Author Archives: nancy_admin

Genteel Monsters and the Apocalypse

Leave a reply

I had the pleasure of writing about the artwork of Travis Louie for my latest article over at Weird Fiction Review. Dressed in fine Victorian garb and having the most sensible of constitutions, Louie’s hybrids blur the line between human and monster. Short 3rd person narratives accompany most of the portraits and give us humorous insights into the lives of these “others.” We begin to see that these genteel monsters operate more as grotesque mirrors of our own culture.

And a few weeks ago, I was interviewed by one of my former students concerning the story I wrote for the Apocalypse? How!  I had the chance to talk a bit more about the grotesque in art and literature and how this once ornamental aesthetic now functions as rhetoric. Go to the Westword blog for the article.

Ray Caesar’s Lost Girls

Leave a reply

Siren, 2012, Ray Caesar

 The girls Ray Caesar portrays rivals those of Mark Ryden in their resilience, vulnerability, and ferocity. Caesar portrays their hurts and betrayals but also sends them into the realm of the monstrous, where he keeps them safe and reveals the deeper afflictions of a culture, which continues to harm our young through abuse, isolation, and sexualization. But there is a stunning beauty and luminosity to his work that keeps our own gazed trapped even as we are disturbed by what we see. To read my full article, visit Weird Fiction Review.

 

Image credit: Ray Caesar/Gallery House”

Fascinating Post #4

Leave a reply

Nam accumsan nisl vitae urna porttitor a rutrum. Curabitur pharetra magna faucibus magna laoreet sit amet suscipit tellus vulputate. Mauris magna turpis, ullamcorper nec dictum vel, fringilla sed justo. Nulla non massa at lectus posuere consequat sed quis orci. Praesent aliquam posuere lacus mattis convallis. Phasellus vitae massa massa, vel accumsan nibh. Integer quis nibh velit, condimentum elementum massa.
[blockquote]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua libero lectus, fermentum ut lacinia.[/blockquote]Nunc tortor mauris, porta at accumsan in, venenatis nec orci. Proin velit lorem, tincidunt ut sagittis vitae, porttitor ac ligula. Quisque urna magna, vulputate at consectetur malesuada, vestibulum at purus. Vivamus libero lectus, fermentum ut lacinia vel, commodo quis quam. Nunc tortor mauris, porta at accumsan in, venenatis nec orci. Proin velit lorem, tincidunt ut sagittis vitae, porttitor ac ligula. Quisque urna magna, vulputate at consectetur malesuada, vestibulum at purus. Vivamus libero lectus, fermentum ut lacinia vel, commodo quis quam.

Goblin Selves

Leave a reply

I was so busy getting ready for the beginning of spring semester, I forgot to post this article that I wrote for Weird Fiction Review, so if you like goblins and monsters, with a healthy smattering of Goya and the work of fabulous artist Laurie Lipton, then please go have a look. I’ll be posting there every other Tuesday.

A reminder that “Apocalypse? How!” is this Friday (Feb 27, 6  p.m.) at Plus Gallery, featuring the works of Donald Fodness, Drew Englander, Paul Nudd, and Larry Bob Phillips.  My short story, “The Four Horsemen” will accompany the show.

The Four Horsemen–a postmodern tale

Leave a reply

My story, “The Four Horsemen,” is up over at the Plus Gallery Blog (I wrote it in conjunction with the upcoming show “Apocalypse How?”).

The opening is January 27th, at 6 p.m. and features the work of Donald Fodness, Drew Englander, Larry Bob Phillips and Paul Nudd. You’ll be able to read my story in print at the show, too.  Would love to see you all there!

Fascinating Post #5

Leave a reply

Nam accumsan nisl vitae urna porttitor a rutrum. Curabitur pharetra magna faucibus magna laoreet sit amet suscipit tellus vulputate. Mauris magna turpis, ullamcorper nec dictum vel, fringilla sed justo. Nulla non massa at lectus posuere consequat sed quis orci. Praesent aliquam posuere lacus mattis convallis. Phasellus vitae massa massa, vel accumsan nibh. Integer quis nibh velit, condimentum elementum massa.
[blockquote]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua libero lectus, fermentum ut lacinia.[/blockquote]Nunc tortor mauris, porta at accumsan in, venenatis nec orci. Proin velit lorem, tincidunt ut sagittis vitae, porttitor ac ligula. Quisque urna magna, vulputate at consectetur malesuada, vestibulum at purus. Vivamus libero lectus, fermentum ut lacinia vel, commodo quis quam. Nunc tortor mauris, porta at accumsan in, venenatis nec orci. Proin velit lorem, tincidunt ut sagittis vitae, porttitor ac ligula. Quisque urna magna, vulputate at consectetur malesuada, vestibulum at purus. Vivamus libero lectus, fermentum ut lacinia vel, commodo quis quam.

A Coffin Story

Leave a reply

No, I don’t normally write stories about young women who sleep in coffins, but I wrote this on a dare a while back, and just didn’t try too hard to get it published. But now it’s live at Up the Staircase Quarterly, so go have a read.

Also, just got another story (this one being much more surreal) accepted at a new mag called  Bourbon Penn, which publishes “imaginative stories with a healthy dose of the odd.”  And I will be a regular contributor to Jeff and Ann VanderMeer’s Weird Fiction Review besides my monthly column for Fantasy Matters.

Academic me has been busy. My conference paper on Kanai Mieko was accepted for the “Theorizing the Fantastic in 20th Century Art” at the American Comparative Literature Association conference (goodness, that was quite a mouthful, wasn’t it?).  That makes two delicious conferences dealing with the fantastic and uncanny. School is out, and so there is the week from hell of grading, but then there shall be weeks upon weeks of writing, which will be lovely. And I’ll start blogging like a normal human as opposed to shouting out news like I’ve been doing all semester–there’s just been so precious little time.

Just for fun, go check out the most wicked and wonderful monkey on the internet.

Fascinating Post #6

Leave a reply

Nam accumsan nisl vitae urna porttitor a rutrum. Curabitur pharetra magna faucibus magna laoreet sit amet suscipit tellus vulputate. Mauris magna turpis, ullamcorper nec dictum vel, fringilla sed justo. Nulla non massa at lectus posuere consequat sed quis orci. Praesent aliquam posuere lacus mattis convallis. Phasellus vitae massa massa, vel accumsan nibh. Integer quis nibh velit, condimentum elementum massa.
[blockquote]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua libero lectus, fermentum ut lacinia.[/blockquote]Nunc tortor mauris, porta at accumsan in, venenatis nec orci. Proin velit lorem, tincidunt ut sagittis vitae, porttitor ac ligula. Quisque urna magna, vulputate at consectetur malesuada, vestibulum at purus. Vivamus libero lectus, fermentum ut lacinia vel, commodo quis quam. Nunc tortor mauris, porta at accumsan in, venenatis nec orci. Proin velit lorem, tincidunt ut sagittis vitae, porttitor ac ligula. Quisque urna magna, vulputate at consectetur malesuada, vestibulum at purus. Vivamus libero lectus, fermentum ut lacinia vel, commodo quis quam.

New Story in Word Riot and Upcoming Conferences

Leave a reply

My story, “Kinds of Leaving“ is up at Word Riot. It’s not really in the style I normally write, but the story originally played off of a section of my memoir, and then morphed into this little nugget.

Also found out that I’ll be presenting on Patricia Piccinini’s art work and The Island of Dr. Moreau at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando come March. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, whose work on the monstrous I admire greatly,  is the guest scholar. Also the lovely extraordinary writers Maria Headley, Kat Howard , and Theodora Gross will be there as well.

“What Strange Death Is This? Monstrum, the Macabre, and Pop Menageries”

Leave a reply
Straight on the heels of the World Fantasy Convention, I hopped on a red-eye flight to Tallahassee to give  my lecture, “What Strange Death Is This? Monstrum, the Macabre, and Pop Menageries” at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts. Despite being deliriously exhausted, it was fabulous to finally see the exhibit and do a gallery walk in conjunction with my lecture.

I then had l dinner with curator Carrie Ann Baade, Jeff and Ann VanderMeer (the fabulous editor of Weird Tales for a good number of years) , and Selena Chambers. We talked about all realms of the odd, fantastic, slipstream, interstitial, weird, macabre, and grotesque–how they interrelate, how they’re different in terms of rhetorical power and such. It was a great conversation and one that I think will spark some interesting projects ahead.

And please do order the beautiful catalogue from University of Washington Press, which has the full essay and goes into the work of each artist. You can read the full intro my essay “Revelatory Monsters” over a Weird Fiction Review.