Author Archives: nancy_admin

World Fantasy, Cute and Creepy Show, plus Xi Zhang at the Denver Art Museum!

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Wow, there is too much fun stuff happening over the next few weeks, but here’s a breakdown:

First, I got two short stories accepted! “Kinds of Leaving” will be published in Word Riot, and “A Coffin Story” will appear in Up The Staircase Quarterly. Both will be out in November, and I’ll be posting the links here.

Next, this weekend I’ll be at the World Fantasy Convention from Thursday-Sunday morning. I’m on the Beautiful Monstrosities panel, at 2 p.m., Saturday, in Pacific 1. Hope to see you there!

Messengers, Martin Wittfooth, 2009

Then, the week after, I’ll be giving a lecture, “What Strange Death Is This? Monstrum, the Macabre, and Pop Menageries” in conjunction with Carrie Ann Baade’s Cute and Creepy exhibition. Carrie’s art has graced the cover of Weird Tales, and her work and/or the exhibition has been featured on Tor, Io9, and beinArt. I am so lucky that I got to write the catalogue essay for this wonderful exhibit and get to take my audience on a gallery walk through. I had the chance to write about Ray Caesar’s work, which you can see over at Fantasy Matters.

Xi Zhang’s talk at the Denver Art Museum happens Wednesday, October 26th, at 7 p.m. You can buy his catalogue Dream Dust at the lecture, or here on Blurb. I wrote the catalogue essay for that as well. Great things are happening for this wonderful artist, and I couldn’t be more happy for him.

If you like the gothic and weird in literature, then go see what I have to say about Henry James and the wonderful Anne Sexton: Uncanny Transformations and the Brothers Grimm and  No Ghosts Such As These: The Uncanny Hauntings of Henry James

Okay, I would say that’s all, but it’s not really. Lots more good stuff coming down the pipeline, so to speak. But this should keep your clickin’ fingers busy.

The Month of Extraordinary Things

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My essay, “Fantastic Rebirth: Culture Is But a State of Mind,” is now finished. You can read it by ordering Xi Zhang’s Dream Dust catalogue from Plus Gallery, or by buying at at Xi’s Logan Lecture at the Denver Art Museum on October 26th. Hope to see many of you there!

 

 

 

 

 

Jenny Morgan, Power Play, 2011

I will also be writing Jenny Morgan’s catalogue article for her upcoming solo show at the Plus Gallery. Morgan’s stunning portraits have been featured in New York Times Magazine and New York Magazine, so I’m really excited about this project.

And the Cute and Creepy Exhibit opens on October 13th. The blog I write for, Fantasy Matters, will be featuring an artist a week from the show. I really admire the artists I wrote about for this catalogue–the freedom and love they stand for, the passion with which they paint and draw, and the dedication to their art. There’s more writing and art news coming up, so stay tuned!

Richard Kirk, Cuckoos Promise, 2011

September News

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Well, much has been happening, the first being that I have two new essays up over at Fantasy Matters: The first, Stalker Demon Guy (maybe) Meets Clueless (certainly) Meets Joyce Carol Oates (thankfully): The Fantastic in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” and the second, Fantasy Conventions and the Power of Community. Have been running a bit behind on letting people know when new stuff is being published.

An acquaintance of mine, Stephen Graham Jones, also published a great essay, I Was Genre When Genre Wasn’t Cool, that I think everyone should go read.

My art catalogue piece for Xi Zhang’s show is mostly done. Just some more fine tuning, and then off it goes. By the way, Xi’s piece about 9/11 was featured on CNN.com and he’ll be giving an artist talk at  the Denver Art Museum on October 26th, 7 pm. If you’re in the area, do come!

The blog posts have been somewhat scarce, I know, but look for some steady writing from me late September or early October, as I’ll be previewing different artists from Carrie Ann Baade’s Cute and Creepy Show (including Ray Caesar, whose Descent appears on the left). Would love to see many familiar faces at my lecture and gallery walk. I promise you, it won’t boring.


This Blossom In Your Side: New Essay on Kafka

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I have a new essay up over at Fantasy Matters on the ever fantastic Kafka–if you have never read his shorter work (which is speculative fiction at its finest), then perhaps my essay can give you some tips on which stories to try out. Hint: you get crazy village people,  a boy with a “strange” blossom in his side, a machine that tattoos its victims to death,  and a bucket that can fly. And no,  Kafka was not on LSD (in case you were wondering).

But right now I’m am busy writing the catalogue essay for the wonderful artist Xi Zhang, whose work fuses the fantastic, pop culture and Buddhist philosophy. In September and October, I’ll be blogging more about the upcoming Cute and Creepy exhibit, so stay tuned!

The Fantastic in Lit, Art, and Film

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Fantasy Matters is a website started by Kat Howard and Jen Miller, two academics who believe in the transformative, wonderful power of fantasy literature, art, and all other related media. You’ll see academics, artists, and writers talking about the stories that you have come to love.

AND you can check out my essay on Kanai Mieko’s “Rabbits,” because hell yeah, I get to write for them too. And it brings together my love for narrative and teaching the powerful rhetoric found in stories and art that engage the fantastic, uncanny, and grotesque.

The Cute and Creepy Website Is Up!

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Curated by Carrie Ann Baade (whose work graces the newest cover of Weird Tales), the Cute and Creepy exhibit coming in October is sure to be a deliciously creepy and fun show. My essay–geez, that sounds so dry. I promise it isn’t–“Revelatory Monsters: Deconstructive Hybrids, the Grotesque, and Pop Surrealism,” is the catalogue article, and you can see a preview of it on the website.  More news about the show as it comes down the pipeline.

I have other writing adventures coming up–both in the art and fantasy world, so stay tuned!

Boboli Gardens

The Slipstream of Word and Image

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I just got back from a razzle dazzle art tour of Europe: Ireland, England, Germany, Italy, and then Spain. Here is a blog wherein you can see the dynamic interplay of art and image, get news on the most delicious exhibits coming to Denver and NYC, and learn a bit more about the incredible rhetorical power of the fantastic, grotesque, and uncanny in art and literature today. Below are pics I took at Boboli Gardens in Florence.