On 17 February, the Fantastic Fiction at KGB Readings Series featured an evening of dark fantasy with award-winning writers Peter Straub and Daryl Gregory. The Series, hosted by Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel, is held on the third Wednesday evening of each month at the KGB Bar in Manhattan’s East Village. While, as usual dimly lit (I’d brought a small flashlight), crowded (standing room only), and noisy (making it a bit of a challenge to carry on conversations), the venue’s ambiance again suited the occasion. The table candles even made it seem like telling ghost stories around a campfire (which was apt as one of Straub’s novels is Ghost Story).
Kressel welcomed the audience and announced future readers, then introduced the first reader of the evening, newcomer Daryl Gregory, whose first novel, Pandemonium, won the 2009 Crawford Award and was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. After a rock ‘n’ roll shout-out to New York, Gregory read two scenes from his second novel, The Devil’s Alphabet, recently nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, which he described as a “Southern Gothic horror mystery.” A young man—a “P.K.”, or “Preacher’s Kid”—returns to his Tennessee town, the fictitious Switchcreek, 13 years after a mysterious disease has transformed the residents into three hideously freakish “clades”, for a funeral and a series of awkward reunions that lead to ominous secrets being uncovered. There were a few chuckles amid some rather disgusting bits.
After a break, series co-host Datlow presented Peter Straub, one of the most-honored authors in the horror genre, having received the Bram Stoker, World Fantasy, and International Horror Guild Awards for a body of work that includes Koko, Mr X, In the Night Room, The Talisman (co-authored with Stephen King), and the aforementioned Ghost Story. Straub charmed the audience as he read two scenes from his most recent novel, A Dark Matter, which, Datlow informed us, is #17 on the New York Times Extended Bestseller List. It was, however, difficult to get a good sense of the story from these excerpts. In the first one, a guru is rehearsing drawing a magic circle in a field, and in the second a group of teens attend a frat party. The two selections, set in Madison, Wisconsin in the ’60s, shared a character’s visions of malevolent creatures. (According to reviews, the ritual unleashes a night of horror that forever changes the friends.) Perhaps he should have read from a different, more exemplary section of the novel. As with Gregory’s offering, there were the odd amusing moments.
At the back of the room, books were available for purchase from volunteers from Bluestockings Bookstore.
Ellen Datlow’s pictures of the evening are available in this Flickr set.