"A fast-paced, suspenseful dystopian picaresque, part Huck Finn and part bizarro-world Swiss Family Robinson..."
---Kirkus
Long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and finalist for the Crawford Award. Title short story listed for the 2000 O. Henry award.
This quote made me laugh, and made me think of what the sf/f genre is like sometimes: Let’s say you have three guys, all of whom love pigs. One loves to eat them, one loves to race them against one another for prizes in the annual Pigathon, one loves to name them and pet them [...]
Mon, July 6 2009 » Fiction » 1 Comment
1. What kinds of flowers do the men of each culture put in their hair? 2. Grieving, forms of. 3. Are dreams seen but not heard? Heard but not seen? Felt only by the sense of touch at night? 4. How do people like to get wasted? Choose at least six social classes. 5. When [...]
Wed, June 24 2009 » Fiction » 3 Comments
So much of this simply boggles the mind. I’ll reiterate what I said over here… # I haven’t read the book in question. But I’ve always found her craft and pedagogy references, partic. to fantasy worldbuilding, to be really paint-by-numbers (and way over-referenced as some sort of canonical source for worldbuilding 101–hey, it’s on the [...]
Sun, May 17 2009 » Fiction » 1 Comment
Let’s talk about the persona. Which is nothing new. The face I present to you isn’t my own face. How close? It’s hard to say. What the writer in the 21st century networked economy offers is “face time.” Access and ease of use with the materials of one’s life. A small door, like the one [...]
Sun, April 19 2009 » Fiction, Life Studies » No Comments
More stories soon. Until then, “fans are Slans” interant archon Claude Degler: In the weeekly sheets the Cosmic Circle program reached full form: Don Rogers [his pseudonym] answered a positive “Yes!” to the old question, “Are fans slans?” He proposed to contact cosmic-minded mutants everywhere, using radio prograns and other publicity to this end. The [...]
Thu, March 26 2009 » Fiction » 1 Comment
1. The intro has this: Spinrad seriously believes that the dissidents of the 1960s-presumably including the LSD and marijuana imbibers-are the only individuals on our planet who are living meaningful lives. And we’re off! 2. The first story, “Don’t Hold Your Breath”, has to be one of the most disjointed, disturbing (bad disturbing, not good [...]
Tue, March 24 2009 » Fiction » 2 Comments
0. I had started to write some notes for a blog post about the political and art a few weeks ago, but after slowly catching up on Racefail09, it seems depressingly abstract. So here’s for something a little more concrete. 1. I’ve found a lot of the dismissal of the racefail discussion itself, in some [...]
Wed, March 11 2009 » Fiction, Polis » 1 Comment
There is some good thinkings going on in these posts: The issue isn’t with revolution or change itself. But moving beyond the “single angry male revolutionist” or the “small cadre of brave revolutionists” model — to realize that the whole field is always changing and swirling, inevitably by itself — that the field is itself [...]
Sat, January 31 2009 » Fiction, Poetry, Uncategorized » No Comments
Sat, November 22 2008 » ?!?!?, Fiction » No Comments
For Twin Cities folks, Rain Taxi is sponsoring a reading by Samuel Delany tomorrow at 2 pm at Walker Art Center. Don’t miss it-you might want to get there a little early.
Fri, November 14 2008 » Fiction, Minnesota » 1 Comment
The first quote didn’t really make sense until I read the second. In a sense we could say that unregulated capitalism and quantum physics both feed the destabilising effects that Lovecraft “diagnoses” in his fiction. It is not a matter of reducing one to the other, and offering either a social or a naturalistic “explanation” [...]
Thu, September 11 2008 » Fiction » 2 Comments
…is going on now! Fabulous prizes and a great cause to support some great writing. Incidentally, I was remiss to mention that my review of Nicola Barker’s Darkmans, a deeply deeply strange novel, appeared there earlier in June.
Sat, June 21 2008 » Fiction » No Comments
I’ve been thinking the last couple of days about deep-diving into material and skirting on the surface of it. I’ve read a lot of philosophy in the last year-and have had a lot of catching up to do-and I’ll be the first to admit that there is a lot I don’t understand in the bones [...]
Tue, June 10 2008 » Fiction » 1 Comment
I was remiss to mention the awesomeness of the release of Dave Schwartz’s novella at Wiscon! It truly is a crackerjack work of fiction in all senses of the word, and the cover is a beaut. So come and get it! And we’re actively reading novellas for 2009, so check out the guidelines and send [...]
Wed, June 4 2008 » Fiction » 1 Comment
All right, time for some bona fide big news. My novel, Total Oblivion, More or Less, is going to be published by Bantam! Juliet Ulman at Bantam Spectra has bought it, and I’m just really thrilled since a lot of my friends and colleagues have had great experiences with her editorial expertise. This is truly [...]
Thu, May 29 2008 » Fiction, Uncategorized » 44 Comments
In Taos for the Rio Hondo workshop, where Kristin and I have been having quite the blast. Building small cairns inside hollowed out logs, approaching steep waterfalls, watching blizzards fall, fiction, Fat Tire, friends new and old. Back on Sunday, and then-Wiscon…where I’ll probably see 80% of you. Trying to place what can be placed [...]
Fri, May 16 2008 » Fiction, Life Studies » 1 Comment
Sun, April 13 2008 » Fiction » 1 Comment
I’ve moved from the flu to bronchitis. I’m slowly getting better…I think? Anyway, SF Signal convened a roundtable about space opera, using my Rain Taxi review of the New Space Opera as the launching point…it includes some of the authors in the anthology and some other practictioners of space opera, and a few rambly follow-up [...]
Mon, April 7 2008 » Fiction » 2 Comments
1. I have the flu. 2. Our dog and Kelly have a really interesting relationship. He’s freaked out by her at first, yes, but then, when he doesn’t have her in sight for more than 10 minutes, forgets everything and starts barking again!. He is the Memento Dog! 3. Despite my flu I had a [...]
Tue, March 25 2008 » Fiction, Life Studies » No Comments
As we announced a little while ago, those of us behind the Rabid Transit chapbooks decided to switch our focus to publishing a line of novellas with the same standards of quality and innovation. We are pleased (with our rechristened press, Rabid Transit Press) to announce the debut volume of the Electrum Novella Series-The Sun [...]
