reader / writer
I have a new story out in Uncanny Magazine! It’s a second-world fantasy story that readers (by which I mean, my friends) have described as “troubling,” “weirdly funny,” and containing “the least erotic sex I’ve ever read.”
Tempted? Enjoy The Hungry Ones.
And please consider supporting/subscribing to Uncanny Magazine!
I am thrilled to’ve played a small part in Strange Horizon’s recent special issue focusing on Mexican writers, guest edited by Libia Brenda. It’s a cornucopia of excellent poetry and prose, all of which is available in both English and Spanish (and, in the case of Ateri Miyawatl’s Tsintatak, in Náhuatl as well).
I had the pleasure of translating Emiliano González’s dreamy, haunting prose poem Uroboros (link goes to my English translation, but you can follow it to the original Spanish too).
I’ve also recently had my own work translated in a few places. You can now read The Widow translated online into Spanish by Emanuel Urrea as La Viuda, and, if you can hunt down one of the beautiful print copies (or want to borrow one of mine, which I tragically cannot read), Like a River Loves the Sky into Chinese for the magazine Science Fiction World. (I don’t know the name of the translator! But thank you to them.)
Hi eligible citizens, please vote!
Unless you’re voting for Trump!
In which case, please don’t vote!
Hi internet, I have a new story out today in Strange Horizons (along with a lovely podcast), and you can read it right here: Alone.
This story was a challenge I set for myself, to try and do two things I don’t naturally/normally do: write a story mostly in summary, and write a story that relies on “real science.” It was a pleasure to write and I hope it’s a pleasure to read. If you like the story, please consider supporting Strange Horizons.
I have a story out today in Uncanny Magazine, and you can read it free online: High in the Clean Blue Air!
Very excited to once again be sharing a table of contents with my beloved Cwest classmate, A.T. Greenblatt, whose novelette “Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super” will be available online 6/2 (or right now to subscribers, and may I take this moment to urge you to support Uncanny by subscribing here). Also stoked that Arkady Martine has a story in this issue; her novel, A Memory Called Empire, was one of my favorite books of 2019.
P.S., the title of my story is from Mary Oliver’s wicked-famous-for-a-damn-good-reason poem, Wild Geese, though there are no geese in this story. I wrote this last year, the year she died, and wanted to pay a tiny tribute.
Wishing health and safety to anyone who happens to be reading this. <3
I am extremely thrilled to be a National Endowment for the Arts literature fellow in prose for 2020! Also known as an NEA grant, you can see the full list of fellows (i.e. scan for your friends and nemeses) here. I quite literally jumped on the bed when I got the (second) call from D.C., after I screened the first one and let it go to voicemail, because who picks up random calls from D.C.??? So if you see me out and about it’s a good time to hit me up for a free drink, because I’m feeling prettttyyyyy darn $$$ right about now. I’m also going to try and use those government funds to get to Antarctica somehow for writing-related research, so wish me luck on that front. Thank you NEA!!!
Good god y’all, I WON!
In a tie with Mel Kassel’s excellent Ten Deals with the Indigo Snake! Mel couldn’t make it to the World Fantasy Convention in L.A., and though we haven’t met in person she had written to me earlier in the week asking if I’d accept in her stead should she win. Well OF COURSE, I said, honored to be asked, but little did I know I’d end up on stage making TWO speeches; one for Mel, and one for me. Kismet that I had her speech in hand! I hadn’t bothered to write one for myself because I genuinely did not think I had a chance in hell of winning, so let that be some kind of lesson to some kind of someone? I had to wing it through a haze of shock. ANYWAY it’s all very exciting and I could not be in better company. WOW.
Photo below courtesy of Alex Manglis, who along with Izzy Wasserstein flew on planes to be in L.A. to support me, THANK YOU BELOVED FAMFRIENDS.
WHAT. “Like a River Loves the Sky” is a finalist for the World Fantasy Award for short fiction! I AM EXTREMELY SURPRISED AND HAPPY.
The other four finalists are all fantastic stories I’ve read and loved this past year, and in fact an exciting part of this for me is that one of my current short fiction idols, Sarah Pinsker, is on that list for her excellent and horrifying story The Court Magician. (Sarah, if you ever see this, ilu, maybe this year in L.A. we can reprise last con’s 2am stump-the-band/karaoke session, which you may or may not remember as fondly as I do…)
I had two sad poems out last month in Electric Literature’s weekly thing, the Commuter, January and Vinegar Ghazal. Wrote the first one back in 2011 when a beloved family friend, Douglas Capra, passed away — so this one’s for you, Doug. <3
Read the culmination (or maybe just the beginning?) of my obsession with wretched 18th century surgical history, From the Root, out today in Lightspeed Magazine. There's even a podcast version, thrillingly.
This is my first historical fiction/fantasy, but probably not my last, because I had such a blast writing it -- and it was my week 6 story at Clarion West, so will always hold a special place in my heart.