Endicott Redux

Green Man Review celebrates 20 years of Years Best Fantasy and Horror

The Green Man Review librarian Iain Nicholas Mackenzie has put together a terrific collection of reviews, interviews, and personal responses to celebrate the past 20 years of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, Kelly Link, and Gavin Grant. There is a rare and wonderful interview with artist Tom Canty, who designed the wrap around covers, always a beautiful combination of elegant fantasy and smoldering horror. There is a lively interview with current editors Ellen Datlow, Gavin Grant, and Kelly Link here, and, holy cats, there are reviews for every volume produced.

*Art banner above by Tom Canty.

Winter Blog Blast Tour:

Once again, here's the list of today's Winter Blog Blast Tour and where to find the interviews. I have to say that I was particularly thrilled with the Elizabeth Knox interview -- a writer I really I admire for both her adult and young adult novels.

Thursday:
David Mack at Chasing Ray 
Paul Volponi at The Ya Ya Yas
Elizabeth Knox at Shaken & Stirred
Ellen Emerson White at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy
Jack Gantos at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
David Levithan at Not Your Mother's Book Club
Micol Ostow at Bildungsroman
Laura Amy Schlitz at Miss Erin
Kerry Madden at Hip Writer Mama
Sherman Alexie at Interactive Reader

Winter Blog Blast Continues

I hope many of you are taking advantage of these terrific interviews -- so  many in one week! It feels like being an insider-guest at a fabulous book convention, where one doesn't have to wait in line, or sit in the back of the room, straining to hear and see the author. Here's the list of today's writers and blogsites:

Lisa Ann Sandell at Interactive Reader
Christopher Barzak at Chasing Ray
Julie Halpern at The Ya Ya Yas
Micol Ostow at Shaken & Stirred
Rick Yancey at Hip Writer Mama
Jane Yolen at Fuse Number 8
Shannon Hale at Bookshelves of Doom
Maureen Johnson at Bildungsroman
David Lubar at Writing & Ruminating
Sherman Alexie at Finding Wonderland

All of them are terrific!

Winter Blog Blast Tour

Once again, with special thanks to Colleen Mondor for organizing this Winter Blog Blast Tour of Young Adult Author interviews on multi-blogs, let me present the the offerings for Monday:

Perry Moore at The Ya Ya Yas
Nick Abadzis at Chasing Ray
Carrie Jones at Hip Writer Mama
Phyllis Root at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Laura Amy Schlitz at Fuse Number 8
Kerry Madden at lectitans
Tom Sniegoski at Bildungsroman
Connie Willis at Finding Wonderland

I've spent the morning reading these incredible interviews and now have a new list of authors whose work I am so looking forward to reading.

Go here to see the full schedule for the entire week. Colleen, you're the best ever.

"Instructions" and more...

Midori has been valiantly covering this blog solo while I've been down with a truly nasty flu -- and as I'm still shaking the last of a rattling cough out of my lungs, my posting may be a bit sporadic over the next week or so.

This post is to let y'all know that there is now an "Endicott Studio Channel" on YouTube, where we'll be putting videos that we think will be of interest to fans of mythic arts -- such as the Mythic Journeys documentary from the good folks at the Mythic Imaginations Institute, Ben Okri discussing his approach to writing, an A&E biography of J.K. Rowling, a little film on artist Paula Rego, the great June Tabor singing Child Ballad #191: "Hughie Graeme,"  and more. (f you come across other good videos on YouTube, send us a note and let us know.)

The video above is of Neil Gaiman reading his fairy tale poem "Instructions" at Cody's Books in Berkeley, California. Considering his voluminous output of work over the last several years, Ellen Datlow and I will forgive him for forgetting that he actually wrote the poem at our request for our children's fairy tale anthology A Wolf at the Door, where it was first published in 2000. It's my favorite of all his poems, and a real treat to hear him read it.

(While you're on YouTube, if you're a martial arts fan, check out this little video that Howard Gayton made of a tournament/demonstration of our Kung Fu teacher's school, The Dragon Temple, in our village hall in rural Devon.)

Kinetic Sculpture

This little video is simply amazing:

You can see a slightly larger version of the video here. And yes, the guy is a genius.

(With thanks to Alan Lee for sending us the link.)

Summer Blog Blast of interviews with authors of Young Adult fiction

Just a reminder that the week is speeding by and there are quite a few great interviews out there in the blogosphere. For instance, don't miss Gwenda Bond's interviews with Ysabeau Wilce, Cecil Castelluci, and Holly Black over at Shaken & Stirred.

You can see the full schedule of interviews at the organizing host's website: Colleen Mondor's Chasing Ray. It's been a great week!

Charles Vess: Modern Master

 

With all the excitement surrounding the Stardust movie and the unveiling of the stunning trailer, I’d say it’s the perfect time to mention the latest volume in TwoMorrows Publishing’s Modern Masters series. Modern Masters Volume Eleven features none other than Endicott contributor and longtime friend, Charles Vess!

The Modern Masters series “[celebrates] the lives and work of the greatest comic book artists of our time.” With a career that spans over 30 years and a huge body of visual narrative work in at least four mediums (painting, illustration, sculpture, and, of course, comics), Vess is a perfect choice for such a distinction.

The 120-page book concentrates on Vess’ work in the comics field, with lots of art samples from Heavy Metal, Epic Illustrated, Spider-man, Swamp thing, The Books of Magic and, of course, Sandman and Stardust. In addition to a generous selection of the work we know and love, there are some delightful, offbeat Vess rarities here, including a Transformers cover and a commissioned sketch of Spiderman in a kilt (!). I always get a kick out of checking out my favorite artists’ earliest works, and there are a few of those as well. The depth and true diversity of Vess’ talents are truly striking in this presentation.

The heart of the book is a lively, entertaining interview in which Vess gives us a backstage peek into his career, including his humble beginnings as a lonely young comics fan in 1950s Virginia, his experiences as a struggling artist in New York City, his breakthrough work with DC Comics and his current work on the STARDUST movie. It’s an absolute hoot to read, with Charles’ warmth and kindness shining from every page. As one of those sensitive writer types, I tend to stockpile interviews such as this one – they’re the amulets I reach for when the demons are messing with my creative spirit. (On that note, for another great doldrums-busting interview with Charles, check out The Comics Journal #218 – back issues are available on the cheap at their website).

If you’ve never had the pleasure of taking in a Vess slideshow (Mythic Journeys 2004, World Fantasy 2005), you’ll definitely not want to miss the influences section in this book. I also enjoyed reading the stories of collaboration for Charles’ self-published comic series The Book of Ballads and Sagas (now available in its entirety from Tor).

If I could change just one thing about the book, I’d beef up the color portfolio. But I suppose I can’t be too grumpy about that – a 200-page Vess art book by Dark Horse Comics is scheduled for release in August (Drawing Down The Moon: The Art of Charles Vess).

You can read an excerpt of the Modern Masters volume in this thread at Newsarama. Be sure to check in with Charles periodically at his blog, where he often posts new art. Also check out Terri Windling’s grand Vess appreciation and the fairy sketchbook in the Endicott gallery -- and for more on his influences (and his thoughts on genre-crossing art), be sure to read Charles’ essay at the Interstitial Arts Foundation.

The Question of Copyright

As a follow-up to Jonathan Lethem's excellent article on creative influence and copyright issues in Harper's Magazine (which we discussed here on February 15), I recommend Amy Benfer's interview with Lethem published in Salon this week -- which ranges from copyright issues to discussion of Lethem's terrific new book, You Don't Love Me Yet. Regarding the relationship of a writer to his or her audience (and to the commercial marketplace), Lethem says: "I'm very persuaded by the image that Lewis Hyde offers of an artist who is, by definition, in whatever medium, or whatever level of success or whatever culture, in the practice of culture-making; participating in culture by making stuff is inherently a gift transaction and a commodity transaction. And it always will be. The question is how do we affirm and clarify this relationship? Because it's a very weird one -- making commodities that are also gifts."

You can read the full interview here.

Mythic Interviews

Yesterday I recommended an interview with David Abram from Scott London's radio program Insight & Outlook, which aired on NPR in the 1990s. In doing so, I realized that there are quite a lot of interesting interviews available on London's website (in transcript form and as audio files), such as Jean Houston on "Universal Stories," Pico Iyer on his friendship with the Dalai Lama, Sam Keen on Renewing our Sense of Wonder, Phil Cousineau discussing "meaningful coincidence," Susan Griffin on The Politics of Imagination, and more. A complete list can be found here.

For mythic radio, of course, nothing beats Ellen Kushner's brilliant radio series Sound & Spirit, which "weaves history, myth, and spiritual traditions together with music to take listeners on a journey around the world and through the ages."  The show was produced by WGBH Radio Boston and is distributed by Public Radio International -- but if your local PRI station doesn't carry it, no worries, you can now hear the show online.

Ellen Kushner on Hour of the Wolf

This just in from Jim Freund, host of WBAI's Hour of the Wolf, NYC's radio showcase of science fiction and fantasy:

This week's guest on Hour of the Wolf will be NPR radio host and World Fantasy Award winner Ellen Kushner. Enough said. I've been hoping to have Ellen live on the program for years, but time and distance have often intervened till now. More on her life, sound, and spirit at http://www.ellenkushner.com .

As always, the program will be broadcast live to the NY metropolitan area over listener-sponsored WBAI, 99.5 FM, and streamed over the Internet at http://stream.wbai.org/ August 19, this Saturday morning (that's Friday night), from 5 till 7 AM. After broadcast, the show will be available as a stream from http://archive.wbai.org.

A schedule of upcoming shows, archives and other resources are available at the show's website. Looks like Julie Phillips, whom Terri told you about last week, was a recent guest.

Author Interview

John Scalzi has posted an interesting interview with Ellen Kushner, discussing writing, radio, interstitial arts, and her new book The Privilege of the Sword. You'll find the interview here. 

In further interview news ....

... the featured interviews of the day at Torquere Press showcase interviews with Erzebet YellowBoy and R. Holsen, two of the writers included in their recently released e-thology Sleeping Beauty, Indeed.

Sleeping Beauty, Indeed (ed. JoSelleVanderhooft) is a collection of fairy tales retold from a lesbian perspective.  As the title implies, this is a collection that's interested in undermining the mistaken stereotype of the "passive princess" in fairy tales, in the tradition of Emma Donoghue's Kissing the Witch.  The tales included in this short collection run the gamut from humorous to heart-rending, and offer some interesting takes on old favorites.  As YellowBoy says in her interview,

"My favorite characters are those with a touch of the Other in them. A woman who is really a tree, crow-girls, deer-women, bird-men, those who wear masks or garments to hide their true natures, those who transform from one thing to another or from one person to another. I like fragmentary characters and outcasts, and those we never really get to know in full."

It's collections like these that make the act(s) of othering which are unfortunately implicit in our day-to-day lives inclusive rather than exlusive, and tantalizingly marvelous, acknowledging new perspectives and broadening our preceptions of old favorites.

Interview With Nalo Hopkinson

There's a beautiful interview with Nalo Hopkinson, author of Brown Girl in the Ring and The Salt  Roads, up on the IROSF (Internet Review of Science Fiction) website. Interviewer Michael Rohr talks about inspiration, source material, and reception with Hopkinson: as Rohr eloquently puts it,

"I have heard certain critics say that her novels are too ethnic for the mainstream. I couldn’t disagree with them more. Speculative literature, actually literature in general, is supposed to take the reader to new places, to allow them to experience new social milieu and cultures, and see the world through another’s eyes ... Nalo Hopkinson ... writes magical realism better than just about anyone does. Charles Saunders once called her Octavia Butler’s true literary child."

Hopkinson talks about the preceptions of her work in the s-f community, her relation to myth and folklore, and the writing process in general.  Not to be missed is the link to a snippet of her short story "A Habit of Waste," which examines issues of race and gender in deeply thought-provoking ways.

You do have to sign up to read material on IROSF, but it's well worth the minor hassle of registration: this month's edition contains articles by Gary Westfahl and Steve Utley, as well as reviews of A Scanner Darkly and  books on C.S. Lewis and the tradition of hard science fiction.