FANTASTIC FICTION at KGB reading series, hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present:

A Clarion West Special Event

With Samuel R. Delany, Jack Womack, Cat Rambo, Kris Dikeman and guest-hosted by Rajan Khanna, July 15, 2009

In honor of 25 consecutive years of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and Amazon.com’s challenge grant, the KGB Fantastic Fiction series will be featuring a special Clarion West reading on July 15, 2009.

Clarion West is a non-profit literary organization that administers the Clarion West Writers Workshop, an intensive six-week workshop for writers preparing for professional careers in science fiction and fantasy, held annually in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Amazon.com has pledged to donate one dollar to Clarion West for every dollar the workshop receives from individuals, corporations, government offices, charitable foundations, and special events.

	Samuel R. Delany is a novelist and critic who lives in New York City a teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia. His books include Nova, Dhalgren, Aye, and Gomorrah and Other Stories, Atlantis: Three Tales, and his most recent novel, Dark Reflections, won the 2008 Stonewall Book Award and was a runner-up for that years Lambda Literary Award. His forthcoming novel, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders will appear from Alyson Books in 2010.
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	Jack Womack is the author of Ambient, Terraplane, Heathern, Elvissey, Random Acts of Senseless Violence, Let’s Put the Future Behind Us, and Going, Going, Gone. He was in 1994 a co-winner of the Philip K. Dick Award and has twice taught writing at Clarion West.  He is Publicity Manager for Orbit Books US, and is presently working on his next novel, Ashland: A Kentucky Murder Ballad.
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	Cat Rambo attended Clarion West in 2005 and since then has published dozens of short stories in such markets as Weird Tales, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, and Clarkesworld. Her collaboration with Jeff VanderMeer, The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories, appeared in 2007 and her first solo collection, Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight, is forthcoming from Paper Golem Press. She is also the managing editor of Fantasy Magazine.
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Kris Dikeman is a graduate of the Clarion West class of 2005. Her work has appeared in Sybil’s Garage, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, PodCastle, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and the forthcoming Year’s Best Fantasy #9. She was a finalist for this year’s Story South Million Writer’s Award.
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Rajan Khanna is a graduate of the 2008 Clarion West Writers Workshop.His work has appeared in Shimmer Magazine. He lives and writes in Brooklyn, NY.

* Mobile Libris will be there selling books

Wednesday July 15th, 7pm at

KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street (just off 2nd Ave, upstairs.)
http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/

Subscribe to our mailing list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kgbfantasticfiction/

Readings are always free.

Please forward to friends at your own discretion.

Mary Robinette Kowal & lonely dinosaur

Brian Francis Slattery & his folk band

It was a truly unique night at KGB on Wednesday.* With a full house, Mary Robinette Kowal began with a puppet show tribute to Ray Harryhausen about a mournful latex dinosaur who has fallen into desuetude. (Though the dinosaur was more than happy to pose for the camera a la Kermit.) Then Mary read a section from her forthcoming novel, SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY. Brian Francis Slattery, accompanied by a violinist, bassist, and his own slick banjo playing sung selections from his novel LIBERATION in folksy, Appalachian style. (Yes, you read that right: “sung.”) Everyone was enthralled with the night, including myself.  I caught a brief video of each reader.  The lighting is bad, but you can get a taste of what the night was like.

Photos & videos of the evening can be seen here.

*Ellen could not attend, but we missed her!

FANTASTIC FICTION at KGB reading series, hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present:

	Brian Francis Slattery, author of Spaceman Blues: A Love Song and Liberation. He has a story coming out in Interfictions 2, which is due out near the end of the year.
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Mary Robinette Kowal is the 2008 recipient of the Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She has sold short fiction to Strange Horizons, Cosmos, and Asimov’s. Her short story “Evil Robot Monkey” has been nominated for a Hugo. Shades of Milk and Honey, her first novel, will be out in the spring of 2010.

* Mobile Libris will be there selling books

Wednesday June 17th, 7pm at

KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street (just off 2nd Ave, upstairs.)
http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/

Subscribe to our mailing list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kgbfantasticfiction/

Readings are always free.

Please forward to friends at your own discretion.

F. Brett Cox

Naomi Novik

An all around fab time with readers F. Brett Cox and Naomi Novik.  Brett revealed what would happen if Flannery O’Connor and Sinead O’Connor merged into one being.  While Naomi read a hilarious story of a snarky unicorn.

Ellen’s photos of the night can be found here.

FANTASTIC FICTION at KGB reading series, hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present:

	F. Brett Cox’s most recent fiction publication was “Mary of the New Dispensation” in Postscripts 13. Forthcoming stories in 2009 are “She Hears Music Up Above” in the original anthology Phantom (Prime Books) and “Nylon Seam” in the Interfictions 2 Online Annex.
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	Naomi Novik is the author of the bestselling Temeraire series of novels, with Victory of Eagles just out in paperback. She has a story coming out in the anthology Naked City in 2010.

* Mobile Libris will be there selling books

Wednesday May 20th, 7pm at

KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street (just off 2nd Ave, upstairs.)
http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/

Subscribe to our mailing list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kgbfantasticfiction/

Readings are always free.

Please forward to friends at your own discretion.

Marie Rutkoski

Cassandra Clare

We celebrated Tax Day with Russian beer at a Socialist bar and fabulous fiction (how else should one spend Tax Day?).  Marie Rutkoski read selections from her The Cabinet of Wonders, and Cassandra Clare read her stort story from Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, edited by Holly Black and due out in August.  When Cassandra stopped reading her story before the end, the audience protested and made her reascend to the podium to finish.

Ellen’s photos can be seen here.

FANTASTIC FICTION at KGB reading series, hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present:

	Cassandra Clare is the New York Times bestselling author of City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass. City of Bones was a 2007 Locus Award finalist for Best First Novel and an American Library Association Teens Top Ten 2008 winner. She is also the author of the upcoming YA fantasy trilogy The Infernal Devices.
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	Marie Rutkoski is the author of The Cabinet of Wonders, which was a finalist for a Cybils award and received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. She was also profiled by that journal as one of the promising debut authors of 2008. The next book in her series is called The Celestial Globe, and will be published in March 2010.

* Mobile Libris will be there selling books

Wednesday April 15th, 7pm at

KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street (just off 2nd Ave, upstairs.)
http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/

Subscribe to our mailing list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kgbfantasticfiction/

Readings are always free.

Please forward to friends at your own discretion.

Stewart O’Nan

Paul Tremblay

Last night we were entertained by two very talented authors.  Paul Tremblay read from his The Little Sleep about a narcoleptic private Dick, and Stewart O’Nan read from his Songs for the Missing.  Both excerpts, it was interesting to discover, were not speculative in any way that I could see, but the audience did not seem to mind one bit (note the “fantastic” in Fantastic Fiction) which, as one blogger aptly noted this morning, is what Alice Turner meant when, in creating the series, she attempted to bring together mainstream writers with writers of speculative fiction in order to show, “that at a certain level they were plowing exactly the same field.”  So, kudos to them for chipping away at that invisible wall.

I saw lots of new faces in the crowd, which is always nice to see.  Ellen Datlow could not attend as she was traveling.  I also realized that yesterday marked my one year anniversary of my co-hosting KGB.  One year ago last March I was asked to guest-host the series when then-hosts Ellen and Gavin could not attend.  Interesting synchronicity in that one year later, I am again doing it solo.  The following month I took over for Gavin permanently.  Anyway, many thanks to Ellen and all the guests and attendees for making it a great year.

The photos from last night’s event can be seen here.

FANTASTIC FICTION at KGB reading series, hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present:

	Stewart O’Nan, author of novels such as A Prayer for the Dying, Snow Angels, The Night Country, and two nonfiction books, The Circus Fire and Faithful : Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season (with Stephen King). His novel, Songs for the Missing and his screenplay “Poe” have just been published
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	Paul Tremblay, author of the collection Compositions for the Young and Old and the hard-boiled/dark fantasy novella City Pier: Above and Below. He’s also edited fiction for a website, a magazine, and several anthologies. His first novel, The Little Sleep–just out –has won praise from Joe R. Lansdale and (coincidently enough) Stewart O’Nan.

* Mobile Libris will be there selling books

Wednesday March 18th, 7pm at

KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street (just off 2nd Ave, upstairs.)
http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/

Subscribe to our mailing list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kgbfantasticfiction/

Readings are always free.

Please forward to friends at your own discretion.

The revolution — er, readings — will be televised, or so one zealous person from a local arts website told us before Laird Barron read from his  “In the Hatch,” a brand new story which is currently being offered as as prize as part of the Shirley Jackson Awards Lottery. Next up was James Morrow, who amused the crowd with sections from The Philosopher’s Apprentice and Shambling Towards Hiroshima. We were quite happy, afterward, knowing that Hitler never got the Lizard.

Ellen Datlow’s photos of the night can be found here.