Sale announcement, and a short note on “Among Others”


My unclassifiable maybe-flash, maybe-prose poem “Bone Shadows” will appear in the poetry section of the new Interfictions. Sofia Samatar edits the poetry department, so if you have something suitable, please consider sending it to her!

Tangentially, there is an odd blog post on Black Gate entitled “SFF Corruption” in which a blogger is accusing Jo Walton and a few other authors of logrolling the Nebula. He also calls Among Others “banal.” I am not going to argue with this blogger, it is not worth my time. However, I wanted to remark on Among Others. In the interests of full disclosure, I have published a poem by Jo in Stone Telling 3, and have been talking with her on Livejournal, and she has been very kind to me on many occasions. But I am also an extremely critical reader, and it is very hard to get me to vote for anything. I only vote for things that astound me. So. When I was shortlisted for my academic dream job and the campus interview started going south, I stole moments to read Among Others on my Kindle, because it sustained me. I recommended this book to everyone – friends, colleagues, graduate students, undergraduate students, former students. I gave two copies away even though I could not afford it. I discussed the book with academic acquaintances with whom I hardly ever talk about SFF. And heck yeah, I put it on my Nebula ballot. That’s what I do when a work wows me to this degree. And I will continue to do so.

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