The New York Review of Science Fiction Readings at South Street Seaport Museum will welcome the new year by celebrating a birthday, specifically, Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th. On 19 January 2009, the doors open at 6:30PM for a 7 o’clock start at the Museum’s Melville Gallery (213 Water Street, New York, New York). [Edited 30 December 2008 to note that the location has changed. See this article for the new space.] Series curator Jim Freund writes “Edgar Allan Poe will turn 200 in January 19th, but his spirit lives on in more ways than one, appropriately enough. Poe’s writings have become ingrained in our culture, even when we don’t realize it. Few people can think of slightly archaic term ‘Nevermore’ without conjuring the image of a raven, or consider tasting a particular fortified wine called amontillado without hearing it spoken by Boris Karloff in their mind’s ear. To celebrate Poe’s birth, we will present a star-studded lineup of writers and performance that get your tell-tale heart a-beating. We will enjoy a brief perspective on the history and impact of Poe and American gothic writing, a performance of ‘A Cask of Amontillado’, and a book launch party for a new Poe-inspired anthology celebrating the occasion, featuring some of the top writers today.”
The evening’s scheduled performers are, Veronica Schanoes, Simon Loekle, Ellen Datlow, and four contributors to Datlow’s new anthology honoring Poe: Gregory Frost, John Langan, Barbara Roden, and Delia Sherman. (Biographies are below.)
The NYRSF Reading Series is held the first Tuesday of every month. Admission is free, but $5 donations are encouraged to offset costs and buy dinner for the readers. Following the readings, a nearby pub serves as the site of dinner/drinks/continuing conversation. Radio producer and talk show host Jim Freund is the series producer and executive curator. He also airs most of the readings on his WBAI FM radio program, Hour of the Wolf.
Upcoming NYRSF Reading Series events include:
* members of the Tabula Rasa writers’ group on 3 March 2009
* Gregory Frost and Victoria Janssen (guest curated by Amy Goldschlagger) on 7 April 2009
* members of the Tabula Rasa writers’ group (part 2) on 5 May 2009
* Catherynne M. Valente and SJ Tucker of 2 June 2009
The next entry in the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series will be 21 January 2009. Hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel will present Harvey Jacobs and Catherynne M. Valente at the KGB Bar (85 E 4 St, New York, New York). The event starts, as always, at 7PM.
Harvey Jacobs is the author of five novels and two short story collections. His last novel, American Goliath was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. His new novel, Side Effects, is due in February.
Catherynne M. Valente, author of The Orphan’s Tales and winner of the Tiptree Award and the Mythopoeic Award, will read from her new baroque urban fantasy, Palimpsest.
As with the other events, dinner usually follows (in this case, at a nearby Chinese restaurant). And curator Ellen Datlow usually posts photos of the evenings on her Flickr account (pictures of the Christopher Barzak and Alaya Dawn Johnson reading on 17 December are at this link). Upcoming Fantastic Fiction at KGB events include:
* James Morrow and Laird Barron on 18 February 2009
* Stewart O’Nan and Paul Tremblay on 18 March 2009
* Marie Rutkoski and another reader to be announced on 15 April 2009
Veronica Schanoes is an assistant professor of English at Queens College—CUNY. She has published on Harry Potter and on interstitial art, and is currently working on a book about fairy-tale revisions. Her fiction has recently appeared in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.
Simon Loekle, producer/host of As I Please (WBAI 99.5 FM, NYC), a weekly radio program that often presents literary readings from the likes of Dante, Melville, Joyce, and Beckett. His cartoons on Joycean topics are a regular feature of the James Joyce Quarterly. His series of readings at the Swift (34 East 4 Street, NYC) begins its eleventh year in February.
Ellen Datlow has been editing short science fiction, fantasy, and horror forover twenty-five years. She is co-editor of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and has edited or co-edited a large number of award-winning original anthologies; most recently The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Inferno, and The Coyote Road (with Terri Windling). Forthcoming in April is Troll’s Eye View (with Terri Windling). Datlow has won multiple awards for her editing, including the World Fantasy, Hugo, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, and Stoker Awards. She was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award for “outstanding contribution to the genre.” Her latest release is Poe: 19 Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe (Solaris).
Gregory Frost is a writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction who has been publishing steadily for more than two decades. His latest work is the fantasy duology, Shadowbridge, published by Del Rey Books. His earlier novels include Fitcher’s Brides, a World Fantasy Award and International Horror Guild Award finalist for Best Novel; Tain, Lyrec, and Nebula-nominated sf work The Pure Cold Light. His short story collection, Attack of the Jazz Giants & Other Stories was called by Publishers Weekly “one of the best fantasy collections of the year.”
John Langan is the author of several stories, including “Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers”, “Mr. Gaunt”, and “On Skua Island”, all of which were originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. A collection of his short work, Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters is due to be published shortly, and.his first novel, House of Windows, is forthcoming from Night Shade Books next April. John has twice been nominated for the International Horror Guild Award. He teaches literature and creative writing at SUNY New Paltz, and lives outside Kingston with his wife, son, and a cat who needs to lose some weight. He will be reading from his story, “Technicolor”.
Barbara Roden‘s short fiction has been published in a number of anthologies and is being collected in Northwest Passages, which will be out in 2009 from Prime Books. Her 2005 story “Northwest Passage” was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and included in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 19. She edits the journal of The Ghost Story Society, All Hallows, as well as Canadian Holmes, the journal of the Bootmakers of Toronto.
Delia Sherman‘s short fiction has appeared in F&SF, Fantasy Magazine, and numerous anthologies, the most recent of which is Coyote Road (2007). She has written three adult novels, one of them, The Fall of the Kings (Bantam, 2002), with Ellen Kushner. Her latest novel is Changeling (Viking, 2006). It and its sequel, Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen (due out in June 2009), are New York fantasies for younger readers.