Press Release for Architectures of Possibility
Here is the official press release for Lance Olsen's upcoming Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Writing.
ARCs of Architectures of Possibility
"Ideal for individual or classroom use, Architectures of Possibility theorizes and questions the often unconscious assumptions behind such traditional writing gestures as temporality, scene, and characterization; offers various suggestions for generating writing that resists, rethinks, and/or expands the very notion of narrativity; visits a number of important concerns/trends/obsessions in current writing (both on the page and off); discusses marketplace (ir)realities; hones critical reading and manuscript editing capabilities; and strengthens problem-solving muscles from brainstorming to literary activism.
Exercises and supplemental reading lists challenge authors to push their work into self-aware and surprising territory.
In addition, Architectures of Possibility features something entirely lacking in most books about creative writing: more than 40 interviews with contemporary innovative authors, editors, and publishers (including Robert Coover, Lydia Davis, Brian Evenson, Shelley Jackson, Ben Marcus, Carole Maso, Scott McCloud, Steve Tomasula, Deb Olin Unferth, Joe Wenderoth, and Lidia Yuknavitch) working in diverse media, providing significant insights into the multifaceted worlds of experimental authors' writing.
Lance Olsen is author of more than 20 books of and about innovative writing, including the novelsCalendar of Regrets, Head in Flames, and Nietzsche’s Kisses. His short stories, essays, poems, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies, such as Conjunctions, Black Warrior Review, Fiction International, Village Voice, BOMB, McSweeney’s, and Best American Non-Required Reading. He serves as chair of FC2’s Board of Directors and teaches experimental narrative theory and practice at the University of Utah.
Collaborator Trevor Dodge is author of the novel Yellow #10 and short-fiction collection Everyone I know Lives on Roads, as well as co-editor of the Northwest Edge anthologies of experimental narrative. He teaches writing, literature, comics, and games studies at Clackamas Community College in Oregon Cityand the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland."
In March 2012, Architectures of Possibility will officially debut at the annual AWP Convention in Chicago.
Architectures of Possibility
Rebel Yell Redux
TOR Reviews MONSTROUS CREATURES
Here's the culmination of TOR's review of Jeff VanderMeer's Monstrous Creatures:
"While it seems the only monsters in this essay are the native animals—dolphins feasting unexpectedly at St. Mark’s, alligators, bears, herons, turtles—the piece is a nice conclusion to the monstrous theme by integrating the Romantic notions of sublimity. There is nothing more monstrous than the confrontation of Nature, an experience that is becoming more elusive everyday thanks to tourism, development, and the threat of man-made disasters. At the core of this sublimity, and what is at the core of most of this book, is that fantasy can be found in the most unlikely places, and is inevitably found in the last place you are looking: the real world."
Goodreads Giveaway
Death of NYTBR
Here is a good article that acknowledges the merit of small publishers like Raw Dog Screaming Press: The Death of The New York Times Book Review: And Why that Is A Very Good Thing for Books.
SF Signal Review of Monstrous Creatures
John H. Stevens at SF Signal has given Monstrous Creatures five out of five stars and called the book "the most incisive collection of reflections and criticisms I have read in years." Read the entire review here.
PopMatters Review of Monstrous Creatures
There is a new review of Monstrous Creatures at PopMatters.com. Here is an excerpt: "Jeff VanderMeer's collection contains fireworks explosions of insights into the nature of the weird and a fine introduction to a number of rather obscure writers that most fans of the fantastic likely do not know."
Monstrous Creatures Now Available
We are proud to announce that Jeff VanderMeer's Monstrous Creatures: Explorations of Fantasy through Essays, Articles & Reviews is now available in paperback and hardcover editions. Here's what people are saying about the book and VanderMeer:"VanderMeer goes for a 360-degree expedition of fantasy in all of its manifestations as well as through significant periods of its evolution. Wherever the fantastical seeps in, be it in books, the act of writing, architecture, art or even nature, VanderMeer follows, documents and then reports with some of the most spectacular and sophisticated turns of phrase I’ve seen in non-fiction." Rise Reviews
"VanderMeer has jammed his scalpel into the heart of the beast, here. The first essay alone is worth the price of admission. It's staggering ... it's like a best-of record for the wild and fast discussions of art, literature, and monstrosity born of the beehives of the blog-o-sphere." J.M. McDermott
“One of modern fantasy’s most original and fearless pioneers.” Richard K. Morgan
“Shriek: An Afterword … is a desert island book, a tale you can lose yourself in for days, a novel of character in which the setting—the magnificently gritty city-state named Ambergris—proves as the light fails to be the finest character of all.” Gene Wolfe
“One of the things that sets VanderMeer apart is his embrace of technology and media. His online presence is considerable and includes a number of web sites, frequent blogging, a short film adaptation of his novel Shriek (including collaboration with pop rock band The Church), his Alien Baby photo project and even a project involving animation via Sony PlayStation.” Wired.com
“Somewhere at the intersection of pulp and Surrealism, drawing on the very best of both traditions, is Jeff VanderMeer’s Ambergris. Unsettling, erudite, dark, shot through with unexpected humour, the stories engross and challenge endlessly. Ambergris is one of my favourite haunts in fiction.” China Miéville
“Beautifully written, virtually hallucinatory work ... connoisseurs of the finest in postmodern fantasy will find it enormously rewarding.” Publishers Weekly
“In the hands of a brilliant writer like Jeff VanderMeer, writing fantasy can be a means of serious artistic expression. In VanderMeer’s hands, it is also playful, poignant, and utterly, wildly, imaginative.” Peter Straub
“VanderMeer may be creating the dominant literature of the 21st century.” The Guardian
Limited Editions
Limited edition hardcovers of Jeff VanderMeer's Monstrous Creatures are currently available for $45 apiece. Limited to 100 copies, each signed by the author, this edition has a custom dust jacked designed by Jeremy Zerfoss and contains bonus unpublished material.
Zero Degree of Meaning Tour
GDB author D. Harlan Wilson has been traveling around the U.S., Canada and Europe on the Zero Degree of Meaning Tour to promote the release of his upcoming novel, Codename Prague. He was in California in late December and took a break from the novel to read from Technologized Desire: Selfhood & the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction. He keeps a log of the ZDMT on his blog. Read about it here.
Goodreads Giveaway
Monstrous Creatures
Here is the cover description of the book:
An entertaining, eclectic chronicle of modern fantastical fiction, Monstrous Creatures delivers incisive commentary, reviews, and essays pertaining to permutations of the monstrous, whether it’s other people’s monsters, personal monsters, or monstrous thoughts. A two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award, Jeff VanderMeer is one of speculative fiction’s foremost voices. For the past 20 years, he has not only written weird literary fiction translated into 20 languages, but written about it extensively, influencing the way people think about fantasy through reviews in major papers like The Washington Post and The New York Times, as well as through interviews, thoughtful essays, blog posts, teaching, and guest-speaking. Monstrous Creatures, a follow-up to his 2004 nonfiction collection Why Should I Cut Your Throat?, collects all of his major nonfiction from the past five years, including such controversial pieces as “The Romantic Underground,” “The Triumph of the Good,” and “The Language of Defeat." Interviews with writers like Margo Lanagan and China Miéville are an added bonus, creating a dialogue with VanderMeer’s own interpretations of the monstrous in the fantastical.
Welcome to Guide Dog Books
Welcome to the new home for nonfiction publisher Guide Dog Books. This blog and website is still under construction but will be up and running soon. Stay tuned for information about our latest release, World Fantasy Award-winning author Jeff VanderMeer's Monstrous Creatures: Explorations of Fantasy through Essays, Articles & Reviews.
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