The Art of Tim Noble & Sue Webster and a Great Review

On the side of Jake Walks bar

I am typing this from a NYC coffee shop–I just got in on Sunday, July 16 after a great time at Readercon, a literary conference that features writers of speculative fiction. I’ll stay here until the 3st, before going back to Colorado. Am here to meet with my artist and writer community and just recharge a bit. Also, there is a Readercon report from me over at Fantasy Matters. If you’ve never attended this wonderful writer conference, then I think my post will give you many reasons (or at least a few) on why you should give it a try.

As for art news: check out the work of Tim Noble and Sue Webster at Weird Fiction Review. I saw their exhibit Turning the Seventh Corner last May in Berlin, and so was quite excited to finally write about their work.

Also, Carrie Ann Baade and I found out that our Cute and Creepy catalogue got a very nice review by the Art Libraries Society of North America.

And back to writerly matters: my interview with the one and only China Miéville will be published in Origin Magazine later this fall—probably the November issue. You’ll want to hear about the very cool project he’s been working on!

The Play’s the Thing

Me and Atlanta artist Nikita Gale, after Kianga Ellis’s Art Under the Influence show.

Ah, me. Am back from NYC and furiously trying to grade. I will be posting a recap of my New York trip in serial format this week, since I failed to do give updates while there. But let’s just say I had the adventure of my life, meeting artists, musicians, playwrights, and poets.

But first, some fun news: just found out my story, “Come to the Table” was accepted in Prime Number Magazine. And my story Merea was recommended by Lois Tilton in Locus. Scroll to the last entry and you can see a snippet of the story.

While in New York, I got the chance to see Cynthia von Buhler’s immersive play Speakeasy Dollhouse. If you are in NYC this summer or fall, you really need to go see it.

Alright. Back to grading–I’m racing against the clock with nothing but coffee, chocolate, and an iron will to finish.

“What Strange Death Is This? Monstrum, the Macabre, and Pop Menageries”

Straight on the heels of the World Fantasy Convention, I hopped on a red-eye flight to Tallahassee to give  my lecture, “What Strange Death Is This? Monstrum, the Macabre, and Pop Menageries” at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts. Despite being deliriously exhausted, it was fabulous to finally see the exhibit and do a gallery walk in conjunction with my lecture.

I then had l dinner with curator Carrie Ann Baade, Jeff and Ann VanderMeer (the fabulous editor of Weird Tales for a good number of years) , and Selena Chambers. We talked about all realms of the odd, fantastic, slipstream, interstitial, weird, macabre, and grotesque–how they interrelate, how they’re different in terms of rhetorical power and such. It was a great conversation and one that I think will spark some interesting projects ahead.

And please do order the beautiful catalogue from University of Washington Press, which has the full essay and goes into the work of each artist. You can read the full intro my essay “Revelatory Monsters” over a Weird Fiction Review. 

 

September News

Well, much has been happening, the first being that I have two new essays up over at Fantasy Matters: The first, Stalker Demon Guy (maybe) Meets Clueless (certainly) Meets Joyce Carol Oates (thankfully): The Fantastic in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” and the second, Fantasy Conventions and the Power of Community. Have been running a bit behind on letting people know when new stuff is being published.

An acquaintance of mine, Stephen Graham Jones, also published a great essay, I Was Genre When Genre Wasn’t Cool, that I think everyone should go read.

My art catalogue piece for Xi Zhang’s show is mostly done. Just some more fine tuning, and then off it goes. By the way, Xi’s piece about 9/11 was featured on CNN.com and he’ll be giving an artist talk at  the Denver Art Museum on October 26th, 7 pm. If you’re in the area, do come!

The blog posts have been somewhat scarce, I know, but look for some steady writing from me late September or early October, as I’ll be previewing different artists from Carrie Ann Baade’s Cute and Creepy Show (including Ray Caesar, whose Descent appears on the left). Would love to see many familiar faces at my lecture and gallery walk. I promise you, it won’t boring.