Happy Publication Day, Archivist Wasp!

Tue 5 May 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Archivist Wasp coverAlthough once you’ve had a chance to read the book, you may wonder how happy Archivist Wasp ever gets! It’s not all bleak, but following ghostfinder into the underworld is a pretty dark start. We were very happy, though, when Ysabeau Wilce sent us a note, oh, back in 2012 (that really was a long time ago) about a great book she’d read and would we like to read it? We love Ysabeau’s books, so, of course we would. I added it to my ever-taller To Be Read stack and when I got to it, burned through it. When we started Small Beer (and, later, Big Mouth House), did I ever think we’d be publishing science fiction novels like this? Only in my dreams!

Archivist Wasp has reached most stores (find it in one near you) and the early reader reaction has been strong. (Especially the booksellers who picked up galleys at Children’s Institute in Pasadena last month, yeah!)

We have a couple of reviews we’re looking forward to reading and we also always love to hear from readers. You can jump right in and read an excerpt on Tor.com or if you’re lucky you can go hear Nicole read from the book at a couple of readings and we’ll have a launch party in a couple of weeks at WisCon!

May 17, 4 p.m. Inquiring Minds Bookstore, 6 Church Street, New Paltz, NY
May 20, 7 p.m. KGB Bar Fantastic Fiction Reading Series, 85 East 4th Street (just off 2nd Ave) New York, NY 10003 [with Wesley Chu]
May 22 – 25, WisCon, Madison, WI

ETA:

Nicole takes the Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe.
Angela Slatter interviews Nicole Kornher-Stace.


Archivist Wasp

Tue 5 May 2015 - Filed under: Big Mouth House, Books| Posted by: Gavin

A Big Mouth House Book
paper · $14 · 9781618730978 | ebook · 9781618730985 · Edelweiss
Third printing: May 2016

YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2016
Kirkus Reviews: Best Teen Books of 2015
Book Riot: Best of 2015
Buzzfeed: 32 Best Fantasy Novels of 2015
ABC Best Books for Young Readers Catalog
Flavorwire: The 10 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2015 So Far
LA Times Summer Reading
Locus Recommended Reading
Norton Award Finalist

Wasp’s job is simple. Hunt ghosts. And every year she has to fight to remain Archivist. Desperate and alone, she strikes a bargain with the ghost of a supersoldier. She will go with him on his underworld hunt for the long-lost ghost of his partner and in exchange she will find out more about his pre-apocalyptic world than any Archivist before her. And there is much to know. After all, Archivists are marked from birth to do the holy work of a goddess. They’re chosen. They’re special. Or so they’ve been told for four hundred years.

Archivist Wasp fears she is not the chosen one, that she won’t survive the trip to the underworld, that the brutal life she has escaped might be better than where she is going. There is only one way to find out.

Nicole takes the Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe.
Angela Slatter interviews Nicole Kornher-Stace.

Read an excerpt on Tor.com.
Nicole Kornher-Stace and the Page 69 Test on TNBBC.
io9: Essential Books.

Reviews

“Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kohrner-Stace arrived like the Tyrannosaurus Rex from Jurassic Park: ripples in the water, and then a titanic emergence that blew expectations away. Its complex characters, engaging world, and challenging questions drew readers to its pages like iron to a magnet. A story of revolution, pain, friendship, ghosts, scars, and survival, Archivist Wasp has more than earned its place on this Best Of list, and will continue to change reader’s lives for years to come.”
— Martin Cahill, Book Riot: Best of 2015

“This book. This book. In the past few years, there’ve been a handful of books I count it a privilege to have read—a handful of books with which I fell instantly and deeply in love. . . . Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Archivist Wasp has added itself to that list.”
— Liz Bourke, Tor.com

“Now the story becomes clear for what it is: a story about agency, freedom and revolution. All of sudden, this book Mad-Max-Fury-Roaded me, like a boss. SO! Incredible characters – fleshed-out, human, complicated: check. Beautiful writing: check. Plot that develops like it was written for me: check. A cool mixture of Fantasy and Science Fiction, because ghosts but also super-soldiers: check and check. Reminiscent of everything I love but completely its own thing, a SF YA like I haven’t read in a while, Archivist Wasp is a book I will treasure.”
— Ana Grilo, The Book Smugglers

“A jarring yet satisfying reveal, one that fully justifies the obscuring of truth and arrangement of clues that leads up to it. It’s also modestly, quietly profound. “We bring our own monsters with us” is a refrain in the book, and as pat as that statement sounds, it’s not used glibly. With understated skill, Archivist Wasp twists myth, fantasy and science fiction into a resonant tale of erasure and absence — and an aching reminder that regaining what has been lost isn’t always the answer.”
— Jason Heller, NPR

“Creepy and unsettling (but in a good way), with a superb ending.”
— Tim, Prairie Lights

“A few times a year, if you’re lucky, you read a book that becomes part of your permanent recommendations list. These are the books that, when someone asks you what they should read next, are the first ones you throw into the conversation. “Have you read this one? What about this?” I read Archivist Wasp in 2015 and have been recommending it on the regular ever since.”
— Jenn Northington, Book Riot

“Kornher-Stace exhibits immense fluidity and grace of prose. She is able to evoke the creepy, barren, stifled post-collapse world; the other-dimensional byways down which the ghost brings Wasp; and the pre-collapse Project Latchkey environment where Foster works, all in differing but equally vivid styles. The reader will feel the cold and damp, the scalpels and clamps, the fairytale ambiance of a ghostly “waystation,” with exactitude and weight. Likewise, Kornher-Stace exhibits fine skills with characterization: Wasp and the ghost both emerge fully rounded. And her action scenes are cinematic.”
— Paul Di Filippo, Locus

“A ravishing, profane, and bittersweet post-apocalyptic bildungsroman transcends genre into myth.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Wasp is used the properties of her world that might be strange to the reader. And while one character offers a perspective on a more familiar world, that’s also not one with which we’re familiar. It can be dizzying, but in the way that works that reconfigure expectations often are. Call this novel YA, call it science fiction or science fantasy, call it a new mythology. But by all means, call it compelling.”
— Tobias Carroll, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

“Young adults will be able to relate to Wasp’s inner turmoil and her battle to understand a world full of inexplicable hatred and violence. The fast pace and graphic action will draw in reluctant readers.
VERDICT A must-have for dystopian fans who prefer to avoid love stories and pat endings.”
— School Library Journal

“This isn’t your typical YA novel. With myth, mystery, and heart, it is a post-apocalyptic world unlike anything you’ve ever read. Perfect for fans of Anna Dressed in Blood and science Fiction.”
— YA Books Central

“My new favorite forthcoming YA SF. And that’s all I’m going to say, because this book needs to pull you in and spin you around a couple times before leading you down its path.”
— Paula Willey, Baltimore County Public Library

“This is a lean, mean book with a lean, mean main character, and among all the post-apocalyptic dross, it’s pure gold.”
— Geekly, Inc.

“GLORIOUSLY appealing and what I most like: Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Archivist Wasp. Throw this book in the face of anyone who suggests that the dystopian YA genre is all tapped out!”
— Jenny Davidson, The Explosionist

Early readers respond to Archivist Wasp

“The full adrenaline ride . . .  Kornher-Stace writes a mean action sequence.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Archivist Wasp is a gorgeous and complex book, featuring a deadly girl who traverses an equally deadly landscape. Wasp won me over, and she’s sure to find fans among teens and grown-ups alike.”
— Phoebe North, author of Starglass

“A tremendously inventive and smart novel. Archivist Wasp is like Kafka by way of Holly Black and Shirley Jackson, but completely original. Highly recommended.”
— Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach trilogy

“Sharp as a blade and mythically resonant, Archivist Wasp is a post-apocalyptic ghost story unlike anything else I’ve read. Trust me, you want this book.”
— Karina Sumner-Smith, author of Radiant

“Brutal post-apocalypse meets sci-fi techno-thriller meets a ghost story for the ages in this astonishingly original novel from Nicole Kornher-Stace. You’ve never read anything like Archivist Wasp, but once you have you’ll be clamoring for more.”
— Mike Allen, author of Unseaming

“A gorgeous, disturbing, compelling book with a smart, complicated heroine who bestrides her post-apocalyptic world like a bewildered force of nature. Reading it was a wild ride and a thoroughly satisfying one.”
— Delia Sherman, author of The Freedom Maze

“One of the most revelatory and sublime books I’ve ever read, Archivist Wasp is a must-read for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction. Kornher-Stace is a genius, and I can’t wait to see what she does next!”
— Tiffany Trent, author of The Unnaturalists

“Archivist Wasp turns destiny on its head, and it re-invents the world you know to do it. Strong. Fast. Addictive.”
— Darin Bradley, author of Noise and Chimpanzee

“Goes off like a firecracker in the brain: the haunted landscape, the sure-footed, blistering prose — and, of course, the heroine herself, the most excellent Archivist Wasp.”
— Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble

Praise for Nicole Kornher-Stace’s writing:

“In richly textured, atmospheric prose, Kornher-Stace delivers a spellbinding tale of deception, betrayal, and the darker possibilities of playacting.”–Booklist

“Mesmerizing from the first page and once you get into its flow, a page turner to boot.”—Fantasy Book Critic

“Absorbing, exciting, intellectually fascinating, emotionally true and well-crafted, bobbles and all.”—Ideomancer

About the Author

Nicole Kornher-Stace lives in New Paltz, NY, with two humans, three ferrets, and more books than strictly necessary. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, and Archivist Wasp is her second novel.

Cover art by Jacquelin de Leon.


Kirkus and PW on The Liminal War

Fri 1 May 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

The Liminal War coverEveryone take note: this summer we’re publishing two novels by Ayize Jama-Everett. They’re pure pageturning SF and the proof is here in the first two — stripped to the bone — trade reviews:

Kirkus: scrappy · careen through  · the space-time continuum · frequently outrageous battles · supernatural · survivors · legendary musicians  ·  strange god · nonhuman entities · swiftly, cramming · action-adventure · speed · refreshing · refreshingly · engaging · likable · fast-paced · dangers · survivors · legendary musicians  ·  strange god · nonhuman entities · swiftly, cramming · action-adventure · speed · refreshing · refreshingly · engaging · likable · fast-paced · dangers

Publishers Weekly: raw wattage · lit up · healer/killer · epic · sociopathic · rich, dense ·  blast · pure psychic chaos · “mine by choice” ·  superpowered · stumped · four-billion-year-old vegetable god · cyclonic energy · verbal legerdemain · noir-infused verve

For a taster, you can start reading Ayize’s first book The Liminal People here.


Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter’s Tales

Tue 21 Apr 2015 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

hardcover · June 2009 · 9781931520553 | ebook · 9781618730145
April 2015 trade paperback · 9781618731050

Winner of the Tiptree Award
Mythopoeic Award finalist

Also available: Cry Murder! in a Small Voice · Exit, Pursued by a Bear

In the eighteen years since her IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award–winning debut novel Moonwise, Greer Gilman’s writing has only grown more complex and entrancing. Cloud & Ashes is a slow whirlwind of language, a button box of words, a mythic Joycean fable that will invite immersion, study, revisitation, and delight. Cloud & Ashes comprises three tales: “Jack Daw’s Pack” (Nebula Award finalist), “A Crowd of Bone” (winner of the World Fantasy Award), and the new third part, a whole novel, “Unleaving.” Inventive, playful, and erudite, Gilman is an archeolexicologist rewriting language itself in these long-awaited tales.

Listen to Greer Gilman reading from Cloud & Ashes at the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. Greer is introduced by Faye Ringel and after the reading, Sonya Taafe sings Lal and Mike Waterson’s song “The Scarecrow”—one of the keys to the mythos of Cloud. Download/listen to the (large) MP3 here.

Also:  A reading from the 2010 Boskone convention in Boston.

Reviews

“The best fantasy novel of the twenty-first century.”
— Matthew David Surridge, Black Gate

“A short story, a longer one, and a novel continue the exploration of the world of Faerie begun in Greer Gilman’s lavishly praised 1991 first novel Moonwise. Wind and weather influence the doings of besotted humans and even stranger life forms, in domestic dramas that accelerate subtly into near-Shakespearean conflicts and quests, all expressed in a rich poetic prose laden with fetching archaisms that’s unlike anything else being written today. Brilliant and truly innovative fiction, not to be missed.”
—Bruce Allen, The Washington Times

“A work that reads like language stripped bare, myth tracked to its origins. Seasons, weather, lust, pain, sacrifice … the stuff of old ballads becomes intensely real, with the natural contradictions of a cold wind that both chafes and dances…. And the payoff is immense. I finished Cloud & Ashes almost tempted to write a thesis that compares it favorably to what James Joyce did in Ulysses and tried in Finnegan’s Wake, yet feeling like I’d lived through it all.”
—Locus

“Every so often, and it’s a rare event, you read a book and you know, because of its depth and excellence, that you will return to it in the years to come. For me, this is one of those books. It’s a tale, or tales, not just for reading, but for pondering and rereading. It’s a book to pluck off the shelf of a winter’s night, just for the sake of wandering again within its pages; for the sake of finding unnoticed connections, for savouring language, and for pondering the nature of stories, souls, and the stars.”
—Matthew David Surridge, Black Gate

“Cloud & Ashes is not a book for every reader; but it is a book for every human. (It’s also a book for every library that desires to be worthy of that appellation.) There might seem to be a contradiction in those words, and there might well be, were every human to read. But to my, mind reading is an effort that exists outside its own exercise; that is when we read, it may feel like an internal, unshared, indeed unsharable experience. But that is not, I think the case. When we read, we go to the place where writing comes from, and in so doing, I think we leave something of ourselves behind as readers. Greer Gilman found whatever it is that is left behind, she has captured it in her net of words and managed to write it down and get it published. That is a herculean feat. It may only happen once in her lifetime or in ours. But it’s happened here and now. What you do with it is up to you. For eternity, as it happens.”
—Rick Kleffel

“A book whose hold on your mind, on your memory, is assured. It is a story about story, and stories are what we are all made of. Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”
—Paul Kincaid, SF Site

“Gilman’s ‘A Crowd of Bone’ . . . is dense, jammed with archaic words and neologisms . . . but the story—complex, tangled in narrative as well as syntax, and very dark—rewards the most careful of readings.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“‘Green quince and bletted medlar, quiddany and musk’: Greer Gilman fills your mouth with wincing tastes, your ears with crowcalls, knockings and old, old rhythms, your eyes with beautiful and battered creatures, sly-eyed, luminous or cackling as they twine and involute their stories. Gilman writes like no one else. To read her is to travel back, well back, in time; to wander in thrall through mist on moor and fell; to sink up to the nostrils in a glorious bog of legend and language, riddled with bones and iron, sodden with witches’ blood.”
—Margo Lanagan, author of Tender Morsels

“Greer Gilman is a master of myth and language with few equals in this world. Cloud and Ashes is a triumphant, heart-rending triptych, a mosaic of folklore, intellectual pyrotechnics, and marvelous, motley characters that takes the breath and makes the blood beat faster.”—Catherynne M. Valente, author of In the Night Garden

“No one else writes like Greer Gilman. She is one of our most innovative and important writers, in fantasy or out of it. If you want to see what language can do, the heart-stopping beauty it can achieve, read Cloud & Ashes.”
—Theodora Goss, author of In the Forest of Forgetting

Greer Gilman is the author of the novel Moonwise, which won the Crawford Award and was shortlisted for the James Tiptree, Jr. and Mythopoeic awards She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Praise for Greer Gilman’s writing:

“Greer Gilman is a writer like no one else. Many try to employ the matter of myth and folktale, but their tongues are inadaquate—Gilman can employ words as the bards of Ireland did, to make realities . . . Moonwise doesn’t resemble a work of the past age—it is the past age come back new, in its clothes and its language and its dark riddling heart. Moonwise simply has no peers.”
—John Crowley

“Greer Gilman’s diamond of a novella . . . might reward a lifetime of re-reading. A question like ‘What is it about?’ is as useful applied to Gilman’s novella as asked of a snow leopard. Both simply are.”
—Locus

“Moving, engaging, mysterious, glorious…In her flying pastiche of words and images Gilman does in the fantasy vernacular what Joyce aimed for.”
—Tangent

Contents

“Jack Daw’s Pack”
(Nebula finalist, 2001)
He is met at a crossroads on a windy night, the moon in tatters and the mist unclothing stars, the way from Ask to Owlerdale: a man in black, whiteheaded, with a three-string fiddle in his pack.

“A Crowd of Bone”
(World Fantasy Award winner, 2004)
Margaret, do you see the leaves? They flutter, falling. See, they light about you, red and yellow. I am spelling this in leaves.

“Unleaving” (A new novel-length story.)
When a star falls, we do say: the Nine are weaving. Look! The Road’s their skein, that endlong from the old moon’s spindle is unreeled. Their swift’s the sky. O look! says Margaret. The children of the house gaze up or glance. The namesakes. Look thou, Will. Look, Whin. They stitch your daddy’s coat.

On the web:

Credits

Cover art Kathleen Jennings.

Author photo courtesy of Liza Groen Trombi/Locus Publications.

Readers who ordered Greer Gilman’s Cloud & Ashes before December 31, 2008, have their names printed on the inside of the dustjacket.


Tomorrow: Greer Gilman @ PSB

Mon 20 Apr 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Tomorrow night, meet at a crossroads on a windy night, the moon in tatters and the mist unclothing stars, and make your way clear to Porter Square Books in Cambridge for Greer Gilman’s first reading from the shiny new paperback edition of her Tiptree award winning novel Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter’s Tales.

Sonya Taaffe (who re-read Cloud & Ashes with a fabulous eye for detail, thank you!) will also be reading. She is celebrating the publication of her new collection of 36 poems and 1 story, Ghost Signs.

It will be a night of language explored, stretched, and broadened: don’t miss it!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015 – 7:00pm
Porter Square Books
25 White St.
Cambridge, MA 02140

When a star falls, we do say: the Nine are weaving. Look!  The Road’s their skein, that endlong from the old moon’s spindle is unreeled. Their swift’s the sky. O look! says Margaret. The children of the house gaze up or glance. The namesakes. Look thou, Will. Look, Whin. They stitch your daddy’s coat. The twins, still whirling in the meadow, seem as heedless as the light, as leaves. Now one and now the other one, they tumble down and down the slope, lie breathless in the summer grass. His mantle’s of the burning gold, says Whin; and Will, His steed is January. I’m to have his spurs.
Bright-lipped in her bower of meadow, imber-stained, small Annot gazes. She is like bright Annot fled; is like herself. I’ve counted seven for the Ship. Like cherrystones. I’ve wished.
What Nine? says Tom.
Why, sisters in a tower—see yon smutch of silver, where it rises? Back of Mally’s Thorn?
He studies. Aye. And stars in it. Like kitlins in a basket.
Their house. It is a nursery of worlds.
Is’t far? says Annot. Can I walk there?
Not by candlelight, says Margaret. ’Tis outwith all the heavens, sun and moon. I’ll show thee in my glass. But she is elsewhere now, remembering the Road beneath her, and the heavens that her glass undid. Remembering the Nine, the sisters at their loom of night.


“Our rights to think and speak freely have been won at great cost”

Wed 15 Apr 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

But coming home to the countries of the West, where nobody dies for a moment’s lapse in fealty to a prime minister or a president, it can be depressing beyond words to hear the loyalists of a given political creed — whether of the left or the right — adopt the unyielding certainties common in totalitarian states. Our rights to think and speak freely have been won at great cost, and we abuse them at our peril.

John F. Burns, “The Things I Carried Back,” New York Times


AWP Reading/Party: Thu April 9, 7 pm

Wed 1 Apr 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , , | Posted by: Gavin

In less a week or so we will be in the Twin Cities (where our distro, Consortium is based, woohoo!) at the AWP Conference and Bookfair. To celebrate 1 million poets, writers, editors, publishers, readers, teachers, students, preachers, itinerant educators and professional argumentors getting together we are hosting a party with a few readings in it. Here are the salient details!

When: Thursday, April 9, 7 -9 pm
Where: Peterson Milla Hooks, 1315 Harmon Pl, Minneapolis, MN 55403 (4 minutes by car from l’hotel, says Google Maps)
What: Party — with short readings from . . .
Who:
Amalia Gladhart (translator of Angélica Gorodischer’s Trafalgar)
A. DeNiro (Tyrannia)
Kelly Link (Get in Trouble)

We’ll also have a table in the Bookfair, #324, and will be there be most of the time (multiple snack breaks will be taken) while the Bookfair is open:

4/9     Thu. 9 am – 5 pm
4/10   Fri. 9 am – 5 pm
4/11    Sat. 9 am – 5 pm

and at said table on Friday morning we are very happy to announce that we will have those lovely writers in for signings!

Friday, April 10, 30-minute signings:
10 am  Kelly Link
10:30 am  Amalia Gladhart
11 am  A. DeNiro

This post will be updated with panel info and anything else that seems appropriate. Can’t wait to be standing there in the bookroom with 1000 (sounds about right, yes?) other indie presses. I am going to go and buy me some books, chapbooks, and journals. And maybe a T-shirt if I am lucky. Whomsoever brings the pink T-shirt, I am your buyer!


Marina and the Diamonds, Froot

Tue 31 Mar 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Dropping this here in case you want some big dancy music — and some quiet stuff, too (“I go home and lock the doors, and I hear the sirens . . . I’m in love with the ice-blue, gray skies of England. And I’ll admit all I want to do, is get drunk and silent”) and what’s spending about 50% of the time on all the virtual turntables around here:


Archivist Wasp Giveaway

Sat 28 Mar 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

This post has been automagically set to go up on a Saturday while I am not online, woohoo! (US/Canada only, sorry: see USPS mailing costs!)

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Archivist Wasp

by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Giveaway ends April 07, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 


UK edition of The Freedom Maze

Thu 26 Mar 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

So pretty! Very glad this book will be find a readership in the UK thanks to Corsair!


Archivist Wasp on Edelweiss for reviewers

Thu 12 Mar 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Archivist Wasp cover We just added Nicole Kornher-Stace’s forthcoming young adult science fiction novel Archivist Wasp to Edelweiss for booksellers, librarians, & reviewers of all persuasions.

Request copies here!

I love the simplicity of Edelweiss so much that I even did a panel on it once. I used to love Goodreads, but once Am*zon bought them I decided I didn’t want them to know that much about me — ok, all my reviews and so on are archived in their huge databases somewhere, but I wanted that slice of data to stop dead right around that point. But I have no particular dislike of social media, hello Twitter and Tumblr!, and given that I was on Facebook (another account I’ve since deleted!) I just opened YouTube account and am in the process of buying views through themarketingheaven.com. This one I’m not going to list anything but Small Beer Press books, books by or edited by me and/or Kelly but I will be able to use it to do giveaways, so, yay for that. Check out my new profile (I officially have nae pals!) with a picture by Greg Frost of Tiny Me at Swarthmore College here.

But, anyway, this is really about Archivist Wasp. If you’re a bookseller, you might have gotten a copy in the mail and if not, there will be copies at the ABA’s Children’s Institute next month in Pasadena.

Wait, Pasadena? I lived for a short time in South Pasadena in a tiny apartment with a Murphy bed (loved it!) and worked at the Rizzoli bookshop (now RIP, I think) in Pasadena. Now and then we’d have “lunch” at the Gordon Biersch brewery across the way and when the World Cup was on in 1994 the Italian owners came over to see Italy play in the final. We all felt very bad the next day that we’d been dancing in the streets with all the celebrating Brazilian fans. Oh well. Before that I worked at an Italian restaurant making salads. If you ate a not-very-well put together salad in Pasadena in the early nineties, I apologize.

So anyway. I cannot keep it on track today. If you do go to Pasadena, hope you get a good salad and a copy of Archivist Wasp from the fine folks at the Consortium booth.


Two crowdfunding things

Tue 3 Mar 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , , , | Posted by: Gavin

Quick mention for two crowdfunding things that are live right now. (We should have one of these some day for The Chemical Wedding!)

Sue Burke, whose translation of Prodigies (Angélica Gorodischer’s favorite of her own novels!) we will publish in August, is one of the people behind a current Indiegogo campaign, Castles in Spain, an anthology of translated Spanish science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories. I’ve been enjoying the Updates and today’s update says the book is definitely on, so yay!

And Jedediah Berry and Emily Houk’s new Ninepin Press card/story/hybrid/mash up/fascinating Family Arcana Kickstarter is, wait for it — wait, for my bad joke to make sense I have to say something about how packs of playing cards usually come in boxes and this project is all about thinking outside of said box. Fortunately for all concerned I have nothing to do with the project, I’m just a backer, woohoo! Some stretch goals have already been reached including one in which Kelly is one of the writers who’ll be writing a horoscope for all backers:

pledging at the $12 level or higher will receive our first bonus card pack: horoscopes written by twelve excellent writers. Details here.

I love the video:


Mermaids in Turkey, Meet Me in the Japanese Moon Room

Mon 2 Mar 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

These two lovely books arrived in the office last week courtesy of Ithaki —who just published the Turkish edition of Lydia Millet’s The Fires Beneath the Sea (the first book in her Dissenters series. I’ll have an update on that later this spring) — and Tokyo Sogensha who are publishing the Japanese edition of one of our first titles, Ray Vukcevich’s mindboggling collection Meet Me in the Moon Room. So great to know these books are out there finding new readers around the world.

Lydia Millet, A Fire Beneath the Seas, Turkish edition Meet Me in the Moon Room, Japanese edition

The Fires Beneath the Sea cover Meet Me in the Moon Room cover


The Rumpus interview

Fri 27 Feb 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

The Rumpus just posted a great longish interview with Benjamin Parzybok about his somewhat scarily possible novel Sherwood Nation. Ben is someone who sees a problem and does something, whether that’s write a novel or run a poetry magazine in gumball machines or to tell the story of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner from the first person (Project Hamad). David Breithaupt at The Rumpus asked Ben about his activism, our place in the world, and more:

The Rumpus: I don’t understand the denial of climate change. Sherwood Nation depicts a type of class war over the unequal distribution of water rations. Do you think this is happening now with climate denial, that the wealthy are in battle with the other ninety-nine percent?

parzybokParzybok: I certainly think there’s a war going on between the self-interested, self-serving body that is the corporation, and humans. At this point in our democracy, that’s the primary struggle we’re facing: whether corporate or constituent interests will win out. Weirdly, corporations are staffed by people, presumably, and so you’d expect they’d have some sway. But a corporation has a mind of its own, and corporate goals do not line up at all with potential longer-term goals of our species (these goals might be difficult to agree on, but surely opportunities for cataclysm might be among them). I do wish every CEO (most of whom are among the one percent) would sit down and re-evaluate his or her corporation’s goals based on long-term interests for living here on this planet.

  Read on


Cloud & Ashes pb

Wed 25 Feb 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

I’m pleased to note that the first paperback edition of Greer Gilman’s amazing, immersive, enchanting, mind boggling, fever-inducing, death-defying literary tightrope walk, Tiptree Award winner Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter’s Tales has gone to press and will be published in April of this year.

Greer will be reading and taking questions at the mighty Porter Square Books on April 21st at 7 pm along with one of her amazing first readers, Sonya Taaffe, who will be celebrating the publication of her own latest book, Ghost Signs, a collection of 36 poems and one story, published by our friends at Aqueduct Press.

Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter’s Tales cover

Should you read Cloud & Ashes? Here is one reader’s response:

“Cloud & Ashes is not a book for every reader; but it is a book for every human. (It’s also a book for every library that desires to be worthy of that appellation.) There might seem to be a contradiction in those words, and there might well be, were every human to read. But to my, mind reading is an effort that exists outside its own exercise; that is when we read, it may feel like an internal, unshared, indeed unsharable experience. But that is not, I think the case. When we read, we go to the place where writing comes from, and in so doing, I think we leave something of ourselves behind as readers. Greer Gilman found whatever it is that is left behind, she has captured it in her net of words and managed to write it down and get it published. That is a herculean feat. It may only happen once in her lifetime or in ours. But it’s happened here and now. What you do with it is up to you. For eternity, as it happens.”
—Rick Kleffel


This Saturday in LA

Wed 18 Feb 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , | Posted by: Gavin

The Entropy of Bones This Saturday in LA at the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Children’s Literacy Day we are very happy to note that Ayize Jama-Everett (The Entropy of Bones, Aug. 2015) will be a panelist on the We Need Diverse Books panel, along with Newbery Award winner Cynthia Kadohata (Kira-Kira) and Sherri Smith (author of the fabulous and weird Orleans). The moderator is debut novelist Stacey Lee (Under a Painted Sky).

Even better news: Fedex is right now delivering advance reading copies of The Entropy of Bones for attendees. Ayize’s novels are pretty fast-paced sf thrillers and this one kicks off hard with a young woman out for a run in the Northern California hills getting the drop on some people who expected to surprise her.

Here’s a taste:

Chapter One

Last time I’d been this deep in the Northern California hills I was a blood and bar tour in a monkey-shit brown Cutlass Royale with the Raj. Now I was on distance running from the Mansai, his boat, to wherever I would finally get tired. From Sausalito to Napa is only sixty or so miles if I hugged the San Pablo Bay, cut through the National Park and ran parallel to the 121, straight north. About a half a day’s run. Cut through the mountains and pick up the pace and I could make it to Calistoga in another three hours. From downtown wine country I’d find the nicest restaurant that would serve my sweaty gortexed ass and gorge myself on meals so large cooks would weep. The runs up were like moving landscape paintings done by masters; deep with nimbus clouds hiding in craggy sky-high mountains. Creeks hidden in deep green fern and ivies that spoke more than they ran.

Narayana Raj had taught me in the samurai style. You don’t focus on your enemy’s weakness, instead you make yourself invulnerable. My focus was to be internal. In combat discipline was all. But in the running of tens of miles, that discipline was frivolous. My only enemy was boredom and memory. Surrounded by such beauty, how could I not split my attention? Nestled in the California valleys I found quiet, if not peace.

I also found guns. Halfway between Napa and Calistoga, the chambering of a shotgun pulled my attention from the drum and bass dirge pulsing in my ear buds. The woods had just gone dark but my vision was clear enough to notice the discarded cigarette butts that formed a semi-circle behind one knotted Redwood. Rather than slowing down, I sped up and choke-held the red headed shotgun boy hiding behind the tree before he had time to situate himself, my ulna against his larynx, my palm against his carotid. He was muscular but untrained . Directly across from him was an older man, late thirties, dressed for warmth with one of those down jackets that barely made a sound when he moved. His almost fu-manchu moustache didn’t twitch when he pulled two Berettas on me. I faced my captive towards his partner.

“Wait . . .” Berettas said, more scared than he meant to sound.

Drop them. I commanded with my Voice. The gun went down hard. I used the Dragon claw, more a nerve slap than a punch, to turn the redhead’s carotid artery into a vein for a second. When he started seizing, I dropped him. To his credit, Beretta went for the kid rather than his weapons. I continued my run, mad that I’d missed a refrain from Kruder and Dorfmeister.
. . .


Mythically resonant

Wed 18 Feb 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Archivist Wasp coverETA: Another great response!

“Archivist Wasp turns destiny on its head, and it re-invents the world you know to do it. Strong. Fast. Addictive.” — Darin Bradley, author of Noise and Chimpanzee

The drums keep beating for Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Archivist Wasp. It’s her first young adult novel, it comes out in May, and this week we had two pieces of good news:

First, an excellent response from an early reader:

“Sharp as a blade and mythically resonant, Archivist Wasp is a post-apocalyptic ghost story unlike anything else I’ve read. Trust me, you want this book.” — Karina Sumner-Smith, author of Radiant

And, second, the first trade review came in and it’s a STAR! Here’s a line from it, please do go read the rest of the review and if you feel like it, clickity click one of those sharey buttons:

“A ravishing, profane, and bittersweet post-apocalyptic bildungsroman transcends genre into myth.”
— Kirkus Reviews

 


Locus Recommended Reading

Fri 13 Feb 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , , , , , | Posted by: Gavin

Locus February 2015 (#649) cover - click to view full sizeThis month’s issue of Locus (handily available on Weightless) is a humdinger of a read — not just for this here publisher, although our books do get many great shout outs. For which, Yay!

I always find the year in review columns interesting to see the range of books covered, what I’ve read, and what I’ve missed. This year I thought they were even more enjoyable than ever because they were even more personalized than ever. There is still the authoritative Recommended Reading List, but there are so many books and magazines mentioned and highlighted throughout the whole issue (ok, I haven’t read the whole thing yet) that I found it made for immersive reading. I love how widely the editors look for books and how fresh their eyes are. It’s easy to get tired of the unending stream of books, magazines, anthologies, ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts, etc., but what I got from this issue was that it was put together by a group of people who are enthusiastic about books and their jobs and are happy to share their enjoyment.

This year three of our 2014 books and one story from LCRW were included in the list. (We published 3 new collections and 1 new novel, and reprinted 2 novels and 4 ebooks to make a total of 10 books, plus 1 chapbook and 2 issues of LCRW):

Questionable Practices, Eileen Gunn
Young Woman in a Garden, Delia Sherman
Prophecies, Libels, and Dreams: Stories of Califa, Ysabeau S. Wilce
“Skull and Hyssop”, Kathleen Jennings (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet no. 31, Dec. 2014)

I’m very happy to see that Monstrous Affections, the YA all-monster-all-the-time anthology that Kelly and I edited for Candlewick was on the list, received some fabulous mentions, and had 5 stories included. Me, I’d have included all 15 stories, but, hey, I co-edited the beast:

Monstrous Affections, Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant, ed (Candlewick)
“Moriabe’s Children”, Paolo Bacigalupi
“Left Foot, Right”, Nalo Hopkinson
“Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind)”, Holly Black
“Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying”, Alice Sola Kim
“The New Boyfriend”, Kelly Link

And it is also pretty fabby to see Kelly’s three stories included, one from Monstrous Affections and one story from the anthology My True Love Gave to Me which is not included in her new collection, Get in Trouble (also reviewed in this issue by Gary K. Wolfe):

“I Can See Right Through You”, Kelly Link (McSweeney’s #48)
“The Lady and the Fox”, Kelly Link (My True Love Gave to Me)

Happily for us, there were also a couple of reviews of our books. Gardner Dozois reviewed Ysabeau S. Wilce’s Prophecies, Libels, and Dreams:

. . . lyrical, whimsical, eccentric, baroquely ornamented, and often very funny. . . . but what really makes these stories shine is the voice they’re told in – one using flamboyant, over-the-top verbal pyrotechnics that somehow almost always pay off. . . .

and Eileen Gunn’s Questionable Practices:

Nobody sees the world quite like Gunn does, who puts her own unique spin on everything, transforming even the mundane into something rich and wonderful . . . [including] two stories published in this collection for the first time, “Phantom Pain” and the richly textured variant on the Golem story, “Chop Wood, Carry Water”.

and even a review of Monstrous Affections by Rich Horton.

And, if you do go check out the Recommended Reading list, don’t forget you too can go vote in the poll. I like voting in almost any context so of course I recommend it here. In the meantime, thanks to Locus for all the work that goes into that corker of a February issue and to everyone who reads and votes for our books.


The Chemical Wedding moves on

Fri 13 Feb 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Good news for those of you following the long evolution of John Crowley’s The Chemical Wedding. Jacob MacMurray is deep into the design and the book has just come back from the proofreader. More updates as we have them!


Got the snacks, cupcakes, beer, just need the reader

Fri 13 Feb 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

and Kelly will be on a train back from New York City soon. She also did a radio interview and read at Word Jersey City and chatted with Lev Grossman. I saw a photo on twitter, weird.

Tonight! Books! Eats from King Street Eats! Cupcakes! Berkshire Brewing beer!

Odyssey Bookshop, 7 pm!

Location: 9 College St., South Hadley, MA 01075 (get directions)

Poet A. B. Robinson will read followed by Kelly reading, doing a Q&A, and enjoying being in Western Mass for a couple of days before heading oot scoot off to the West Coast. Hope to see you there!

Monday: Brookline Booksmith!
Tuesday: Elliott Bay, Seattle!
Wednesday: Powell’s, Portland!
Thursday: Booksmith, San Francisco!
Friday: Literati, Ann Arbor!
More!


Archivist Wasp gets going

Wed 11 Feb 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

How do we know Archivist Wasp is getting out there?

Archivist Wasp

Because Elliott Bay Bookstore and their lovely bookseller Justus Joseph, all the way over there in Seattle, was tweeting at us today about it, that’s how! Yeah! We sent copies out to some of the best indie bookstores around and they are reading it and loving it. The book came to us on a hot tip from Ysabeau Wilce and we are very happy to be sending it out into the world this May.

Also, because we’re getting a cracking response from early readers!

Archivist Wasp cover“Archivist Wasp is a gorgeous and complex book, featuring a deadly girl who traverses an equally deadly landscape. Wasp won me over, and she’s sure to find fans among teens and grown-ups alike.”
— Phoebe North, author of Starglass

“A tremendously inventive and smart novel. Archivist Wasp is like Kafka by way of Holly Black and Shirley Jackson, but completely original. Highly recommended.”
— Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach trilogy

“A gorgeous, disturbing, compelling book with a smart, complicated heroine who bestrides her post-apocalyptic world like a bewildered force of nature. Reading it was a wild ride and a thoroughly satisfying one.”
— Delia Sherman, author of The Freedom Maze

“Brutal post-apocalypse meets sci-fi techno-thriller meets a ghost story for the ages in this astonishingly original novel from Nicole Kornher-Stace. You’ve never read anything like Archivist Wasp, but once you have you’ll be clamoring for more.”
— Mike Allen, author of Unseaming

“One of the most revelatory and sublime books I’ve ever read, Archivist Wasp is a must-read for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction. Kornher-Stace is a genius, and I can’t wait to see what she does next!”
— Tiffany Trent, author of The Unnaturalists


Slipstream Fiction Goes Mainstream

Wed 4 Feb 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Names? Genres?

Hey, we just know what we love and when we can we publish it.

Great article in the Wall Street Journal by Anna Russell and Jennifer Maloney with shout outs to many favorite authors. Our new LCRW blurb:

“a ’zine, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.” — The Wall Street Journal

And this is all tied in to Kelly’s new book, Get in Trouble, which, despite a houseful of colds and days of sick or snow days we are celebrating and getting Kelly ready to head out to a ton a great bookstores. Love the picture of Kelly, too!


Get in Trouble

Tue 3 Feb 2015 - Filed under: Books, Kelly Link| Posted by: Gavin

February 3, 2015 · Random House · hardcover · 9780804179683
February 9, 2016 · Random House · trade paper · 9780812986495

Signed copies available.

FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE – NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TIME AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BookPage – BuzzFeed – Chicago Tribune – Kirkus Reviews – NPR – San Francisco Chronicle – Slate – Toronto Star – The Washington Post She has been hailed by Michael Chabon as “the most darkly playful voice in American fiction.” Now Kelly Link’s eagerly awaited new collection–her first for adult readers (including the www.imgsexy.com readers) in a decade–proves indelibly that this bewitchingly original writer is among the finest we have.

Link has won an ardent following for her ability, with each new short story, to take readers deeply into an unforgettable, brilliantly constructed fictional universe. The nine exquisite examples in this collection show her in full command of her formidable powers. In “The Summer People,” a young girl in rural North Carolina serves as uneasy caretaker to the mysterious, never-quite-glimpsed visitors who inhabit the cottage behind her house. In “I Can See Right Through You,” a middle-aged movie star makes a disturbing trip to the Florida swamp where his former on- and off-screen love interest is shooting a ghost-hunting reality show. In “The New Boyfriend,” a suburban slumber party takes an unusual turn, and a teenage friendship is tested, when the spoiled birthday girl opens her big present: a life-size animated doll.

Hurricanes, astronauts, evil twins, bootleggers, Ouija boards, iguanas, The Wizard of Oz, superheroes, the Pyramids . . . These are just some of the talismans of an imagination as capacious and as full of wonder as that of any writer today. But as fantastical as these stories can be, they are always grounded by sly humor and an innate generosity of feeling for the frailty–and the hidden strengths–of human beings. In Get in Trouble, this one-of-a-kind talent expands the boundaries of what short fiction can do.

Praise for Get in Trouble

“Ridiculously brilliant . . . These stories make you laugh while staring into the void.”—The Boston Globe

“When it comes to literary magic, Link is the real deal: clever, surprising, affecting, fluid and funny.”–San Francisco Chronicle

“With every tale Link] conjures a different universe, each more captivating than the last. . . . You’ll long to return the minute you leave. Grade: ] A.”–Entertainment Weekly

“Marvelous . . . As a writer Kelly Link is possessed of many magical powers, but to me what’s most notable about Get in Trouble] is its astonishing freedom.”–Meg Wolitzer, NPR

“Sensational . . . Remain in your narrative comfort zone, or venture into Link’s uncharted sea of troubles. Come on. Live a little.”–O: The Oprah Magazine

“This is art that re-enchants the world. Who needs tediously believable situations, O. Henry endings or even truthfulness to life? Give us magic; give us wonder.”–The Washington Post

“The stories here are effective because we believe them–not just their situations but also their hearts.”–Los Angeles Times

“A zero-gravity vacation in a dust jacket.”–Chicago Tribune

From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Kelly Link is the author of the collections Get in Trouble, Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, and Pretty Monsters. She and Gavin J. Grant have co-edited a number of anthologies, including multiple volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and, for young adults, Steampunk! and Monstrous Affections. She is the co-founder of Small Beer Press. Her short stories have been published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, The Best American Short Stories, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Link was born in Miami, Florida. She currently lives with her husband and daughter in Northampton, Massachusetts. From the Hardcover edition.


Kelly’s new collection is out on Tuesday

Sat 31 Jan 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Get in Trouble(Sign up for our email newsletter.)

Taking a break from the nonstop LCRW action (new issue in the works, bonus issue for summer!) I wanted to take a moment and celebrate Get in Trouble, the first new collection for adult readers in a decade from Kelly Link (my lovely spouse!), Small Beer cofounder, editor, art director, LCRW co-editor, etc., etc.! It has nine stories in it and it is a cracker.

Get in Trouble comes out on Tuesday February 3, 2015, in print, ebook, and audio from Random House. Excited does not begin to parse the feels, the oceanwide feels of seeing a new book from Kelly in print. The reviews have begun to appear, here are a few:

“The trick, of course, is that we can’t stop reading, that we — like she, like so many of the characters in this collection — are hopelessly engaged.” — David Ulin, Los Angeles Times

“A new Link collection is therefore more than just a good excuse for a trip to the bookstore. It’s a zero-gravity vacation in a dust jacket.”— Amy Gentry, Chicago Tribune

“Utterly addictive, finely wrought concoctions of fantasy and science fiction and literary realism and horror and young adult and old adult.” — Isaac Fitzgerald, The Millions

“If you’ve ever lost something, if you’ve ever had to live without something you really and truly love, Link will break your heart with her stories, and you’ll be glad.” — Rebecca Vipond Brink, The Frisky

“[Link’s] stories are like nothing else, dark yet sparkling with her unique brand of fairy dust.” — Erin Morgenstern

“Utterly astonishing.” — Peter Straub

“Get in Trouble offers further proof that she belongs on every reader’s book shelf.” — Karen Russell

“A combination of George Saunders’s eerie near-reality mixed with Amy Hempel’s badda-boom timing, plus a dose of Karen Russell’s otherworldly tropical sensibility.” — Library Journal

You can read two of the stories now: “The Summer People” and “I Can See Right Through You.” If you enjoy it, order a copy wherever books are sold.

Kelly is about to go out on a book tour — if you miss these you might hear her on the radio. The one on Feb. 13th in Western Mass. should be a party, come by if you can!

Feb. 5, 7:30 pm
Greenlight Bookstore
686 Fulton St.
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Feb. 9 – 11
ABA Winter Institute
Grove Park Inn
Asheville, NC
Indie Bookstores, FTW!

11 Feb, 7 pm
Barnes & Noble – Upper West Side (with Emma Straub)
2289 BROADWAY
NEW YORK, NY 10024
Kelly Link in Conversation with Emma Straub Audience Q&A, Signing

12 Feb, 7:30 pm
Word Jersey City (with Lev Grossman)

123 Newark Avenue
Jersey City NJ 07302
Master of magic realism and “sorceress to be reckoned with” Kelly Link stops by to celebrate the release of her latest collection of short stories, Get in Trouble, with a signing and reading. She will be in conversation with fellow author and New York Times bestseller Lev Grossman (The Magician King).

13 Feb, 7 pm
Odyssey Bookshop (with A. B. Robinson)
9 College St.
South Hadley, MA 01075

After the reading everyone is invited to stay and have cupcakes and other treats. A. B. Robinson’s poetry has appeared in TINGE as well as Industrial Lunch, which she currently co-edits. Her […]

16 Feb, 7 pm
BROOKLINE BOOKSMITH
279 HARVARD ST.
BROOKLINE, MA 02446

17 Feb, 7 pm
ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY
1521 10TH AVE
SEATTLE, WA 98122
“We’ve been waiting for this night to happen: Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners, Stranger Things Happen, and Pretty Monsters, makes this welcome Elliott Bay return for her dazzling new book of stories, Get in Trouble.”

18 Feb, 7:30 pm
POWELL’S BOOKS
1005 W BURNSIDE ST
PORTLAND, OR 97209
— where the book is already #11 on the bestseller list: Go Portland!

19 Feb, 7:30 pm
The Booksmith
1644 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
“Kelly Link’s newest short story collection Get in Trouble is fiction in its finest. Half realistic, half fantastical, each story does just what the title promises: it gets into trouble. Beloved by writers and readers alike, Link is an expert at creating brilliantly detailed, layered worlds pulsing with their own energy and life.”

20 Feb, 7 pm
LITERATI BOOKSTORE
124 E WASHINGTON ST.
ANN ARBOR, MI 48104

Even moar events here.


A. DeNiro in Chicago

Wed 28 Jan 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , | Posted by: Gavin

Tyrannia and Other Renditions coverLook at me resisting writing Chitown! I am so strong.

What: Tuesday Funk with A. DeNiro, Cameron McGill, Patty Templeton, Christa Desir and H.Melt, hosted by Andrew Huff and Eden Robins.
When: Feb. 3rd, 7 pm for 7:30 start.
Where: the Hopleaf (where the Bookslut readings used to be and very close to the excellent Women & Children First!), 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago 773-334-9851

Get ye along for there won’t be another chance to see A. until AWP in April — where we will have a reading, a table, a banner, but probably not 100 mugs on a table the way Isaac Fitzgerald had on The Rumpus table in Boston a couple of years ago. Wait. We could totally rip that off.

A. might read from their latest book, Tyrannia, which if you like weird political poetic poemic polemic stories: is for you.

In other news: Sofia Samatar has been burning up the internet! Here are a few links to keep you busy while we work on getting her second novel The Winged Histories ready to drop next year: twitter · The Guardian · Post 45.

Also: Karen Lord’s new novel The Galaxy Game just came out from Del Rey and is getting great reviews. You can read an interview with her here.

Ayize Jama-Everett is working on the final final line edits of The Liminal War. That book is going to Knock People Over.

Michael J. DeLuca was just out here in Western Mass. and we talked about his guest editing an issue of LCRW — and drank some delicious beer. He also shoveled our drive, whoa! Snow days!

 


Snow day

Mon 12 Jan 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Doh. So many plans. Oh well.

Now I can spend more time planning my outfit for my photo op tomorrow night in the glass coffin at Holly Black’s Odyssey Books launch party for The Darkest Part of the Forest. Cough.


Happy 2015!

Tue 6 Jan 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

You may have seen on the internets that we’re throwing out an extra issue of LCRW out into the world this year, this one to be edited by our own Head Brewer, Michael J. DeLuca. He is very fancy and can deal with e-subs. Me? Nope, still can’t. Read about what he’s looking for (and when) here.

What is 2015? An argument made a while ago by some people with calendar skills. It’s year 44 for me, 5775 for others, Year of the Horse turning over to Year of the Goat.

What is LCRW? A zine! An occasional outburst. A burning sun shooting across the sky. Sometimes “accessible” sometimes “unique.” Usually printed on paper. Full of great stories by writers you may or may not have heard of. No longer only available as a fridge magnet. Always available avec le chocolat or by email. Liable to outlast this website.

Happy new year! Hey, you never know, it might be. Here’s to world peace, making the world a better place for everyone we can, and enjoying a few good books along the way.


« Later Entries in