Ayize Jama-Everett in Boston for A Table of Our Own & at Book Moon
Mon 25 Mar 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Ayize Jama-Everett, Book Moon| Posted by: Gavin
Ayize Jama-Everett is coming over from Oakland to Boston on Wednesday March 27 for a showing of his documentary, A Table of Our Own: A Documentary About Black People and Psychedelics. I’ll put the trailer below.
Since we don’t do events at Book Moon, I’ve set up an informal drop-in with him to sign books this coming Friday Thursday at 2 p.m.
If you don’t know Ayize, he was born in Harlem, has traveled a fair bit, holds three Master’s degrees (Divinity, Psychology, and Creative Writing), and has worked as a bookseller, professor, and therapist. Besides the Liminal series of novels, he has published three graphic novels with Rosarium and Abrams Press, and has written for The Believer, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Racebaitr.
His Liminal novels are fast-paced alternate now (and then: alternate reality) science fiction which pack a punch in many different social and speculative dimensions. Hope to see you there.
The Ugly Chickens Trailer
Tue 19 Mar 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., film, Howard Waldrop| Posted by: Gavin
The trailer for The Ugly Chickens, the third of three half-hour films based on Howard Waldrop’s short stories has gone up. According to George R.R. Martin, the film will be touring film festivals and so on. I am glad Howard got to see a rough cut of the film as I always hope people will be celebrated while they’re alive. Even after all these years that story is a kick. The trailer looks great and I can’t wait to see the finished film.
Youtube is being odd about embedding it at the right size here, so watch over there if easier.
Anya DeNiro: Madison, Marshall, & NYC
Thu 14 Mar 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Anya DeNiro, KGB Fantastic Fiction, readings| Posted by: Gavin
Anya Johanna DeNiro has some new readings lined up this spring for her book OKPsyche. We also found recently that it is a finalist in the Blurred Boundaries (how great!) category of The Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards.
Here are the readings and one more may be added in New York on Friday 5/10:
3/25, 6 p.m. A Room of One’s Own, 2717 Atwood Ave., Madison, WI
4/11, 8 p.m. Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, MN
5/8, 7 p.m. KGB Bar, New York, NY
Richard Butner @ KGB Bar
Fri 8 Mar 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., events, KGB Fantastic Fiction, Richard Butner| Posted by: Gavin
Richard Butner has stepped in to read next Wednesday evening with Moses Ose Utomi at KGB Bar in New York City.
Kathleen & Kelly Tomorrow
Mon 4 Mar 2024 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kathleen Jennings, Kelly Link, Working Writer's Daily Planner| Posted by: Gavin
We have a unique intercontinental event coming up tomorrow at 5 p.m. Central Time with Kathleen Jennings and Kelly Link talking about their first collection, Kindling: Stories (Kathleen), and first novel, The Book of Love (Kelly).
We’ve worked with Kathleen for about 15 years. I think the first project was the striking and beautiful cover for Greer Gilman’s Cloud & Ashes.
Before Kindling, the biggest projects we worked with her on were the 2012 edition of our Working Writer’s Daily Planner* and illustrating Kij Johnson’s Wind in the Willows follow-up, The River Bank. Both books were complicated, unusual, and extraordinarily interesting and fun to work on which meant that when she queried us on her first collection we were very familiar with her work and also her ways of working. So despite her coming to the end of her PhD program(!), we knew she’d be responsive and proactive — two things I struggle more and more with!
Anyway, all of which is to say, hope you will join this event tomorrow:
* I looked at the Daily Planner for the first time in years for this post and I am still charmed and entertained seeing Kathleen’s art all through it. She did monthly headers and spot illustrations — I’ve added a few screenshots below. I still really enjoy those planners. I don’t know if someone is making something like them now, hope so.
I ran out of time to do our edition — our kid was 2-3 years old and keeping the press running was enough for me. The final death knell was in waiting for the pre-orders to come in from Am*zon. The Planners were full color throughout and we printed them in the US. I had to get them to the printer quite early but Am*zon — who sold a good number of the 2011 edition — would not give our sales reps their order for the 2012 edition.
That year we published our two-volume “Best of” Ursula K. Le Guin short stories, collections by Kij Johnson, Elizabeth Hand, and Nancy Kress, a chapbook from Hal Duncan, Ayize’s first novel, and more. The friction and uncertainty of not getting the number was too much and although I loved the project I had to drop it. I printed what was needed through Lulu and that was it. I’d like to say I never regretted it but while that’s not true it’s also not a big thing. I’m glad we did it, that people enjoyed it, and it proved again that Kathleen was a great person to work with on a complicated project.