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First of all this month, congratulations to the newly online Interfictions, which posted its first issue this week! Both masthead and table of contents include some familiar names. The poetry selections include work by Paul Jessup, Gwynne Garfinkle, Rose Lemberg, and Emily Jiang and CL Jiang; and they also have an essay by Brit Mandelo: "Gonzo: The Real, the Surreal, and Hunter S. Thompson." Also out this month is the latest issue of The Journal of Unlikely Entomology, co-edited by AC Wise; and good luck to Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw, who are running a Kickstarter to relaunch their 'zine Flytrap.

Now, on to some notable books this month: Nina Allan's latest collection, Stardust, is out from PS Publishing (and you can read the opening story, "B-Side", until the end of the week). Sofia Samatar's novel A Stranger in Olondria is (at last!) out from Small Beer (and gets a glowing write-up from Amal el-Mohtar at Tor.com. James Dorr's collection The Tears of Isis is out from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing. M. Frost's poetry chapbook Constellation is also out, with art by dee*ah*CHUR. Margaret L. Carter's new "Vanishing Breed" vampire novel, Passion in the Blood is out from Amber Quill Press. And although it's not a new book, I can't let the UK edition of Kameron Hurley's God's War pass without comment -- if there's anyone left in the UK who hasn't read it yet, now's the time. Kameron blogs about the release here.

Lots of new poetry this month. The latest Apex includes Shira Lipkin's "The Busker, Broke and Busted"; Dreams & Nightmares issue 95, mailing in June, includes two poems by Ann K. Schwader, "Apophis Apocryphal" and "Night Laundry", plus work by AJ Odasso, Peg Duthie, Robert Frazier, Mari Ness, Marge Simon, and others. Rich Larson's "Hunger Games" is up at decomP; the third issue of Through the Gate includes Ada Hoffman's "Synchronicity", plus work by Sonya Taaffe, Alex Dally MacFarlane, and Mat Joiner twice. Neil Graham's "The Green Green Rain" is in Mythic Delirium 28, along with work by Alexandra Seidel, Jeannine Hall Galley, Sofia Samatar, FJ Bergmann, Alicia Cole and others. At Escape into Life, Sally Rosen Kindred's work was featured, and Peg Duthie's "Remnant" was included in a Fleurs de Mai feature. And the theme for Elizabeth Barrette's poetry fishbowl this month was homonyms, puns and wordplay.

On to new stories. Tor.com's fiction for the month included Cecil Castellucci's "We Have Always Lived on Mars" and Daniel Jose Older's "Skin Like Porcelain Death", while May at Beneath Ceaseless Skies included Laura E. Price's "The Drowned Man" and Alex Dally MacFarlane's "Singing Like a Hundred Dug-Up Bones". Sarah Pinsker's "A Beastly Game" is in today's issue of Electric Spec, and Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam's "An Exodus of Wings" is today's Daily Science Fiction. Emily Jiang's "The Binding of Ming-Tian" is in this month's Apex. Stephen Ramey's flash "The Valley of Doom" can be found at Story Shack. Andrew Kozma's story "An Apartment Hunter's Guide to Martinsville" is in the latest (Vol 36 no. 1) issue of The Chariton Review. And Samantha Henderson's "Your Fairy is Serenity Elfsong" is in the Spring 2013 Bourbon Penn.

Finally a few essays. Paul Kincaid has an in-depth review of M. John Harrison's Kefahuchi Tract novels at The Los Angeles Review of Books; Abigail Nussbaum and Genevieve Valentine offer thoughts on the first season of Elementary; Abigail also had an essay about Felix Gilman's Half-Made World duology in their recent seminar on the same topic. Matt Hilliard looks in depth at The Hydrogen Sonata and the politics of intervention in Iain Banks' Culture novels. The short fiction spotlight columns at Tor.com by Brit and by Niall Alexander continue; and Brit also reviews Ghost Spin by Chris Moriarty. Finally, Julia Rios hosts the latest Outer Alliance podast, a group interview of a number of writers and critics.

 



Niall Harrison is an independent critic based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He is a former editor of Strange Horizons, and his writing has also appeared in The New York Review of Science FictionFoundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, The Los Angeles Review of Books and others. He has been a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and a Guest of Honor at the 2023 British National Science Fiction Convention. His collection All These Worlds: Reviews and Essays is available from Briardene Books.
Current Issue
22 Apr 2024

We’d been on holiday at the Shoon Sea only three days when the incident occurred. Dr. Gar had been staying there a few months for medical research and had urged me and my friend Shooshooey to visit.
...
Tu enfiles longuement la chemise des murs,/ tout comme d’autres le font avec la chemise de la mort.
The little monster was not born like a human child, yelling with cold and terror as he left his mother’s womb. He had come to life little by little, on the high, three-legged bench. When his eyes had opened, they met the eyes of the broad-shouldered sculptor, watching them tenderly.
Le petit monstre n’était pas né comme un enfant des hommes, criant de froid et de terreur au sortir du ventre maternel. Il avait pris vie peu à peu, sur la haute selle à trois pieds, et quand ses yeux s’étaient ouverts, ils avaient rencontré ceux du sculpteur aux larges épaules, qui le regardaient tendrement.
We're delighted to welcome Nat Paterson to the blog, to tell us more about his translation of Léopold Chauveau's story 'The Little Monster'/ 'Le Petit Monstre', which appears in our April 2024 issue.
For a long time now you’ve put on the shirt of the walls,/just as others might put on a shroud.
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