY JOURNAL. Palwick's stories often examine issues of identity and the relationships between the individual and society.Susan and Christian had a fun time examining the author's most recent book, Shelter, in a lovely conversation that might have wandered into minutiae if it weren't for the timely arrival of Geekerati panelist Shawna Benson. When Shawna joined the conversation, she and Palwick discussed their love of "Battlestar Galactica" and began a discussion about how the increased inclusion of female writers has affected SF and Fantasy.It was a lovely conversation. If you are interested in receiving a copy of Palwick's most recent novel, or her last novel, please email us at geekeratiradio@gmail.com and we'll ship one out to you.