Interfictions 2 Tour Schedule Announced: Imminent Events

The lovely book above is now available and there’s an event this Sunday to celebrate, in World Fantasy Con‘s very own San Jose! Smashing French writer Lionel Davoust is translated therein by yours truly, but the true treasure is the talent we get to rub shoulders with: Jeffrey Ford, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Theodora Goss, Alan DeNiro, and Brian Francis Slattery!

Go get Interfictions 2! Published by Small Beer Press and edited by Christopher Barzak and Delia Sherman, the anthology includes contributions from six countries, including the United States, Poland, Norway, Australia, France, and Great Britain. In celebration, we’re throwing a multi-city party of readings, signings, and musical collaborations.

If you live near one of these cities, don’t miss your chance to witness the cutting edge of interstitial art!

SAN JOSE
THIS Sunday, November 1 at 4:00 p.m
Barnes & Noble
3600 Stevens Creek Boulevard

SAN FRANCISCO
Tuesday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m.
Borderlands Books
866 Valencia Street

NEW YORK
Friday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m.
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby Street

LOS ANGELES
Tuesday, November 10 at 8:00 p.m.
M Bar
1253 Vine (at Fountain)

BOSTON
Friday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m.
The Lily Pad
Inman Square
1353 Cambridge Street

Ledig House Reading, 11/1, KGB Bar

Full-on World Fantasy Con madness this weekend! Meanwhile, back at the Batcave… go support Ledig House!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Time: 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Location: KGB Bar 85 East 4th Street NYC

Ledig House residents will be reading brief excerpts from their work. Participants include: Martin Kimani (Kenya), Rien Kuntari (Indonesia), Keshni Kashyap (US), Linda Gaboriau (Canada), Tom Dryer (South Africa), Cailtin Doyle (US), Pravda Miteva (Bulgaria), Kaijamari Sivill (Finland), Kathrin Aehnlich (Germany), and Henning Kober (Germany). Also, special guest alumnus Mohan Sikka!

Come one come all. Exciting new literature from all corners of the world. Reading will last about an hour.

Katerine, Les Grands Restaurants

I like Philippe Katerine: he’s witty, jaded, fanciful (“Je vous emmerde” is a classic, “Poulet No. 728120” bizarrely moving, “Pyjama de soie” goes well with a glass of red late at night). On a recent flight, this song popped up on shuffle for the first time in a while, and I was reminded how much I liked the lyrics, though I’d always heard the first line as “J’ai battu le néant dans un grand restaurant” (tr: I fought off nothingness in a fine restaurant). And the chorus as “Mais toi, tu n’y vois que tu fus” (tr: But you only see what you were). Or fumes (smoke)? Rorschach test, I guess…

J’ai combattu des lions dans un grand restaurant,
j’ai posé un avion dans un jardin d’enfant,
j’ai construit un immeuble dans une chambre de bonne,
monté un éléphant dans la rue de Charonne

Mais toi tu n’y vois que du feu
à croire que t’as de la merde dans les yeux

Nous vivons prisonnier dans le ventre d’un chien,
tout le monde le sais mais personne ne dit rien,
j’ai mangé l’Espagnol qui jouait de la guitare,
tous les dimanches matin sur le Pont des Arts

Où est-ce que tu es ?
ou, les châteaux a Santiago
ou une vallée de coquelicots
ferme les yeux on voit bien

Viens combattre les lions dans les grands restaurants,
faire la révolution sur un tapis volant
Viens vider l’océan en une seule gorgée,
viens fumer le monde en une seule bouffée

Translation follows (some liberties taken for meter, rhyme, and euphony):

World Fantasy Con 2009

Well, World Fantasy Con 2009 is coming up, and the Clarion class of 2009 will make a showing in force. Before the event hits San Jose, I’d just like to give a heads-up that my Clarionmate Shauna Roberts will be on a Friday morning panel

10:00 AM Gold Room Writing Human Characters, Whether or Not They’re Human

Our panelists will discuss the challenges of writing relatable non-human characters in heroic and mythic fantasy that are both alien enough to be something more than funny-looking people but also human enough for readers to relate to.
David B Coe (moderator), Kate Elliott, Kay Kenyon, Shauna Roberts, Laurel Anne Hill

and, for her recent novel Like Mayflies in a Stream from Hadley Rille Books, be part of the

8:30 PM Regency Ballroom Group Autographing

Our traditional group signing is for all the authors and editors attending the convention. Everyone is welcome to participate, and there will be a no-host bar. If you’re planning on signing, it’s a very informal event. There will be tent-cards, alphabetical by last name, on a table at the door. Just grab your card, find a seat, and make yourself comfortable.

I Will Be Moderating

The French Publishers’ Agency and La Maison Française of New York University cordially invite you to a roundtable discussion

“From Bande Dessinée to Graphic Novel: Drawing Two Traditions Together”

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 12:30–2:30 pm

Lunch will be offered.

Panel participants will include

Sylvain Coissard, Copyright Consultant, Sylvain Coissard Agency

Dan Frank, Editorial Director, Pantheon Books

Thierry Groensteen, Publisher, Critic, Comics Historian
Mark Siegel, Editorial Director, First Second Books

La Maison Française of NYU

16 Washington Mews, at the corner of University Place

An evening reception will be held in honor of the French participants from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the French Publishers’ Agency
853 Broadway, suite 1509, between 13th & 14th Streets

Please RSVP for both events at stagiaire@frenchrights.com by November 6.

We look forward to seeing you!

Shauna Roberts Signing at Mystery and Imagination

Friend and fellow 2009 Clarion classmate Shauna Roberts is signing her novel Like Mayflies in a Stream (Hadley Rille Books), a meticulously researched retelling of the epic of Gilgamesh, at Mystery and Imagination 2pm on October 11. Ken, Paul, Grady, Tiff, Heather, Liz, Paul Park, and I will be cheering her on from far-off Albany, as Albacon winds down. In this case, unlike the terrific Dar Williams song, Western New York (or just upstate) wants to be Southern California. Ken, man of many (entertaining) faces, reviews the novel on his blog. Go see Shauna at 238 N. Brand Blvd. Glendale (818.545.0206)!

Sic transit

The Spotty Dog

Bud Parr at Words Without Borders features a photo from the 9/18 reading in a recent blog post. More photos from the event pictured above can be found here.

Agur’s story, in WWB’s September issue, contains this memorable image:

“But the marvel of it strikes me: the cemetery is like a phone book engraved on pages of marble. Except that here, instead of being alphabetized, the names are arranged according to some hidden logic of fate, and the numbers represent years of birth and death. Only one rule is followed: a man always lies beside a man, and a woman beside a woman. So that no shame should ensue, God forbid, on the day the dead are resurrected.”

Foreign Correspondents: October in Words Without Borders

Two new pieces up in the Words Without Borders “Foreign Correspondents” issue this month, one by Gébé and the other by François Vallejo. Gébé, a satirist after my own heart, looks into the mysterious activities of the International Bureau for Front Location, while Vallejo chronicles the 1988 fire that consumed the Chiado district of Lisbon.

Editorial cartoonist Gébé’s piece, featuring a short introduction by yours truly, is taken from his prose collection Not-Quite-Botched Dispatches (But a Hard Sell for the Nightly News), originally Reportages pas vraiment ratés mais difficile à vendre à France Soir, reprinted in 2001 by Le Diléttante (that last link for readers of French).

The excerpt by François Vallejo is the opening to his 2008 novel The Burning of the Chiado (L’Incendie du Chiado) from Éditions Viviane Hamy.

Check’em out!