Sneaky

Tue 22 Jun 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., LCRW| Posted by: Gavin

Out goes a new zine into the world. 43rd of its line.

Most are mailed out, at least. What’s it got? A Night Farmers’ Museum, Half a Papatya, Shiny Green Floors, Mysteries, Wires, Gutter-Princes, Acting Tips, Three Favours, Poems, King Moon’s Tithe to Hell, and a Time Travel Self-Care System.

All of which can be yourn.

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Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 43

Tue 22 Jun 2021 - Filed under: LCRW| Posted by: Gavin

June 22, 2021. Phew. 64 pages. Ebook ISBN: 9781618731968

Four score and three issues ago this zine did not exist. Two score and three issues ago LCRW popped into being just like the big bang — but with less burning hot plasma and fewer planets forming.

Reviews

“Imagine walking through an exhibit in a museum, pausing to read each plaque at every stop along the way. That’s how Alisa Alering structured her fantasy story about a place where night grows from seeds and powers the world. We move from panels on the ‘Evolution of Cultivation Practices’ to ‘Urban Growth & The Thousand Furnaces Era,’ from stories about the town that nearly collapsed in a fit of anti-night hysteria to the Indigenous Lok-Myo people’s multi-generational struggle to remain on and later return to their ancestral caves. I always get a kick out of unconventional narrative structures, and this one hit the spot.”
— Alex Brown, Tor.com

“My favorites were three very different fantasies. Quinn Ramsay’s ‘The House of the Gutter-Prince’…. Colorful and fun. A story could hardly be as different, then, as ‘Acting Tips for Remaining Unknown’ by Jim Marino … makes a familiar trope new again. Finally, Kathleen Jennings’ ‘Gisla and the Three Favors’ is in the traditional form of a fairy tale…. This is at once a wholly traditional fairy tale in its shape, told beautifully and resolved matter of factly and honestly. Lovely.”
Recommended Reading:
‘‘Gisla and the Three Favors’’, Kathleen Jennings
‘‘Acting Tips for Remaining Unknown’’,  Jim Marino
— Rich Horton, Locus

fiction

Alisa Alering, “The Night Farmers’ Museum”
Erica Clashe, “The Shine of Green Floors”
Leah Bobet, “The Mysteries”
Joanne Rixon, “Wires from the Same Spool”
Quinn Ramsay, “The House of the Gutter-Prince”
Jim Marino, “Acting Tips for Remaining Unknown”
Zack Moss, “If You Had Been Me Then What Would I Have Been?”
Kathleen Jennings, “Gisla and the Three Favours”
Gillian Daniels, “King Moon’s Tithe to Hell”

poetry

Anne Sheldon, “Three Poems”
Jessy Randall, “Four Poems”

nonfiction

Ayşe Papatya Bucak, “Half-Papatya”
Nicole Kimberling, “Time Travel Self-Care System”
About the Authors

cover

Catherine Byun, Cover & Interior Monkeys

Made by
Gavin J. Grant
& Kelly Link.

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet issue number 43, June 2021. ISSN 1544-7782. Ebook ISBN: 9781618731968. Text: Bodoni Book. Titles: Imprint MT Shadow. LCRW is (usually) published in June and November by Small Beer Press, 150 Pleasant St., #306, Easthampton, MA 01027 · smallbeerpress@gmail.com · smallbeerpress.com/lcrw. twitter.com/smallbeerpress · Printed at Paradise Copies (paradisecopies.com · 413-585-0414). Subscriptions: $24/4 issues. Please make checks to Small Beer Press. Library & institutional subscriptions: EBSCO. LCRW is available as a DRM-free ebook through weightlessbooks.com, &c. Contents © 2021 the authors. All rights reserved. Cover illustration “Black-and-White Monkey” © 2021 by Catherine Byun (catherinebyun.com). Thank you authors, artists, and readers. In reasons to celebrate Elwin Cotman’s collection Dance on Saturday was a Philip K. Dick Award finalist. Please send submissions (we are always especially seeking weird and interesting work from women writers and writers of color), guideline requests, &c. to the address above.

About the Authors

Alisa Alering lives in Indiana where she reports on innovations in science and technology. Her rather unscientific fiction has appeared in Podcastle, Clockwork Phoenix IV, and Flash Fiction Online, among others and has been recognized by the Italo Calvino Prize. She is currently at work on a novel about two sisters prepping for the apocalypse in 1980s Appalachia.

Leah Bobet is a novelist, editor, and critic whose novels have won the Sunburst, Copper Cylinder, and Aurora Awards, been selected for the Ontario Library Association’s Best Bets program, and shortlisted for the Cybils and the Andre Norton Award. Her short fiction has appeared in multiple Year’s Best anthologies and been transformed into choral work, and is taught in high school and university classrooms in Canada, Australia, and the US. She is guest poetry editor for Reckoning: creative writing on environmental justice‘s 2021 issue. She lives in Toronto, where she makes jam, builds civic engagement spaces, and plants both tomatoes and trees. Visit her at leahbobet.com.

Erica Clashe lives in Minneapolis with her cat, Ommie. She’s a professional gay auntie. This is her first published work. Find her at ericaclashe.com.

Gillian Daniels writes, works, and haunts the streets of the Boston area in Massachusetts. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and left shortly after attending the 2011 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop. Since then, her poetry and short fiction have appeared in Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, among more than twenty-five other publications. She serves as custodian to one (1) ginger cat who likes to chew the corners of her books when she doesn’t feed him breakfast right away.

Kathleen Jennings is a writer and illustrator based in Brisbane, Australia. Her Australian Gothic debut Flyaway (Tor.com/Picador) and her poetry debut Travelogues: Vignettes from Trains in Motion (Brain Jar Press) were published in 2020. She has won two Ditmars for her short stories and been shortlisted for the Eugie Foster Memorial Awards. As an illustrator (this story began as a series of pictures exhibited at Light Grey Art Lab, Minneapolis), she has been shortlisted four times for the World Fantasy Awards, as well as once for the Hugos and the Locus Awards, and has won several Ditmars.

Jim Marino’s stories are published or forthcoming in Apex Magazine and the Alaska Quarterly Review, and his short humor has appeared on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. He makes his living teaching Shakespeare.

Zack Moss is a writer of weird fiction with an MFA from Western Washington University. His stories have appeared in Alimentum: the Literature of Food, The Crambo, and Zymbol, among a few others.

Quinn Ramsay is a graduate of the University of Glasgow. His prose and poetry have been published in Paragraphiti, From Glasgow to Saturn, Santa Clara Review, The Magnolia Review, and Gemini, among others. He has been a recipient of the Amy M. Young Award in Creative Writing, and a co-editor and designer for Williwaw: an Anthology of the Marvellous.

Jessy Randall’s poems, stories, and other things have appeared in Analog, Asimov’s, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and Strange Horizons. Her most recent book is How to Tell If You Are Human: Diagram Poems. She is a librarian at Colorado College and her website is http://bit.ly/JessyRandall.

Joanne Rixon lives in the shadow of an active volcano with a rescue chihuahua named after a dinosaur, and is an organizer with the North Seattle Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Meetup. Her poetry has appeared in GlitterShip, her book reviews in the Seattle Times and the Cascadia Subduction Zone Literary Quarterly, and her short speculative fiction in venues including Terraform, Fireside, and Liminal Stories. You can find her yelling about poetry and politics on twitter @JoanneRixon.

Anne Sheldon is a librarian and storyteller in Silver Spring, MD. Her work has appeared in Cascadia Subduction Zone, The Lyric, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and other magazines. Aqueduct Press has published two books of her verse, The Adventures of the Faithful Counselor and The Bone Spindle.

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New Interview Series

Fri 21 May 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Book Moon interviews, Isabel Yap| Posted by: Gavin

Today we’re celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month as well as short story month by kicking off our Small Beer Press Author Interview series with Franchesca Viaud’s interview with Isabel Yap which has just been posted on the Book Moon website.

Isabel’s first collection, Never Have I Ever: Stories, was published in February 2021 — we have a limited number of signed bookplates to go with it. A number of Isabel’s stories can be read online: Milagroso, Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez?, & How to Swallow the Moon.

If you missed it, you can also catch up with Isabel’s Strange Light Reading Series event with Rebecca Roanhorse here.

As with all things Small Beer this series is imagined as an occasional event that will meander along in its own sweet time for many years to come. Francesca has been working at Book Moon for a while now splitting her time there between working outside on the fine weather days and working behind the scenes on the not-so-fine weather days. Her interview with Isabel is a conversational delight — as is the Strange Light event above; the common factor being Isabel, so perhaps she is just a conversational star as well as being a great writer! Read the interview here.

Author photo by Meg Whittenberger.

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More Hands, More Hands

Mon 17 May 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Elizabeth Hand| Posted by: Gavin

Being among the more cautious, I have no idea if travel will seem like a good idea or not this summer or autumn. I know millions of people are traveling right now but I’m not there yet so for travel, it’s all just books for me.

Come September, those who are armchair traveling will have 2 dark, propulsive options to carry them to Scandinavia and the south of England and the the darkest secrets at the heart of humanity. In other words, Cass Neary is coming back.

I’ve added 2 new September 2021 books to this site: Elizabeth Hand’s novels Available Dark and Hard Light, the second and third books in her can’t-look-away series of Cass Neary novels that began with Generation Loss. In the coming weeks I’ll post them on Edelweiss for reviewers and booksellers and post excerpts here to give readers a taste — here’s the the first chapter of Generation Loss.

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Elle, Zen, Saving Animals on the Moon

Wed 12 May 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., events, Holly Black, Susan Stinson, Zen Cho| Posted by: Gavin

Alison Bechdel spotlighted the first line of Susan Stinson’s novel Martha Moody in an interview with Elle:

This “speculative western” first came out in 1995 but was just reissued. The first sentence is magnificent in the way it’s a microcosm of the whole book, as well as a glimpse at the way Stinson writes so beautifully about fat bodies: “I was crouched next to the creek baiting my hook with a hunk of fat when I heard a rustling on the bank upstream.”

This Saturday June 15th Book Moon will be part of a Cottage Street Sidewalk Sale, We’ll have books on the sidewalk. Should be interesting.

And at 3 p.m. ET/8p.m. UK on Sat. the 15th Zen Cho (England) and Kelly Link (Massachusetts) will do an online event celebrating Zen’s new novel Black Water Sister which came out this Tuesday. Register here.

Book Moon has some excellent events coming hitting up a couple of different parts of the old cerebellum:

June 1st,  6 p.m. ET: Strange Light Reading Series features Rivers Solomon (Sorrowland) and Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone). UMass zoom link goes live 2 weeks before the event so will post it again then.

June 2nd , 7 p.m. ET: Join local author Elan Abrell (Saving Animals) and Alex Blanchette (Porkopolis) online for celebration of the publication of Saving Animals and an interesting conversation on same.

June 15th, 7 p.m. ET: Join NYT bestselling authors Gayle Forman (Just One Day, If I stay) and Holly Black (The Cruel Prince, Tithe) at Book Moon for a reading and discussion of Gayle Forman’s new book, We Are Inevitable, which will be published in June by Viking Books for Young Readers. Register here.

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Not Without Mercy

Tue 4 May 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Some days are just better if you go read a scary story: here’s Jeffrey Ford’s Not Without Mercy on Conjunctions — soon to be collected in Big Dark Hole.

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Craft Capsules

Wed 14 Apr 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Susan Stinson| Posted by: Gavin

In recent weeks Susan Stinson has been writing short Craft Capsules for Poets & Writers. They’ve inspired conversation, reflection, and — no doubt — writing!

Body in the Mirror

When I was an undergraduate, I saw a call for writing about fatness for the anthology Shadow on a Tightrope: Writing by Women on Fat Oppression (Aunt Lute Books, 1983), which became a feminist classic, still in print decades later. I was a young writer who very much wanted to be published. I had been fat all my life. I knew that the shape of my body had been central in defining the shape of my life, but I had no language for how to write or even think about that. The cultural tropes for fat women were virulently dismissive. I knew that they did not represent who I was. The hate language that was regularly shouted at me on the street didn’t either, but I didn’t know how to start to say anything else.

In Praise of Italics

I love italics. They make me feel as if the author is whispering tremulous secrets to me. The words need to be worth leaning closer to take them in. That’s all I ask.

An idiosyncratic, opinionated, passionate reader who is dear to me skips passages in italics. Reading next to her was the first time I learned that some people don’t read them. It breaks my heart.

Freedom

In 1985 I was part of a fat radio program on an International Women’s Day broadcast in Boston. Cat Pausé, a fat studies scholar who is writing about the history of fat radio and podcasts, recently told me that the show and its predecessor in 1984 were likely the first ever fat-positive radio programs. During the show I read my poem “Lifting Belly Again,” which includes excerpts from Gertrude Stein’s astonishing erotic lesbian poem “Lifting Belly.”

Writing with Limitations

About a year ago I bumped my head on a low ceiling in the dark. There are few certainties in this story, but I likely got a concussion. Ever since I have endured what might be called post-concussion syndrome and/or benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and/or—the diagnosis that has proven most useful to me—vestibular migraines.

On April 20th day, Susan is giving a reading at Dickinson College in conversation with students from Fat Studies; Writing, Identity, and Queer Studies; and LGBTQ+ Literature and History. Here’s a poster. Email us if you’d like to attend.

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Join Rebecca Roanhorse & Isabel Yap tonight on le Zoom

Tue 13 Apr 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Book Moon, events, Isabel Yap, zoom| Posted by: Gavin

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Join co-hosts Alexandra Manglis, Yvette Ndlovu & Nadia Saleh of the Strange Light Reading Series (originally planned to take place at Book Moon) at tonight’s event featuring Isabel Yap (Never Have I Ever) and Rebecca Roanhorse (Black Sun).

Rebecca Roanhorse is a meteor these days. Her recent novel Black Sun is a Nebula Award finalist. She’s also published a Star Wars novel (Star Wars: Resistance Reborn), a middle-grade novel in the very succesful Rick Riordan imprint (Race to the Sun), two novels in her Sixth Worldseries, and has  found the time to write for Marvel Comics, for TV, and has had projects optioned by Netflix, Paramount TV, among others. Rebecca (@RoanhorseBex) will be coming to us from Northern New Mexico.

This February Isabel Yap (@visyap) published her first short fiction collection, Never Have I Ever.Isabel started publishing short stories in 2009. Since then she has published stories in many magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and the Philippines. She wrote two new stories for the book, “A Canticle for Lost Girls” and “A Spell for Foolish Hearts” while completing her MBA — here’s her essay on her postgrad choices: MFA vs MBA. She works in the tech industry and drinks tea and will be coming to us from California.

Our events are fun. Hope to see you tonight: Tuesday, April 13 @ 8 p.m. EDT.

**Register here**

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Some drawings of chickens

Wed 31 Mar 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Chickens, drawings, Zines| Posted by: Gavin

Since last summer when Kelly got her half-dozen pandemic chickens I’ve been trying to draw them — with the expected level of success. Most of the drawings were recycled but a few (see the middle one below) I liked and kept. This last weekend, after maundering around for months of not doing it I got Ursula (below left) and Kelly (below right) to draw some chickens and at last made a tiny zine which is available here.

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Tonight: Kelly Link & Kevin Brockmeier

Thu 25 Mar 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kelly Link, reading| Posted by: Gavin

Well, maybe you know this by now but just in case you don’t why don’t you come join us on le zume tonight:

Join authors Kevin Brockmeier (The Illumination, The Brief History of the Dead) and Kelly Link (Get in Trouble, Magic for Beginners) online for a reading and discussion of Kevin Brockmeier’s new book, The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories, which will be published in March by Pantheon.

**Register here**

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Tonight: Alaya Dawn Johnson & C. L. Polk

Wed 10 Mar 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Join co-hosts Alexandra Manglis, Yvette Ndlovu & Nadia Saleh
of the Strange Light Reading Series
tonight, March 10 at 7:00p EST
featuring

Alaya Dawn Johnson (Reconstruction: Stories, Trouble the Saints)

and

C. L. Polk (Soulstar, The Midnight Bargain).

*Register here*

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Catching up

Tue 2 Mar 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., essa, housekeeping, Isabel Yap, Lit Hub| Posted by: Gavin

We’ve shipped out the boxes and boxes of pre-orders for Isabel Yap’s Never Have I Ever and now it looks like stock of the book is making its way through the system: you can now get copies on Bookshop.org. If you want to wait and get a signed bookplate with one, Isabel will be doing an online event at Book Moon next month — we have all our titles at Book Moon, no matter what the website says. The inventory on the site is tied to our distributor. I’m working to change that later this spring.

In the meantime, Lit Hub has just posted a new essay by Isabel:

MFA vs. MBA? Finding Unlikely Literary Inspiration at Harvard Business School
Isabel Yap on Learning the Art of Storytelling Where She Least Expected It

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Shipping updates

Wed 24 Feb 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., housekeeping, Interviews, Isabel Yap| Posted by: Gavin

And while I’m posting meh news, here’s more: while we’ve been able to ship some books to the lovely readers who pre-ordered Isabel Yap’s sparkling debut collection Never Have I Ever, we’re waiting on a storm-delayed delivery from our printer before we can ship the rest. We’re sending out a free book — mostly returns from our distributor so occasionally they’re shelf worn and sometimes they’re like new — with each pre-order. We expect to complete shipping preorders on Friday or Monday, depending on the delivery. I’m happy to refund any readers who’d prefer that (email me at info at smallbeerpress).

In the meantime, you can read a story here, follow Isabel on twitter, and read this not-t0-be-missed new interview by Megan Kakimoto posted today at Full Stop.

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April to August

Wed 24 Feb 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., housekeeping, Zen Cho| Posted by: Gavin

Slipping a note in here that we are moving Zen Cho’s collection Spirits Abroad from April to August to better fit our printer’s schedules. In better news the book received a glowing review from Publishers Weekly:

“Powerful but subtle magic woven into the fabric of intricate worlds make Cho a sure favorite for readers of Kelly Link and Carmen Maria Machado.”

 

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Never Have I Ever

Tue 23 Feb 2021 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

trade paper · 320 pages · $17 · 9781618731821 | ebook · 9781618731838
Second printing: May 2022

Polish edition: MAG Jacek Rodek.

Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales all gathered together in one fabulous bundle.

British Fantasy Award winner
Ladies of Horror Fiction Award winner
World Fantasy Award finalist
Ignyte Award finalist
NYPL Best Books for Adults
Crawford Award shortlist

“Am I dead?”
Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask.

Read a story: Asphalt, River, Mother, Child

Read an essay: MFA vs MBA

Read an interview by Megan Kakimoto at Full Stop.
An interview at My Life, My Books, My Escape.

Bzzzz

“For those who love urban legends, Yap’s debut collection is one for the top of the TBR pile. From stories about high schoolers to goddesses to androids, Publishers Weekly hails Yap as a powerful new voice in speculative fiction, and Tamsyn Muir (Gideon the Ninth) calls the book a masterclass collection.”
— Lyndsie Manusos, Book Riot, 10 Speculative Short Story Collections to Enjoy in 2021

“Drawing from science fiction, Filipino folklore, fantasy and horror, these thirteen stories are monstrous, scary, joyful, unexpected, inventive, eerie and weird.”
— Karla Strand, Ms. Magazine

“A debut collection from Small Beer Press, Never Have I Ever combines fabulism, horror, and science fiction. Charlie Jane Anders says that “these gorgeous stories will help you to glimpse a world that is both stranger and more immense and varied than any you’ve visited before.”
— R. O. Kwon, Electric Lit: 43 Books By Women of Color to Read in 2021

“Yap dances through sci-fi, horror, fabulism, and urban fantasy, and often Filipino folklore.”
— Leah Schnelbach, Bookmarks, 7 SFF Books to Soothe Your February Blues

Reviews

“The horror in these stories isn’t always drawn from a ‘supernatural other.’ Instead, through Philippine folklore, they explore a world where the supernatural is an accepted element of everyday life and the horror is mined from the realities of existing.”
— New York Public Library Best Books of the Year

“Never Have I Ever overflows with life and magic, and if you are not familiar with the vibrant literary scene in the Philippines, let this serve as a worthy introduction.”
— Washington Post

“Absolutely outstanding. . . . Every story is outstanding, and I certainly plan to use this book in future courses. I haven’t read many texts which so deftly explore the murky boundaries between Filipinx folklore and speculative conceits, so it’s a real treat to have this book out in the world. A definite must-read!”
— Asian American Lit Fans

“Yap’s unique voice is oft-praised for a reason — her stories are unique and lyrical. Full of love and pain.”
— Rey Rowlan, Book Riot

“Once they get going, they always peel off a few layers to reveal something incredible—or incredibly dark, mysterious, or strange—that’s living right beneath the surface.”
— Gabino Iglasias, Nightfire

“A wondrous and impressive collection from a gifted writer with a fresh voice.”
— Paula Guran, Locus

“Every one of these stories was a gem. They’re a mix of urban legends and stories inspired by the legends of the Philippines, and many of them also feature queer themes and/or characters. Which is always a plus! It’s such a great, creepy, creative collection that’s also suitably gruesome for folks who want their horror stories to contain a certain amount of viscera and monsters devouring children.”
— Book Riot

“Every story in this book is filled with magic and legend and power. My favorite thing about a short story is when it captivates me so completely I forget that only a fraction of the book is dedicated to this one world, and Never Have I Ever accomplished this again and again. Fans of folklore and myth will be swept up in this wonderful collection.”
— Katherine Nazzaro, Porter Square Books

“Vicious, vindicating, and visceral at once, Never Have I Ever balances compulsively readable humor with the good, transformative sort of devastation. This is a truly powerful, propulsive collection, exploring the makings and reshapings of myth, and the myriad ways we might save each other. Each character is vividly drawn, be it an exhausted magical girl wondering if she and her friends will ever be done slaying monsters, a servant in love with her charge, or the disbelieving new roommate of a vaguely discontented manananggal. Her stories tread somewhere between familiar and uncanny, interrogating human connection and monstrosity, and all unapologetically, beautifully Filipino. Each story with its own specific atmosphere, each its own sort of spirit, each sure to haunt the reader in its own uncanny shape. Here, magic makes mirrors of us, and we won’t always like what we see. Yap writes with an expert hand as she moves the reader through the looming horror and magic of what it is to be alive.”
— Maya Gittelman, Tor.com

“Yap’s characters foster fierce protective love, and her ability to channel those emotions into extraordinary, strange tales is what makes Never Have I Ever such a joy to read.”
— Booklist (starred review)

“I urge you to dig in, to experience the dark wonder of a seriously underrated writer, and to take your time savoring these stories. Yap will surprise you, she will startle you, and she will impress you.”
— Arley Sorg, Lightspeed

“If you love Filipino mythological characters, want to know more about other mythological characters (like the Japanese kappa), or just want to see new perspectives on genre fiction, you can’t go wrong with this book. I guarantee that there’s something in it for everyone who likes stories.”
— Raven Lingat, Rappler Reads

“These 13 captivating short stories entwine fantasy, horror, and science fiction to explore monsters, Filipino folklore, immigration, and queerness. In the dark fairy tale ‘A Cup of Salt Tears,’ Makino’s mother warns her of the dangers of making deals with kappas, even though Makino was saved by kappa as a child. When Makino’s husband falls ill, she seeks out that same kappa. In ‘Hurricane Heels (We Go Down Dancing),’ a group of five girls befriend one another at a summer camp when a goddess charges them with protecting the world from darkness. Ten years later, the the girls are still fighting. These ambiguous, vivid, and dark tales manage deep characterizations despite their short formats.”
— Buzzfeed: 21 Fantasy Books To Get Excited About This Winter

“Yap’s impressive debut collection of 13 fabulist, sci-fi, and horror shorts explores themes ranging from monstrousness, shared trauma, and systemic violence to friendship and the ambiguity of love. Yap is at home with whatever topic she puts her hand to, easily immersing readers in the perspectives of high schoolers, ancient goddesses, androids, and witches. . . . Yap is a powerful new voice in speculative fiction.”
— Publishers Weekly

Advance Praise

“Never have I ever realized how much I’ve been waiting for this book. Full of magic and mystery, monsters, and miracles, everything a reader could need during these troubling times. I just wish I could read it for the first time all over again.” — Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

“Never Have I Ever proves Yap the master of both the grand and the everyday. In each of these hard-hitting, incredibly assured stories, Yap shows how deft her hand is by sliding effortlessly from marriages and monsters (‘A Cup of Salt Tears’), to future anxiety and food in a near-future Manila (‘Milagroso’) to the uncertain future of grown-up magical girls (‘Hurricane Heels’); her ghost stories terrify as much as they comfort (‘Asphalt, River, Mother, Child’) and are so woven into the fabric of our real and human lives that their power to unsettle is unmatched; imagine if M.R. James had known the precise 1990s desire to own a Baby G . . . But where Yap consistently dazzles is her unsentimental, tender, evocative and brutal examination of the life and interiority of young women and girls: the innate monstrousness of growing up in the shoes marked ‘woman’. A masterclass collection.”
— Tamsyn Muir, author of Gideon the Ninth

“These stories of shy witches, beautiful elementals, bloody and watery monsters, miracles and tender-hearted machines, are written with color and crisp precision, and all their startling invention is firmly grounded in our own familiar and endlessly surprising world.”
— Elizabeth Knox, author of The Absolute Book

“Isabel Yap’s fiction channels the wary energy of meeting places: schools, hospitals, offices, hotels. In her work, the spaces of everyday life brim with weird vitality, crossed by ghosts, monsters, and above all, stories.”
— Sofia Samatar, author of Tender

“Isabel Yap’s prose is a constant delight and her characters are endlessly rich and fascinating. I’m in awe of her capacity for playful weirdness and mind-expanding terror. These gorgeous stories will help you to glimpse a world that is both stranger and more immense and varied than any you’ve visited before. My head is just full of images and feelings and ideas after reading these wondrous tales. Isabel Yap is a writer to watch out for, and you need to experience her brilliance for yourself.”
— Charlie Jane Anders, The City in the Middle of the Night

“Never Have I Ever is a stunning, lyrical debut by one of SFF’s brightest voices. Isabel Yap’s stories are luminous. Intimate and tender, hilarious and cruel, they cut straight to the bone. This collection is full of deft, painful portrayals of Filipino girlhood, queerness, and struggling to find a place in the world. They remind me of being in my lola’s house in Manila, listening to my titas and titos gossip over the breakfast table. Yap’s stories feel like coming home.”
— Alyssa Wong, the award-winning author of Doctor Aphra

“Biting, searing, exquisitely wrought, Never Have I Ever is a tour de force of dark fantasy. The cultural and mythological vectors driving these stories transform the reader as much as the book’s characters. Isabel Yap is a writer to watch.” — Usman T. Malik, author of Midnight Doorways

“I am full of admiration for Isabel Yap. Her dreams are authentic and her nightmares vivid and inventive.”
— Priya Sharma, author of All the Fabulous Beasts

“The first time I read Isabel Yap’s work—she was in college at the time—it made me smile, it was so polished and assured. The next time I read a story of hers, it made me cry; it was so moving, yet nuanced. Over the years since, as this book proves, Yap has only gotten better, showcasing her impeccable yet seemingly effortless command of language, and a deft balance of emotional honesty and expert restraint. As one of her first editors, I’m filled with pride; as a fellow writer, with envy; and, as a reader, once again, with sorrow and delight.”
— Nikki Alfar, Palanca-award winning author of WonderLust

“The delight created by Yap’s stories rests in her deep understanding of what makes us all human, that irrepressible longing to ask, to understand, to explore, to strive, to hold on, and to let go. In her hands, worlds open up and words become transformative.”
— Dean Francis Alfar, author of Salamanca and editor of Philippine Speculative Fiction

“Isabel Yap’s stories are somehow sharp and vivid and gritty at the same time as they’re timeless and mythic; I’ve been a shameless strung-out addict for years now, and I’m so excited to have this splendid overdose in my hands. And to watch as a whole new audience gets hooked on these stories drenched in heartache and salt water, folklore and monsters and gorgeous prose.”
— Sam J. Miller, Nebula-Award-winning author of Blackfish City

“Never Have I Ever is a showcase of Isabel Yap’s many enviable gifts: gorgeous prose, deep characterization, and exquisite ambiguity. Yap moves from humor to despair with easy confidence, plunging you down into the murkiest depths with the gentlest touch. You’ll get lost in these pages and each word will sit heavy in your chest. The best fiction does that.”
— Cadwell Turnbull, author of The Lesson

Table of Contents

Good Girls
A Cup of Salt Tears
Milagroso
A Spell for Foolish Hearts
Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez?
Syringe
Asphalt, River, Mother, Child
Hurricane Heels (We Go Down Dancing)
Only Unclench Your Hand
How to Swallow the Moon
All the Best of Dark and Bright
Misty
A Canticle for Lost Girls

Praise for Isabel Yap’s stories:

“An elegiac story of love, grief and sacrifice.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Lovely and very affecting.” —Sabrina Vourvoulias, author of Ink

“Beautifully crafted. . . . Delightful.” —Ada Palmer, author of Too Like the Lightning

“Isabel’s gift for writing friendships is out in force.” —Sara Saab

“Oh, this story… What a gem it is, a sharp and sweet fairytale about friendship and love, fate and duty, and the freedom that might be there for the taking (if you dare to grab hold of it). . . . Gorgeous and mesmerizing prose.”
—Maria Haskins

“‘How to Swallow the Moon’ by Isabel Yap is a love story crossed with a fairy tale. Anyag is a binukot, a girl kept away from the world to enhance her value as a bride. Amira is Anyag’s servant, but also her dearest friend, caregiver, and protector. She’s also in love with Anyag. Male suitors arrive one after another and Amira suffers in silence. It turns out Anyang feels the same way about Amira. Complications arise. Both young women must be heroic. Connec­tions to Philippine mythology freshen this well-told tale.” —Paula Guran, Locus

Cover

Cover illustration “Serpent’s Bride” © 2020 by Alexa Sharpe (alexasharpe.com).

Isabel Yap (@visyap) writes fiction and poetry, works in the tech industry, and drinks tea. Born and raised in Manila, she has also lived in California and London. She is currently completing her MBA at Harvard Business School. She attended the Clarion Writers Workshop and is the secretary for the Clarion Foundation. Her work has appeared in venues including Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, and Year’s Best Weird Fiction.

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Shipping delays

Fri 19 Feb 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Claire G. Coleman, shipping, usps, weather| Posted by: Gavin

We are hearing from our faithful and hard working distributor, Consortium, that their warehouses have been closed on and off all this week due to the winter weather — never mind the whole pandemic thing and the intentional destruction carried out on the USPS — so please, go ahead, order all our books but please do be patient with all those indie bookstores trying to send you your books. Thank you!

Need a lift? Have you seen this tiny video of Hugh Jackman recommend Claire G. Coleman’s Terra Nullius? Woah!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Claire Coleman (@clairegcoleman)

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Susan Stinson & Sally Bellerose in Conversation

Fri 19 Feb 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Next week — Friday Feb. 26 at 5 p.m. EST — from the comfort of your couch, hammock, kitchen table, or rooftop, you can join Susan Stinson and Sally Bellerose in conversation as part of the Gulfport, Florida, ReadOut21 Festival. The event is free and you can register here.

Susan is celebrating the recent reprint of Martha Moody and Sally is celebrating the publication of her new novel Fishwives.

ReadOut21 Festival: A Festival of Lesbian Literature runs from Feb. 26 – 28. Check it out here.

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Dance on to the PKD Shortlist

Wed 20 Jan 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Awards, Elwin Cotman| Posted by: Gavin

We’re delighted to see that Elwin Cotman’s Dance on Saturday is one of the finalists for the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award. Here’s the press release:

The judges of the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, along with the Philip K. Dick Trust, are pleased to announce the six nominated works that comprise the final ballot for the award:

FAILED STATE by Christopher Brown (Harper Voyager)
THE BOOK OF KOLI by M. R. Carey (Orbit)
DANCE ON SATURDAY by Elwin Cotman (Small Beer Press)
BONE SILENCE by Alastair Reynolds (Orbit)
ROAD OUT OF WINTER by Alison Stine (Mira)
THE DOORS OF EDEN by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit)

First prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, April 2, 2021 at Norwescon 44 which will be held virtually this year. The link to the ceremony will be posted at https://www.norwescon.org when it is available.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States during the previous calendar year. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by the Northwest Science Fiction Society.

Last year’s winner was SOONER OR LATER EVERYTHING FALLS INTO THE SEA: STORIES by Sarah Pinsker (Small Beer Press) with a special citation to THE LITTLE ANIMALS by Sarah Tolmie (Aqueduct Press).

The 2021 judges are F. Brett Cox, Brendan A. DuBois, Cynthia Felice, Tim Pratt, and Jessica Reisman (Chair).

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Big Dark Hole in July

Thu 14 Jan 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Jeffrey Ford, Readercon| Posted by: Gavin

Some might argue we’re at the bottom of a big dark hole now (but, really, isn’t it generally the human condition?) but just wait until July when Jeffrey Ford’s new collection Big Dark Hole drops.

The book had been scheduled for March but July, with the possibility of a slightly brighter world — and Jeff being one of the Guest of Honor at Readercon — beckoned, and the switch has been made.

Preorder here or on Bookshop (why is the cover not showing there? How uninterestingly mysterious) or at your fave indie bookstore and to keep you going Jeff has posted a new story on his own website.

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Sign up for this Sofia Samatar online event

Mon 11 Jan 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Sofia Samatar| Posted by: Gavin

Sofia Samatar is part of the upcoming Living Writers Series at UC Santa Cruz — also in the series: K. Ming Chan, Lauren Groff, Valeria Luiselli, Tess Taylor and Danusha Laméris, & Tommy Orange.

Samatar will be reading from Tender on Thursday, January 14, via Zoom. The event runs from 8:20 – 9:55 Eastern time and event registration (free) is here.

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Re-construction

Tue 5 Jan 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Alaya Dawn Johnson| Posted by: Gavin

Today, despite wanting to be in home, in bed, reading a book, recovering from 2020, instead, here we go: we’re publishing our first book of 2021, a book that has been a long time coming, Alaya Dawn Johnson’s collection, Reconstruction: Stories. Is it worth getting out of bed for? Yes. Order it from your fave local bookstore (or Book Moon) on Bookshop.org and when the book arrives in the mail you will be very happy you got out of bed that day.

Alaya’s stories range far and wide moving smoothly from contemporary times to far future explorations to historical fiction and throughout they showcase her deep-seated guiding intelligence leaving the reader in no doubt that no matter where, where, or who the story is about, it is worth going down that path and turning page after page until the end.

Alaya wrote 2 stories for the book, the title story, “Reconstruction,” a tremendous story with a depth and weight not to be missed — read an excerpt on Tor.com — and “The Mirages.” Because the book was moved from November 2020 to today (for pandemic reasons) the latter story was first published in Asimov’s magazine in Nov/Dec 2020 issue.

Five of the ten stories collected here can be read online, the first on Alaya’s website, the rest as below. Dig in!

“A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i” [read]
“Their Changing Bodies” — read on Subterranean Press
“The Score” — read at Nightmare Magazine
“A Song to Greet the Sun” — read at Fantasy Magazine
“Down the Well” — read on Strange Horizons

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Reconstruction

Tue 5 Jan 2021 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

trade paper · 300 pages · $17 · 9781618731777 | ebook · 9781618731784

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist
Ignyte Award finalist

An immersive, rich collection from an author whose work reaches across time and continents to explore unexpected and untold stories.

Reviews

“This collection is such a punch. From the opening story right on through it is putting you on notice. You’re gonna go some places here and you’re not gonna be able to look away. . . . The stories are not easy and I think they’re not supposed to be. . . . They are so good. She is such good short story writer — she’s also an excellent novelist — but you really feel the power of her short fiction in this collection. And there’s a really interesting author note at the end.”
— Book Riot

“Vivid, imaginative, and often brutal prose.” — Jake Casella Brookins, Chicago Review of Books

“Johnson is one of the few writers in the genre who handles high emotion without preciousness, and she brings an almost unbearable pathos to many of these stories.” — Simon Ings, The Times of London

“Beginning with the stunning, Nebula-award-winning vampire story ‘A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,’ (I’m currently rereading this story and am again astounded by its depth and perfection) the collection carries a theme of characters navigating their humanity in inhumane conditions.”
— Lyndsie Manusos, Book Riot, 10 Speculative Short Story Collections to Enjoy in 2021

“Reconstruction collects ten stories from writer, musician, and scholar Alaya Dawn Johnson—two for the first time! Like much of Johnson’s work, these stories focus on oppressed people finding (often supernatural) ways to survive in systems that want to crush them.
“The collection roves all over the map, both in geography in genre—the title story, for instance, tells the story of a formerly enslaved woman using protective magic for a Black regiment of the Union Army, while ‘The Mirages’ chronicles a postapocalyptic Mexico City. Johnson’s range can be seen in her two very different takes on vampires: ‘Their Changing Bodies’ is a breezy story about summer camp, while the Nebula award-winning opening story, ‘A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,’ (you can read it here!) drops us in an alternate take on our own world, but one in which vampires have conquered the Earth and imprison humans as food sources.”
— Leah Schnelbach, BookMarks, The Most Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2021

“Of particular interest, though, are the two original stories, ‘The Mirages’ and ‘Reconstruction’, each of which seems restrained compared to the coruscating imagery of some of the other tales, but which feature some of the most memorable char­acters of all.” — Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

“Well worth reading.” — Buzzfeed: 21 Fantasy Books To Get Excited About This Winter

“Johnson pulls from folklore, myth, and scientific discovery to create rich stories of complicated relationships and love amidst strange, uncanny circumstances. While the worlds are themselves fascinating, the true success of Johnson’s stories lies in the careful crafting of their vibrant emotional cores.” — Booklist

“Johnson breaks down genre boundaries, combining elements of  fantasy, mystery, science fiction, and horror, in settings ranging from the historical and familiar to the wildly imaginative. Unified by Johnson’s sensuous prose, these stories will delight existing fans and serve as an excellent introduction for those new to Johnson’s work.”
— Publishers Weekly

“The first story in this collection, the Nebula award-winning ‘A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,’ opens in a prison where vampire conquerors imprison humans to feast upon. Key is a human caretaker doing what she  can to survive in a world where hope and integrity are seemingly impossible. This theme of resilience in inhumane conditions continues throughout the collection. In the title story ‘Reconstruction’ — one of two stories original to the collection — Sally uses her grandmother’s spells to help protect a Black Civil War regiment while meditating on anger. These ten immersive stories embrace multiple speculative genres and take place in worlds both real and unreal. Much like Lovecraft Country, the stories combine horror and fantastical elements with anti-racist themes.”
— Margaret Kingsbury, Buzzfeed

“Alaya Dawn Johnson’s debut collection spans work from the breadth of her career, from 2005 to this year, and there’s some impressive gems within.” — Adr Joy, Nerds of a Feather

Table of Contents

A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i [read]
They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass
Their Changing Bodies
The Score
A Song to Greet the Sun [read]
Far and Deep
Down the Well
Third Day Lights
The Mirages
Reconstruction [read an excerpt on Tor.com]

Praise for Alaya Dawn Johnson’s books:

“Juju assassins, alternate history, a gritty New York crime story…in a word: Awesome.”
― N.K. Jemisin, author of The Fifth Season

“Great, fresh audacity.”
― Entertainment Weekly

“Like leaping into cold water on a hot day, this original dystopian novel takes the breath away, refreshes, challenges, and leaves the reader shivering but yearning for another plunge.”
― Booklist, starred review

“Compelling.”
― Publishers Weekly, starred review

“An art project, a rebellion and a sacrifice make up this nuanced, original cyberpunk adventure. . . . Luminous.”
― Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Beautiful prose.”
— BookPage

“This book will steal your heart!”
― Marika McCoola, Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA

Cover

Cover art “Marie-Thérèse and Dieunie” copyright © 2020 by Tessa Mars (tessamars.com). All rights reserved.

Alaya Dawn Johnson (@alayadj) is the author of seven novels for adults and young adults. Her most recent novel for adults is Trouble the Saints. Her young adult novel The Summer Prince was longlisted for the National Book Award and Love Is the Drug won the Norton Award. Her short stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives in Mexico City where she received a master’s degree with honors in Mesoamerican Studies at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, for her thesis on pre-Columbian fermented food and its role in the religious-agricultural calendar.

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Susan Stinson in San Miguel de Allende

Sun 3 Jan 2021 - Filed under: Not a Journal., events, Susan Stinson, zoom| Posted by: Gavin

Here’s a chance to join an interesting event:

January 7, 2021 | Prose Café

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