Tag: books

The Books of ConFusion 2023

John Winkelman

Books signed at ConFusion 2023

The above is the collection of books which I was fortunate enough to have signed by their respective authors at ConFusion 2023.

First up are Zoe’s Tale, The End of All Things, and The Last Colony by John Scalzi. I picked these books up over the past several years, and finally brought them with me to ConFusion to be signed.

I picked up The Pure World Comes by Rami Ungar when a dapper gentleman in a top hat asked me “Do you like horror?” as I was browsing the tables in Artist’s Alley during some down time. Rami and I talked for a hot minute about self publishing and horror, and I walked away with a new book.

Dark Factory and Velocities by Kathe Koja, I picked up back in December, expressly to get them signed during the convention.

On Saturday afternoon, and I stopped in to Catherine Stein‘s “Author Meet and Greet” event, and ended up purchasing Eden’s Voice and The Courtesan and Mr. Hyde, which are period romances in the steampunk and gas-lamp fantasy genres. I generally don’t read romance novels, but I love the myriad *punk subgenres so this might be an inroad into a genre in which I am woefully uninformed. And we discovered that we have a friend in common, in West Michigan author Jean Davis, who Catherine knows through the self-publishing and local/regional book event scenes.

On the bottom right is The Librarian, an anthology published by Air and Nothingness Press, which was funded through a 2022 Kickstarter campaign. One of the authors, Storm Michael Humbert, was in one of the author meet-and-greets, with a table of anthologies in which he has stories.

All in all, ConFusion 2023 was an excellent venue for picking up new books, and I am proud that I kept it to only four books purchased throughout the long weekend, as I have a shelf full of books which have been signed at ConFusions past, which I have not yet read. New books shall be my reward for reading old books.

One of these years it will be me sitting at a table behind a pile of books on which are printed the words “By John Winkelman.”

ConFusion 2022 – Notes for If You Liked That, Read This!

John Winkelman

These are my notes from the panel “If You Like That, Read This!” which took place at 7:00 pm on Saturday, January 22, 2022 at ConFusion 2022: Rising ConFusion in Novi, Michigan.

I moderated this panel, which was a somewhat superfluous role as the panel included only myself and Anton Cancre, filling in for Sarah Hans, who was unable to attend the panel. Since there were only half a dozen attendees, we decided to keep things informal. We pulled some chairs into a circle and went around and the room, discussing books we had read recently, and books we particularly liked and recommended to the other attendees.

The first list includes recent reads and books which came up in the conversation.

This next list is the reading recommendations, subtitled “Read this now!!!”

All in all, it was a fun panel, and I have added a few of these titles to my ever-growing TBR pile.

The Books of ConFusion 2022

John Winkelman

Though ConFusion 2022 was much smaller than previous ConFusions, many authors still attended so I arrived with high hopes, a pocketful of money, and some bags. I brought a stack of books to get signed, and returned home with those and a dozen more, with the majority of the new books signed as well. Truly, this was a glorious weekend for my collection!

Books signed at ConFusion 2022

The first photo is the books I brought to ConFusion 2022 which were signed by the authors.

The top row is Jim C. Hines‘ Magic Ex Libris series, including Libriomancer, Codex Born, Unbound and Revisionary.

The second row starts Terminal Uprising, the second book in Hines’ Janitors of the Post Apocalypse series. Jason Sanford‘s new novel Plague Birds is next, followed by Pimp My Airship by Maurice Broaddus, and Patrick S. Tomlinson‘s Gate Crashers.

Books purchased and signed at ConFusion 2022

This photo includes the books I acquired at ConFusion 2022 and which were signed by the authors.

First up is The Banished Craft by E.D.E. Bell. Next are Starship Repo and In the Black by Patrick S. Tomlinson. Then comes Hidden Menagerie, an anthology edited by Michael Cieslak.

Next are two books by Jen Haeger, Whispers of a Killer and Moonlight Medicine: Onset. Next is Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison, a collection of poetry by Anton Cancre. Cancre was at the signing table filling in for author Sarah Hans, who was unable to attend the signing session. As thanks for buying two of Hans’ books, Anton gave me his book for free (!) and was gracious enough to sign it. Later that day Anton again filled in for Hans in a panel I moderated, “If You Liked That, Read This!” which was loads of fun. I will discuss it more in my ConFusion 2022 wrap-up post.

And finally we have Jason Sanford‘s collection Never Never Stories which upon returning home I found is a duplicate. Oh, well. Now I have two copies of this book, in case I want to read it more than once.

Books purchased at ConFusion 2022

And these are the books I acquired at ConFusion 2022 which were not signed. For the first two, Dead Girls Don’t Love and An Ideal Vessel, author Sarah Hans was indisposed during the signing. The other two, Yoon Ha Lee‘s The Fox Tower and Other Tales, and Damian Duffy and John Jennings‘ graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler‘s Parable of the Sower, my partner and I picked up at the bookstore in the dealer room on our way out of the convention to return home.

A dozen new books is actually a fairly small haul for me at a ConFusion, but again, this was a much smaller than usual version of the event. I should just have time to read these before the next ConFusion in 2023.

2022 Books and Reading Material Acquisitions List

John Winkelman

This is the list of books and other reading material which I acquired in calendar year 2022. This is the eighth iteration of this list. The seven previous lists are available from the Index of Indexes.

This year I am slightly changing the format of this page to include the date each publication on this list was acquired. Titles in bold text are books and journals which I have read.

January (17)

  1. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #15 [2022.01.02]
  2. Tucker, Phil – Bastion (self published) [2022.01.05]
  3. Greylock, TL and O’Connor, Bryce – Shadows of Ivory (self published) [2022.01.05]
  4. Poetry #219.4 [2022.01.18]
  5. Fateforge 4, Encyclopedia (Studio Agate) [2022.01.19]
  6. Bell, E.D.E. – The Banished Craft (Atthis Arts LLC, inscribed) [2022.01.20]
  7. Cieslak, Michael (editor) – Hidden Menagerie, vol. 1 (Dragon’s Roost Press, inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  8. Tomlinson, Patrick S. – Starship Repo (inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  9. Tomlinson, Patrick S. – In the Black (inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  10. Haeger, Jen – Moonlight Medicine: Onset (Dragon’s Roost Press, inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  11. Haeger, Jen – Whispers of a Killer (Scarsdale Publishing, inscribed) [2022.01.21]
  12. Hans, Sarah – An Ideal Vessel (Dragon’s Roost Press) [2022.01.21]
  13. Hans, Sarah – Dead Girls Don’t Love (Dragon’s Roost Press) [2022.01.21]
  14. Cancre, Anton – Meaningless Cycles in a Vicious Glass Prison (Dragon’s Roost Press) [2022.01.21]
  15. Lee, Yoon Ha – The Fox’s Tower and Other Tales [2022.01.22]
  16. Duffy, Damien, Jennings, John, and Butler, Octavia E. – Parable of the Sower [2022.01.22]
  17. Harrison, Jim – Complete Poems, limited edition boxed set (Copper Canyon Press) [2022.01.27]

February (4)

  1. Poetry #219.5 [2022.02.01]
  2. Tales from the Magician’s Skull #7 [2022.02.16]
  3. Aquilone, James (editor) – Classic Monsters Unleashed (Black Spot Books, Crystal Lake Publishing) [2022.02.19]
  4. James, Marlon – Moon Witch, Spider King [2022.02.27]

March (8)

  1. Poetry #219.6 [2022.03.04]
  2. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #16 [2022.03.08]
  3. Ashton, Dyrk – War of Gods (self published) [2022.03.11]
  4. Alexander, Connor – Coyote & Crow: Core Rulebook [2022.03.14]
  5. Coolidge, Sarah (editor) – This Is Us Losing Count (Two Lines Press) [2022.03.17]
  6. Barakat, Najwa (Leafgren, Luke, translator) – Mister N (And Other Stories) [2022.03.19]
  7. The Paris Review #239 [2022.03.23]
  8. Poetry #220.1 [2022.03.29]

April (12)

  1. Lawson, Len, Manick, Cynthia, and Jackson, Gary (editors) – The Future of Black (Blair) [2022.04.01]
  2. Ono, Masatsugu (Carpenter, Juliet Winters, translator) – At the Edge of the Woods (Two Lines Press) [2022.04.05]
  3. Hilbig, Wolfgang (Cole, Isabel Fargo, translator) – The Interim (Two Lines Press) [2002.04.05]
  4. Zerán, Alia Trabucco (Hughes, Sophie, translator) – When Women Kill (And Other Stories) [2022.04.06]
  5. Salvage #11 [2022.04.08]
  6. Alles, Colleen – After the 8-Ball (Cornerstone Press, inscribed) [2022.04.14]
  7. Peninsula Poets #79.1 (Spring 2022) [2022.04.22]
  8. Barrera, Jazmina (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – On Lighthouses (Two Lines Press) [2022.04.23]
  9. Barrera, Jazmina (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – Linea Nigra (Two Lines Press) [2022.04.23]
  10. Renee, Anna – Patina (self-published) [2022.04.26]
  11. Monae, Janelle – The Memory Librarian [2022.04.30]
  12. Gramsci, Antonio – The Antonio Gramsci Reader (New York University Press) [2022.04.30]

May (6)

  1. Poetry #220.2 (May 2022) [2022.05.03]
  2. Ahmed, Saladin and Acosta, Dave – Dragon (Copper Bottle) [2022.05.05]
  3. Girl Genius Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game (Steve Jackson Games) [2022.05.14]
  4. Hurley, Kameron – Future Artifacts: Stories (Apex Book Company) [2022.05.22]
  5. Boston Review #22 [2022.05.26]
  6. Greer, James – Bad Eminence (And Other Stories) [2022.05.28]

June (5)

  1. Voices 2022 [2022.06.04]
  2. Poetry #220.3, June 2022 [2022.06.06]
  3. Barrera, Jazmina (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – Linea Nigra (special edition chapbook) (Two Lines Press, printed at Impronta Casa Editora) [2022.06.21]
  4. The Paris Review #240 [2022.06.22]
  5. Poetry #220.4, July/August 2022 [2022.06.27]

July (9)

  1. Steffen, David (editor) – The Long List Anthology, Vol. 7 (Diabolical Plots, LLC) [2022.07.03]
  2. Vuong, Ocean – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous [2022.07.05]
  3. Dawes, Kwame – Progeny of Air (Peepal Tree Press) [2022.07.05]
  4. Rosenthal, Linda (editor) – Listening at the Fire: The Poetry of Fountain Street Church (chapbook) [2022.07.05]
  5. Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix – Nomadology: The War Machine (Semiotext(e)) [2022.07.13]
  6. Creasy, Jonathan C. (editor) – Black Mountain Poems: An Anthology (New Directions) [2022.07.13]
  7. McLean, Robin – Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Rough, Tell ’em Nothing (And Other Stories) [2022.07.23]
  8. Xu Zechen (Abrahamsen, Eric, translator) – Running Through Beijing (Two Lines Press) [2022.07.27]
  9. Villoso, K.S. – The Wolf of Oren-Yaro [2022.07.27]

August (8)

  1. Michael Marder, Political Categories: Thinking Beyond Concepts (Columbia University Press) [2022.08.01]
  2. Sarah Chorn & Virginia McClain (editors) – The Alchemy of Sorrow (Crimson Fox Publishing) [2022.08.03]
  3. Crystal Sarakas and Rhondi Salsitz (editors) – Shattering the Glass Slipper (Zombies Need Brains) [2022.08.06]
  4. S.C. Butler and Joshua Palmatier (editors) – Brave New Worlds (Zombies Need Brains) [2022.08.06]
  5. David B. Coe and John Zakour (editors) – Noir (Zombies Need Brains) [2022.08.06]
  6. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #45
  7. Age of Antiquity: Adventure and Intrigue in the Ancient World (Azurian Publishing) [2022.08.18]
  8. Poetry #220.5, September 2022 [2022.08.27]

September (6)

  1. E.D.E. Bell – Night Ivy (Atthis Arts LLC, inscribed) [2022.09.03]
  2. The Paris Review #241 [2022.09.13]
  3. Hemly Boum (Nchanji Njamnsi, translator) – Days Come and Go (Two Lines Press) [2022.09.14]
  4. Visible (Two Lines Press, Calico Imprint) [2022.09.14]
  5. The Politics of Pleasure: Boston Review Fourm #43 [2022.09.19]
  6. Poetry #221.1, October 2022

October (21)

  1. Jim Harrison, The Search for the Genuine [2022.10.01]
  2. Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings [2022.10.01]
  3. João Gilberto Noll (Edgar Garbelotto, translator), Hugs and Cuddles (Two Lines Press) [2022.10.06]
  4. Marissa Lingen, Monstrous Bonds, #93/100 [2022.10.07]
  5. Duncan Hannah, 20th Century Boy [2022.10.07]
  6. Jim C. Hines, Terminal Peace [2022.10.07]
  7. Michael J. Sullivan, Fairlane (Riyria Enterprises) [2022.10.08]
  8. Elizabeth A. Trembley, Look Again: A Memoir (Street Noise Books) [2022.10.11]
  9. Ryan Lee, Planet On3 (self-published) [2022.10.11]
  10. Salvage #12 [2022.10.13]
  11. Jess Landry (editor), That Which Cannot Be Undone: An Ohio Horror Anthology (Cracked Skull Press) [2022.10.13]
  12. Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow, Chokepoint Capitalism (Beacon Press) [2022.10.21]
  13. Poetry #221.2 [2022.10.21]
  14. T.L. Greylock and Bryce O’Connor, Legacy of Bronze (self-published) [2022.10.22]
  15. Anna Urbanek, Herbalist’s Primer (Exalted Funeral Press) [2022.10.22]
  16. Cormac McCarthy, The Passenger [2022.10.26]
  17. Jason Gillikin (editor), Surface Reflections [2022.10.26]
  18. The Lakeshore Review #1 [2022.10.26]
  19. The Lakeshore Review #2 [2022.10.26]
  20. Peninsula Poets, Fall 2022 [2022.10.28]
  21. Xia Jia, A Summer Beyond Your Reach (Clarkesworld Books) [2022.10.28]

November (5)

  1. Sloane Leong and Cassie Hart (editors) – Death in the Mouth [2022.11.07]
  2. Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, H.D. Hunter, and LP Kindred (editors), (Re)Living Mythology (Android Press) [2022.11.23]
  3. Nicole Sealey, Ordinary Beasts [2022.11.25]
  4. N.K. Jemisin, The World We Make [2022.11.25]
  5. Poetry #221.3 [2022.11.30]

December (5)

  1. David Steffen (editor) – The Long List Anthology, vol. 8 (Diabolical Plots, LLC) [2022.12.01]
  2. Boston Review: Imagining Global Futures [2022.12.08]
  3. The Paris Review #242 [2022.12.10]
  4. Kathe Koja, Velocities: Stories (Meerkat Press) [2022.12.21]
  5. Kathe Koja, Dark Factory (Meerkat Press) [2022.12.21]
  6. Poetry #221.4 [2022.12.27]

Suddenly Spring

John Winkelman

And what a Spring it is so far, with temperatures in the 60s and sunny and beautiful. The tai chi and kung fu classes have moved back outdoors, and there we will remain, weather permitting, until the snow flies again in November or December. Almost eight months of outdoor classes is pretty good for Michigan.

The new issue of Pulphouse Magazine was the only reading material to arrive in the past week at the Library of Winkelman Abbey. This has made my life a little easier, as I am in the midst of organizing all of my bookshelves, recycling many years of old literary journals, and making one of my bookcases the exclusive home of the many books I own which have been inscribed to me by their authors. The goal, of course, is to outgrow that shelf once the world is in a state where readings and book signings and conventions can happen again. So maybe 2022 or 2023.

In reading news, I am still working my way through the backlog of books in translation. Currently in front of me is Juan José Saer’s The One Before, translated by Roanne L. Kantor, and published by Open Letter Books. After this month I am going to broaden my reading habits a little, and rather than five or six works in translation a month, only attempt two or three, which will leave room for more of the nonfiction, poetry and genre fiction which is also slowly but steadily piling up.

In writing news, as always, there is no writing news. Perhaps next week.

Happy Spring, eveyone!

2021 Books and Reading Material Acquisitions List

John Winkelman

Welcome to the list of books and other reading materials which arrived in calendar year 2021.

This is the seventh year I have made a list like this. The previous six are here:

I keep the complete list of books I own over at LibraryThing, and the terribly incomplete list of books I have read over at GoodReads. This list will be updated frequently.

January (12)

  1. Pasternak, Boris (Pevear, Richard and Volokhonsky, Larissa, translators), Doctor Zhivago
  2. Jama-Everett, Ayize and Jennings, John – Box of Bones, book 1 (Rosarium Publishing)
  3. Robinson, Kim Stanley – The Ministry for the Future
  4. Dostoevsky, Fyodor – A Writer’s Diary, vol. II
  5. Batyushkov, Konstantin (France, Peter, translator) – Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry (The Russian Library of Columbia University Press)
  6. Khvoshchinskaya, Sofia (Favorov, Nora Seligman, translator) – City Folk and Country Folk (The Russian Library of Columbia University Press)
  7. Sokolov, Sasha (Boguslawski, Alexander, translator) – Between Dog & Wolf (The Russian Library of Columbia University Press)
  8. Martine, Arkady – A Memory Called Empire
  9. Ashton, Dyrk – Paternus: Wrath of Gods, (Kickstarter exclusive HC, signed, # 108/500) (Paternus Books Media)
  10. Liptak, Andrew and Gates, Jaym (eds.) – War Stories (Apex Book Company)
  11. Baltasar, Eva (Sanches, Julia, translator) – Permafrost (And Other Stories)
  12. Dreamforge #7

February (11)

  1. Tiqqun – The Cybernetic Hypothesis (Semiotext(e))
  2. Pike, J. Zachary – Son of a Liche (self published)
  3. Poetry #217.5
  4. Jacobin #40
  5. Graeber, David – Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Melville House Publishing)
  6. Winter, Evan – The Rage of Dragons
  7. Navarro, Elvira (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – Rabbit Island (Two Lines Press)
  8. Poetry #217.4
  9. Cherkovski, Neeli – Ferlinghetti: A Biography
  10. Dunker, Anders – Rediscovering Earth: Ten Dialogues on the Future of Nature (OR Books)
  11. Lazo, Orlando Luis Pardo (ed.; Gulley, Hillary, translator) – Cuba in Splinters: Eleven Stories from the New Cuba (OR Books)

March (12)

  1. Lange, Norah (Whittle, Charlotte, translator) – Notes from Childhood (And Other Stories)
  2. Sizemore, Jason and Connor, Lesley (eds.) – Best of Apex Magazine, vol. 1 (Apex Book Company)
  3. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr – The Gulag Archipelago, volume 3
  4. Elemental (Two Lines Press)
  5. Poetry #217.6
  6. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #10
  7. Rain Taxi Review of Books #26.1, Spring 2021
  8. Lloret, Bruno (Jones, Ellen, translator) – Nancy (Two Lines Press)
  9. Harrow, Alix E. – The Ten Thousand Doors of January
  10. Robin, Corey – The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump (Oxford University Press)
  11. Eubanks, Virginia – Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor
  12. Poetry #218.1

April (5)

  1. Pelland, Jennifer – Unwelcome Bodies (Apex Book Company)
  2. Tobler, E. Catherine – The Kraken Sea (Apex Book Company)
  3. Estes, Nick, Yazzie, Melanie K., Denetdale, Jennifer Nez, Correia, David – Red Nation Rising (PM Press)
  4. Uncanny Magazine #24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction
  5. Poetry #218.2

May (20)

  1. Brown, Jericho – The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press)
  2. Jordan, June – The Essential June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press)
  3. VanderMeer, Jeff – Hummingbird Salamander
  4. Jacobin #41
  5. Attlee, James – Under the Rainbow (And Other Stories)
  6. Salvage #9, Autumn/Winter 2020
  7. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #11
  8. Peninsula Poets #78.1 (Spring 2021)
  9. Fantastic Lairs: Boss Battles and Climactic Encounters
  10. Gable, Scott, and Dombrowski, C (editors) – Cooties Shot Required (Broken Eye Books)
  11. Gable, Scott, and Dombrowski, C (editors) – Whether Change: The Revolution Will Be Weird (Broken Eye Books)
  12. Smith, Angela Yuriko and Noel, Scot (editors) – Worlds of Light and Darkness (Uproar Books)
  13. Knabb, Ken (editor and translator) – Situationist International Anthology (Bureau of Public Secrets)
  14. Poetry #218.3
  15. Liem, Tess – Obits (Coach House Books)
  16. Kelly, Robert – A Strange Market (Black Sparrow Press)
  17. McDermott, J.M. – Maze (Apex Book Company)
  18. Kheir, Mohamed (Moger, Robin, translator) – Slipping (Two Lines Press)
  19.  De Boever, Arne and Neidich, Warren (editors) – The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism, Part 1 (Archive Books)
  20. De Boever, Arne and Neidich, Warren (editors) – The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism, Part 2 (Archive Books)

June (11)

  1. Grisanti, Tamara Burross (editor) Coffin Bell One (Coffin Bell)
  2. Grisanti, Tamara Burross (editor) Coffin Bell Two (Coffin Bell)
  3. The Paris Review #237, Summer 2021
  4. Rain Taxi Review of Books #26.1, Summer 2021
  5. Granta #155: The Best of Young Spanish Language Novelists
  6. Moreno-Garcia, Silvia – The Return of the Sorceress (signed, # X of XXX) (Subterranean Press)
  7. Massie, Elizabeth – Desper Hollow (Apex Book Company)
  8. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #43 
  9. Hogan, Ron – Our Endless and Proper Work (Belt Publishing)
  10. Cin, Tice – Keeping the House (And Other Stories)
  11. Poetry #218.4

July (7)

  1. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #12
  2. Palmatier, Joshua and Coe, David B. (editors) – Derelict (Zombies Need Brains)
  3. Bray, Patricia and Palmatier, Joshua (editors) – The Modern Deity’s Guide to Surviving Humanity (Zombies Need Brains)
  4. Butler, S.C. and Palmatier, Joshua (editors) – When Worlds Collide (Zombies Need Brains)
  5. Sullivan, Michael J. – Nolyn (Ryria Enterprises)
  6. Saunders, George – A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
  7. Jacobin #42

August (4)

  1. Anti-Eviction Mapping Project – Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement & Resistance (PM Press)
  2. Straczynski, J. Michael – Together We Will Go
  3. de Souza, Carl (Zuckerman, Jeffrey, translator) – Kaya Days (Two Lines Press)
  4. Poetry #218.5

September (7)

  1. Campbell, Bill, and Khodabandeh, Bizhan – The Day the Klan Came to Town (PM Press)
  2. Wiesenthal, Simon – The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
  3. Coolidge, Sarah (editor) – Cuíer (Two Lines Press)
  4. Victoria, Elisa (Whittle, Charlotte, translator) – Oldladyvoice (And Other Stories)
  5. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #13
  6. Rain Taxi #26.3
  7. Poetry #219.1

October (6)

  1. Rucker, Rudy – Juicy Ghosts (Transreal Books)
  2. de Carvalho, Maria Judite (Costa, Margaret Jull, translator) – Empty Wardrobes (Two Lines Press)
  3. Sanford, Jason – Plague Birds (Apex Book Company)
  4. Stucky, Janaka (editor) – Ekphrastic Beasts (Black Ocean)
  5. Poetry #219.2
  6. Tavenor, C.D. and Trast, Meg (editors) – Gaia Awakens (Two Doctors Media Collaborative)

November (15)

  1. Hilbig, Wolfgang (Cole, Isabel Fargo, translator) – The Interim (Two Lines Press)
  2. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #14
  3. Jacobin #43
  4. Salvage #10
  5. Roanhorse, Rebecca – Black Sun
  6. Peninsula Poets #78.1, Fall 2021
  7. Michigan Roots: A Poetry Society of Michigan Anthology (Poetry Society of Michigan)
  8. Nette, Andrew & McIntyre, Iain (editors) – Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985 (PM Press)
  9. Du Mez, Kristin Kobes – Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
  10. Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix – Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
  11. Crenshaw, Kimberle (editor) – Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement
  12. Grassmann, Preston (editor) – Out of the Ruins (Titan Books)
  13. Muir, Tamsyn – Harrow the Ninth
  14. Rios, Joseph – Shadowboxing (Omnidawn Publishing)
  15. Foglio, Kaja and Phil – Girl Genius: Sparks and Monsters (Studio Foglio)

December (13)

  1. Poetry #219.3
  2. The Paris Review #238
  3. Speakman, Shawn – The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey (Grim Oak Press)
  4. Arshi, Mona – Somebody Loves You (limited subscriber edition, And Other Stories)
  5. Scott, Paulo (Hahn, Daniel, translator) – Phenotypes (And Other Stories)
  6. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #44
  7. Hines, Jim C. – Terminal Uprising
  8. Scalzi, John – The Collapsing Empire
  9. Scalzi, John – The Consuming Fire
  10. Scalzi, John – The Last Emperox
  11. Harrison, Jim – Complete Poems (Copper Canyon Press)
  12. Ambrose, RM (editor) – Vital: The Future of Healthcare (Inlandia Institute)
  13. Inque Magazine #1

Books I Read in 2020

John Winkelman

This is the list of all 86 books I read to completion in Calendar Year 2020.

I started the year focusing on short fiction, as detailed in other posts. Then the lockdown hit in March, and I was put on a crazy work project in April which had me working 50+ hour weeks, second and third shift until the end of July. In order to stay sane and balanced I switched to long-form fiction, and specifically fantasy fiction.

This was driven in no small part by a decision to write a fantasy novel. At ConFusion 2020 I spent a lot of time talking to a number of self-published authors, who have found varying degrees of success in their craft. All of them, however, were quite happy with the self-publishing route, and in reading their work I discovered for myself that which many people have known for a long time: Self-published work can be just as good, or even better, than work published through more traditional means.

These authors introduced me to the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off, the winners and runners-up of which are equal (at least!) in quality to the best of traditionally published fantasy.

I have been well aware of this with reference to poetry, but for some reason the blind spot around self-published prose was more difficult to, well, see.

So I read a lot of fantasy, including the first nineteen books in R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt sequence set in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons and Dragons. There are 36 books in the series, but after 19 the boundary between reality and not-reality was beginning to blur.

In October I participated in the Sealey Challenge and read 31 poetry books in 31 days, which did wonderful things for my state of mind.

In November and December I read many of the novellas I have accrued from Subterranean Press. This also did wonderful things for my state of mind.

Anyway, here is the list. Next year I will break the long-form reading list up and combine it with the short fiction lists I have posted at the end of each month.

2020.03.05: Valencia, Sayak – Gore Capitalism

2020.04.06: Gibson, William – Neuromancer
2020.04.08: Walton, David – The Genius Plague
2020.04.09: Indiana, Rita – Tentacle
2020.04.11: Mieville, China – The Last Days of New Paris
2020.04.12: Bacigalupi, Paolo – The Alchemist
2020.04.16: Steinmetz, Ferrett – The Sol Majestic
2020.04.28: Jemisin, N.K. – The City We Became

2020.05.05: Salvatore, R.A. – Homeland
2020.05.08: Salvatore, R.A. – Exile
2020.05.10: Salvatore, R.A. – Sojourn
2020.05.12: Rowland, Diana – My Life as a White Trash Zombie
2020.05.23: Wang, M.L. – The Sword of Kaigen
2020.05.26: Eichenlaub, Anthony W. – Justice in an Age of Metal and Men

2020.06.01: McGuire, Seanan – Every Heart a Doorway
2020.06.07: Shel, Mike – Aching God
2020.06.18: Pike, J. Zachary – Orconomics
2020.06.28: Hayes, Rob J. – Where Loyalties Lie

2020.07.05: Künsken, Derek – The Quantum Magician
2020.07.06: Salvatore, R.A. – The Crystal Shard
2020.07.10: Salvatore, R.A. – Streams of Silver
2020.07.14: Salvatore, R.A. – The Halfling’s Gem
2020.07.15: Hossain, Saad Z. – The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday
2020.07.16: Salvatore, R.A. – The Legacy
2020.07.17: Salvatore, R.A. – Starless Night
2020.07.18: Salvatore, R.A. – Siege of Darkness
2020.07.23: Salvatore, R.A. – Passage to Dawn
2020.07.30: Salvatore, R.A. – The Silent Blade

2020.08.03: Salvatore, R.A. – The Spine of the World
2020.08.06: Salvatore, R.A. – Sea of Swords
2020.08.08: Salvatore, R.A. – The Thousand Orcs
2020.08.10: Salvatore, R.A. – The Lone Drow
2020.08.12: Salvatore, R.A. – The Two Swords
2020.08.18: Salvatore, R.A. – The Orc King
2020.08.22: Salvatore, R.A. – The Pirate King
2020.08.28: Salvatore, R.A. – The Ghost King

2020.09.03: Ward, Jesmyn – Sing, Unburied, Sing
2020.09.17: Alexander, Michelle – The New Jim Crow
2020.09.24: Ashton, Dyrk – Paternus: War of Gods

2020.10.01: Rogin-Roper, Leah – Two Truths and a Lie
2020.10.02: Danos, Stephen – Missing Slides
2020.10.03: Mandelstam, Osip – Voronezh Notebooks
2020.10.04: Almeida, Alexis – I Have Never Been Able to Sing
2020.10.05: Kaneko, W. Todd – This Is How the Bone Sings
2020.10.06: Coolidge, Sarah (ed.) – Home: New Arabic Poetry
2020.10.07: Cooper, Wyn – Chaos Is the New Calm
2020.10.08: ortiz, mónica teresa – autobiography of a semiromantic anarchist
2020.10.09: Brace, Kristin – The Farthest Dreaming Hill
2020.10.10: de Alba, Cassandra – habitats
2020.10.11: Le Guin, Ursula – Wild Angels
2020.10.12: Matthews, Airea D. – Simulacra
2020.10.12: Meltzer, David – San Francisco Beat: Talking With the Poets
2020.10.13: Rogal, Lisa – Feed Me Weird Things
2020.10.14: Amezcua, Eloisa– On Not Screaming
2020.10.15: Stafford, William – My Name is William Tell
2020.10.16: Stack, Garrett – Yeoman’s Work
2020.10.17: Brandt, Emily – Sleeptalk or Not At All
2020.10.18: Olszewska, Daniela – Answering Machine
2020.10.18: Sizemore, Jason – For Exposure
2020.10.19: Marinovich, Filip – Wolfman Librarian
2020.10.20: Harris, Joseph – Logically Thinking
2020.10.21: Harrison, Jim – Collected Ghazals
2020.10.22: Bettis, Christine – Burnout Paradise
2020.10.23: Gleason, Rachel – New Kind of Rebellion
2020.10.24: Khayyam, Omar – The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
2020.10.25: Cáceres, Omar – Defense of the Idol
2020.10.26: Chang, Kristin – Past Lives, Future Bodies
2020.10.27: Goff, Nichole – Aluminum Necropolis
2020.10.28: Gurton-Wachter, Anna – Blank Blank Blues
2020.10.29: Porter, Bill – Road to Heaven
2020.10.29: Burns, Megan – Sleepwalk With Me
2020.10.30: Trier-Walker, Amy Jo – Trembling Ourselves Into Trees
2020.10.31: Harrison, Jim – Letters to Yesenin

2020.11.10: Gevers, Nick (ed.) – The Book of Dreams
2020.11.15: Palmatier, Joshua (ed.) Apocalyptic
2020.11.25: Wendig, Chuck – Damn Fine Story
2020.11.28: Vance, Jack – The Kragen

2020.12.02 – de Bodard, Aliette – On a Red Station, Drifting
2020.12.04 – Baker, Kage – Rude Mechanicals
2020.12.06 – Desmond, Matthew – Evicted
2020.12.06 – Armstrong, Kelley – Lost Souls
2020.12.16 – Bear, Elizabeth – Book of Iron
2020.12.17 – Bear, Elizabeth – Ad Eternum
2020.12.19 – Grant, Mira – Final Girls
2020.12.25 – Steffen, David (ed.) – The Long List Anthology, volume 6
2020.12.28 – Kittredge, Caitlin – The Curse of Four

Re-centering Poetry

John Winkelman

One of the advantages, if you can call it that, of working at home in the Days of COVID is that I can see the day-to-day progression of the diminishing daylight as we move from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice. When I close down my laptop at the end of my shift the sun is just a little closer to the horizon, the light a little more golden – or red, depending on the drift of smoke from the west coast. And each day it is just a little more difficult to pull myself from bed early enough in the morning to complete my morning routine.

Two things are helping keep me on my game as winter approaches: Poe, who still insists on being fed at 5:00 every morning, and a large stack of poetry books and chapbooks to read through as part of the Sealey Challenge. I am managing to stay on schedule, mostly thanks to a large pile of unread chapbooks which have arrived over the past four years as part of my subscriptions to Horse Less Press (currently on indefinite hiatus) and Ugly Duckling Presse, which is still going strong though I had to let my subscription lapse for financial reasons. I note that traditionally the Sealey Challenge has run during the month of August, so next year I will align myself with the rest of the poetry universe and complete the challenge in the appropriate month.

An excellent pile of books arrived this week at the Library of Winkelman Abbey. On the top left is a new one from Subterranean Press – Edited By, a collection of stories which have been edited by Ellen Datlow. The collection itself is, well, edited by Ellen Datlow. So there’s a lot of meta going on with this one.

In the top middle is Francesco Verso‘s Nexhuman, the latest delivery from Apex Book Company, to which I have a subscription through Patreon. Editor Jason Sizemore was kind enough to reach out to me when the original print run for this shipment ran a few short and he allowed me to pick any title from the Apex catalog. This was my first choice, and it was fortunate they had copies in stock, as I am slowly picking up every book Apex has published, thanks to Patreon, Kickstarter, and purchases at various ConFusions over the past several years.

On the top right is Road to Heaven, Bill Porter‘s beautiful travelogue/story of wandering the mountains of China looking for the Buddhist and Taoist hermits who maintain a tradition once much revered in Chinese culture.

Bottom left is The Collected Ghazals by the late, great Jim Harrison. Copper Canyon Press recently released this collection, as well as the book in the bottom center, Letters to Yesenin. I have been a fan of Jim Harrison since a college professor turned me on to him back in 1993, when he picked up a copy of Wolf. Since then I have read almost everything Harrison wrote, and have bookshelf dedicated to his poetry and prose.

On the bottom right is the new collection from Garrett Stack, Yeoman’s Work. I first heard of Stack when we published a few of his poems in an issue of The 3288 Review. This is an excellent collection, and well worth seeking out.

In reading news, I have so far read 18 poetry books and chapbooks, and am keeping a running tally of the list up on Instagram and Twitter. I haven’t taken a deep dive into poetry like this since the late 1990s, unless you count the thousands a year I read as editor of The 3288 Review, which is not really the same thing. The Sealey Challenge has been a wonderful experience and with 13 more books to read my mind will be in a wonderful place when NaNoWriMo starts on November 1.

I just finished reading For Exposure, Jason Sizemore’s brilliant history of Apex Publications, with contributions by half a dozen or so of the editors and other contributors, employees and supporters of his wonderful company. I picked up For Exposure at ConFusion back in, I think, 2015, when I managed to spend a few minutes talking to Sizemore about the trials and tribulations of running a small independent publishing company. He is a Righteous Dude, as the kids say these days, and I offer all the kudoes to him and his team for the work they do in the literary world.

Writing hasn’t been going as well as reading, though I managed to put down a couple hundred more words in the book as I try to work through this one lynchpin chapter and scene, from which the rest of the book will flow, which tells me I may need to just mash my fact against the keyboard until something clicks and I can move ahead. The goal is still to complete a first draft this year, and with luck even complete the draft during NaNoWriMo, though I am having more and more concrete thoughts about a series of short stories which might eventually become chapters in a new book. All I know is that I will spend a lot of time writing in November 2020, assuming the slings and arrows of the mundane world allow me the mental space and emotional clarity to do so.

The Turning of the Seasons

John Winkelman

Books accrued in the week of August 30, 2020

Oh, what a week that was. At work I have been taking Udemy classes with an eye toward getting certified as an AWS Developer Associate. I already know half of what I need to, but the other half is dense and complicated and the course is 30 hours long and though the teacher has a wonderful French accent I could feel my brain slowly turning to mush.

The transition between August and September brings a fine haul of reading material to the Library of Winkelman Abbey. On the top left is The Tyrant Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson, the final book in the Masquerade Trilogy. The first two were very good and more than a little disturbing, so I have high hopes for this one.

Top middle is Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, which I have been aware of for some time but have not had the bandwidth to dive into.

Top right is the new issue of The Paris Review, the subscription to which I keep as much for the interviews as for the writing itself.

Bottom left is Great Demon Kings, John Giorno’s memoir which came out a few weeks ago. Giorno finished the book a week before he died, in October 2019.

Bottom middle is Evicted, by Matthew Desmond, which I have been meaning to pick up for a long time. I am adding it to my TBR pile, near the top, once I finish the current two nonfiction books in which I am currently immersed.

Bottom right is the latest issue of the superb Boston Review, which becomes more and more relevant with every issue.

In reading news, I just finished Jesmyn Ward’s beautiful and heartbreaking novel Sing, Unburied, Sing. This one will, I think, stick with me for a long time.

I am in the middle of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, and every page makes me angrier than the previous. Sadism is, in fact, the American national pastime. I am also still progressing through the anthology Captivating Technology, which is a good companion to The New Jim Crow in that it shows the many ways modern technology extends the carceral state into everyday life beyond the walls of prisons and courtrooms.

In writing, I am 16,000 words into my novel, and hope to hit 40,000 by the end of September, which will put me in a good place to hit 80,000 and hopefully the end of the first draft by the end of October, at which point I will surely be ready to write something completely different for National Novel Writing Month in November.

I haven’t written 16,000 words of any single work of anything outside of NaNoWriMo. It feels good to finally be in a place where writing is part of my daily routine, after many years of having my creative energy devoted to other peoples’ work.

As it turns out, writing takes a lot of mental and emotional energy.

Will No One Rid Me of This Turbulent Year?

John Winkelman

I imagine I am not the only person making that request of the universe. Though I have managed to keep myself gainfully employed through the first six months of the Plague Time I am doing my best to not take it for granted that I will still have a job come the end of the year.

To that end I continue to accumulate books against the day I find myself with a sudden abundance of free time, though on balance I would rather have a steady income, as I am in my fifties and the tech world is unkind to programmers who are not willing to work nights, weekends and holidays. And that is me. Been there, done that, not willing to do it again.

Speaking of accumulated books, the past week brought in three new volumes to the Library at Winkelman Abbey. On the left is the new issue of Reckoning, the journal of Creative Writing on Environmental Justice. The wise and wonderful Michael J.  DeLuca, who I met at the ConFusion Science Fiction Convention several years ago, is one of the founders of Reckoning, and it was he who introduced me to this excellent little magazine.

In the middle is the novel That Time of Year by Marie Ndiaye, and on the right is Home, a collection of Arabic poetry in translation, both published by Two Lines Press, a project of the Center for the Art of Translation. I keep forgetting which subscriptions I have cancelled and which are still active, so it is always a pleasant surprise when a new package shows up on my porch.

In reading news, this past week I finished The Orc King and The Pirate King, both by R.A. Salvatore, part of his long-running adventures of Drizzt Do’Urden the Drow Elf Ranger. Of the 35 books I have read in this calendar year, 18 have been books from this series, and I think I am done with the adventures of Mr. Do’Urden and company for the rest of 2020. Plus, they clash with the other books I am working my way through – The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and The Making of the Indebted Man by Maurizio Lazzarito. Though the fantasy novels are fine adventures and excellent entertainment, they are very much escapist and I can’t deny a certain feeling of fiddling while the country burns when I can be educating myself about the state of the world, and the past states which got us to this state.

In writing news, I am a little over 5,000 words into my new novel. That puts me squarely in the middle of chapter 4, and just above the lower limit of progress I set for myself for the rest of the year. 5,000 words a week, minimum, until the first draft is done. In theory this is a piece of cake, as during National Novel Writing Month I occasional turned out more than 10,000 words in a day. I think my record was 18,000 in an unbroken 9 hour stint. Of course I was single at the time, and in a position where I could take a sick day when the muse struck.

I was stuck in the third draft of chapter 1 when I watched the Wizards, Warriors and Words podcast, which includes as one of its panelists Mr. Dyrk Ashton, whose books have graced these pages several times in the past. I met Dyrk at ConFusion a few years ago, and for each of us it was the first time we had met someone in real life who we had first connected with on Twitter. It was from Dyrk I learned of this podcast, and it was from his paraphrased advice from Stephen King that I made it through my writer’s block. The advice was, roughly, “You don’t need to know how the book will end when you start writing it.” So I finished the chapter and if I need to go back and rewrite it to accommodate a change in the story 50,000 words from now, so be it. I expect this book to be between 80,000 and 100,000 words when the first draft is complete.

Speaking of ConFusion – ConFusion Science Fiction Convention has been cancelled for 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the board of ConFusion felt that it was in everyone’s best interests to table ConFusion 47 until 2022. This was a difficult decision, and the decision-makers have my sympathies for what must have been many sleepless nights arriving at this conclusion.

On the bright side, that gives me an extra year to write and hopefully get something published, assuming the world hasn’t fallen further into chaos and fascism by January 2022, and such things as creativity, optimism and hope are still allowed.