Nancy E. Hightower's Blog, page 3

Beautiful Monsters

I start teaching again in a few days, and there is already too much to do! But oh, wonderful readers and teachers and writers and artists, I’ve got plenty of visual delights for you while keeping you updated on book news, reviews, and interviews soon to appear.

First lovely thing: I caught a glimpse of my book cover by the wonderful Siolo Thompson, a fine artist who lives in Seattle. This is a portrait of the amazing Morgan, one of the fiercest water spirits that you get to meet in Elementarí Rising.  I hope to have a book trailer done by May that I can post here as well.

Speaking of epic fantasy, I get the chance to interview the fabulous Blake Charlton for Fantasy Matters and will be reviewing his novel Spellwright. I wish I could make every student who has struggled with writing read this book. There is something so lovely about watching the magical way that actual words come alive and erupt from the very sinews of the body in this story.

Since you will have to wait a couple of weeks for that interview to appear, I’m making it up to you by giving you an interview with Neil Gaiman, now out in Origin Magazine. You can purchase a print copy at most Whole Foods or Barnes and Noble, or get a digital version of the January/February issue here. Neil talks about Twitter, social media, the audio adaptation of Neverwhere, and the influence of Joel Peter Witkin. Go. Get. It.

For Weird Fiction Review, I’ll be writing on two fabulous artists: Digital artist and sculptor Micheal Rees and Jessica Joslin, a brass and bone sculptor. Articles will go live on the 15th and 29th. Watch the video! 

8 Legs from Michael Rees on Vimeo.

Lazlo, 2010, Jessica Joslin

2012: The Year of Dragons and Saucy Dresses

This year was a roller coaster, the way it was for many of my friends–full of wonders and dragons, heartbreak, and ridiculously fabulous adventures.

Saucy dress #1

I started out 2012 really in December of 2011. I had just received word that two of my stories where going to get published: “A Coffin Story” and “Mereá.” I loved the coffin piece more because, well, it’s about coffins, and it was so strange and irreverent and something of a speculative kind of memoir. The Mereá piece was just plain strange, but turns out that it did quite well, eventually making it onto Lois Tilton’s  2012 Reviews in Review. I sent out a few more short stories that got published, including “Evangelical Wonderland“ and “Come to the Table,” (“fictions” which are more truth than lie). I also started writing articles on the most delicious art for Weird Fiction Review, run by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer.

But rather than quench the hunger for adventure burning inside me, it only strengthened it. So I shot off to  NYC for Armory Arts week, went dancing three nights in a row, saw cool art, made new friends, and decided to move there within a year.

That’s a big decision.

Saucy dress #2

Not one to make such big decisions lightly, I visited NYC as much as possible, staying at least 10 days each time and living in different parts of the city to see what neighborhoods I liked. Among the many events I attended were a Mermaid Party, KGB Fantastic Fiction Readings, an immersive play (Speakeasy Dollhouse), and a Swing Dance party (most times wearing a very saucy dress. Saucy dresses, I find, help when going on an adventure). I also researched a ton of art and visited many a gallery and museum. I hung out with DJ Spooky and decided that I was going to get him to speak at CU sometime during the year. Meanwhile, I was revising my epic fantasy novel, Elementarí Rising and sending it out to publishers, as well as attending conferences such as ICFA and Readercon.

The fall became a turning point as I was up for reappointment regarding my University of Colorado position. Rather than apply for reappointment, I turned in my resignation letter. It felt like it was the right thing to do, despite not having a job lined up, not knowing where I was going to live, or any other kind of specific detail that would add some amount of logic or reason.

And then, five days after that, we lost the amazing poet Malinda Markham. She had come to be one of my best friends, my ally in the fight against the black dog, and was one of the most talented writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. The weeks after that were rather a blur, full of dragons and black dogs and all other sorts of nasty creatures, as you can imagine. I regained some equilabrium with another trip to NYC in late September to give a lecture on the grotesque in art at William Paterson University (you can see some of the groovilicious art I teach in the video below). It ended with the Dumbo Arts Festival, and the most wondrous dance party inside powerHouse books (can you tell that I like to dance a lot when I get the opportunity?).

I came back from NYC to an offer by Pink Narcissus Press to publish the novel in the summer of 2013. I just saw a draft of the cover art, and will be posting it on Facebook later this week! The year ended with the Dangerous Tea, where 11 cultural creative women gathered to share their works in progress and talk about all manner of art, writing, science, and the imagination.

And now I have a rather exciting year coming up, with an interview with Neil Gaiman coming out in Origin Magazine, a short story about the blob to appear in Gargoyle #60 this summer, as well as the novel (and some more poetry appearing as well). And sometime in July, I’ll make the move to NYC.  There will be more dragons to face, I’m sure, and still a job to get. But oh hell, what an adventure this is!

A Very Dangerous Tea and Other Adventures

December started out in fine form, since I had three poems (based on Biblical stories) published in Danse Macabre, which you can read here. I also had a poem, “Tamar“, published in Strange Horizons in November (and another will soon be published there as well). I have a full manuscript of these strange little snippets that I started while writing liturgy for a local church. Hopefully, I’ll get more of them published.

Now, about my NYC adventures! I didn’t post much last month since I got horribly sick during my Boston stay, but I will say that my lecture on Fairy Tales and Art went over swimmingly well in Dora Goss’s Fairy Tales and Literature class at Boston University. It was an excellent time, and Dora’s students had really insightful responses to the artwork. If you have not checked out Dora’s amazing short stories or novella, you need to.

Rachel Boyadjis, Valya Dudycz Lupescu, me, and Rita J. King

I recovered a bit in between visits and came back to NYC this past week in order to attend one Dangerous Tea, the brainchild of Valya Dudycz Lupescu and I on a twitter exchange late one night.  We hadn’t met yet, but wanted to, and also wanted  to connect other writers and artists. On December 16th, ten women (dressed dangerously) gathered in Cynthia Von Buhler’s gorgeous home, Archipelago. It was a night of getting to know one another sharing stories, tea cups, talking about creative processes, and generally having the best time. There were live doves, of course, which added to the rather magical atmosphere–between the stories and candlelight and these beautiful creatures, I was transported out of NYC and into some mythical place of words and light. The other women there were Rita J. King, EVP of Business Development at Science House; Jennifer Summerfield (aka Trillian Stars), a wonderful actress; Janice Cable, a “wine fabulist” and writer who had me smiling throughout her entire reading; the gorgeous Katelan Foisy, who inherited my tea cup with all its dark history. Dora and Valya were there, as well as my friend Ilana Teitelbaum Reichert, fantasy writer and Huffington Post blogger; Rachel Boyadjis, aerial performer, writer, and assistant to Cynthia; and Stefania Carrozzini, owner of I AM (International Art Media). I dressed up in dangerous heels for the night (which were also the most comfortable heels ever–go figure). For more pictures from the night, look up #dangeroustea on Twitter, and you’ll see us in masks and our dangerous dresses. Cynthia was a wonderful host, and if you’ve not checked out her Speakeasy Dollhouse, then you really should (I wrote a review of it here). We missed having Maria Dahvana Headley (who let Dora and I crash at her place while she was in Europe), but there will be more NYC gatherings in the future!

It was also a great time reconnecting with artist Carla Gannis, and meeting Art Critical editor David Cohen. Carla and I are notorious for our dancing nights during Armory Arts weeks, and I admire her work that delves into the New Aesthetic. Dora and I had fun running around NYC, having lunch with the ever delightful Ellen Datlow and other peeps. We ended our trip by going to a reading at KGB Bar to hear Mary Robinette Kowal and Ben Loory read and watch one of Mary’s puppet shows. Dinner afterwards was a hoot, as I got to sit next to the very entertaining Jennifer Jackson. I left NYC by way of Philadelphia, where I got to hang again with Jennifer Summerfield and her husband Kyle Cassidy.

And what else can I say? You can see, perhaps, why I go back to NYC as often as I can. Every trip is an adventure, an education, and re-connection to all the different, glorious tribes I belong to.

Ray Caesar’s Uncanny Beauties

Ray Caesar, First of Days, 2004

If you have not had the lucky chance to view Ray Caesar’s work before, now might be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. A new exhibition, “Miles to Go Before I Sleep,” with Gottfried Helnwein, Catherine Howe, and Anita Kunzwill be shown at Gallery House, in Toronto, Canada, beginning November 29th. I have written on Caesar’s work before both at Weird Fiction Review and Fantasy Matters. If you find his work beautiful, entrancing, and disturbing, then I believe you’re experiencing the wonders of the grotesque. Here are a few sneak previews of the show. All images used courtesy of Ray Caesar/Gallery House.

Ray Caesar, The Manager, 2012

 

Ray Caesar, Kitten, 2003

Big News

First, the big news (why keep you all waiting?): I finally get to announce that my fantasy novel, Elementari Rising, will be published by Pink Narcissus Press in 2014. I am so excited that this manuscript I’ve worked on for so long is going to be a book! If you want to check out the prologue, go visit my website (it will be up soon). You can also see what short stories I’ve published lately under the News section (with links to the stories).

It’s been a while since I posted, I know, and that is only because of one insane semester. I traveled to NYC in September to give a talk on the grotesque at William Paterson University, and then came back and worked furiously to get Paul D. Miller to come to the CU campus in the Spring. And in a few days, I’m hopping another plane to give a lecture on fairy tales and art in Theodora Goss’s Fairytales and Literature class at Boston University. Then I’ll pop over to NYC to attend exhibits and finally go to the Quay Brothers retrospective at the MOMA.

And there’s a new issue of Origin Magazine that has my interview with China Miéville, wherein he discusses, art, politics, and of course, the fantastic in literature. You can pick up a copy at your local Whole Foods or Barnes and Noble.

And keep an eye out for two poems of mine that I believe will be appear in Strange Horizions this month.

The Monstrous in Art–and My Fiction

This will be a shortish post, but check back more often, since I plan on changing the nature of the blog to feature more artists and not just news about my latest articles and fiction.

But first, here is my Weird Fiction Review article on the amazing sculpture artist Patricia Piccinini. Her work rides the in-between of nature and nurture and playfully questions the role of bioethics in our society. 

Also, my story, “The Mummer’s Dance,” is up at Red Fez. The last quote marks were lost, but I think you can still track with it.

I will be in NYC from September 26-October 1st to give a lecture about the grotesque in art, and also the role of social media in art today, so do contact me if you’re in the area.