“A wild mixture of Italo Calvino . . . Grace Paley . . . Fay Weldon . . . and Jorge Luis Borges . . . but no. . . . She isn’t like anybody.”

Wed 29 Jan 2025 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

I was going through Ursula K. Le Guin’s Words Are My Matter the other day and was caught (again) by this lovely dartboard-throwing description of Carol Emshwiller’s writing in Le Guin’s review of Ledoyt:

Most reviewers prefer pigeons that fit in holes and rabbits that redux. Emshwiller’s like a wild mixture of Italo Calvino (intellectual games) and Grace Paley (perfect honesty) and Fay Weldon (outrageous wit) and Jorge Luis Borges (pure luminosity), but no—her voice is perfectly her own. She isn’t like anybody. She’s different.
Before I get to Ledoyt (which is different) I want to talk a little about the other Emshwiller books (which are all different).

I had a half memory that it was online and ta da here it is on Strange Horizons along with a couple of extra footnotes.


Read Books Punch Nazis

Tue 21 Jan 2025 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

I made a new thing today somewhat along the lines of things I’ve done before but, unlike this sentence, much clearer in what is being done!

For the last few years various bookshops (and many other groups) have run fundraisers and plain just sold t-shirts on Bonfire.com.

The advantages are the shirts are print on demand and include many sizes, colors, and styles. When we order Small Beer or Book Moon shirts, we have to guesstimate how many of each size and color. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes you know how this goes. More advantages: they ship worldwide and have a set up where the proceeds go directly to nonprofits.

The disadvantages are that the prices are high and 2/3+ of the price is just covering cost which leaves $6-10 for the seller and that we don’t get to work with our fab local printer.*

Yesterday while I was not watching TV and staying offline I decided I should try raising money for favorite nonprofits that support all the people who the meh government are going to try and step on.

So today I started a new Read Books Punch Nazis campaign on Bonfire and I’m trying to spread the word. There are new colors, new options (tank, hoodie, sweatshirt) as well as a couple of styles of T-shirts. Many of the options are 100% cotton as we reduce our plastic (including rayon/polyester blends) use. These first 100 shirts support CCATE, a lively and bighearted Philadelphia organization that we’ve supported for years. I’m open to suggestions (in the comments or by email) for more nonprofits to support in the future.

Delighted to be able to add something positive to the world in these cold dark times.

Black folded t-shirt with Read Books Punch Nazis in white ink on the front.

 

* Good news there, Ruth at the store tells me we need to reprint our own RBPNazis shirts, too.


Shipping News

Thu 16 Jan 2025 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Books are shipping from our distro, Consortium (albeit they are slowed down by winter storms). Zines and so on are going out slowly (due to me!) from Book Moon.


Who Reads Lit Mags?

Fri 3 Jan 2025 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

tl;dr Jessica Dylan Miele.

Admittedly this is on Substack, which I generally skip due to their Nazi Bar problem, but everyone should see the cover of the Bennington Review. There may indeed be “lit mags that refuse to publish anything but conventional and uninspiring work” which might be an access problem as I’ve found there are lit mags for a wide range of tastes. Ok: Ninth Letter, Greensboro Review, A Public Space, American Short Fiction, Gooseberry Pie, One Story. Without having to think too hard there are half-a-dozen broad-ranging mags. If you want a much wider range, just click this Quimby’s link.

Anyway, love to see LCRW out there being read. Most of the stories in LCRW come in over the transom* and finding Dora Holland’s story and getting to publish it was a treat. Sending it out with chocolate bars is a hassle but, since I’m the chocolate sampler as well as the publisher, I can only blame myself.

* Piled into the overflow mail box at the office that Kelly or I clear out every now and then.