Holly Walrath's Blog, page 3
August 19, 2024
Introducing Necessary Poisons by Andrea Blythe
“The world is automatic
in the courses of its living. Time
keeps the living and the dead
in its pocket…”
Interstellar Flight Press is delighted to announce the publication of Necessary Poisons, a new poetry chapbook from Andrea Blythe, author of Twelve (Interstellar Flight Press, 2020), winner of the SFPA Elgin Award.
Pre-Order Necessary Poisons Today
Download early on NetGalley for reviewers
Book DescriptionA woman troubled by her place in the dark manuscript of her life rediscovers her strength and power in this collection of wicked poems. Poison, plants, bloodshed, and the supernatural collide as Andrea Blythe weaves a haunting series of horror poems not for the faint of heart. A virtuoso of found poetry and the erasure poem, Blythe reworks the words of a horror legend in an entirely new way.
“In a collection of otherworldly poems, Andrea Blythe deftly constructs verses that function like surreal puzzle boxes, inviting readers to unravel the complexities of identity and self-discovery within the context of a vast, unexplainable, and often violent world. By grounding her poems in the organic and the natural, Blythe walks a dazzling line somewhere between bloody corporeality and cosmic wonder. An exhilarating and provocative work.” — Claire C. Holland, author of I Am Not Your Final GirlAbout the Author
Andrea Blythe is an author, poet, and game writer. Necessary Poisons is her fourth collection of poetry. Her previous chapbooks include Twelve: Poems Inspired by the Brothers Grimm Tale (Interstellar Flight Press, 2020); Your Molten Heart / A Seed to Hatch (2018), a Kickstarter-funded collection of erasure poems; and Every Girl Becomes the Wolf (Finishing Line Press, 2018), a collaborative chapbook she coauthored with Laura Madeline Wiseman. She is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association and the Horror Writers Association. Find her on Twitter @AndreaBlythe or at www.andreablythe.com.
“Andrea Blythe is one of the most unique and gifted fantasy-horror authors out there today, and her latest book, Necessary Poisons, is proof why she should be at the top of your reading list. With gorgeous and haunting language that feels as lush as the poisonous plants that inspire it, this collection is a heartfelt ode to Stephen King, and a truly breathtaking accomplishment that’s not to be missed.” — Gwendolyn Kiste, Lambda Literary and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Reluctant Immortals and The Rust Maidens
“Andrea Blythe’s found poetry is horror and resurrection and soil, jackals and poison plants and dead things transformed. She actively erases story in search of narrative: her collection is method as well as madness, and the two come together as a literary chrysalis, where the act of adaptation results in mutations that slink and shriek over the page.” — Dr. Octavia Cade, author of Chemical Letters and Mary Shelley Makes a Monster
Pre-Order Necessary Poisons Today
Download early on NetGalley for reviewers
Dancing Princesses, Fairy Tales, and Portal Fantasies
If you haven’t read Andrea Blythe’s first book, check out TWELVE: Poems inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairytale “Twelve Dancing Princesses.”[image error]Introducing Necessary Poisons by Andrea Blythe was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
July 10, 2024
Introducing The Butterfly Disjunct by Stewart C Baker
“The Butterfly Disjunct is quirky, smart, funny, and deadly serious. Narratives range from classically told to cleverly experimental, always science fiction and always a delight. Well done!” — Kij Johnson
Interstellar Flight Press is delighted to announce the publication of THE BUTTERFLY DISJUNCT: AND OTHER STORIES by Stewart C Baker!
A scientist haunted by an impossible ghost. A cocky poet attempting to outrun peace. A grieving mother looking for life beneath Europa’s icy surface. A ship AI desperate to rescue its beloved crew. An ongoing fight against the end of existence. Equal parts earnest and strange, Stewart C Baker’s stories span the breadth of human emotion, space, and time. In this debut collection, gender and genre collide to celebrate relationships and empathy in all their forms.
About the AuthorStewart C Baker is an academic librarian and author of speculative fiction, poetry, and interactive fiction. His most recent game is the Nebula-nominated The Bread Must Rise, a novel-length comedic fantasy from Choice of Games written with James Beamon. Stewart’s stories and poems have appeared in Asimov’s, Fantasy, Flash Fiction Online, Lightspeed, Nature, and other places. Born in England, Stewart has lived in South Carolina, Japan, and Los Angeles, and now lives with his family within the traditional homelands of the Luckiamute Band of Kalapuya in Oregon — although if anyone asks, he’ll usually say he’s from the Internet, where you can find him at infomancy.net.
“I absolutely adored The Butterfly Disjunct, a collection as vast and varied as the transdimensional words that appear in its pages. In this book, robotic haiku poets muse on the imperfect nature of translation, physicists host one-woman academic conferences with themselves through dubious time travel technology, women take up their swords and battle through the Shogun’s space station, and not even a breakup can get in the way of a good game of Heisenball. Stewart C Baker’s collection plays havoc with the space-time continuum, running the range from comedy to adventure to tragedy, asking big questions and daring you to answer them.”
— Rachael K. Jones, Hugo and Nebula-nominated author of “The Sound of Children Screaming”
About the Cover Artist:Dante Luiz is an illustrator and occasional writer from an island in southern Brazil. He’s the interior artist for Crema (comiXology/Dark Horse), and his work with comics has also appeared in anthologies, like Wayward Kindred (TO Comix Press), Mañana: Latinx Comics From the 25th Century (Power & Magic Press), and Shout Out (TO Comix Press), among others. Find him online at danteluiz.com
“Dream-visions of alternate realities and timelines featuring researchers, ghosts, poets, explorers, rogues, survivors, and more. The stories in The Butterfly Disjunct are as varied as the styles, and just as interesting. Full of unexpected connections, recurring settings, great feats of imagination and fascinating thought threads, this is a clever collection that is very much worth reading.” — Wole Talabi, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-nominated author of Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon
FREE ONLINE BOOK LAUNCH: Join us for a reading with Stewart C Baker on November 4, 2024. Free to Attend: Registration is required and space is limited.
[image error]Introducing The Butterfly Disjunct by Stewart C Baker was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
May 20, 2024
Pistol-Whip Me, Kristen Stewart: Review of LOVE LIES BLEEDING
Images Courtesy A24**The below review contains major spoilers.
Love Lies Bleeding (A24, 2024) is a bodacious exploration of queer sexuality that mixes 80s Hulk Hogan aesthetics with southern small-town terror. The film stars Kristen Stewart in Her Gayest Role Yet as Lou, a gym manager who falls for Jackie (Katy O’Brien — The Mandalorian, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), a bodybuilder who wants to compete in Vegas but gets stuck in the politics of border-town murder.
Lou is dealing with the reality that her family, quite frankly, sucks ass. Her father is a crime lord smuggling weapons to Mexico, and her sister is married to an abusive macho-mullet. She’s immediately drawn to the charismatic and criminally hot Jackie, a bodybuilder who is new to town and the gym Lou works at.
For any queer person who has grown up in a small town in the South, the dark realities of that life feel desperately authentic in this film. Lou is trapped at a dead-end job, dating the only other queer girl in town, a stringy-haired blonde with bad teeth who is constantly giving Lou puppy-dog eyes and following her around as she mops up other people’s messes (played with beautiful empathy & humor by Anna Baryshnikov).
The lonely Lou manages to intrigue the stunning Jackie with the lure of steroids and some frankly delightful-looking cunnilingus. But as Jackie consumes more steroids, her body and personality start to go into roid-rage mode. Here, the writing fantastically aligns feminine anger with its appropriate vengeance on terrible men. The film’s tagline is “Revenge gets ripped.” Jackie kills Lou’s brother-in-law after he puts Lou’s sister in the hospital. Katy O’Brien makes us sympathetic to Jackie while leaning into the chaos.
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As Lou has to clean up more and more of Jackie’s murders, the narrative goes sideways into bonkers territory, but it’s a thrill ride the audience can’t help but enjoy. Discomfort and cringe spiral into desire and daydreams.
This film is not for everyone. Some viewers online have questioned its appropriateness—accusing the film of pandering to cis straight men. It was interesting to look around in my theatre here in Houston, TX, and see who attended. It was mostly couples on dates and young women. Like last year’s queer-coded breakout Saltburn, I got the sense that the film might generate unease for the straight members of the audience while creating a kind of buzzy energy for queer viewers. It’s the kind of film I would’ve snuck out to see as a teen if such a thing existed. Queer rep means that films like this might end up reaching the wrong audience, but the audience they need to hit is right there, eagerly waiting, and shouldn’t they take precedence, no matter what side effects might ensue? This argument feels like people are simply uncomfortable with the film, and so they choose to center cis straight people, even in critiquing the film.
The queer dynamics of the film are interesting. While Jackie is femme-presenting, her personality mirrors butch macho camp; Lou is butch-presenting with femme-nurturing habits — you quickly realize that any stereotypes you might expect degenerate when put in a queer lens. these characters are well-rounded and defy binary stereotypes in purposeful ways.
I was entranced by the film’s cinematography, which pairs lonely shots of the New Mexico desert with slow-burn fades into Katy O’Brien’s beauty. The film oozes queer femme gaze. The sex scenes are phenomenal. It’s fantastic to see Kristen Stewart stepping into her queer icon era — a natural metamorphosis for an actress who has been historically panned by critics. Stewart’s roles have been mostly queer-coded up till this point (See Adventureland, Underwater, Spencer, Twilight, according to the actress), so to see her fill such an audacious role is frankly magic.
My favorite scene in the movie is the end shot when Lou’s just dragged another body out to the desert to bury it, and she stands with her hands on her hips in clear exasperation. The film’s message is that queer love can overcome anything, even murder and the morally gray questions abiding therein.
What’s most exciting is how the surreal aspects of the film were necessary to make the ending happy. Jackie’s body literally becomes larger than life, just as we’re beginning to worry that Lou and Jackie may never escape. In a beautiful metaphor for the power of the queer body, Jackie becomes a 50-foot woman, saving Lou from her father. (Side note: When I saw the cast for the film, I wondered why the heck Ed Harris was in it, until I realized he was the villain.)
The power of this surrealism is that without it, the film would end in death for both queer characters. It reminded me of how often I fantasized about getting out of my small town as a queer kid growing up in the South. What queer kid hasn’t dreamed of being powerful — and escaping the terror that is super-conservative society? Of squashing abusers like bugs? This necessary acknowledgment of the power of hope sets the film apart from what would otherwise be a straightforward yet depressing story.
This one is a must-see. Currently available to purchase on VOD.
Interstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
[image error]Pistol-Whip Me, Kristen Stewart: Review of LOVE LIES BLEEDING was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
April 8, 2024
Book Launch for LEARNING TO HATE YOURSELF AS A SELF-DEFENSE MECHANISM by Andrea Kriz
This event requires registration. Seats are limited.
Save the date! We’re hosting Andrea Kriz to celebrate the publication of her debut short story collection, Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism. This genre-blending collection explores fantastical futures and how we cope with them.
About the BookYour friend creates an award-winning VR game — based on your friendship. An AI starts a YouTube channel at the expense of its creator. A fanfic writer plagiarizing the lives of the marginalized gets her comeuppance. Time travel meets magic in a world blown into pieces by war. Dragons modify DNA and undergo peer review. In Andrea Kriz’s debut short story collection, technology and genres wildly blend in stories that will challenge how you see our future.
Stories include “Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism,” “Communist Computer Rap God,” “There Are No Hot Topics on Whukai,” “Miss DELETE Myself,” “AIs Who Make AIs Make the Best AIs!” “The Ones Who Got Away from Time and Loss,” “Rebuttal to Reviewer’s Comments on Edits for “Demonstration of a Novel Draconification Protocol in a Human Subject”,” “I Want to Dream of a Brief Future,” “And That’s Why I Gave Up on Magic,” “Resistance in a Drop of DNA,” “The Last Caricature of Jean Moulin,” and “The Leviathan and the Fury.”
Pre-order the book today!“Read individually, these are brilliant stories. But together, they are something greater — in her characteristically deft prose, Kriz offers a deep and extended meditation on the commodification of identity and authenticity, plagiarism and loss of the self, the personal and the cultural memory of war. Readers will find so much to love in this collection; rereaders will find even more.”
— P.H. Lee, author of the Nebula-award nominated Just Enough Rain
“Andrea Kriz’s knowledge and passion for a variety of topics shine through in this collection. Disparate topics like artificial intelligence, the French Resistance during WW2, and molecular biology are skillfully woven into narratives that elicit a variety of emotional responses. I wanted to snort with delight, sob with righteous anger, and sigh with dismay as I explored Kriz’s creations. A monotone book this is determinedly not — Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism and other stories is a glorious tapestry of multihued ideas, characters, feelings and stories.”
— Sharang Biswas, ENNIE & IndieCade Award-winning Game DesignerAbout the Author
Andrea Kriz writes from Massachusetts, where she does research as a molecular biologist. In addition to the stories in this collection, her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld and Lightspeed Magazine, among others, and been translated into French in Galaxies SF. She is also part of the Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project, a collaboration between authors and Dartmouth faculty to create short stories exploring the future of humanity. You can find her online at https://andreakriz.wordpress.com/ or on Twitter @theworldshesaw.
“Andrea Kriz’s uncompromising, subversive, and elegant stories address all the big themes — and the little ones too — with a clear eye and post-modern sensibility. While her stories address race and colonialism and Covid, they also examine connection and loneliness, our assumptions about each other, and what it means to be human. Literary SF at its best!”
— Shariann Lewitt, author of Memento Mori and “Fieldwork”
Date: Thursday, May 8, 2024
6:00pm CST
Online via Zoom. Registration Required (Limited to 25 attendees).
All of our events are also streamed via Facebook Live.
Pre-order the book today!Download an ARC on NetGalley[image error]Book Launch for LEARNING TO HATE YOURSELF AS A SELF-DEFENSE MECHANISM by Andrea Kriz was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
March 21, 2024
National Poetry Month Reading: THE HEARTBEAT OF THE UNIVERSE: POEMS FROM ASIMOV’S AND ANALOG
This event requires registration. Seats are limited.
Save the date! Join us on April 4th at 6pm CST for a fantastic National Poetry Month reading! This year, we’re thrilled to celebrate April as National Poetry Month with the publication of THE HEARTBEAT OF THE UNIVERSE: POEMS FROM ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION AND ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION AND FACT 2012–2022.
Date:
April 4, 2024
6:00pm CST
Online via Zoom
The Heartbeat of the Universe: Poems from Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction and Fact 2012–2022
Emily Hockaday, Editor
The Heartbeat of the Universe collects poems from the top writers in the science fiction and literary genres, including voices such as Jane Yolen, Bruce Boston, Robert Frazier, Jessy Randall, and many others. These poems, selected by editor Emily Hockaday from the pages of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and Analog Science Fiction and Fact over the past decade, examine the Universe’s smallest particles and largest astral phenomena. These poems travel through time, speak to and from the dead, explore the body and quantum physics, all depicting the human condition and allowing readers to learn more about their universe and themselves.
Editor Biography:
Emily Hockaday is the senior managing editor for Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and Analog Science Fiction and Fact. With Jackie Sherbow, she coedited the horror anthology Terror at the Crossroads. She is the author of the poetry collections In a Body (Harbor Editions, 2023) and Naming the Ghost (Cornerstone Press, 2022), along with six chapbooks. She can be found online at www.emilyhockaday.com.
Featured Readers:
Jane YolenIan GohRobert FrazierMary Soon LeeKristian MacaronAnnie Sheng (D.A. Xiaolin Spires)Josh PearceHolly DayJackie SherbowLeslie AndersonTimons EsaiasAshok BankerJessy RandallPraise for The Heartbeat of the Universe
“The Heartbeat of the Universe gathers poems into a story of the world, past, present, and future, as seen through sound and rhythm, wonder and science. It is a collection that spins and weaves — using both experimental and formal structure — a core connectivity: that we are all, each of us, in every moment, speculative and liminal, and the poetry that recognizes this is truly special. My heartfelt congratulations to the authors and editors of this magnificent book.”
— Fran Wilde, Nebula-winning author and occasional battle-poet
“This collection constitutes an important step in keeping our appreciation of speculative poetry alive and well, with a remarkable sampling of the diverse voices and approaches poets featured in Analog and Asimov’s over the past decade. In an age when so many challenge the role of poetry in science fiction and fantasy, the editors have taken great care to remind us of how much has been achieved, and how more is yet possible. A commendable achievement, and I look forward to returning to this collection in the years ahead.”
— Bryan Thao Worra, former SFPA President (2016–2022)
“When I first started reading science fiction as a teenager, I always loved discovering the occasional poem tucked in among the short stories and novelettes in the Year’s Best collections, and I was so happy when Analog and Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine carried on the tradition of including poetry in their definition of what science fiction could be. And now this! It’s a true delight to see so many wonderful poems in one place! And such an infinite variety! There are poems here exploring virtually everything you can think of: — aliens, ants, quantum entanglement, grocery stores, 1950s sci-fi movies, math, music, Marie Curie, the National History Museum, messages from (and to) the dead, and poetry itself — and ranging from the elegiac to the soaring, the nostalgic to the futuristic, the harsh to the contemplative. A truly galactic collection of science fiction’s best poems and poets!” — Connie Willis
[image error]National Poetry Month Reading: THE HEARTBEAT OF THE UNIVERSE: POEMS FROM ASIMOV’S AND ANALOG was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
March 1, 2024
Introducing The Heartbeat of the Universe: Poems from Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog Science…
Reviewers: Download an advance reader’s copy on NetGalley!Now available for Pre-OrderInterstellar Flight Press is delighted to announce our latest poetry book, a very special collaboration with Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and Analog Science Fiction and Fact.
The Heartbeat of the Universe collects poems from the top writers in the science fiction and literary genres, including voices such as Jane Yolen, Bruce Boston, Robert Frazier, Jessy Randall, and many others. These poems, selected by editor Emily Hockaday from the pages of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and Analog Science Fiction and Fact over the past decade, examine the Universe’s smallest particles and largest astral phenomena. These poems travel through time, speak to and from the dead, explore the body and quantum physics, all depicting the human condition and allowing readers to learn more about their universe and themselves.
Editor Biography:Emily Hockaday is the senior managing editor for Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and Analog Science Fiction and Fact. With Jackie Sherbow, she coedited the horror anthology Terror at the Crossroads. She is the author of the poetry collections In a Body (Harbor Editions, 2023) and Naming the Ghost (Cornerstone Press, 2022), along with six chapbooks. She can be found online at www.emilyhockaday.com.
About the Cover Designer:Joy Brienza lives in a small shoreline town in Connecticut with her family. The cover designer of the anthology, Terror of the Crossroads: Tales of Horror, Delusion and the Unknown, Joy has been at her current job for 11 years as Manager of Design, Websites, and Digital Publishing for Penny Publications, publisher of Dell Magazines and Penny Press books and magazines. Her other creative work also includes designing print, digital, and social media ads, and websites for Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazines, among many other sites. As an artist, Joy has worked in all types of mediums, but especially loves oil painting. In her free time she enjoys spending time at the beach with family and friends.
Reviewers: Download an advance reader’s copy on NetGalley!Now available for Pre-OrderAdvance Praise“The Heartbeat of the Universe gathers poems into a story of the world, past, present, and future, as seen through sound and rhythm, wonder and science. It is a collection that spins and weaves — using both experimental and formal structure — a core connectivity: that we are all, each of us, in every moment, speculative and liminal, and the poetry that recognizes this is truly special. My heartfelt congratulations to the authors and editors of this magnificent book.”
— Fran Wilde, Nebula-winning author and occasional battle-poet
“This collection constitutes an important step in keeping our appreciation of speculative poetry alive and well, with a remarkable sampling of the diverse voices and approaches poets featured in Analog and Asimov’s over the past decade. In an age when so many challenge the role of poetry in science fiction and fantasy, the editors have taken great care to remind us of how much has been achieved, and how more is yet possible. A commendable achievement, and I look forward to returning to this collection in the years ahead.”
— Bryan Thao Worra, former SFPA President (2016–2022)
Contents:Introduction by Emily HockadayThe Sum of Broken Parts Mostly Hydrogen by Jack MartinSomebody I Used to Love Asks Me Who Marie Curie Is by Carly RubinPostulate 2 by Timons EsaiasSparking the Matter by Tod McCoyFay Ajzenberg-Selove (1926–2010) by Jessy RandallSoft Collision by Scott E. Green & Herb KaudererHypothesis/Assertion by Daniel Dexter Villaniatomic numbers by D.A. Xiaolin SpiresMaryam Mirzakhani (1977–2017) by Jessy RandallMathematics by John CiminelloAlmost Certainly a Time Traveler by Jarod K. AndersonAfter National Geographic by Jason Kahlerrecipe for time travel in case we lose each other by Kristian MacaronArchaeologists Uncover Bones, Bifocals by a Tricycle by Steven WithrowThe Appeal of Time Travel by Kimberly Jonesbillets-doux by Brittany HauseWhat a Time Traveler Needs Most by Jane YolenAt the Natural History Museum by Bruce BostonTime Traveler at the Grocery Store circa 1992 by Kristian MacaronApocatastasis by Jennifer CrowAbyss inside our young hearts by Yuliia VeretaQuantum Entanglement by Ken PoynerIn Theory by Rebecca SiegelField Notes by Lola HaskinsThree-body by Josh PearceNeurologic by Robert FrazierYes, Antimatter Is Real by Holly Lyn WalrathAll the Weight by Holly L. DayThe Astronaut’s Heart by Robert BorskiCollisions by Kathryn FritzLeaving by Bruce McAllisterQuantum Entanglement by Fred D. WhiteAnsibles by Ursula WhitcherTaxi Ride by Ian GohService Interrupted by Levi M. RubeckPacking for the Afterlife by Mary Soon LeeMessaging the Dead by Betsy AokiAll Saints Day by Lisa BellamyThe Tsuchinoko Always Lies by Megan BranningFinal Dispatch by Robert FrazierSmall Certainties by Sara PolskyWhen Words Take Flight by Bruce BostonMiles To Go Before We Rest by G.O. ClarkAttack of the Fifty-Foot Woman by Ron KoertgeMusic Remembers by Ashok K. BankerFirst Contact by Stuart GreenhouseThe impending apocalypse helps me maintain perspective by Steven DondlingerPast Pluto by Eric PinderWobble by Richard SchiffmanTerra Incognita by Fred D. WhiteThe Dogs of the Soviet Space Program by Christopher CokinosContinuum by G.O. ClarkGalileo Falling by Stuart GreenhouseFlight by Donald M. HasslerHow to Go Twelfth by Mary Soon LeeEcopoiesis by Joe HaldemanInside Voice by Jackie SherbowI Get a Call from My Estranged Father and Let It Go to Voicemail by Aaron SandbergYour Homeworld Is Gone by Leslie J. AndersonThe Three Laws of Poetics by Stewart C. BakerReviewers: Download an advance reader’s copy on NetGalley!Now available for Pre-Order
[image error]Introducing The Heartbeat of the Universe: Poems from Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog Science… was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
February 16, 2024
Introducing Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism by Andrea Kriz
“Andrea Kriz’s uncompromising, subversive, and elegant stories address all the big themes — and the little ones too — with a clear eye and post-modern sensibility. While her stories address race and colonialism and Covid, they also examine connection and loneliness, our assumptions about each other, and what it means to be human. Literary SF at its best!”
— Shariann Lewitt, author of Memento Mori and “Fieldwork”
Interstellar Flight Press is delighted to announce the publication of Andrea Kriz’s debut short story collection, Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism.
Your friend creates an award-winning VR game — based on your friendship. An AI starts a YouTube channel at the expense of its creator. A fanfic writer plagiarizing the lives of the marginalized gets her comeuppance. Time travel meets magic in a world blown into pieces by war. Dragons modify DNA and undergo peer review. In Andrea Kriz’s debut short story collection, technology and genres wildly blend in stories that will challenge how you see our future.
Stories include “Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism,” “Communist Computer Rap God,” “There Are No Hot Topics on Whukai,” “Miss DELETE Myself,” “AIs Who Make AIs Make the Best AIs!” “The Ones Who Got Away from Time and Loss,” “Rebuttal to Reviewer’s Comments on Edits for “Demonstration of a Novel Draconification Protocol in a Human Subject”,” “I Want to Dream of a Brief Future,” “And That’s Why I Gave Up on Magic,” “Resistance in a Drop of DNA,” “The Last Caricature of Jean Moulin,” and “The Leviathan and the Fury.”
Pre-order the book today! Download an ARC on NetGalley“Read individually, these are brilliant stories. But together, they are something greater — in her characteristically deft prose, Kriz offers a deep and extended meditation on the commodification of identity and authenticity, plagiarism and loss of the self, the personal and the cultural memory of war. Readers will find so much to love in this collection; rereaders will find even more.”
— P.H. Lee, author of the Nebula-award nominated Just Enough RainAbout the Author
Andrea Kriz writes from Massachusetts, where she does research as a molecular biologist. In addition to the stories in this collection, her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld and Lightspeed Magazine, among others, and been translated into French in Galaxies SF. She is also part of the Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project, a collaboration between authors and Dartmouth faculty to create short stories exploring the future of humanity. You can find her online at https://andreakriz.wordpress.com/ or on Twitter @theworldshesaw.
“I’d encountered some of these stories when they first appeared online. On first read, Kriz’s irreverent take on sentient AIs and sendup of influence culture had left me chuckling. Now, upon re-reading, I realize that how non-human the AIs were in their thinking was Kriz’s point, and I like the stories even more. In these tales of the Internet generation, Kriz doesn’t shy away from confronting the racism, colonialism, cultural appropriation, and aggression that often lurk therein. The silliness draws you in, but you stay for the messages she slips between the lines. I hadn’t previously read Kriz’s stories on the other topics she includes in this collection. She’ll make a story out of formal scientific correspondence or play with our notions of linear time. I especially enjoyed her alternate history based on WWII French resistance figures — some fighting for freedom, some only for France — and the rabbit holes of real history she inspired me to dive into. The kicker — she managed to get all of the stories from this first collection (aside from the one new one) published within a two-year period of time. How did she manage to do this while actively engaged in scientific research as a day-job? Kriz’s style is unique; I eagerly anticipate seeing where it will take her in the future.”
Allan Dyen-Shapiro, Ph.D Biochemistry, Stanford ’94, and author of short stories in venues including Dark Matter Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, and othersAbout the Cover Artist
Dante Luiz is an illustrator and occasional writer from an island in southern Brazil. He’s the interior artist for Crema (comiXology/Dark Horse), and his work with comics has also appeared in anthologies, like Wayward Kindred (TO Comix Press), Mañana: Latinx Comics From the 25th Century (Power & Magic Press), and Shout Out (TO Comix Press), among others. Find him online on Twitter and Instagram (@dntlz) or his website (danteluiz.com).
Pre-order the book today!Download an ARC on NetGalley[image error]Introducing Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism by Andrea Kriz was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
February 5, 2024
Book Launch for SMALL GODS OF CALAMITY by Sam Kyung Yoo
Join us March 4, 2024 via Zoom to Celebrate the Publication of SMALL GODS OF CALAMITY, Yoo’s Debut Novella
This event requires registration. Seats are limited.
Save the date! We’re hosting Sam Kyung Yoo to celebrate the publication of their debut novella, Small Gods of Calamity. This is one you won’t want to miss. Yoo’s story is heartfelt, authentic, and the kind of detective mystery that keeps you guessing.
About the BookGhosts that speak in smoke. Spirits with teeth like glass. A parasitic, soul-eating spirit worm has gone into a feeding frenzy, but all the Jong-ro Police Department’s violent crimes unit sees is a string of suicides. Except for Kim Han-gil, Seoul’s only spirit detective. He’s seen this before. He’ll do anything to stop another tragedy from happening, even if that means teaming up with Shin Yoonhae, the man Han-gil believes is responsible for the horrifying aftermath of his mother’s last exorcism. In their debut novella, Sam Kyung Yoo weaves a tale of mystical proportions that’s part crime-thriller, part urban fantasy.
“An expertly-layered detective mystery filled with folkloric spirits, rich atmosphere, and a pulsing, emotional core, Small Gods of Calamity stays riveting from intriguing opening to beautiful conclusion. Yoo’s unforgettable debut is a wonderfully queer exploration of grief, trauma, and reckoning with the past that will leave your heart aching in the best way.” — Kelsea Yu, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of Bound Feet and It’s Only a Game
About the AuthorSam Kyung Yoo is a queer/ace author and third-degree black belt taekwondo instructor from Massachusetts. They graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English, creative writing, and film studies, but have since abandoned academia to write stories about ghosts, East Asian folklore, and sad robots. Their work has been published by Fantasy, Neon Hemlock Press, Strange Horizons, among others. You can find them online at samkyungyoo.com.
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“A gripping, absolutely un-put-downable novella. Yoo hooks you from the first page to the last with a riveting supernatural murder mystery that plays out partly in our everyday world and partly in the perilous world of spirits and ghosts. In the midst of soul-destroying danger and darkness, the main characters are infused with a bright and gentle light, and I hope this isn’t the last time I get to meet Detective Kim Han-gil.” — Maria Haskins, author of Wolves & Girls and Six Dreams About the Train[image error]
Book Launch for SMALL GODS OF CALAMITY by Sam Kyung Yoo was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
January 29, 2024
Read Works by IFP Staff and Volunteers Published in 2023
Interstellar Flight Press is not just an indie press; we’re a community. Behind every book and article we publish is a team of amazing volunteers who are writers in their own right. If you want to support what we do, then support our writers by reading or buying their work. (Or, you know, you can always become a Patron, too.) This is just a sampling of the awesome and cool works that our volunteers, staff, and writers have created in 2023. Plus, of course, a list of what IFP published too!
We ❤ our community!The Bread Must Riseby James Beamon and Stewart C Baker
The Bread Must Rise is a 450,000-word interactive comedy/fantasy/baking/eldritch horror novel by James Beamon and Stewart C Baker. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
Understudiesby Priya Sridhar
Novel from Hiraeth Press. The Stardust Sisters have always made their parody shows work. So what if they lost their third member to Hollywood? Does it even matter that they don’t have a new theater facility? Grad school should fix that, twin sisters Stella and Evangeline calculate, and they’ll get the funding, as well as a decent apartment in the city.
As if by miracle, an apartment with no rent opens up — in the Haunted Basilio Theater, where new management wants a fresh start after summer camp went wrong. All the twins have to do is perform a show scripted a century ago, and give up bits of their body heat. The show must go on, right? Right?!
UNDERSTUDIES by Priya Sridhar | Hiraeth Publishing
Inside Job2by Mel Grebing
In Tumbled Tales: An Anthology of Unconventional Stories from Wandering Wave Press. This anthology showcases 21 genre-busting stories to surprise even the most avid reader. Discover what talented authors can do with urban fantasy, westerns, romance, horror, sci-fi, mysteries, thrillers, and dystopian fiction. This collection proves that genre fiction doesn’t need to stay in one lane.
Ten Thousand Cranesby Julie Reeser
In Bourbon Penn Magazine. “The whales had long ago sung their last song when humans discovered the mermaids washing up along the shores. Nothing could be done about one more White Rabbit decrying the late hour.”
The End of the Horror Storyby Patrick Barb
In AHH! That’s What I Call Horror: An Anthology of ’90s Horror. In the mid-90s, a film crew prepping a low-budget slasher in post-Cold War Siberia encounter a sinister, witch-y presence in the woods.
The Small God of West 54th Stby Alex Kingsley
in Translunar Traveler’s Lounge, August. “Another one of my brothers was killed today, which really spoiled my Friday afternoon. And I saw it, too, which made it even worse. He was sitting in the street, and of course they’re always waddling around in the street so it’s not like that was anything new. Usually my boys would fly out of the way in time, but this guy was beginning to lose his hearing. Too long spent around city traffic, I think. Taxi turned the corner and the rest of his brothers fled. He couldn’t hear.”
Mother’s Teethby E.L. Chen
In The Dark Magazine. “The shadow that wears his mother’s teeth appears at the window again. Noah, the shadow whispers from between lipless jaws, or maybe it is only the winter wind murmuring against the glass. Noah burrows deeper under his covers, hugging his teddy bear for protection and warmth. The chill has peeled back his skin and crept inside, wearing him like a blanket until his fingers don’t feel like they belong to him anymore.”
“Adding Up” in Kaleidoscope — A Queer Anthology from Cloaked Press 3)
“The Power Of” with Manawaker Flash Fiction Podcast episode (0825)
The Strange Garden and Other Weird Tales came out this year, andhttps://www.patreon.com/posts/awards-2023-94743504
Awards Eligibility / Year in Review Post 2023 - PATRICK BARB
“Death Is Not A Marketing Tool” And Other Sentences We Shouldn’t Have To Sayby Priya Sridhar
Nonfiction essay on the author who faked their death. “Dead authors can’t write more because death is forever and final. That’s why it’s sad. No AI is going to recreate a new story from an author’s voice and have it be the same. Such a lie for any reason barring witness protection is hurtful to the living.”
“Death Is Not A Marketing Tool” And Other Sentences We Shouldn’t Have To Say2023 Works Eligible for Awards and Nominations - Priya J Sridhar
Hollywood Animalsby Corey J White
In Interzone #295. A story about animal cruelty that Bogi Takács calls “really about animal mistreatment, in its entirety, so if you think in the slightest that it might be too upsetting for you to read, then please don’t. But I do recommend it if you can — it is a take on the topic that is both thoughtful, heartfelt, and the speculative elements are integral to it.”
How to Be a Ghostby Annika Barranti Klein
In Worlds of Possibility, February. Julia Rios calls it a “poignant story about a grieving mother.”
“Most days I don’t miss having a body. I miss specific things, sure. The sublime pain of stepping into a hot bath, easing myself in slowly. The little surprise of biting into a sun ripe cherry tomato, the way the skin would burst on my tongue and the juice run down my chin … that was nice. When I miss those aspects of having a body enough that I can almost feel the ache of its absence, I float into a television and let the electrical synapses pop around me. It isn’t the same as feeling, but some days it’s enough.”
An Incomplete Record of Databank Deletions, in Alphabetical Orderby Mar Vincent
In Robotic Ambitions from Apex. Short story. Beautifully structured in the form of alphabetical entries from Asperity to Verisimilitude.
Whether striving to protect the family they’ve chosen, searching for meaning amid the chaos of the world, or questioning what it is that makes one alive, robotic ambition can mean many different things. Robotic Ambitions: Tales of Mechanical Sentience explores the nuance of sentience manufactured and evolved within mechanical beings. It peels back the metal exterior and takes a hard look at what is inside.
Within these pages you will discover stories of robots defying their coding for a chance at love, resisting societal norms so that they may experience art and pleasure, and searching for their place in a world that was not made for them, but rather was made to use them. These are stories about striking out on your own, building something new amid destruction, and doing whatever it takes to make sure you survive. Robots and AI are more than tools for humanity. They have their own goals, dreams, and aspirations,
I am Creating a New Drugby J.C. Rodriguez
Prose poem in Phoebe Journal. “I need to believe in something again.”
Submergedby Adria Bailton
Flash fiction. Available in Audio at Manawaker Podcast. Spooky, watery, and dark.
Epiphanyby Jules V. Gachs
Debut Novel from Off Limits Press. When pregnant Estela learns that her wife Eva has hanged herself from an oak tree, she can’t believe she would have done so voluntarily. Eva, a journalist obsessed with the crimes of the so-called Garden of Horrors, was about to release a podcast about the convicted killer, Coral, who always maintained it wasn’t her who slaughtered her family and her missing new born, but an evil forest spirit.
As Estela dives deep into the recordings, emails, and letters from Eva’s investigation, in Coral’s retelling of the murders, she will be forced to face a simple question that could cost her life as well as her unborn baby’s: “Do you believe in magic?”
The Green Man’s Wifeby Archita Mittra
In The Dread Machine, March. This tale blending South Asian customs with Celtic folklore, was published last year in Tasavvur and follows a non-binary witch navigating an ecological crisis.
Over the Dragon’s Gateby Juliana Jones & Riley Sanderson
Treya has all he needs: food, shelter, other fish to swim with. But when a boy falls into his pond, Treya discovers he’s more than a fish. He can also become a boy, and now he has a friend: the irrepressible Eli. When Eli starts asking questions about who and what Treya is, they discover questions are dangerous, answers have a cost, and their fates depend on unraveling the mystery of Treya’s past.
Down Memory Laneby Lisa Timpf
In The Bicyclist’s Guide to the Galaxy: Feminist, Fantastical Tales of Books and Bikes. The power of the pedal and the page shine through in these ten joyfully feminist science fiction and fantasy stories. Two strangers and their bike fall through a plot hole and into a fantasy novel, an author attempts to chronicle the solar cycling trend, a sixth grader’s beloved novel is stolen by a horde of bicycling fae, an interstellar book preservationist takes a bike to fit in and gets a wilder ride than she bargained for, and more adventures are set in imagined realities not so different from our own futures, pasts, and present-day lives. Take these stories for a spin and enjoy an escape from the perils of everyday sexism and fossil fuel dependence.
Works Published by Interstellar Flight Press in 2023
Beautiful Malady
by Ennis Rook Bashe
Queer Disability told through Fairytales, Folklore, and Fantasy
A siren song of queerness, disability, and myth, these poems reinvent love, life, and death. BEAUTIFUL MALADY is an exploration of pain, weaving speculative poems about fairy tales, folklore, fantasy, and the supernatural with the reality of chronic illness and disability. Ennis Rook Bashe deftly creates a world where the broken body is beautiful.
anOther Mythology
by Maxwell I. Gold
A Queer Poetic Retelling of Classic Myths
From Thanatos to Hades, Maxwell Gold’s book of horror prose poetry reimagines myths from a queer perspective. Gold’s poetry merges camp sensibility and cosmic horror in poems that are beautiful, bloody, and barbed. A poetic soap opera of gods and monsters.
Level Six
Killday Series
by William Ledbetter
The thrilling second installment in the Killday Series by Nebula Award winning Author William Ledbetter
Fifteen years after warring artificial intelligences nearly destroyed Earth, Abby, the daughter of Killday hero Leah Gibson, finds an artifact from that struggle, upsetting a delicate balance of power and dragging her into the middle of a new fight for humanity’s survival.
The Long Fall UpAnd Other Stories
by William Ledbetter
From bestselling Nebula-Award winning William Ledbetter comes a groundbreaking collection of science fiction short stories that will bend your heart like a black hole. From AI to robot medics to life on Mars, Ledbetter takes real tech, blends it with hard science fact, and invents futures full of fantastic fiction. Includes 17 previously published stories and one original story.
Interstellar Flight Magazine Best of Year FourEdited by Holly Lyn Walrath
Interstellar Flight Magazine is an online SFF and pop culture mag devoted to essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. With interviews, personal essays, rants, and raves, the authors of Interstellar Flight Magazine explore the vast outreaches of nerdom.
[image error]Read Works by IFP Staff and Volunteers Published in 2023 was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
January 24, 2024
Introducing SMALL GODS OF CALAMITY by Sam Kyung Yoo
“Atmospheric, layered, and rich with emotion, Small Gods of Calamity is a satisfyingly fresh spin on supernatural noir.” — Premee Mohamed, Nebula award winner and author of And What Can We Offer You Tonight
Interstellar Flight Press is delighted to announce our next novella, SMALL GODS OF CALAMITY by Sam Kyung Yoo.
Now available on NetGalley
In their debut novella, Sam Kyung Yoo weaves a tale of mystical proportions that’s part crime-thriller, part urban fantasy.
Ghosts that speak in smoke. Spirits with teeth like glass. A parasitic, soul-eating spirit worm has gone into a feeding frenzy, but all the Jong-ro Police Department’s violent crimes unit sees is a string of suicides. Except for Kim Han-gil, Seoul’s only spirit detective. He’s seen this before. He’ll do anything to stop another tragedy from happening, even if that means teaming up with Shin Yoonhae, the man Han-gil believes is responsible for the horrifying aftermath of his mother’s last exorcism. A tightly woven blend of myth, magic, and the ties of a found family.
“A refreshing urban occult detective story about imperfect heroes and confronting the roots of trauma. It is a tale of aching quiet beauty led by broken souls, yet it is also one of warmth and reconciliation.” — Ai Jiang, Nebula finalist and author of Linghun and I Am AIAbout the Author
Sam Kyung Yoo is a queer/ace author and third-degree black belt taekwondo instructor from Massachusetts. They graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English, creative writing, and film studies, but have since abandoned academia to write stories about ghosts, East Asian folklore, and sad robots. Their work has been published by Fantasy, Neon Hemlock Press, Strange Horizons, among others. You can find them online at samkyungyoo.com.
“A thrilling five-star read delving into the delicacy of Korean Shamanism and the horror of evil spirit possession. A detective by day but a spiritualist by night, Han-gil is used to the ridicule of his fellows, but none of it matters when only he can see a pervasive evil worm possessing a young woman. And he knows it well because the same evil spirit is responsible for his mother’s death. But upon his investigation, he runs into the very person his mother died to save: Yoonhae. Both children at the time of Yoonhae’s possession, as adults, their past haunts them as they must join forces to track down this new threat. This ethereal glide into Korean shamanism combined with a sensory exploration brings to life a paranormal horror that delivers hope. Kyung Yoo’s writing vividly portrays the spiritualist’s world tinged with terror. A dark and delicate descent into this insidious world’s evil spirits. Something in the soul aches at the pain Han-gil and Yoonhae share, yet between them is a bond stronger than the regrets of their past. A thoroughly recommended read for fans of the show Tress and paranormal horror in this character-driven, soul-snatching read.” — E.J. Dawson, author of Behind the Veil
“An expertly-layered detective mystery filled with folkloric spirits, rich atmosphere, and a pulsing, emotional core, Small Gods of Calamity stays riveting from intriguing opening to beautiful conclusion. Yoo’s unforgettable debut is a wonderfully queer exploration of grief, trauma, and reckoning with the past that will leave your heart aching in the best way.” — Kelsea Yu, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of Bound Feet and It’s Only a Game
“A gripping, absolutely un-put-downable novella. Yoo hooks you from the first page to the last with a riveting supernatural murder mystery that plays out partly in our everyday world and partly in the perilous world of spirits and ghosts. In the midst of soul-destroying danger and darkness, the main characters are infused with a bright and gentle light, and I hope this isn’t the last time I get to meet Detective Kim Han-gil.” — Maria Haskins, author of Wolves & Girls and Six Dreams About the Train
“Yoo’s unique take on spirits and possession, coupled with an array of complex characters, makes this one of the best urban fantasies I’ve ever read. It is a poignant tale about the price of being a hero and how salvation can be found through the people you least expect.” — Marina Garrido, reviewer for The Sinister Scoop and Associate Editor for Hedone Books.
“Sam Yoo’s must-read book is a party for the senses, not to be missed! From page one, this book lifts the reader up and draws us along a spirit-infused journey that is taut and exciting, and gives us an urgent appetite not only to see what happens but to root for Han-gil to succeed in exorcising the evil before more innocent people die.” — Rebecca Marks
About the Cover Artist
Riotbones is a queer illustrator and comic artist from the Philippines with a passion for exploring all things haunting, dark, and tender — whether it be through the stories of men, monsters, or anything in between. Specializing in narrative work and illustration, they’ve worked for various magazines, books, TTRPGs, and video games, but are drawn in particular to horror and fantasy.
“A beautifully intimate mystery, and Yoo’s magic is a persistent sensory delight, offering a banquet of sights, sounds, and scents that hum beneath every scene.” — Moses Ose Utomi, author of The Lies of the Ajungo
Now available on NetGalley
[image error]Introducing SMALL GODS OF CALAMITY by Sam Kyung Yoo was originally published in Interstellar Flight Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
