Category Archives: Fiction

Reviews and News

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If you’ve not read a good novel lately that takes you out of this hectic, frenetic,  zombie-induced existence, then it’s time to order Maria Dahvana Headley’s Queen of Kings. Go read my review over at Fantasy Matters to hear more about this glorious story that I greedily gobbled up within a few days. And while you’re over at Amazon, do take a quick a peek at the newest issues of Bourbon Penn and Prick of the Spindle (Kindle version), which contain my stories “Merea” and “Evangelical Wonderland.”

Cover Art, Nervous Breakdown, by Julia Martínez Diana

Next week I’ll have a new article in Weird Fiction Review about the ghoulish and grotesque art work of Mark Hosford, and my short story “The Four Horsemen” will be reprinted in Danse Macabre, so check back. And the semester will finally, finally, be done (congrats to all my seniors who are graduating! You did it, my lovelies). Immediately after my last class I’ll be taking the red eye to NYC for the Frieze Art Fair, which starts May 4th; there will be tweets and pics and follow up posts, I’m sure. But most of all, there will be dancing, my friends.

New Story Up at Bourbon Penn

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I’m excited that my story “Merea” is in the latest issue of Bourbon Penn (04). And here is my official post about the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Art–ICFA Might Just Be the Tardis–over at Fantasy Matters. I’m late posting this, it’s true, but April has turned about to be the month of late things (and we’ve just started!).

Lastly, two artists I’ve had the pleasure of writing about, Xi Zhang and Jenny Morgan,  just got lovely reviews in Denver’s Westword for their shows. Am so happy they are getting such recognition for their work. Xi has a show right now, 11 Ceremonies, over at Plus Gallery, so if you are in D-town, go check it out.

March Madness

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I started off March going to NYC for Armory Arts week. It was four days of art ogling, first going to see the Amory show, then on to Volta and Scope.  My first day there I got to have lunch with Ellen Kushner and Katherine Pendill, where we talked about all things Interstitial.The wonderful artist Lia Chavez hosted me for a few days, while Trine Bumiller and Carla Gannis became my guides through galleries and after parties (which lasted long into the night and somehow always ended with dancing).

I came back, finished my essay on portrait artist extraordinaire Jenny Morgan, graded, taught, and then packed up and went to the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Fl. There I spent another four days with writers, scholars, and artists talking about all things fantastic, grotesque, monstrous, and uncanny. Jeff and Ann VanderMeer’s Weird Fiction Review did a special “12 Days of Monsters” celebration week in honor of ICFA, for which I wrote about the grotesque menageries of Greg Simkins. My presentation on The Island of Dr. Moreau and the contemporary artist Patricia Piccinini went pretty well, given that it was at 8:30 in the morning (a ridiculous time for anyone to be awake). China Mieville, Kelly Link, and Jeffrey Jerome Cohen were the guests of honor, but that was just icing on the cake to spending time with Theodora Goss,  Maria Headley, Kat Howard, Ben Loory, Daryl Gregory, Ted Chiang, Deanna Hook, Karen Lord, and Charles Vess, and so many more wonderful writerly humans. I think Jeff  VanderMeer and Maria Headley both sum up the spirit of the conference in their posts: The Restorative Qualities of ICFA and  Strawberry Daiquiris Blended with Beast. I’ll be writing a more proper ICFA post for Fantasy Matters later this week.

Last, but not least, my short story “Evangelical Wonderland” came in out in Prick of the Spindle.

Alas, I’m still on the road. This coming weekend is the American Comparative Literature Association conference, and I apparently felt the need to do two conferences back to back. But this post has lots of lovely links for you to click on and read, so it should keep you busy for a little while.

Genteel Monsters and the Apocalypse

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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.

Goblin Selves

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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

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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!

A Coffin Story

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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.

New Story in Word Riot and Upcoming Conferences

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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.