Kathleen Jennings at the Brisbane Square Library

Fri 17 May 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kathleen Jennings, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Brisbane Square Library has booked Kathleen Jennings for a local launch event for her debut collection, Kindling on Friday 14 June, 6 p.m.* AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time).

* Flat Earthers please note the time is local, no matter where you live.

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Anya in New York

Thu 2 May 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, KGB Fantastic Fiction, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Anya Johanna DeNiro will be in New York next week for two readings from her novel OKPsyche, both of which are with top notch readers. John Wiswell will be reading from his debut novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In, on Wednesday at the KGB Bar Fantastic Fiction Series and then on Thursday Anya will be in conversation with Astoria Bookshops bookseller and author Nino Cipri. Don’t miss these!

Wed. 5/8, 7 p.m. KGB Bar, New York, NY, with John Wiswell
Thu. 5/9, 7 p.m. Astoria Bookshop, Queens, NY, with Nino Cipri

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Anya DeNiro: Madison, Marshall, & NYC

Thu 14 Mar 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, KGB Fantastic Fiction, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Anya Johanna DeNiro has some new readings lined up this spring for her book OKPsyche. We also found recently that it is a finalist in the Blurred Boundaries (how great!) category of  The Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards.

Here are the readings and one more may be added in New York on Friday 5/10:

3/25, 6 p.m. A Room of One’s Own, 2717 Atwood Ave., Madison, WI
4/11, 8 p.m. Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, MN
5/8, 7 p.m. KGB Bar, New York, NY

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West Coast Link

Mon 26 Feb 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kelly Link, readings, tour| Posted by: Gavin

Kelly is off to the west coast for 3 quick readings then one in Atlanta. If you go, please mask up! Info below or here.

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Kij @ Prairie Lights Tomorrow

Wed 31 Jan 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Get your skates on: Kij Johnson reads from her new collection, The Privilege of the Happy Ending tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Prairie Lights in Iowa City — or just order a book and get it personalized there!

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Twin Cities Book Fest

Thu 12 Oct 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, book festivals, Kij Johnson, readings| Posted by: Gavin

This weekend in Minnesota the Twin Cities are celebrating everything bookish with Rain Taxi’s annual Book Fest and you can catch both Anya Johanna DeNiro, author of OKPsyche, and Kij Johnson, author of The Privilege of the Happy Ending on a panel there on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.

Kij launches her book in 10 days time at the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, KS, but Magers & Quinn should have some early copies tomorrow and both she and Anya will be available to sign their new books.

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One Week to OKPsyche

Thu 7 Sep 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Come out Twin Cities — or, order your signed/personalized copy from Moon Palace:

One week tonight: Anya Johanna DeNiro launches her new novel, OKPsyche

9/14/23 6 p.m.

Moon Palace Books (FB)
3032 Minnehaha Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55406

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Anya, Prairie Lights, 10/27

Fri 25 Aug 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, bookshops, events, readings| Posted by: Gavin

We’ve just confirmed another event for Anya Johanna DeNiro’s OKPsyche this one in October at the justifiably famed and lovely Prairie Lights in Iowa City.

How great is the reading series? Tonight’s reading is kind of a stunner: National Book Award finalist Jamel Brinkley reading from his new short story collection, Witness, and then in conversation with Carmen Maria Machado. Check out the rest here.

More details to come as we get closer but for now set your landyacht’s autodrive calendar to Iowa City for 7 p.m., October 27th, and plan on arriving in time to browse those shelves.

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OKPsyche Launch: 9/14

Thu 22 Jun 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, Moon Palace, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Delighted to say we’ve set up a launch reading for Anya Johanna DeNiro and her short novel OKPsyche at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, MN on Thursday, September 14, at 7 p.m.

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New York Review of Science Fiction Readings: Sarah Pinsker

Tue 13 Jun 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., online events, readings, Sarah Pinsker| Posted by: Gavin

Catch up with Sarah Pinsker’s new book, Lost Places, with this recent NYRSF reading hosted by Barbara Krasnoff. Sarah reads excerpts from her original novelette “Science Facts!” — I still think Science Facts! Stories would have been a great title for the book and then Barbara interviews Sarah:

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Richard Butner in NYC: 4/10

Fri 7 Apr 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., readings, Richard Butner| Posted by: Gavin

I know New York City is pretty much dead on a Monday night and everyone sits on their stoops just wishing there was a place they could go to get a decent cocktail and listen to some good stories. I am delighted to say that this coming Monday will be much less boring than normal as Leopoldo Gout, Karen Heuler, Randee Dawn, & Richard Butner get together at the Someday Bar for the #YeahYouWriteSTRANGE reading. Doors open at 6 p.m., it’s at 364 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11217, there’s no cover, just weird fiction!

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Ayize in Locus & @ City Lights

Fri 3 Mar 2023 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Ayize Jama-Everett, Liminals, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Pick up this month’s Locus and you’ll see on the cover there’s an interview with Ayize Jama-Everett — there’s also an interview with Nisi Shawl and a review of Sarah Pinsker’s Lost Places, and so much more — which covers his novels, comics, the craft of writing, Black joy, and more:

And City Lights just posted their excellent reading and Q&A event with Ayize Jama-Everett & Tân Khánh which I recommend for a relaxed and fascinating chat:

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Indie Bookstore Silverberg Spectacular

Mon 22 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., readings, Robert Freeman Wexler| Posted by: Gavin

Write here, write now, Write Columbus.

I wish I were going to be at Two Dollar Radio HQ tomorrow night for Robert Freeman Wexler and Jeffrey Ford’s event (Aug. 23, 8 p.m.) where Robert will launch his new novel, The Silverberg Business, and Jeff will read from Big Dark Hole. An aside here, having been to many readings by Jeff over the years he is just as likely to pull out a sheaf of papers and read from something he has finished that day.

Tomorrow is the first night of Robert’s Indie Bookstore Silverberg Spectacular. If you get to go, do post photos and tag us on twitter — or even BKMN on instagram.

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Heads up NY & NJ

Tue 16 Aug 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., KGB Fantastic Fiction, readings, Richard Butner| Posted by: Gavin

This week Richard Butner is traveling up from his home in Raleigh, NC, for a couple of New York City area readings:

Wednesday, Aug 17, 7 p.m. KGB Fantastic Fiction, KGB Bar, NY
Richard reads with our good friend Veronica Schanoes whose collection Burning Girls is now out in paperback

Thursday, Aug 18, 7 p.m. Little City Books, Hoboken, NJ

The most recent reviews for Richard’s debut collection The Adventurists are from Lyndsie Manusos on Book Riot:

“Richard Butner’s work explores the weird, uncanny corners of everyday life — from a theater kid who becomes the queen, to a tree who talks to just one person, to Death’s Fool, who you really shouldn’t ignore.”

and from rather legendary printer, papermaker, publisher, & poet John Dancy-Jones on his Raleigh Rambles site:

“Richard Butner’s new collection of SF stories is a wonderful look at his long-established but back-burner career as a writer of speculative fiction. Richard is beloved by many in Raleighwood for his quirky and often endearing local theatre roles, his championing of local music and its venues, and (among the cognoscenti) his loyalty to Modernist architecture. This review is overtly from the perspective of a Raleigh native who enjoys the many local references in these stories and the bits and pieces of RB rendered in the protagonists.”

Richard, as the reference to the theatre roles above attests to, is a good reader and I hope you’ll attend these events if you can!

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Locus Reading & Panel

Wed 22 Jun 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Jeffrey Ford, Kelly Link, Locus, readings, Sarah Pinsker| Posted by: Gavin

As part of the Locus awards readings and celebration, Kelly will do a zoom reading on Thursday June 23 with Michael Swanwick and be on a panel on Connie Willis and Gary K. Wolfe on Saturday, June 25:

Thursday, June 23 – 4 p.m. PDT/7 p.m. ET – Reading: Kelly Link and Michael Swanwick

Saturday, June 25 – 2 p.m. PDT/5 p.m. ET – DONUT SALON: In Conversation: Kelly Link, Connie Willis, and Gary K. Wolfe (bring your own donuts!)

Jeff Ford and Sarah Pinsker are two of the many readers and panellists. Should be fun. I’ve lifted the post from the Locus site so check here for updates.

Event links at Locus Awards Online 2022 will become live at their scheduled time. Here’s the full list of events from Locus:

LOCUS AWARDS SCHEDULE

Wednesday, June 22  –

4:00 p.m. PDT–  Reading: José Pablo Iriarte and Nnedi Okorafor
5:00 p.m. PDT–  Reading: Nalo Hopkinson and Catherynne M. Valente
6:00 p.m. PDT – Reading: Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Fran Wilde

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Thursday, June 23  –

4:00 p.m. PDT – Reading: Kelly Link and Michael Swanwick
5:00 p.m. PDT – Reading: Suzanne Palmer and Wole Talabi
6:00 p.m. PDT – Reading: Jeffrey Ford and Angela Slatter

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Friday, June 24 –

4:00 p.m PDT – Reading: Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Cat Rambo
5:00 p.m PDT – Reading: John Wiswell and Connie Willis
6:00 p.m PDT – Online Hangout with Connie Willis and Locus folks

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Saturday, June 25 –

10:00 a.m. PDT – PANEL: “Hauntings & Histories” with Akemi Dawn Bowman, TJ Klune, Darcie Little Badger, Sam J. Miller
11:00 p.m. PDT – PANEL: “Power Dynamics in New Worlds” with Daniel Abraham, C.L. Clark, Fonda Lee, Sarah Pinsker
12:00 p.m. PDT – PANEL: “Writing Rules and How to Break Them” with Charlie Jane Anders, Charles Payseur, Sheree Renée Thomas, A.C. Wise
2:00 p.m. PDT – DONUT SALON: In Conversation: Kelly Link, Connie Willis, and Gary K. Wolfe
(bring your own donuts!)

3:00 p.m. PDT – LOCUS AWARDS CEREMONY with MC Connie Willis

 

*Memberships include a set digital subscription to the magazine, from our February 2022 issue (our Year-in-Review issue with Recommended Reading List and Poll and Survey) to August 2022 (with the Locus Awards photo coverage and writeup) and everything in between. Member subscription is non-transferable and does not affect or extend existing subscriptions.

Locus Supports Inclusivity! Thinking of attending? Please do. We encourage people of color, women, people with disabilities, older people, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to attend. We welcome people of any gender identity or expression, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, age, size, nationality, religion, culture, education level, and self-identification. Locus associate editor Arley Sorg will serve as our PoC/LGBTQQIA Ombudsman.  Feel free to reach out to him in advance at locus@locusmag.com subject: Arley Ombudsman. Our Code of Conduct is available here: Locus Science Fiction Foundation Code of Conduct.

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Adventurists and Businesses on the Road

Fri 17 Jun 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., readings, Richard Butner, Robert Freeman Wexler| Posted by: Gavin

We’re busy with Robert Freeman Wexler setting up readings for his forthcoming novel The Silverberg Business as well as with Richard Butner setting up a couple of NYC area events for The Adventurists.

So far for the very strange historical Texas business book, there are two readings set up — the first at $2 Radio HQ, oh, how I’d love to get there with none other than short story superstar Jeffrey Ford, and ah, now there are 3! A Jo-Beth Cincinnati reading was just finalized. There should be a Chicago reading coming and then, of course, given the Texan nature of the business at hand, events in Austin, Houston, and maybe Galveston. More TK, as I am wont to say.

Aug. 23, 8 p.m. Two Dollar Radio HQ, Columbus, OH — with Jeffrey Ford
Aug. 27, 8 p.m. The Emporium, Yellow Springs, OH
Aug. 29, 7 p.m. Joseph-Beth,  Cincinnati, OH — in conversation with Rebecca Kuder

Richard Butner is leaving North Carolina — but only temporarily! — and will be in NYC at the fabled KGB Bar for the fantastic fiction series with a friend, New York city native, and excellent writer, Veronica Schanoes, and the second over the water (but not very far) in Hoboken, at the outstanding indie bookstore, Little City Books:

Aug 17, 7 p.m. Richard Butner & Veronica Schanoes, KGB Fantastic Fiction, KGB Bar, NYC
Aug 18, 7 p.m. Little City Books, Hoboken, NJ

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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

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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

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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

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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.”

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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.

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Feb. 20: Abbey Mei Otis, Kelly Link, & Jordy Rosenberg

Wed 13 Feb 2019 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis, Kelly Link, Northampton & environs, readings| Posted by: Gavin

(from Forbes Library’s press release)

The third reading in the Forbes Library Writer in Reading Series “Our Work And Why We Do It” is Wednesday, February 20th, from 7-9pm in the Coolidge Museum at Forbes, featuring three brilliant fiction writers:

Kelly Link
author of “Get in Trouble”, “Magic for Beginners”,
“Stranger Things Happen” and more!

Abbey Mei Otis
visiting from Ohio and author of “Alien Virus Love Disaster”;
first reading from this collection in the area!

Jordy Rosenberg
author of “Confessions of the Fox”
(a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection)

~this event is FREE and Wheelchair Accessible~

Books by the authors will be available for purchase at the event!

(You can read more about the writers here on the library’s website and here on Facebook!)

This series features writers of prose, poetry, nonfiction, and memoir, and beneath these broad categories, constellations of subgenres and forms. The series is interested in exploring how writing relates to work, to a sense of a collective project that seeks to respond to the political and social forms that produce it. The series hopes to affirm the role of creative written work as a measure of response to the exigencies that shape our world.

I’ve been calling this reading In The Offing, an attempt to name a theme I feel captures the character these writers share. While diverse in formally adventurous ways, each carves a unique path toward futures portended in the murk and bright of the present or dredge different possibilities for histories buried in the past. They contain, in the richness of their visions and the lyricism of their articulations, a spirit that echoes Ernst Bloch in his demand for utopia: “that is why we go, why we cut new metaphysically constitutive paths, summon what is not, build into the blue, build ourselves into the blue, and there seek the true, the real, where the merely factual disappears…”

To learn more about the writers and their worlds, you can find a brief interview with Kelly Link from the MacArthur Foundation here, the title story from Abbey Mei Otis’ collection here (with an introduction by Dan Chaon), an interview with Jordy Rosenberg here, and an excerpt from his novel here.

Also, on February 7th, Jordy will be reading at UMASS Amherst as part of their Visiting Writers series! More info here.

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Malaprop’s and Moon Palace

Wed 19 Sep 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis, Nathan Ballingrud, readings| Posted by: Gavin

Do you live in Asheville or Minneapolis and just read Gary K. Wolfe’s review column and were wondering what Abbey Mei Otis’s stories sounded like? Good news pour vous! We’ve just added two more readings for Abbey Mei Otis in those very towns! The first is on Sunday, September 30 at 3 pm in the afternoon, where Abbey will be in conversation with Nathan Ballingrud, author of North American Lake Monsters.

Sun., 9/30, 3 p.m. In conversation with Nathan Ballingrud
Malaprop’s
55 Haywood St., Asheville, NC
828-254-6734

And the second reading is at Moon Palace (yes, the store that just added LCRW!), where Abbey will read with Anya Johanna DeNiro:

10/23, 7 p.m.
Moon Palace Books
3032 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis MN  55406
612.454.0455

Recent Reviews

“Otis actually belongs with writers like Kelly Link, who freely borrow genre materials to construct elegant literary fictions far more about character than spectacle. . . . As odd as these worlds are, they are populated by sharply drawn characters we come to care about through Otis’ luminescent prose.” — Gary K. Wolfe, Chicago Tribune

“Otis doesn’t use science fiction to lift the veil of the familiar and peer at what’s beneath. Instead, with great shrewdness and courage and originality, she reveals that the veil was itself an illusion, and the familiar a construct of anything but.” — Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, IGMS

“Dreamy but with an intense physicality that belies the violence behind the longing.”— Everdeen Mason, Washington Post Book World

“It’s a collection that will keep your heart half in your throat and half in your toes, and I recommend it.” — Tor.com

“In these stories, yes, there are aliens, robots, sex dungeons, chicken puppets, ghosts, and blobs of unknown origin and nature. But there is also tenderness and the absence of it. There is prose that delights. There are plastic people, and people not sure if they can bleed. What these stories do best is sci-fi. What these stories do best is love. And if you need to distinguish between the two, then Abbey Mei Otis is here to deny you. For if barriers between what is ‘science fiction’ and what is ‘literature’ haven’t already broken down, then this collection is Abbey Mei Otis burying a glowing-neon hammer into that tired beige wall.”— Columbia Journal

“Many of the stories share an emphasis on physicality and embodiment, whether it be bodies distorted by alien environments or artifacts or people thrown into their own bodies through suffering at other, human hands. . . . highly recommended for anyone interested in weird fiction, sf, or just a breathtaking reading experience.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Abbey Mei Otis’s stories are incandescently dark, if you can imagine such a thing (but maybe only she can). Full of danger and strangeness, but written in carbonated and astounding prose that is all her own, these stories create worlds and will make you contemplate (and worry about) our own.” — Elizabeth McCracken, author of Thunderstruck & Other Stories

“These are amazing, electric stories—you can feel the live wire sizzling in them from the first sentence, and you know you’re about to take a wild, unforgettable trip. Abbey Mei Otis is my favorite kind of writer: her worlds are uniquely strange yet eerily relatable, and she knows how to make you laugh and weep at the same time.” — Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will

“Abbey Mei Otis deposits the reader in bargain bin worlds remaindered from the near futures of the more fortunate, worlds filled with space junk and toxic glitter, gel candy and gutted elk. These are stories for the many, for lovers and mourners, for those who want to split their minds from their bodies and those who know how to merge their organs in a single skin. In Alien Virus Love Disaster, language itself is in phase change. This book is a volatile, dangerous gift.” — Joanna Ruocco, author of Dan

“After I read this book, I woke up with bumpy, reddish growths along my spine. They burst, releasing marvels: aliens, robots, prefab houses, vinyl, chainlink, styrofoam, star stuff, tales from the edge of eviction, so many new worlds. Alien Virus Love Disaster is a super-intelligent infection. Let Abbey Mei Otis give you some lumps.” — Sofia Samatar, author of Tender

“Abbey Mei Otis speaks for a generation of people with fractured futures and complicated hopes. It is a collection about right now.” — Maureen F. McHugh, author of After the Apocalypse

“The aliens have already arrived in ‘Blood Blood.’ Abbey Mei Otis has them visiting in a way we’ve seldom seen before in genre science-fiction: Not as hunters, conquerors or even ambassadors, but as wildlife observers. . . . As brilliant as this cosmos and narrative is, Otis also manages to supply rich characterizations. It’s a concept sci-fi piece that tries something new and succeeds on every level.” —Matt Funk, Full Stop

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Whee!

Tue 14 Aug 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis, readings, tour| Posted by: Gavin

And off it goes! Today we are publishing a fantastic first book of stories, Alien Virus Love Disaster by Abbey Mei Otis. This book tore into our hearts and then knocked our heads off. This is contemporary fiction through an sf&f lens. Things drop out the sky, there are aliens, there are crappy jobs, there are families doing what it takes to not lose the family house. Booklist gave it a starred review (you can read that here), Everdeen Mason liked it (as per the Washington Post Book World), and Brit Mandelo just reviewed it (“It’s a collection that will keep your heart half in your throat and half in your toes, and I recommend it”) yesterday on Tor.com.

At AWP this March Abbey was part of a huge group reading with Juan Martinez and a number of Black Ocean and Third Man Books poets and writers at a bar in Tampa, FL, and she was amazing. Being a young and enthusiastic author Abbey is on tour starting tonight. Later in autumn she’ll be reading at Malaprop’s and then — if all goes well — Moon Palace in Minneapolis. Don’t miss her!

You can read 3 stories now:

The title story — as recommended by Dan Chaon — on Electric Lit’s Recommended Reading.
“Blood, Blood” on Strange Horizons.
“Sweetheart” on Tor.com.
Prefer print? Read “Rich People” in the new issue of Tin House.

So here’s your chance to catch an author at the start of it all. Get ye to a bookstore and see Abbey Mei Otis’s August 2018 Debut Tour

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Abbey Mei Otis Tour Dates

Thu 19 Jul 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Abbey Mei Otis, readings| Posted by: Gavin

There will be Minneapolis and more dates added later in autumn but for the moment here are the dates for Abbey Mei Otis’s tour next month behind her debut Alien Virus Love Disaster.

I saw Abbey read at our AWP reading with Juan Martinez and many others in Tampa earlier this year and she was a standout so I highly recommend putting on your jetpack and getting to one of these fab indie stores to see her:

Tue., 8/14, 7 p.m.
Mac’s Backs-Books on Coventry
1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
216.321.2665

Wed. 8/15 7:30 p.m.
Two Dollar Radio HQ
1124 Parsons Ave., Columbus, OH 43206
614-725-1505

Thu 8/16/18, 7 p.m.
Literati Bookstore
124 E Washington, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734.585.5567

Tues. 8/21/18, 7 p.m.
Scuppernong Books
304 S. Elm St.
Greensboro, NC 27401

Wed. 8/22/18 7 p.m.
Flyleaf Books
752 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919-942-7373

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The Invisible Valley Comes to You

Thu 14 Jun 2018 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Austin Woerner, readings, Su Wei| Posted by: Gavin

Good news for Bostonians, Texans, New Yorkers, and Seattle-ites: Austin Woerner will be visiting the USA this summer from China and will be doing events to celebrate the publication of his translation of Su Wei’s first novel to be translated into English, The Invisible Valley.

And, for the event at the Brookline Booksmith Austin will be joined by the author himself, Su Wei.

Here are the dates:

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AWP Reading/Party: Thu April 9, 7 pm

Wed 1 Apr 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., A. DeNiro, Amalia Gladhart, conferences, Kelly Link, parties, readings| Posted by: Gavin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Odyssey Bookshop, 7 pm!

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

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

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

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