In April, the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings Series presented two fantasy writers from Brooklyn. On the evening of Tuesday 7 June 2011, at its current venue (the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art on Sullivan Street), the Series hosted two acclaimed sf/fantasy authors from Philadelphia, Michael Swanwick [right in photo] and Gregory Frost [left in photo]… a sort of Phillies doubleheader.
Beginning the event “on time, for once,” as he remarked, Jim Freund, the Series’ executive curator and host of WBAI-FM’s Hour of the Wolf radio program on sf and fantasy (now broadcasting and streaming every Thursday morning from 1:30 to 3:00AM on WBAI, 99.5 FM), welcomed the capacity crowd (exceeding 50), and announced upcoming Ellen events:
Ellen Kushner’s Welcome to Bordertown event at Books of Wonder, 18 West 18th Street, NYC, Thursday 9 June 9, 6-8PM, with participants including Alaya Dawn Johnson, Annette Curtis Klause, and Delia Sherman;
Ellen Datlow’s “reading & signing & talking about” Teeth, her new vampire anthology, at the Jefferson Market Library, 425 6th Avenue, NYC, featuring Genevieve Valentine, Jeffrey Ford, Steve Berman, Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, and Holly Black;
and, of course, next month’s reading, 5 July: the Series’ first comics reading, with Gina Gagliano as guest curator, will feature Molly Crabapple and Dave Roman, and make extensive use of the SGDA’s display screens. He concluded by introducing the evening’s first reader, Gregory Frost.
Frost, who has been a finalist for the James Tiptree Award, Nebula Award, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, World Fantasy Award, Hugo Award, and the International Horror Guild Award, in a rare occurrence, read from a work-in-progress, Cylinders. At a turn-of-the-last-century music store, a 10-year-old boy encounters Edison phonographs and cylinders (pre-“platters,”—heck, we’re going back about four generations in format—the wax grooved cylinders held about two minutes of music) at a music store, to discover later in the room of a sinister new resident in his boarding house cylinders seemingly haunted by the spirit of a piano virtuosa on whom he had a crush before her mysterious disappearance. Occasionally amusing, the story soon turned chilling, and the audience voiced eager anticipation to see the completed novel.
Following a short recess, Freund returned to introduce the much-acclaimed Michael Swanwick, whose works have garnered the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards as well as nomination for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. In a treat, Swanwick called Frost up to the podium as the duo recreated their podcast of his “The Art of the Swindle,” featuring Swanwick’s far-future confidence tricksters, Darger (voiced by Frost) and Surplus, a genetically modified dog (voiced by Swanwick). The lecture on how to run a con (as in scam, not convention) cited notably “artistic” ones. (“The immortal George C. Parker made a living by selling off New York City’s public monuments, including Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grant’s Tomb, and the Statue of Liberty. He became an American legend by selling off the Brooklyn Bridge. Twice a week. For years.”) The crowd chortled throughout—”Bunga bunga!” (to quote prankster Virginia Woolf).
Swanwick’s choice for solo reading was also unusual, a piece that will never be published. Based on a chapter from his latest novel, Dancing With Bears, “The Pearls of Byzantium” offers a reworking and a different ending. In it, a young Russian encounters Darger and Surplus, who are accompanying a Byzantine prince and a caravan of veiled virgins (the titular “pearls”) on a visit to the Duke of Muscovy. The boy is, as one would expect, smitten with one of the “pearls,” and, just as predictably, the con artists pull a fast one or two.
The audience included Richard Bowes, Ellen Datlow, Kris Dikeman, Gina Gagliano, Harold Garber, Amy Goldschlager, Barbara Krasnoff, Lissanne Lake, Danny Lieberman, Gordon Linzner, Andrew Porter, Marianne Porter, Robert Rodriquez, Eric Rosenfield, Jim Salicrup, Veronica Schanoes, Terence Taylor, Genevieve Valentine, and Henry Wessells. After the chairs were folded up, the guests and a number of audience members adjourned, as customary, to Milady’s, a nearby pub. (“Michael drinks martinis.”)