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IT'S THE BEST NEWS
YES, THAT'S RIGHT, THE BEST NEWS
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The headline this month: I signed a contract with Kernpunkt Press to publish my novella, Ceremonials, in mid-2020. A friend asked if it felt real yet, a couple of days after I made the announcement, and I said no. I don't think it'll feel real until it happens.
I wrote in detail about this project on the Fictator a few years ago. The novella is not based on, but does significantly integrate, material that is fiercely protected: songs. Most writers with any experience in this area will tell you just not to quote song lyrics at all in fiction. It's dicey to get permission, and you might get sued even if you do get permission. I don't use lyrics in Ceremonials, but I do use song titles in what seems like a more-than-just-fair-use way.
Although I'm overjoyed that Kernpunkt said yes, I'm emotionally prepared for the whole thing to go up in smoke because of the song issue. And I doubt I'm going to feel secure about it until I hold the book in my hands.
Anyway. That's the biggest news, but I did do other stuff this month.
I interviewed Emma Ramadan, the translator of one of the most extraordinary books I've ever read, Revenge of the Translator, for Vol. 1 Brooklyn. My editor gave me more or less free rein, and Emma was both lovely and fierce.
This month's Books I Hate (and Also Some I Like) is with Anita Felicelli. Somehow she gave me the Platonic ideal of a Books I Hate interview. It's exactly what I had in mind when I thought up this series. I am in awe.
My 2018 year in review for Locus went up on the website, along with a highly mediocre picture of me.
My reviews showed up in a handful of interesting places: the Magnify newsletter, a Seattle bookstore's e-newsletter, the Whiting Foundation's Twitter feed, and so on. It's weird to have other people create momentum for me, but man is it nice.
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Recent Book Reviews:
- For LARB, The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang. This book didn't need my positive opinion to do well - Wang has a large following, with good reason - but this review was exceptionally popular.
- For Carolina Quarterly, Öræfi: The Wasteland by Ófeigur Sigurðsson. What a fascinating book this was. It swung in so many directions and made such good use of language and myth.
- For the Masters Review, Tonic and Balm by Stephanie Allen. I was happy to review another book from Shade Mountain Press, particularly one about such a rare topic.
- For Rock and Roll Globe, Go Ahead in the Rain by Hanif Abdurraqib. I would not have explored A Tribe Called Quest or late 80s/early 90s hip hop on my own without this book, and I would have missed out on something significant.
- For Book and Film Globe, two reviews: Mother Winter by Sophia Shalmiyev and Handbook for a Post-Roe America by Robin Marty. B&FG is fun and easy to write for - a team I enjoy being on.
- For the Arts Fuse, two reviews: Gatsby's Child by Dorin Schumacher, and The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey. I'm glad I read both of these books, but they weren't my favorites.
- For VIDA, Surge by Etel Adnan. I was slightly embarrassed to review this at all, because the writer is 93 and she surely knows what she's doing. Plus, it's an insightful, crystalline, almost-holy piece of work.
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What I'm thinking about:
This amazing essay from Elissa Washuta in Guernica.
I will be at AWP a month from now. I am stresssssssed about it, but I'm also happy, because I'll be seeing a lot of friends and meeting a lot of long-distance friends for the first time.
I'm not sure what to make of David Thomson's most recent book, per this review in the Guardian. He wrote a number of the textbooks I used in college, but this perspective seems to be...weird. Has he ever read or spoken to a feminist film critic?
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Upcoming:
- Several Locus reviews should be starting to roll out online from the fall issues of the magazine.
- A rare poetry review in the forthcoming issue of CALYX, which was one of my first goal publications a decade ago. If I can set time aside to do it, I'm also planning to record myself reading the review aloud for CALYX's website.
- A dual review of Kathryn Davis novels, her first and her most recent, in the March/April issue of the Women's Review of Books.
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Recently on the Fictator:
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