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

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

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

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

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


Strange Horizons is 15!

Sun 20 Sep 2015 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Has it really been 15 years? I wasn’t at the Worldcon when Mary Anne Mohanraj kicked things off but I have been a big fan of the site ever since. Sure, they published me (for which, SH editors over the years, many thanks!) but it’s really not that. I sent stories to the magazine — through their submission portal of course — because I was so impressed with it and enjoyed the writing they published and I wanted to be part of that! The whole magazine is such a gift to the world, to the readers and writers of today and for those in the future. That it’s run by a huge staff of volunteers has amazed me for what, fifteen years! I love the tea parties at Wiscon. I am so happy there’s a podcast!

Every year (unless I, er, forget, sorry!) we donate some prizes to the fundraiser and this year we have a couple of bundles of print and ebooks, an LCRW chocolate sub (always fun to send out!), and I think a special something else. I need to check and make sure before I say anything about that!

To support the fund drive, Strange Horizons has a special extra issue that will be published as fundraising thresholds are met. One of those bonuses is Kelly’s newest story, “The Game of Smash and Recovery.” So, I really hope you will go ahead and support the magazine!

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[I think these links will work, if not, please go here.]

Here’s to 15 more years!