Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Speculating about our AI Future with Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, and Martha Wells. After registering
This promises to be a terrific online event! Thursday, January 11, 2024.
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On this day in 1916, the great Shirley Jackson was born.
Here’s a little piece I wrote earlier this year about teaching Jackson’s remarkable novel Hangsaman. It’s posted at “Reading Shirley Jackson in the 21st Century,” an online resource investigating the past and future landscapes of Shirley Jackson studies.
I’m looking forward to teaching The Haunting of Hill House in January!
Teaching Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman (1951) by Amy H. Sturgis
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Song: “Ghost of Norma Jean”
Quote:
When you see another cross
By the road where she is lost,
You’ll know that she has some company.
Listen to the Steep Canyon Rangers’ performance…
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Song: “Caleb Meyer”
Quote:
I drew that glass across his neck, Fine as any blade, Then I felt his blood pour fast and hot Around me where I laid.
Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna Wear them rattling chains, But when I go to sleep at night Don’t you call my name.
Read the complete lyrics.
Listen to the performance of The Greencards…
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Nominations are open for the 2024 Hugo Awards. Several works with which I’m involved are eligible, so here is my Hugos 2024 post.
Eligible for Best Related Work (both published by Vernon Press in 2023):
Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier (edited by Amy H. Sturgis and Emily Strand for Vernon Press, 2023)
Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away (edited by Emily Strand and Amy H. Sturgis for Vernon Press, 2023)
Also, StarShipSofa is eligible for Best Fancast!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all who have read and/or listened!
ALT
ALT
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I’m so excited to share STAR TREK: ESSAYS EXPLORING THE FINAL FRONTIER with the universe. More information will be coming very soon! 🖖
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Dark Academia novel: All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth (2018)
Quote:
There was a story on campus about a student who had died many years ago—so long ago that no one remembered anymore what his name was or how he had died exactly, but there were reports every now and again of a sighting of his ghost. Some said he’d hanged himself in the showers of the senior boys’ dormitory over a broken heart; others said he’d overdosed on pills and fallen into an eternal slumber in his dorm bed over a failing exam grade. It was bad luck if you saw him, a harbinger of terrible things to come. Bryce Langston had reported seeing the ghost on his way home from the library one night. The next morning, he got a rejection letter from Harvard. Everyone had thought he would be a shoo-in, and he hadn’t even gotten on the waiting list. The next year, Amanda King supposedly saw the ghost right before she got in a fatal car accident. I always thought about the ghost when I was walking around campus at night by myself. I imagined seeing a white smear in the corner of my vision, but every time I turned my head, there was nothing there.
ALT
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Interview: New collection of Star Wars essays informs and inspires
Many thanks to Eric Clayton and Dork Side of the Force for sharing this kind review of — and interview with my co-editor Emily Strand and me about — our new anthology of essays on Star Wars!
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I was sorry to learn of the death of director He Ping last month. I’ve treated myself to a rewatch of his memorable wuxia/Western film Warriors of Heaven and Earth in tribute. (It’s pictured here with some of the other movies in my “films by or with Jiang Wen” collection.)
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My two-part plan to fill the time between the end of Picard and the start of the new season of Strange New Worlds is going very well. Cheers for Una McCormack, John Jackson Miller, and Star Trek.
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Dark Academia novel: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (2012)
Quote:
Keep calm and carry on. Also, stay in and hide because the Ripper is coming.
ALT
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Dark Academia novel: Don’t Forget the Girl by Rebecca McKanna (2023)
From the cover:
We never remember the dead girls. We never forget the killers.
Quote:
Sometimes it seems like an answer – any answer – to what happened to Abby that night is what Bree needs to move on.
… for one second, she sees the moment in exact detail: Abby crying under the statue of the Black Angel in her Hermione Halloween costume, snowflakes collecting on her coppery hair. Chelsea and Bree watching her, not putting their arms around her, letting her walk away. Her footprints in the snow leading down that blacktop path. The last trace of her they ever saw.
ALT
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ACAFANS: The Rigorous Study of Star Wars
It was a delight to join my co-editor Emily Strand to talk about our new anthology Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away with Josh of Trash Compactor: A Star Wars Podcast.
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I’ve been contributing my “Looking Back on Genre History” segments to the StarShipSofa podcast for 15 years now. All of my past segments are listed (with their topics and links!) on the “Podcasting” page of my website. (Scroll down to the “Looking Back on Genre History” section.)
ALTALT
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This year I’ve been delighted to join SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online with Signum University. This week I’m wrapping up teaching my first module, which is on The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It’s been so much fun!
Currently my March module candidate is up for vote for until 2/1. It’s on A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand. I hope you’ll join me!
More information on my offered modules is here.
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Escape Pod | The Original Science Fiction Podcast
I was delighted to narrate the wonderful science fiction story “The Contrary Gardener” by Christopher Rowe. Both parts are now available from the Escape Pod podcast!
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