Vandana Singh in the TLS

Fri 6 Sep 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Vandana Singh| Posted by: Gavin

This lovely review seemed worth highlighting — Vandana Singh’s Ambiguity Machines was reviewed by Michael Saler in London’s Times Literary Supplement:

“Vandana Singh’s science fiction . . . highlights the interplay between scientific and mythic narratives, focusing on the ways that ‘stories make the world’. A physicist in the United States, Singh was raised in India, where she was attracted by traditional legends as well as science. Several of her tales ruminate on the self-critical representations of science and the manifold meanings of myth. In one, an eleventh-century Indian poet famous for his collection of folklore has been resurrected in the future by a scientist who records alien legends, allowing Singh to compare poetic and scientific responses to oral tales. She shows that neither science nor myth are sufficient on their own, as her characters discover when they are misled by reductive empirical descriptions or beguiled by fairy-tale desires. Singh instead champions complex systems, in which discrete parts influence each other in unpredictable ways. She combines seemingly opposed categories, such as tradition and modernity, human and animal (or machine), the urban and the natural, and – most frequently – myth and science. Each yields facets of a more capacious reality that gradually unfolds within ingenious plots, which extend from earth in the near future to alternative histories and gleeful romps across time and space.”

---

Tonight in Easthampton

Fri 6 Sep 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., events, Kim Scott, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Come join us at 7 p.m. at White Square Books, 86 Cottage Street, where Kim Scott will be reading from his award-winning novel Taboo. Kim lives in Perth, Western Australia, and this is an opportunity not to be missed. The reading was featured in the Boston Globe:

Australian novelist Kim Scott was the first writer of Indigenous Australian ancestry to win the prestigious Miles Franklin Award for his second novel “Benang,” a prize he won again for his fourth book, “That Deadman Dance.” Widely lauded in Australia, Scott’s work hasn’t yet penetrated the market in the US, but this week, the boundary-pushing Western Mass-based Small Beer Press is publishing the North American edition of his latest award-winning novel “Taboo.” In this potent, ghostly book, Scott, part of the Noongar people of Western Australia, tells what happens when a group of Noongar return to the site of a massacre which followed the killing of a white man for kidnapping a black woman. The book wrestles with the haunt of history, and poetry lives on each page. “Now his own house was haunted, and he was glad.” In the taboo farmland, the group reckon with language and connection, and what reconciling with the past means for the present. They face the way the history and its sins live on, and how rebirth demands destruction. “Death is only one part of a story that is forever beginning,” Scott writes. On a brief US tour, Scott will read and discuss “Taboo” on Friday at 7 p.m. at White Square Books in Easthampton.

And here’s a short clip of Kim reading at the Library of Congress Book Festival in Washington, DC, last Saturday:

"Come close. Closer." The spilling wheat, "Golden, it has both the look and sound of great wealth." Kim Scott reading from TABOO @librarycongress Book Festival—moderator @BWheeler_PhD who put the panel together on the left & graphic novelist @brentonemckenna on the right. pic.twitter.com/yJBhkpiYYg

— Small Beer Press (@smallbeerpress) September 5, 2019

---

All Change at the Top

Tue 3 Sep 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kim Scott, Publication day, Sarah Rees Brennan| Posted by: Gavin

This is the top of our website yesterday:

And this is how it looks today:

Yes, we have 2 new books out today: the North American edition of Kim Scott’s award-winning novel Taboo and the huuuuge paperback edition of Sarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands — the latter comes with an extra short story, “Wings in the Morning,” originally published in Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales (also just out in paperback).

Taboo was a lovely surprise, it came to us in January and later came the news that Kim might be attending the Library of Congress Book Fest in DC in August — which he did, this past weekend, that was fun. The novel is immersive, different, and ticks a lot of the boxes that make us and our readers happy. As Kim does events in the next week in Charlottesville, VA, Easthampton, MA, and Brooklyn, NY, I can’t wait to see how North America reacts to it.

In Other Lands went through three printings in hardcover and has already earned out its audio advance. The paperback slipped out early since Sarah’s latest novel, Season of the Witch: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1, came out in July — there’s a second in December — and we wanted to make it easy for readers to find the huge new paperback. So far the paperback is flying off the shelf and more stores are adding it each week. Readers sure like novels so it’s fun to have these two both out today, both so differently brilliant.

---

Taboo

Tue 3 Sep 2019 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

trade paper · 304 pages · $17 · 9781618731692 | ebook · 9781618731708 · audiobook now available

A century after a rural Western Australian massacre, a group of Noongar people are invited back by an elderly farmer to the land where it happened.

Now shipping signed copies.

Read: an excerpt on Lithub.

Interview: Kim Scott on Book Riot’s Recommended podcast.

Kim Scott reads at the Library of Congress Book Fest from Gavin Grant on Vimeo.

From Kim Scott, two-times winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award, comes a haunting yet optimistic novel charged with ambition and poetry, in equal parts brutal, mysterious and idealistic, about a young woman cast into a drama that has been playing for over two hundred years . . .

Taboo takes place in the present day, in the rural South-West of Western Australia, and tells the story of a group of Noongar people who revisit, for the first time in many decades, a taboo place: the site of a massacre that followed the assassination, by these Noongar’s ancestors, of a white man who had stolen a black woman. They come at the invitation of Dan Horton, the elderly owner of the farm on which the massacres unfolded. He hopes that by hosting the group he will satisfy his wife’s dying wishes and cleanse some moral stain from the ground on which he and his family have lived for generations.

But the sins of the past will not be so easily expunged.

We walk with the ragtag group through this taboo country and note in them glimmers of re-connection with language, lore, country. We learn alongside them how countless generations of Noongar may have lived in ideal rapport with the land. Taboo won four literary awards, was longlisted for four and shortlisted for three more. It is a novel of survival and renewal, as much as destruction; and, ultimately, of hope as much as despair.

WINNER OF THE NSW PREMIER’S AWARD BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018
WINNER OF THE NSW PREMIER’S INDIGENOUS WRITER’S PRIZE 2018
WINNER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND FICTION BOOK AWARD 2018
WINNER OF THE VICTORIAN PREMIER’S LITERARY AWARD FOR INDIGENOUS WRITING 2019
Shortlisted for the 2020 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature.
Short-listed for Miles Franklin Literary Award 2018.
Short-listed for Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Fiction 2018.
Short-listed for Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction 2018.
Short-listed for Colin Roderick Award 2018.
Long-listed for Dublin Literary Award 2019.
Long-listed for ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2018.
Long-listed for Indie Book Awards Fiction 2018.
Kate Challis RAKA Commendation 2021.

PRAISE FOR TABOO

“A story that offers a mix of magic, history, violence and reconciliation — elements that make up the larger story of the clash between Australia’s Aboriginal people and the white settlers who killed them and pushed them aside to take their land.” — Steve Pfarrer, Daily Hampshire Gazette

“In this potent, ghostly book, Scott, part of the Noongar people of Western Australia, tells what happens when a group of Noongar return to the site of a massacre which followed the killing of a white man for kidnapping a black woman. The book wrestles with the haunt of history, and poetry lives on each page. ‘Now his own house was haunted, and he was glad.’ In the taboo farmland, the group reckon with language and connection, and what reconciling with the past means for the present. They face the way the history and its sins live on, and how rebirth demands destruction. ‘Death is only one part of a story that is forever beginning,’ Scott writes.”
— Nina MacLaughlin, Boston Globe

“Deeply acclaimed upon its initial release in Australia, Kim Scott’s novel Taboo follows a group of characters revisiting the site of several acts of historical violence. In doing so, Scott charts the complexities of pain, forgiveness, and the sins of the past—often in harrowing ways.”
— Vol. 1, Brooklyn

“In this assured, complex novel, Scott (True Country) delves into the fraught history of race relations in Western Australia. . . .  Scott’s novel memorably describes this dramatic resurrection and the enduring power of ancestral traditions.”
— Publishers Weekly

“A teenage girl and her extended family return to the site of a centuries-old massacre of Aboriginal people. Kepalup is a small town in Western Australia with a dark history. In the 19th century, a white man was killed by an Aboriginal man, and his family retaliated by murdering scores of Aboriginal people. Recently widowed Dan Horton still lives on the land where his ancestor was killed; now, he’s invited the descendants of the Aboriginal people who died at the site to visit even though their culture labels the place as taboo. To Dan’s surprise, one of the people among the group who’s accepted the invitation is Tilly Smith, who was briefly his foster child until she was returned to her birth mother. That’s the only parent Tilly has known until she was summoned out of the blue by an inmate in a nearby prison, who happens to be her real father. An Aboriginal person of Noongar ancestry, Tilly’s father has turned over a new leaf from his former violence and drug addiction and is teaching fellow inmates the old language and customs. But along with meeting her dad and being introduced to a new culture and extended family, Tilly is introduced to some of his unsavory associates. When Tilly shows up in Kepalup with her relatives, she bears a number of dark secrets that threaten to collide with the largest darkness of all: the loss and generational trauma borne by her people. Scott (That Deadman Dance, 2010, etc.) has created a shadowy and elliptical story, but it is not as hopeless as it sometimes feels: Tilly is a survivor, and though her Aboriginal culture is not a perfect salvation, it nevertheless provides her with a touchstone in the chaos.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“If Benang was the great novel of the assimilation system, and That Deadman Dance redefined the frontier novel in Australian writing, Taboo makes a strong case to be the novel that will help clarify — in the way that only literature can — what reconciliation might mean.” — Australian Book Review

“Scott’s book is stunning — haunted and powerful . . . Verdict: Must Read.” — Herald Sun

“Remarkable.” — Stephen Romei, Weekend Australian

“Stunning prose.” — Saturday Paper

“This is a complex, thoughtful, and exceptionally generous offering by a master storyteller at the top of his game.” — The Guardian

“Undaunted, and daring as ever Scott goes back to his ancestral Noongar country in Western Australia’s Great Southern region; back in time as well to killings (or a massacre, the point is contested) of whites and Aborigines there in 1880. . . Taboo never becomes a revenge story, whether for distant or recent wrongs . . . The politics of Taboo — not to presume or simplify too much — are quietist, rather than radical. Ambitious, unsentimental [and] morally challenging.” — Sydney Morning Herald

“Scott is one of the most thoughtful, exciting and powerful storytellers of this continent today, with great courage and formidable narrative prowess- and Taboo is his most daring novel yet.” — Sydney Review of Books

“Scott’s most accessible novel.” — Reading Matters

Previously

Aug. 31, 10 a.m “The View From Country—Australia’s Aboriginal Writers” with Jeanine Leane and Brenton McKenna , Library of Congress Book Festival, Washington, D.C.
UVA
— Sept. 3, 5:30 p.m. Reading & Signing, Brooks Hall Commons
— Sept. 5, 6 p.m. “Truth Telling,” Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, 400 Worrell Dr., Charlottesville, VA 22911
Sept. 6, 7 p.m. White Square Books, 86 Cottage St., Easthampton, MA
Sept. 9, 12:30 p.m., NYU
Sept. 9, 7 p.m. Community Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY

About the Author

Kim Scott is a multi-award winning novelist. Benang was the first novel by an Indigenous writer to win the Miles Franklin Award and That Deadman Dance also won Australia’s premier literary prize, among many others. Proud to be one among those who call themselves Noongar, Kim is founder and chair of the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Story Project, which has published a number of bilingual picture books. A Companion to the Works of Kim Scott deals with aspects of his career in education and literature. He received an Australian Centenary Medal and was 2012 West Australian of the Year. Kim is currently Professor of Writing in the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts at Curtin University.

Cover designed and photographed by Sandy Cull.

---

In Other Lands

Tue 3 Sep 2019 - Filed under: Big Mouth House, Books| Posted by: Gavin

A Big Mouth House Book
August 15, 2017 · trade cloth · 448 pages · 9781618731203 | ebook · 9781618731357 · audiobook
Third printing: June 2018

September 3, 2019 · trade paperback · 9781618731661 · 496 pages
Second printing: July 2023

The trade paperback edition includes the story that started it all: “Wings in the Morning.”
The hardcovers here are “returns” and may have light shelfwear.

Elliot doesn’t want to fight, keeps saying the wrong thing, and is definitely the grouchiest human in fantasyland.

ALA Rainbow Book List.
Georgia Peach Book Award Nominee.
Florida Teens Read Award Nominee.
Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year.
ABC Best Books for Young Readers.
A Junior Library Guild selection.
Lodestar, Mythopoeic, Hugo, & Locus award finalist.
Shipping copies with a signed bookplate.

“’In Other Lands’ is a hilarious, and moving, sendup of magic school novels where kids learn to fight in an ongoing war against the forces of evil. Its mouthy, obnoxious 13-year-old protagonist, Elliot, resists every step of the way. (‘Oh my God,’ he says. ‘We’re child soldiers?’) Elliot’s pacifism never alters, but the world of the book grows deeper and more nuanced as the reader gets further in. Brennan explores gender dynamics, diplomacy in wartime, xenophobia and the ways that deeply damaged people can learn to care for each other — all with a per-page joke rate that puts Douglas Adams to shame.”
— Jenny Hamilton, New York Times

“In Other Lands is at once a classic school story, a coming-of-age tale and a parody of Harry Potter. It’s hilarious and sneakily moving. Elliot Schafer is Harry Potter if Harry had been abandoned instead of merely orphaned. Convinced of his unlovability, he wields sarcasm and braininess as weapons. . . . Brennan subverts the familiar Y.A. love triangle in uproarious, touching, unexpected ways, and her commentaries on gender roles, sexual identity and toxic masculinity are very witty. Elven culture, for instance, views men as the weaker sex. ‘A true gentleman’s heart is as sacred as a temple, and as easily crushed as a flower,’ Serene informs Elliot. When another elf tells him, ‘I was saddened to hear Serene had launched a successful attack on the citadel of your virtue,’ Elliot assures her, ‘The citadel was totally into surrendering.’ Best of all, over four years in the otherlands, Elliot grows from a defensive, furious, grieving child into a diplomatic, kind, menschy hero.”
— Marjorie Ingall, New York Times Book Review

Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson chat about writing and murder: Entertainment Weekly.

Read: Sarah Rees Brennan on Our Winged Brains: The Appeal of Winged Creatures in Genre Fiction for Tor.com.

Read: Chapter One

The Borderlands aren’t like anywhere else. Don’t try to smuggle a phone or any other piece of technology over the wall that marks the Border — unless you enjoy a fireworks display in your backpack. (Ballpoint pens are okay.) There are elves, harpies, and — best of all as far as Elliot is concerned — mermaids.

“What’s your name?”
“Serene.”
“Serena?” Elliot asked.
“Serene,” said Serene. “My full name is Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle.”
Elliot’s mouth fell open. “That is badass.”

Elliot? Who’s Elliot? Elliot is thirteen years old. He’s smart and just a tiny bit obnoxious. Sometimes more than a tiny bit. When his class goes on a field trip and he can see a wall that no one else can see, he is given the chance to go to school in the Borderlands.

It turns out that on the other side of the wall, classes involve a lot more weaponry and fitness training and fewer mermaids than he expected. On the other hand, there’s Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle, an elven warrior who is more beautiful than anyone Elliot has ever seen, and then there’s her human friend Luke: sunny, blond, and annoyingly likeable. There are lots of interesting books. There’s even the chance Elliot might be able to change the world.

“The beauty of men is a sweet soft thing that passes all too soon, like a bird across the sky.”

In Other Lands is the exhilarating new book from beloved and bestselling author Sarah Rees Brennan. It’s a novel about surviving four years in the most unusual of schools, about friendship, falling in love, diplomacy, and finding your own place in the world — even if it means giving up your phone.

Cover and chapter illustrations by Casey Nowak.

Interview: Binge on Books (with bonus favorite author photo)

Reviews & Early Reader Reaction

“It has been a long time since I’ve loved a book this much.”
— Seanan McGuire, author of Every Heart a Doorway

“I loved this book. I loved it. But early on I wanted to smack Elliott, the fourteen-year-old boy who is cho- sen, from our world, to go to the Borderlands because he can see magic. And I might have stopped reading, had I not distinctly heard (not making this up, I swear) a voiceover saying: Once there was a boy named Eustace Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.“
— Michelle West, F&SF

“Brennan delivers witty, nervy, romantic adventure that fizzes with feeling and giddy imagination.”
— Leigh Bardugo, bestselling author of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom

“A subversive, sneaky, glorious tale of magic, longing, and growing into your wings.”
— Holly Black, author of The Darkest Part of the Forest

“In Other Lands is a stunning example of Sarah Rees Brennan’s style; her characters are hysterically funny with complex and nuanced inner lives that could break a reader’s heart. Elliot, cranky and obnoxious teen that he is, desperately longs to be loved best by someone, but covers with immense sarcasm and general unkindness. Luke and Serene, both exceptionally talented and good-looking, also struggle with feeling displaced. The depiction of misandry in Elf culture is one of the funniest concepts that Rees Brennan has come up, and even that she turns into a deeper lesson for Serene, Elliot, and Luke. In Other Lands can come off as a parody of fantasy, but it delves deep into issues of race, gender, sexuality, and war, and absolutely nails the struggles and triumphs of growing up.”
— Sami Thomason, Square Books

“The existence of mythical creatures seems more plausible to snarky, studious teen Elliot Schafer than making friends or having a loving family. After enrolling at Borderlands Academy, a training school for the magical realm’s soldiers and scholars, Elliot forms an unlikely trio with Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle, an Elven warrior-scholar, and Luke Sunborn, a gifted golden boy. Narrator Matthew Lloyd Davies skillfully suggests the vulnerable qualities hidden beneath Elliot’s sarcasm as he navigates gender, war, sexuality, and friendship in the Borderlands. Humor, delightfully wrought in this production, permeates each section. Davies populates this world with vivid performances of fantastical beings such as harpies, mermaids, and elves. His clear enunciation of Elvish certainty and the sharp, grating vocal qualities of harpies and mermaids make the students’ forays into battle and diplomacy memorable.”
— Audiofile Magazine

Praise for Sarah Rees Brennan’s books:

“Breathtaking—a compulsive, rocketing read.”
—Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author

“Writing with fine control and wit, Sarah Rees Brennan pits an underworld society against privileged overlords. The young golden-haired heroine sparring with her rich boyfriend and his dark-souled shadow-twin lends wry and sexy human interest to the depiction of political struggle. I suspect that word of this magical thriller will pass through the populace with the energy of wind, of fire.”
— Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Egg and Spoon

“From the pitch-perfect opening paragraph, to the heartbreaking final pages . . . delicious.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“A sparkling fantasy that will make you laugh and break your heart.”
— Cassandra Clare, New York Times bestselling author

“A darkly funny, deliciously thrilling Gothic.”
— Kelley Armstrong, New York Times bestselling author

“Readers will laugh, shiver, and maybe even swoon over this modern Gothic novel.”
— Melissa Marr, New York Times bestselling author

“Brennan takes the genres of young adult, fantasy, and romance, and through her own writerly, alchemical process converts them into something new and strange and lovely.” — Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble

“A laugh-out-loud delight.” — Publishers Weekly

“. . . a charming protagonist — full of vinegar and spice. Fans of romantic fantasy will devour it.” — VOYA

“Punctuated throughout with keen humor and heartbreaking emotional resonance, it’s a stunner.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

“This dark-fantasy-meets-romance will have readers hooked.” — The Horn Book

Cover illustrations by Casey Nowak. Title lettering by Jeffrey Rowland.

Author photo by Mark Griffin Photo.

Sarah Rees Brennan (@sarahreesbrenna) was born, raised, and lives in Ireland. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Tell the Wind and Fire, the Lynburn Legacy series, and Season of the Witch (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Book 1), among others.

 

---

In Other Book Clubs

Wed 28 Aug 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., book clubs, Sarah Rees Brennan| Posted by: Gavin

Next Tuesday is the official paperback publication day for Sarah Rees Brennan’s novel In Other Lands. The book is on the ALA Rainbow Book List, the ABC Best Books for Young Readers and Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year lists, and is a Junior Library Guild selection. It was a nominee for both the Georgia Peach Book Award and the Florida Teens Read Award and a finalist for the Hugo, Locus, and Mythopoeic awards. Not bad!

Now it’s coming out in a huge trade paperback edition — extra big not just because of all the shiny gold on the cover, but also because it includes the story that started it all: “Wings in the Morning.”* Sarah originally wrote the novel on her blog as a prequel to “Wings”(!) and then rewrote it for publication.

It turns out that In Other Lands being a reader fave means it’s also turning up in book club recommendations! One bookstore near us, Annie’s in Worcester, MA, has it down for their Rainbow Readers bookclub on Sat., Sept. 14th, and over there in Columbus, Ohio, the Feminist Sci-Fi Bookclub at the fabulous Two Dollar Radio HQ have it scheduled for their Sept. 24th meeting. How awesome!

I’ll add these two book clubs to our events schedule. Do drop us a line any time your book club is reading any of our books and I’ll add it to the schedule.

---

Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester, MA

SPECIAL EVENT: Saturday, September 14, 6PM–8PM – Rainbow Readers Discusses IN OTHER LANDS by Sarah Rees Brennan. The Rainbow Readers of Massachusetts is an LGBTQIA book club that meets once a month. All are welcome!

---

Feminist Sci-Fi Bookclub: In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
7:00pm-8:00pm
1124 Parsons Ave, Columbus, OH 43206, USA
FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

Hosted by Haley Cowans, Feminist Sci-Fi Bookclub:
Or, “Word After Word: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Book Club” — “Speculative fiction” (science fiction, fantasy, horror) has always been a vehicle for writers to explore identity, social inequality, the strangeness of the world, and the hopes and fears for the future. In this monthly book club we’ll be reading works of speculative fiction by women and nonbinary writers, discussing the ways these works make us think, feel, and reflect on reality. Read more: https://twodollarradiohq.com/feminist-sci-fi-bookclub

This month’s book is In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

“Four years in the life of an unloved English schoolboy who’s invited to a secret magical school and learns that even in fantasyland, real life is messier than books. . . . But over the course of four years training among child soldiers, Elliot, unsurprisingly, grows up. His slow development into a genuinely kind person is entirely satisfying, as is his awakening to his own bisexuality and to the colonialism, sexism, and racism of Borderlands society. . . . A stellar . . . wholly rewarding journey.” ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

* Bookclubs are free and open to the public with no signup required. Just read, arrive, and have fun.
* You can find the book at your local library, or available for purchase at Two Dollar Radio HQ and other fine booksellers.
* Our regular food and bar menus will be available.

LOT PARKING: The Columbus Metropolitan Library across the street (1113 Parsons Ave) has generously allowed our use of their parking lot while they are closed only; parking there allowed during the following hours: Tuesday: 8pm – close

---

*An aside: “Wings in the Morning” was originally published in the anthology Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales edited by Kelly and me, and it too is now coming out in paperback!

---

A Trippy Genre-Hop Featuring a Trace of Fairy Tale, a Touch of Gothic, & More

Fri 23 Aug 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., events, Kim Scott, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Not this Saturday, but the next one, Kim Scott, the first Indigenous writer to receive the Miles Franklin Award will be traveling to the USA for a series of events in support of his fourth novel, Taboo. It has been a very quick run up for us on this book: it was submitted on January 25th of this year, which makes the publication date of September 3 the equivalent of a sprint in publishing terms. Thank you! to everyone at Consortium and all our sales reps who have brought the book to booksellers’ attention, to the trade reviewers at Kirkus and Publishers Weekly and to all the indie bookstores and others who are stocking it.

Taboo is Scott’s 4th novel. In his afterword, as quoted by Kim Forrester of Reading Matters, Scott calls it a “trippy, stumbling sort of genre-hop that I think features a trace of Fairy Tale, a touch of Gothic, a sufficiency of the ubiquitous Social Realism and perhaps a touch of Creation Story” which rings true to me.

Although Scott has twice won the Miles Franklin award in his home country and Taboo received four literary awards (totalling AU$80,000) in Australia, his voice is one of those mostly missing from literary discourse in North America so I am deeply gladdened that the Australian Embassy is bringing him to the USA.

If you’re in DC on August 31 for the Library of Congress Book Festival, I hope I see you at the 10 a.m panel, “The View From Country—Australia’s Aboriginal Writers.” This will be a near unique opportunity to see these writers in the northern hemisphere.

After a trip to UVA, and before he heads to Community Bookstore in Brooklyn, Scott will come up to Western Massachusetts for a reading at Easthampton’s own White Square Books on Friday, September 6, where I hope we can show him a SRO crowd of enthusiastic, open-minded, and curious readers.

Here’s the full list of events:

Aug. 31, 10 a.m “The View From Country—Australia’s Aboriginal Writers” with Jeanine Leane and Brenton McKenna , Library of Congress Book Festival, Washington, D.C.
Sept. 3, 5:30 p.m. Reading & Signing, Brooks Hall Commons, UVA, Charlottesville, VA
Sept. 5, 6 p.m. “Truth Telling,” Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, UVA, 400 Worrell Dr., Charlottesville, VA 22911
Sept. 6, 7 p.m. White Square Books, 86 Cottage St., Easthampton, MA
Sept. 9, 12:30 p.m., NYU
Sept. 9, 7 p.m. Community Bookstore with Terr-ann White, 143 Seventh Ave, Brooklyn, NY

---

The Mount, signed by Carol Emshwiller

Thu 22 Aug 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Carol Emshwiller, Tiptree Award| Posted by: Gavin

The Tiptree Award is going to have an auction that starts August 24 but you can preview it here. Included in the auction is a very rare item, a copy of The Mount signed by the late author, Carol Emshwiller. (Is it rare? I searched on Bookfinder for a signed copy, any edition, and none came up.)

The Mount was a Nebula Award finalist, won the Philip K. Dick Award Winner, and was selected as a Best Book of the Year by Locus, Book Magazine, and the Village Voice. More recently MaryKate Jasper and Charlie Jane Anders included it in an io9 list 10 Ultra-Weird Science Fiction Novels that Became Required Reading.

It is a weird and fabulous novel. It’s rare to find one signed and the money goes to an excellent cause. Good luck with your bidding!

---

A. B. Young’s Vain Beasts in PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019

Tue 20 Aug 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., A. B. Young, LCRW| Posted by: Gavin

Today Catapult publishes PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2019, edited by three superstars writers, Carmen Maria Machado, Danielle Evans, & Alice Sola Kim.

The dozen debut authors are all winners of the $2,000 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. The stories collected here were originally published in Alaska Quarterly Review, Auburn Avenue, Black Warrior Review, Conjunctions, Epiphany, The Iowa Review, Kweli, Nimrod Journal, The Rumpus, The Sun, and I am delighted to say, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. That story is A. B. Young’s “Vain Beasts” from LCRW 38.

With editors like these, I am very much looking forward to reading this book. Here’s a little more about it:

“Prominent issues of social justice and cultural strife are woven thematically throughout 12 stories. Stories of prison reform, the immigrant experience, and the aftermath of sexual assault make the book a vivid time capsule that will guide readers back into the ethos of 2019 for generations to come . . . Each story displays a mastery of the form, sure to inspire readers to seek out further writing from these adept authors and publications.”—Booklist

Who are the most promising short story writers working today? Where do we look to discover the future stars of literary fiction? This book offers a dozen compelling answers to these questions.

The stories collected here represent the most recent winners of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, which recognizes twelve writers who have made outstanding debuts in literary magazines in the previous year. Chosen by a panel of distinguished judges, themselves innovators of the short story form, they take us from the hutongs of Beijing to the highways of Saskatchewan, from the letters of a poet devoted to God in seventeenth-century France to a chorus of poets devoted to revolution in the “last days of empire.” They describe consuming, joyful, tragic, complex, ever-changing relationships between four friends who meet at a survivors group for female college students; between an English teacher and his student-turned-lover in Japan; between a mother and her young son.

In these pages, a woodcutter who loses his way home meets a man wearing a taxidermied wolf mask, and an Ivy League–educated “good black girl” climbs the flagpole in front of the capitol building in South Carolina. Each piece comes with an introduction by its original editors, whose commentaries provide valuable insight into what magazines are looking for in their submissions, and showcase the vital work they do to nurture literature’s newest voices.

Stories by Tamiko Beyer, Sarah Curry, Laura Freudig, Doug Henderson, Enyeribe Ibegwam, Jade Jones, Pingmei Lan, Marilyn Manolakas, Jon Paul Infante, Kelsey Peterson, Erin Singer, and A.B. Young

ABOUT THIS YEAR’S JUDGES

Danielle Evans is the author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, which was a co-winner of the 2011 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for a Debut Short Story Collection, the winner of the 2011 Paterson Fiction Prize and the 2011 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for fiction, and an honorable mention for the 2011 PEN/Hemingway Award. She teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.

Alice Sola Kim is a winner of the 2016 Whiting Award. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House, McSweeney’s, BuzzFeed, and The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy. She has received grants and scholarships from the MacDowell Colony, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Elizabeth George Foundation.

Carmen Maria Machado‘s debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Kirkus Prize, the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, the World Fantasy Award, the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for a Debut Short Story Collection, and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. She is the writer in residence at the University of Pennsylvania.

---

Kim Scott in the Valley

Mon 19 Aug 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., events, Kim Scott, readings| Posted by: Gavin

We’ve just added a local reading for Australian author Kim Scott, whose novel Taboo, we are publishing next month. Kim will be reading at White Square Books, 86 Cottage St., Easthampton, MA, at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 6.

Kim is an Australian superstar and we’re hoping to get a crowd together for good nights in Easthampton and Brooklyn. Come on by!

The full list of Kim’s events is:

August 31, 10 a.m “The View From Country—Australia’s Aboriginal Writers” with Jeanine Leane and Brenton McKenna , Library of Congress Book Festival, Washington, D.C.
UVA
September 6, 7 p.m. White Square Books, 86 Cottage St., Easthampton, MA
September 9, NYU
September 9, 7 p.m. Community Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY

---

Laurie J. Marks, Brattleboro, VT Reading

Mon 5 Aug 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Laurie J. Marks, readings| Posted by: Gavin

We are happy to announce to say that next Friday (not this Friday), August 16 at 6 p.m., Laurie J. Marks will be doing a reading/signing from the final book in her Elemental Logic series, Air Logic, at Everyone’s Books (25 Eliot St., Brattleboro, VT 05301). The bookstore is getting all 4 books in the series in so it’s a great chance to pick up a signed set. Thanks to the bookstore and all those who worked to set this up!

Air Logic is a Locus Notable Book and here’s the beginning of Katherine Coldiron’s Locus review:

“You might not believe me, but this is the truth: Laurie J. Marks’s Elemental Logic books are as good as Elena Ferrante’s monumental Neapolitan Quartet. They achieve the same depth, the same spellbinding quality, and the same sense of falling entire into a world on the page, tethered to real life by the sure hand of a master writer. They expose a talent as mighty as Le Guin’s for building intricate moral dilemmas inside fantasy universes, for creating characters the reader will remember for decades, and for presenting solutions that amount to much more than throwing soldiers or magic at the problem. These books are a profound achievement in fantasy literature.”

---

Friday night: Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

Thu 1 Aug 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Ursula K. Le Guin| Posted by: Gavin

You might remember the Kickstarter for Arwen Curry’s documentary Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s been shown at festivals around the world for the past few months and on Friday August 2nd at 8 p.m. it will premiere on PBS American Masters then be available to stream for 28 days. Do not miss.

---

First Taboo trade reviews

Tue 16 Jul 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kim Scott, readings| Posted by: Gavin

In a couple of months we will publish Kim Scott’s new novel, Taboo. Those in the know, i.e. Australian readers, have given the book 4 awards and we give it an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Kim is coming to the USA in August for the Library of Congress Book Festival on August 31 — I’m going down to DC for that, see you there? — and we’re working on a reading in New York City and maybe further north. More on that and his other events closer to the actual days and in the meantime to whet your appetite, here’s a word from Publishers Weekly

“In this assured, complex novel, Scott (True Country) delves into the fraught history of race relations in Western Australia. . . .  Scott’s novel memorably describes this dramatic resurrection and the enduring power of ancestral traditions.”

and another from Kirkus Reviews:

“Scott (That Deadman Dance, 2010, etc.) has created a shadowy and elliptical story, but it is not as hopeless as it sometimes feels: Tilly is a survivor, and though her Aboriginal culture is not a perfect salvation, it nevertheless provides her with a touchstone in the chaos.”

As The Conversation says, Scott talks about events we don’t want to remember. He circles back to one in particular, which he wrote about in an earlier novel, Benang, and then fictionalizes here in Taboo. There’s an out-of-time grace to some of Scott’s writing although he shifts registers easily from humor to tense scenes where the possible outcomes are unknown and perhaps violent. Scott is one of the writers who are taking on the hard work of actually considering how to live with our pasts and, novel after novel, building a way for it to happen.

You can listen to the first two minutes read by the author here.

---

LCRW 39, it’s out there

Mon 15 Jul 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

We were in Portland, OR, last week at the Tin House Summer Workshop — what a feat that is! 250+ people come from all corners of the world to write, talk, and work together. Before it all began (by which I don’t mean 20 years ago, rather a week or so ago), Kelly and I stopped off at Powell’s books and I’m delighted to report that, yes, they still have some good books. Face out in the small & indie press section I was very happy to see the new issue, the 39th of its kind, of LCRW.

Did I take a photo? No. I did not, mostly because I stood there picking through the zines and the place was busy, busy so there was no time for a quiet photo. I picked up some other zines, and, oh a few books. They never have everything I’m looking for, but, oh, they always have some things I wasn’t looking for, such a joy.

---

Fundraiser this weekend

Wed 3 Jul 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., fundraiser, immigration, RAICES| Posted by: Gavin

This July 4th weekend I hope you will join us in celebrating and supporting Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) as part of the #BookstoresAgainstBorders campaign. We are pledging a donation of 10% of gross sales from July 5 – 7th from sales of books and zines (including subscriptions) from our website.

If you can, please donate (anything from $5 or $500 or more!) directly here — every little bit helps me reach my goal.

Thank you for your support of this fundraiser and your action to help those desperately in need.

---

Readercon 2019

Tue 2 Jul 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Cons, Michael J DeLuca| Posted by: Gavin

While we won’t be at Readercon this year — Kelly will be back at the fabulous thing that is the Tin House Summer Workshop and I’ll be part of an editor panel — our books will be there at a table run by the mighty Michael J. DeLuca, publisher of the journal Reckoning.

Some of our authors will be there including John Crowley, Jeffrey Ford, Laurie J. Marks, Sarah Pinsker,  Vandana Singh, and Howard Waldrop as well as innumerable friends and lovely people so I hope you get your books signed by them. We’ll have an ad in the program book, ping me if you see it, and their books will be available at the table — ok, not John’s forthcoming collection — as well as the current LCRW with the monster of gentrification on the cover as well as the zines Kelly and Ursula made this spring.

There will also be copies of all four of Laurie J. Marks’s Elemental Logic novels of which Katherine Coldiron says this in the new issue of Locus:

ETA: Jeffrey Ford & Howard Waldrop will be there.
Note: Laurie J. Marks will be there on the Saturday only and will be signing copies of her book at 3 p.m.

---

Air Logic Publication Day

Tue 4 Jun 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Laurie J. Marks| Posted by: Gavin

Seventeen years ago Laurie J. Marks’s first Elemental Logic novel, Fire Logic, was released in hardcover and I, desperately searching for women writers to write about for my monthly BookPage sf&f review, was delighted to find a fantasy from Tor with some blurbs. I enjoyed it quite a bit:

Fire Logic is definitely not a simplistic fantasy where one side is right and the other must be wrong; like real life, it is all about shades of gray. Zanja comes from a highland people who hold themselves happily apart from other nations. She is their avatar, sent out to communicate, trade and learn from the outside world. But the outside world is in turmoil: former refugees have armed themselves and are taking over. The countryside is soon a war zone, replete with horribly familiar acts of war and reprisals. Marks has a wide-angle view and has written an immensely political and unflinchingly optimistic novel. Differences are celebrated as often as scorned, and love can be found even with an enemy without the costs that might be expected in our world.

Less than two years later and an ARC for the second book in the series, Earth Logic, landed, celebrations — and another review in BookPage. Show me the reader who isn’t affected when a book changes the world:

. . .  Karis’ group finds a hidden library and an old printing press. They use the press to publish a book that reminds the Shaftali that they unlike the occupying Sainnites are a hospitable and generous people. This is one step on Karis’ path to the nonviolent defeat of the Sainnites. As Emil, the former Shaftali general says, ‘War cannot make peace.’ The nonviolent choice is a strong and difficult one, and not everyone in Shaftal supports it especially those who have lost family and friends in the occupation. However, it is what Karis wants, and in earth logic “action and understanding are inseparable,” so, although it seems impossible to overcome the warring factions, she is determined to make it happen.

Earth Logic is a thought-provoking and sometimes heartbreaking political novel which absorbingly examines the dynamics between two groups of people. Good bread, wine and friendships alone may not save the world, but they make the doing of it much more palatable. 

A couple of years later Laurie asked us for advice on publishing the third novel and we slowly talked it over here and with her until we came to realize that we could and would happily publish it. So in 2007 Water Logic was sent out into the world — sometimes with tea! Laurie was Guest of Honor at WisCon, the book received another starred Booklist review and for readers of the Elemental Logic series, all was looking well.

Then slowly the series became one of those unfinished series that seemed like they would stay that way. We knew that Laurie was working away on it — tying up all those stories in one book that made sense of it all was a huge job — but there were family and health complications.

Over the years we’d check in and we were delighted to get a chance to put the first two books out in new editions, at first in ebook, and this year in trade paperbacks, especially as it gave us a chance to work with Kathleen Jennings again who did an amazing multi-part illustration over a number of years that gave a lively fresh visual identity to the series. (Of course, the 4 books still don’t match as we had previous cover of Water Logic stripped off and the books were rebound with the new covers so they have a smaller trim size than the first, second, and fourth Logics. If the books do well and we get to reprint . . . )

And slowly light broke over the horizon and then suddenly the day was here and it is June 4th, 2019, and here we are with the fourth and final Elemental Logic novel out in the world:

Welcome to Air Logic.

 

 

---

Air Logic

Tue 4 Jun 2019 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

trade paper · 400 pages · $17 · 9781618731609 | ebook · 9781618731616

The fourth and final novel in the award winning Elemental Logic series.

Locus Notable Books
Otherwise Honor List for Series

Fire Logic · Earth Logic · Water Logic · Air Logic

Laurie J. Marks returns at last to Shaftal for the long-awaited conclusion to her acclaimed series. Karis and those who love her must figure out, in the aftermath of war and an assassination attempt, how to bring together Sainnites and Shaftali in a country where old wounds and enmities fester and Air magic conceals the treason hidden in the heart of the G’deon’s household. When Medric is taken hostage to force Karis’s hand, a strange boy will guide Zanja to the place where she may yet save him, a mother must remember the son she has been made to forget, and Air children will find what their place in the world may yet be.

“If you’ve been looking for an exciting, thoughtful, queer, diverse, politically aware, complex, timely, beautifully written saga of a fascinating world and set of characters, here it is.” — Delia Sherman

Reviews “Laurie Marks’s epic fantasy world is brilliantly realized, gratifyingly queer, and satisfyingly, humanly complicated. Now that the story of Shaftal is complete, it’s one that every fantasy fan should experience for themselves.” — Electra Pritchett, Strange Horizons

“You might not believe me, but this is the truth: Laurie J. Marks’s Elemental Logic books are as good as Elena Ferrante’s monumental Neapolitan Quartet. They achieve the same depth, the same spellbinding quality, and the same sense of falling entire into a world on the page, tethered to real life by the sure hand of a master writer. They expose a talent as mighty as Le Guin’s for building intricate moral dilemmas inside fantasy universes, for creating characters the reader will remember for decades, and for presenting solutions that amount to much more than throwing soldiers or magic at the problem. These books are a profound achievement in fantasy literature.” — Katherine Coldiron, Locus “Not everyone survives, and no one survives unscathed. . . . The discipline of hope relies on communal life and love, doing the hard work of coming together and staying together across differences in culture, belief, conviction. Marks time and time again refuses pessimism or grim acquiescence in favor of insisting that, while some people might be monsters, the far greater portion have the capacity for good. There is real power in the dedicated, intentional, thoughtful project of hope with a steel core. The Elemental Logic series provides a compelling, thorough argument in its favor, one I’ve enjoyed reading from beginning to end and which left me cautiously optimistic about the world in which I’d like to keep striving toward a more survivable future.” — Lee Mandelo, Tor.com

“The entire series is highly recommended to anyone looking for a series that presents not only a queer fantasy world, but also one of the most well-wrought and engaging fantasy worlds out there.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Marks brings her much-loved, long-unavailable Elemental Logic series (most recently 2007’s Water Logic, and all recently republished by Small Beer) to a superb finale. . .  an extraordinary fantasy saga that’s well worth revisiting or exploring for the first time.” — Publishers Weekly

“Shaftal is a convincing world, lovingly detailed and fiercely envisioned. Marks’ characters are so real. . . . as the last note in a familiar melody, this book rings true. A final book that stays true to the spirit of the whole, sending readers out of Shaftal on a high note.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Marks (Water Logic) draws a satisfying conclusion to this quartet of novels perfect for readers of K. Arsenault Rivera and previous fans of the series.” — Library Journal

The Elemental Logic series:

Fire Logic Elemental Logic: Book 1
Spectrum Award winner
Romantic Times Reviewers Choice award nominee

The martial Sainnites have occupied Shaftal for fifteen years. Every year the cost of resistance rises. Emil, an officer and scholar; Zanja, a diplomat and last survivor of her people; and Karis, a metalsmith, half-blood giant, and an addict, can only watch as their country falls into lawlessness and famine. Together, perhaps they can change the course of history.

Read an excerpt.
Listen to the author read Chapter 1: part 1 · part 2

Reviews for Fire Logic “Marks is an absolute master of fantasy in this book. Her characters are beautifully drawn, showing tremendous emotional depth and strength as they endure the unendurable and strive always to do the right thing, and her unusual use of the elemental forces central to her characters’ lives gives the book a big boost. This is read-it-straight-through adventure!” — Booklist (Starred Review)

“Marks has created a work filled with an intelligence that zings off the page.” — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“A deftly painted story of both cultures and magics in conflict. Marks avoids the black-and-white conflicts of generic fantasy to offer a window on a complex world of unique cultures and elemental magic.” — Robin Hobb

“Marks vividly describes a war-torn land, and the depth of character development makes this novel a page-turner.” — VOYA

“A glorious cast of powerful, compelling, and appealingly vulnerable characters struggling to do the right thing in a world gone horribly wrong. I couldn’t put this down until I’d read it to the end. Marks truly understands the complex forces of power, desire, and obligation.” — Nalo Hopkinson

Earth Logic Elemental Logic: Book 2
Spectrum Award winner

The second book of Shaftal. The country has a ruler again, a woman who can heal the war-torn land and expel the invaders. But she lives in obscurity with her fractious found family. With war and disease spreading, she must act. And when she does, the very stones of the earth sit up and take notice.

Read an excerpt.
Listen to the author read Chapter 2 or “Raven’s Joke”

Reviews for Earth Logic

“Marks produces another stunner of a book. The powerful but subtle writing glows with intelligence, and the passionate, fierce, articulate, strong, and vital characters are among the most memorable in contemporary fantasy, though not for the faint of heart.” — Booklist (Starred Review)

“The struggle for the world of Shaftal is far from finished in Marks’s stirring, intricately detailed sequel. . . . Full of love and humor as well as war and intrigue, this well-crafted epic fantasy will delight existing fans as surely as it will win new ones.” — Publishers Weekly

Water Logic Elemental Logic: Book 3
Amid assassinations, rebellions, and the pyres of too many dead, a new government forms in the land of Shaftal—a government of soldiers and farmers, scholars and elemental talents, all weary of war and longing for peace. But some cannot forget their losses, and some cannot imagine a place for themselves in an enemy land.

Read the first chapter.
Listen to the author read Chapter 1: part 1 · part 2

Reviews for Water Logic

“How gifts from the past, often unknown or unacknowledged, bless future generations; how things that look like disasters or mistakes may be parts of a much bigger pattern that produces greater, farther-reaching good results.” —Booklist (Starred Review)

“Finely drawn characters and a lack of bias toward sexual orientation make this a thoughtful, challenging read.” — Library Journal

“Marks’s characters are real people who breathe and sleep and sweat and love; the food has flavor and the landscape can break your heart. You don’t find this often in any contemporary fiction, much less in fantasy: a world you can plunge yourself into utterly and live in with great delight, while the pages turn, and dream of after.” — Ellen Kushner

Map of Shaftal by Jeanne Gomoll.

On the web:

• Laurie J. Marks | bio
• Library Thing

Credits

• Cover image © Kathleen Jennings.
• Author photo © Deb Mensinger.
• Map of Shaftal © by Jeanne Gomoll.

Laurie J. Marks (website) has published nine fantasy novels, including Dancing Jack, The Watcher’s Mask and the Elemental Logic series (Fire Logic, Earth Logic, Water Logic, and Air Logic). She has been writing since her childhood in California, inspired by the works of C.S. Lewis and Lloyd Alexander. Her books have been shortlisted for the James D. Tiptree/Otherwise Award, and have twice been awarded the Gaylactic Spectrum Award. Laurie J. Marks lives in Massachusetts with her wife, Deb Mensinger, and their Welsh corgi, Serendipity.

---

Weekend Reading

Sat 1 Jun 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Laurie J. Marks| Posted by: Gavin

Brit Mandelo is writing a thoughtful series of short essays on Laurie J. Marks’s Elemental Logic series on Tor.com. As Andrew Liptak points out in today’s round-up of books to check out this month, the first three novels came out between 2002 and 2007, so it’s been quite a wait for the fourth and final novel, Air Logic.

Last weekend at WisCon in Madison, Wisconsin, it was delightful to chat with Laurie about Brit’s first essay on Fire Logic: Living in Hope is a Discipline:

The centering of hope as a practice, of hopeful thought as expansive and dangerous, is vital to the series’ political argument. Nurturing willful, wild, directed hope—even in moments of despair and defeat—is necessary to be able to envision a path out of conflict, in direct contravention of nihilism or the reactionary impulse.

I am so glad Brit is writing these and pulling up these threads. Hope as a practice, while working for peaceful regime change, is where I am in this world at the moment.

In the second essay (which contains spoilers, so heads up if that bothers you — the way it used to me, but now I don’t mind — maybe it’s time passing and the world encrappening but they seem less important to me now. Everybody’s mileage varies here, of course), on the second volume in the series, Earth Logic Rather Than Defeat the Enemies, You Must Change Them: Brit focuses on the hard work being done and attempted:

Renouncing the moral impulse to be (and to have been) right, decisively victorious above all else, in favor of the ethical impulse to create a better future is the philosophical core of Karis’s ultimate treaties . . .

I can’t wait to read what he has to say about the next two volumes over the next couple of weeks. The publication date for Air Logic is this coming Tuesday, June 4th, and what a celebration it is for all the readers of this series. Any number of people came by and chatted at WisCon about the series — with some picking them all up so that they can read it again and some readers who don’t read series until they are finished(!) picking up the first or all four. These books have had a profound influence in many readers’ lives and I am looking forward to following even more readers’ reactions to them over the next few months, the next few years.

 

---

Afrofuturism Bundle

Fri 31 May 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Ayize Jama-Everett, bundles| Posted by: Gavin

Hey, there’s a week left to get your hands on the current Afrofuturism collection on Storybundle. Ayize Jama-Everett’s debut novel The Liminal People is part of it as well as nine other books, which together make an essential library of recent hits. If you can get it, don’t miss out.

---

Free Copies of And Go Like This

Thu 23 May 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., John Crowley| Posted by: Gavin

Don’t miss this: you have until May 28 to enter to win one of 15 free advance reading copies of John Crowley’s fifthcoming (see below) new short story collection, And Go Like This, on LibraryThing.

This is the third book of Crowley’s we will have published — how amazing that sentence still is — after Endless Things and The Chemical Wedding. And good news for all, the first trade review just came in from Publishers Weekly:

“A compassionate, ruminative eye frames the sepia-tinted worlds of the fifth collection from erudite fantasist Crowley (Ka). The stories are drawn from the last 20 years of Crowley’s long career and span the breadth of speculative and literary short fiction. . . . This collection’s recurring refrains—“pay attention,” Shakespeare, injuries and aging, the agony of making choices—coalesce into a reading experience like a long afternoon spent with an intimate, excellent raconteur.”

Read the full review on Publishers Weekly.

---

SBP at WisCon 2019

Mon 20 May 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Carol Emshwiller, conferences, conventions, Laurie J. Marks| Posted by: Gavin

Next weekend I’m happy to say I’ll be back at WisCon for the first time in a while. I’ll be running the Small Beer table in the dealers’ room on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday — but I have to leave on Monday morning so do come before then!

I love the future WisCon imagines and present it inhabits, and Memorial Day weekend in Madison — with the farmers’ market and all those great restaurants — is a great place to be.

Twelve years ago we worked with Laurie J. Marks to make sure Water Logic would be available when she was Guest of Honor at WisCon 31 and the great news here is that Laurie is coming back to WisCon, and, if the shipping gods allow it, we will have all four new editions of her Elemental Logic series.

I am not 100% sure whether the rebound Water Logic will arrive on time. Fingers crossed. The rebinding means the trim size will be a tiny bit smaller than the other 3 volumes — just so that nothing is ever quite neat and square — but the choice was either recycling hundreds of books or rebinding.

The good news: we will definitely have Fire Logic, Earth Logic, and lo after these many long years: Air Logic.

We’ll also have the new issue of LCRW, a few books, some zines, and if all goes well the new issue of Reckoning.

On Friday afternoon if I’m not in the dealer’s room, you can find me at the Tiptree Bake Sale.

I don’t do many panels now, given that if I’m away from the table I want to hear other voices speak not mine, but there was one panel I did sign up for that I’m looking forward to. I hope to listen more than speak, am hoping to laugh but may cry:

---

4 stars

Fri 10 May 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Over the years, the first three volumes of Laurie J. Marks’s Elemental Logic series each received a starred review in Booklist. I am delighted to say that the fourth and final volume, Air Logic, which comes out next month, has just received a starred review, too!

Fire Logic

“Marks is an absolute master of fantasy in this book. Her characters are beautifully drawn, showing tremendous emotional depth and strength as they endure the unendurable and strive always to do the right thing, and her unusual use of the elemental forces central to her characters’ lives gives the book a big boost. This is read-it-straight-through adventure!” — Booklist (starred review)

Earth Logic

“Marks produces another stunner of a book. The powerful but subtle writing glows with intelligence, and the passionate, fierce, articulate, strong, and vital characters are among the most memorable in contemporary fantasy, though not for the faint of heart.” — Booklist (starred review)

Water Logic

“How gifts from the past, often unknown or unacknowledged, bless future generations; how things that look like disasters or mistakes may be parts of a much bigger pattern that produces greater, farther-reaching good results.” —Booklist (starred review)

and now Air Logic

“The entire series is highly recommended to anyone looking for a series that presents not only a queer fantasy world, but also one of the most well-wrought and engaging fantasy worlds out there.” — Booklist (starred review)

 

---

Nuekom Award Shortlists

Thu 9 May 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis, Awards, Claire G. Coleman| Posted by: Gavin

These are words to brighten the day: there are two Small Beer titles on the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Debut Award Shortlist:

 

Last year, the inaugural year for the awards, Juan Martinez’s Best Worst American and Christopher Rowe’s Telling the Map were both finalists for the award with Best Worst American being one of the winners.

Here’s the full press release with all of the finalists, congratulations, one and all!

These 10 Books May Be Telling Us the Future

HANOVER, N.H – May 9, 2019 – Ten books that dare to imagine how society collides with the future have been named to the shortlist of the 2019 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards.

From the challenges of life on a floating Arctic city, to epidemics of forgetfulness and zombification, to an Earth occupied by amphibious aliens, the Neukom shortlist forces readers to grapple with uncomfortable twists to familiar storylines of climate change, social justice and technological innovation.

The second annual speculative fiction awards program will be judged by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Awards will be presented for a debut book and for a book in the open category.

“Artists and writers continue to take on the important role of challenging us with their visions of ‘what if,’ often picking up where scientists and technologists either neglect to or forget to go,” said Dan Rockmore, director of the Neukom Institute. “This year’s entries are testament to the extraordinary creativity and thoughtfulness that is finding its means of expression in speculative fiction.”

2019 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards Shortlist of Books:

Open Category

Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller (Ecco, 2018)

Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax (Soho Press, 2018)

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas (Little Brown, 2018)

The Night Market by Jonathan Moore (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)

Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman (Europa, 2018)

Debut Category

Alien Virus Love Disaster: Stories by Abbey Mei Otis (Small Beer Press, 2018)

Infomocracy by Malka Older (Tor, 2016)

Severance by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018)

Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman (Small Beer Press, 2018)

The Book of M by Peng Shepard (William Morrow, 2018)

“It’s been gratifying to play a part in reading and selecting such unique and strong fiction from so many different points of view. We’ve particularly enjoyed encountering writers we had not read before—and it’s especially gratifying to find so many new voices, who we believe readers will be encountering for decades to come. The Dartmouth prize is a much-needed addition to the current slate of science fiction awards,” said spec fic writer and co-judge Jeff VanderMeer.

The winning books will be selected from the shortlist in late May.

Each award winner will receive a $5,000 honorarium that will be presented during a Dartmouth-hosted panel to discuss the genre and their work.

“We’re looking forward to selecting the winners. This is such a strong list and a difficult choice for us but a very good problem to have! It’s wonderful to see so many writers taking chances and showing us other ways to view the world we live in today and what our tomorrows could be,” said spec fic editor and co-judge Ann VanderMeer.

The Neukom Institute for Computational Science is dedicated to supporting and inspiring computational work. The Literary Arts Awards is part of the Neukom Institute’s initiative to explore the ways in which computational ideas impact society.

###

About the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards

The Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards is an annual awards program to honor and support creative works around speculative fiction. Established in 2017, the awards program is an open, international competition sponsored by the Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College. The awards aspire to raise general awareness of the speculative fiction genre, as well as the interconnectivity between the sciences and the arts. The awards serve as part of the Neukom Institute’s initiative to explore the ways in which computational ideas impact society.

---

LCRW: Book of the Week

Wed 8 May 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Hey! Guess which zine is the library bingo winner this week? LCRW! Zebulon Wimsatt of Concord Public Library wrote up LCRW for the Concord Insider’s “Book of the Week” feature:

“But perhaps the greatest joy of LCRW’s is the rather left-field work on display, even and especially from these established authors. Le Guin contributes poems to LCRW no. 16; to no. 26, Ted Chiang gives an essay on folk biology, memory, and whither science fiction should aspire; to issue no. 6, Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club, contributes the story ‘Heartland,’ about a fast-food worker in The Land of Oz. . . . Bonus local flavor: Lady Churchill’s was first sold out of Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop (then of Newberry Street in Boston, now of 1 Lee Hill Road in Lee). One of the shop’s proprietors is the novelist Vincent McCaffrey, and his A Slepyng Hounde to Wake (from, you guessed it, Small Beer Press) is available on our shelves. It’s about a bookseller who solves murders.

Read the whole column here and borrow LCRW from you local library through Hoopla here — and visit AVH online or in Lee.

   

 

---

Spring Zines & Postcards

Thu 2 May 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kelly Link, Ursula Grant, Zines| Posted by: Gavin

I just added the zines Kelly and Ursula made in March to the site: Horoscope Stories, I Hear You’re Working on a Novel, Writing Rules, & Monster Land, as well as the Horoscope Postcards made from Ursula’s illustrations of Kelly’s stories. All the info is on this page:

---

And Go Like This on Edelweiss

Wed 1 May 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Edelweiss, John Crowley, Kim Scott, Laurie J. Marks| Posted by: Gavin

Reviewers, booksellers, librarians, bloggers, et al, I just added an uncorrected advance reading copy of John Crowley’s November 2019 collection And Go Like This: Stories to Edelweiss for downloading and reading.

Also available there (at least until the publication date for Air Logic): Laurie J. Marks’s four Elemental Logic novels — Fire Logic, Earth Logic, Water Logic, and Air — as well as our award-winning September drop-in title Taboo by Kim Scott.

---

Just Added: Taboo

Thu 11 Apr 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Australia, Kim Scott| Posted by: Gavin

Eagle-eyed readers of this website might note we added a new forthcoming title today — woohoo!

And also, hey, wait, it’s a September title being added in April, that’s a bit soon, isn’t it? Yes, it absolutely is! But when Kim Scott’s novel Taboo was submitted to us we started a countdown to get this book out asap because 1) it’s an incredible read, and while 2) Kim Scott is the keynote speaker at this month’s American Association of Australian Literary Studies conference in Fairbanks, Alaska, there are also plans to bring him back to the USA in time for the publication of Taboo.

Taboo is the latest novel from Scott, the first Australian writer of Indigenous Australian ancestry to win the Miles Franklin Award. He received it in the year 2000 for his first novel Benang (a joint winner with Thea Astley’s Dryland) and then again in 2011 for his novel That Deadman Dance. Taboo itself received four major Australian literary awards worth AU$80,000.

Taboo is a tremendous novel, with a full range of voices from contemporary Australia. From rural and small town to inner city life, from prisoners and those recently released to young women and men exploring the world for the first time, Scott gives them all voice and his enthusiasm for this life and this planet we are all living on carries the novel from the first titanic images of a runaway truck barreling through a small town all the way through. It’s a novel that threads hard paths of history and violence between the settlers and indigenous peoples of Australia and their descendants in a way that will bring hope in these days when governments are propounding violence as the answer in itself. It made me laugh out loud and hold my breath in wonder and there are moments when the world in the page is as weird as the world I see around me.

We’re sending out the first review copies this week and will have it out and grabbable by you before you can say, wait, summer’s barely begun!

---

« Later Entries in — Earlier Entries in »