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[image error] (None of these bear parts are real, not to worry, but Jeff is dressing up for his Friday panel)

Ann and I are headed off to WorldCon 75 in Helsinki, which promises to be a riotous and lovely affair. Due to the size of WorldCon and the logistics of traversing it–and the weariness of traversing it–you’re most likely to catch us at one of our events. Ann will likely be at most of my events as well, including the signing, for example. You’ll also note that you can probably catch me in the dealer’s room on Thursday in the early afternoon. Hope to see you there!

WORLDCON SCHEDULE (also )

Thursday

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12:30-2:30pm–Wander the dealer’s room (catch me if you can).

04:00pm–Jeff interviews Guest of Honor Johanna Sinisalo about her career, her work, and much else. (101 A + B)

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Friday

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12:00pm–Signing, with Ann (in the Signing Area)

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03:00pm–Fantastical Worlds panel; JeffÌýwill be in costume and character as Mord the giant flying bearÌý(103)

04:00pm–Jeff reads from Borne and, possibly, The Strange BirdÌý(203a)

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Saturday

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01:00pm–Jeff participates in an “Authors and their Cats� panel (Hall 3)

05:00pm–Jeff presents an entertaining, often hilarious, Annihilation book-to-film presentation with behind-the-scenes intel and plenty of images. (101d)

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05:00pm–Ann participates in a translation panel (203a)

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I first met Leena Likitalo in Finland several years ago. I was impressed by her talent and her clear vision about her career. Fast-forward to today, and Likitalo has her first bookÌýout in English: The Five Daughters of the Moon. It’s a lush and luminous debut, energetic and sure-footed. . The book has already made Barnes & Noble’s best-of-the-month list, among other accolades.

Below find an exclusive interview with the author–about Finland, her writing, underwater rugby, shooting stuff with arrows, and much more. � Jeff

***

Leena Likitalo hails from Finland, the land of thousands of lakes and at least as many untold tales. She’s the author of the Waning Moon Duology, including The Five Daughters of the Moon and The Sisters of the Crescent Empress (Tor.com Publishing). A Writers of the Future winner and Clarion San Diego graduate, her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Galaxy’s Edge, and Weird Tales.

How does your Finnish background influence your writing and what did you grow up reading?

My Finnish background has definitely affected the way my prose flows. Finnish words are fiercely independent and extremely phonetic by nature. Each word knows who’s doing what, when, and in which manner. This is achieved by suffixing bits and pieces at the end of each word. When I write in English, I know how the finished story should sound, but I may have to spend hours and hours with a dictionary, looking for the words that make the sentences sing. This sometimes leads to rather odd compositions that may not be entirely grammatically correct, but somehow still make sense. At least to me.

I grew up reading fairy tales, lots and lots of them, and that probably twisted something permanently in my brain. Have a look at the works ofÌý Zachris Topelius and Hans Christian Andersen for some really stunning stories!ÌýDuring my early teens, I veered toward darker paths and read pretty much everything that Stephen King had ever written. Thanks to various school projects, I got introduced to Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy â€� and much to everyone’s surprise found them very much to my liking.ÌýMy father lured me into sampling science fiction and fantasy when I was sixteen â€� I learned English by reading the works of Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and Vernor Vinge!

When did you first know you wanted to be a writer and when did you first feel like a writer, so to speak?

I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I wrote my first stories before I learned to read. Naturally complications arose from that because not so surprisingly, no one else understood my brilliant system…I remember sitting before a typewriter at the tender age of nine, very determined to write a novel about wild horses. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to use the darn thing (who knew that centering a title could be so very challenging), and that was it for time being.

When did I feel like a writer? That day came when I sold my first short story, Watcher, to Ann VanderMeer, the editor ofÌý Weird Tales at the time.

You, to me, seem driven in the best possible way. You’ve succeeded through talent and very hard work. What do you feel has been essential to persevering and your success?

In Finland, we have this word sisu which is so integral to our very existence that it’s engraved deep into our minds and bodies. Sisu means persistence through impossible odds with the firm belief in mind that, if you keep on trying hard enough, regardless of how many times you fail on the way, in the end you just might succeed. Just might.

I was brought up to believe that through practice and persistence I could achieve anything I wanted in my life. And so I knew that if I just kept on writing, day after day, story after story, gradually I was bound to master my craft. I saw the hundreds of rejections that both my short and longer fiction garnered as a validation of my progress toward my goals.

And one by one, I have indeed achieved my writerly dreams: winning in Writers of the Future, participating in Clarion San Diego, selling a short story to Clarkesworld, and eventually signing a two-book deal with Tor.com Publishing.

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You ride horses and shoot arrows at targets. You’re competitive atÌý underwater rugby. How did you get into sports and do you find it helps in the writing? In what ways?

My underwater rugby team is called Najadit—the water spirits—and I love playing this rather intensive sport with my friends. Alas, I haven’t been to the pools of late due to old injuries re-surfacing. But one day, when I’m fit again, I shall make my return with a splash!

Now then, exercise, believe it or not, it’s actually an important part of my super-optimized writing process. I tend to write in 30 minute bursts, putting words after one another so fast that I start hearing voices and seeing visions, then disappear from this world altogether. Such intensity takes its toll, though, and after each session, I need to do something entirely different � mainly, clean the house or do sports. Yes, the latter is definitely more fun than laundry, which explains why I spend quite a lot of time exercising.

Hiking, bicycling, riding horses out in the nature, they all have a very meditative effect on me. Often, when there’s a particular plot point I need to solve or a description I want to nail before my next burst, it comes to me during these outings.ÌýAnd when it comes to extreme sports, I’m a bit of a junkie for new experiences. Give me a horse and a bow and an arrow, and I shall do my very best to hit the target or at least fail spectacularly while trying!

What do you want readers to take away from your books?

I like to describe my writing as a gateway drug for people who may not have read any fantasy before; it’s easy to approach, but leaves you craving for more.ÌýMy books are for cloudy days, to be read while wrapped in a fluffy blanket, with a hot cup of cocoa by one’s side and a cat purring at one’s feet. I want to take my readers out for an adventure and truly make them laugh and cry with my characters. With my Waning Moon Duology, I wish to leave my readers with a haunting feeling of days past that will linger with them for weeks afterwards.

What are you working on now?

I’ve recently finished the edits of The Sisters of the Crescent Empress, the second book of my Waning Moon Duology. It’s due to come out this November already!ÌýWhile I do intend to write more stories set in the Waning Moon world, at the moment I’m working on side project. In my deeply feministic, philosophical piece, a child god shelters a group of pregnant women who—to return the favor—attempt to teach the god the difference between right and wrong. What could possibly go wrong there?

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This summer I’m in the Carolinas, helping run the Shared Worlds teen SF/F writing camp and also doing a few Borne bookstore events. This should be a lot of fun–and I hope to see you at some of these events! You can also catch me on North Carolina public radio July 18th.

Borne has gotten rave reviews from The Guardian, NYT Book Review, LA Times, Washington Post, and more. It also recently appeared on LitHub’s list of the best-reviewed books of the year so far.

July 19, Wed, 6pm � Spartanburg, SC

Hub City Bookshop � The wonderful N.K. Jemisin is Shared Worlds’s first-week guest writer and will be . I’ll open and read from Borne and then lead an in-conversation with Jemisin followed by Q&A from the audience.

July 20, Thurs, 6pm � Greenville, SC

M. Judson Booksellers � , followed by Ann VanderMeer leading an in-conversation between me and Sofia.

July 22, Sat, 5pm � Chapel Hill, NC

Flyleaf Books � . Come out for my first event –I’m very much looking forward to it!

July 25, 6pm � Spartanburg, SC

Hub City Bookshop –ÌýI’ll be the MC : Terra McVoy, Gwenda Bond, Sofia Samatar, Tobias Buckell, Kathe Koja, and Ekaterina Sedia. Short readings and then I’ll ask them questions about writing and their fiction.

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[image error] Ìý(Eric Bogosian photo credit: Susan Johann. Anicka Yi/Jeff VanderMeer photo by Ann VanderMeer)

I’m thrilled to be back in New York City this coming week–and, especially, doing events at the Guggenheim (June 27) and The Strand (June 29). I am so looking forward to being in-conversation with such amazing people. Information below. Hope to see you there!

Guggenheim, Tuesday, June 27, 6:30 pm �

A panel centered around topics related to Hugo Boss Prize winner Anicka Yi‘s Guggenheim exhibit. Also with Caroline A. Jones from MIT. “Contamination and Containment,� with discussion of bio terrorism, biotech, and much more. One of Yi’s influences in recent years has been VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation.

The Strand Bookstore, Thursday, June 29, 7:00 pm �

Borne reading followed by lengthyÌýin-conversation with legendaryÌýactor and writer Eric Bogosian (author of Operation Nemesis), about subjects like ambiguity in storytelling, the work process, and our political situation.

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The Strand

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This spring, before my novelÌýBorne came out, I was booked for a fair number of presentations at universities about climate change and storytelling, and I pledged a percentage of my speaking fees to environmental causes–for reason that should be obvious. That percentage comes to $5,000. Many thanks to institutions such as the University of Houston, DePaul, NIU, and Cornell, whose kind invites made this donation possible.

I wanted to donate that money to an environmental cause active in North Florida, but it was very difficult to narrow it down—so many worthy organizations. So at the end of the day, we decided to split it in half and donate to two places. The announcement was made at my Tallahassee event in late May, held at the offices of the Tallahassee Democrat. Thanks to Diane Roberts for her help with research and for contacting both organizations. We will continue as much as we are able to contribute to similar causes using speaking fee percentages and book royalties. (We have also funded a year of the Octavia Project through VanderMeer Creative, as STEM programs are important to environmental issues as well.)

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The first recipient is the local . Riverkeeper is a national environmental non-profit which works to preserve the ecosystems of US rivers. Dan Tonsmeire works on keeping the Apalachicola River clean and wild: the Apalachicola Estuary is one of the most productive in the world. A big part of what the Riverkeeper does is grapple with the Army Corps of Engineers, who are not allowing enough fresh water to flow down from Georgia into the system. In addition to catastrophic damage to ecosystems and animals and plants, improper management means a terrible impact on local economies: no oysters, noÌýtupelo trees, etc.

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The second is the , led by President Manley Fuller and VP Preston Robertson, covers the whole state, fighting for clean water, conservation lands, habitat conservation and critters from panthers to turtles to manatees. FWF was a driving force behind Amendment 1, which mandates the buying of conservation lands. Though 74 percent of Floridians voted for A1 in 2014, the Legislature has refused to use the designated money for the stated purpose. FWF is now suing the Legislature to force them to comply with what the people of the state voted for.

I urge Floridians to donate to both of these worthy organizations, or to the local or national environmental organization of their choice. We also contribute on a monthly basis to the World Wildlife Fund, for example. Now more than ever it is essential.

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Ann and I have now been on tour for BORNE since April 22, and we’ve got two weeks on the West Coast to go�, before returning to Tallahassee for the Florida leg of the tour. Thanks for coming out to the events, which have been packed–I’m grateful for meeting so many engaged readers and so many wonderful booksellers. I also had a great time doing .

Thanks for buying BORNE and thanks for your help spreading the word if you like the novel. Especially by way of reviews on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and wherever you bought the book from, .

Here’s a selection of review coverage thus far, which has been very generous. Hope to see you on tour, where you can see the giant Theo Ellsworth bear woodcut we’ve brought along with us, along with other surprises. � Jeff

[image error]“Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy was an ever-creeping map of the apocalypse; with Borne he continues his investigation into the malevolent grace of the world, and it’s a thorough marvel.� —Colson Whitehead

“VanderMeer is that rare novelist who turns to nonhumans not to make them approximate us as much as possible but to make such approximation impossible. All of this is magnified a hundredfold in Borne . . . Here is the story about biotech that VanderMeer wants to tell, a vision of the nonhuman not as one fixed thing, one fixed destiny, but as either peaceful or catastrophic, by our side or out on a rampage as our behavior dictates–for these are our children, born of us and now to be borne in whatever shape or mess we have created. This coming-of-age story signals that eco-fiction has come of age as well: wilder, more reckless and more breathtaking than previously thought, a wager and a promise that what emerges from the twenty-first century will be as good as any from the twentieth, or the nineteenth.� —Wai Chee Dimock, The New York Times Book Review

“The conceptual elements in VanderMeer’s fiction are so striking that the firmness with which he cinches them to his characters� lives is often overlooked . . . Borne is VanderMeer’s trans-species rumination on the theme of parenting . . . [Borne] insists that to live in an age of gods and sorcerers is to know that you, a mere person, might be crushed by indifferent forces at a moment’s notice, then quickly forgotten. And that the best thing about human nature might just be its unwillingness to surrender to the worst side of itself.� —Laura Miller, The New Yorker

“Borne, the latest novel from New Weird author Jeff VanderMeer, is a story of loving self-sacrifice, hallucinatory beauty, and poisonous trust . . . Heady delights only add to the engrossing richness of Borne. The main attraction is a tale of mothers and monsters–and of how we make each other with our love.� —Nisi Shawl, The Washington Post

“Borne, Jeff VanderMeer’s lyrical and harrowing new novel, may be the most beautifully written, and believable, post-apocalyptic tale in recent memory . . . [VanderMeer] outdoes himself in this visionary novel shimmering with as much inventiveness and deliriously unlikely, post-human optimism as Borne himself.� —Elizabeth Hand, Los Angeles Times

“Borne, the latest from sci-fi savant Jeff VanderMeer, begins innocently enough: Girl meets strange plantlike creature. But if you haven’t read his haunting Southern Reach trilogy, prepare yourself–this is Walden gone horribly wrong.� —Esquire

“VanderMeer’s apocalyptic vision, with its mix of absurdity, horror, and grace, can’t be mistaken for that of anyone else. Inventive, engrossing, and heartbreaking, Borne finds [VanderMeer] at a high point of creative accomplishment.� —Michael Berry, San Francisco Chronicle

“VanderMeer’s world is vast and imaginative . . . [Borne] augments its weirdness with strong characters and worldbuilding, and a narrator who manages to charm and unnerve in equal measure . . . From its biotech creatures to its god-bear and attack beetles, Borne is intriguing, unnerving, and quintessentially VanderMeer.� —Sam Reader, Barnes & Noble

“Beautiful . . . VanderMeer’s fiction is not preachy by any means. Rather, it probes the mysterious of different lifeforms and highlights our human ignorance at the life around us.� —Lincoln Michel, Vice

“Borne maintains a wry self-awareness that’s rare in dystopias, making it the most necessary VanderMeer book yet.� —Charley Locke, Wired

“Just as VanderMeer subverted your expectations for each sequel to Annihilation, with Borne he’s written something completely different and unpredictable � not just in terms of the story, but also with regards to language, structure, and point of view.� —Adam Morgan, Chicago Review of Books

“VanderMeer offers another conceptual cautionary tale of corporate greed, scientific hubris, and precarious survival . . . VanderMeer marries bildungsroman, domestic drama, love story, and survival thriller into one compelling, intelligent story centered not around the gee-whiz novelty of a flying bear but around complex, vulnerable characters struggling with what it means to be a person. VanderMeer’s talent for immersive world-building and stunning imagery is on display in this weird, challenging, but always heartfelt novel.� —Krista Hutley, Booklist (starred review)

“Supremely literary, distinctly unusual . . . VanderMeer’s deep talent for worldbuilding takes him into realms more reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road than of the Shire. Superb.� —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“VanderMeer, author of the acclaimed Southern Reach trilogy, has made a career out of eluding genre classifications, and with Borne he essentially invents a new one . . . Reading like a dispatch from a world lodged somewhere between science fiction, myth, and a video game, the textures of Borne shift as freely as those of the titular whatsit. What’s even more remarkable is the reservoirs of feeling that VanderMeer is able to tap into . . . resulting in something more than just weird fiction: weird literature.� —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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Ottessa Moshfegh read last night at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Geneva, NY) as the last speaker in the 2016-2017 Trias reading series, which I curated as the writer in residence. She was remarkable, doing a sustained reading of her long story “The Weirdos� that transfixed the audience and demonstrated just how much care she takes with her sentences, her characterization, and her performances. The Q&A that followed was so sharp and brilliant I didn’t want it to end. (The video will be posted soon.)

As with the prior two speakers in the series, Dexter Palmer and Amelia Gray, find my introduction to Moshfegh’s reading below.

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I first encountered Ottessa Moshfegh’s fiction when I picked up her first novel, McGlue, about a rather dysfunctional sailor’s misadventures…to put it mildly. McGlue pretty much blew me away—it was such an unusual narrative and one of those books where the cliché “take no prisoners� is fully justified as is the overused word “transgressive.� Although when we use such labels we also need to think about why that might be—and who we think part of society and who we don’t, as Moshfegh herself pointed out at her lunch-time discussion with HWS students today. But whatever words you use to describe McGlue, it clearly marked the arrival of a fresh and genuine talent. I remember thinking “this is a no-bullshit writer.� The best kind.

Eileen, Moshfegh’s next novel, which has been optioned for film by Scott Rudin Productions and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, provided readers with yet another deep character study of a loner, but with more dark absurdism and twisted humor. It keenly evoked the 1960s in a small, insular Massachusetts town and the titular character’s attempts to break free of an alcoholic father and a dead-end job. The book can be melancholy and dark, but it is shot through with such vivid and unusual observations, courtesy of the unique narrator, that it achieves the rare distinction of being downbeat but also immensely readable. There are also so many wonderful sections, including parts in which the architecture of the house EileenÌýlives in is mapped to the emotional resonance of her life and the people in her life—such clarity, in fact, of both description and characterization intertwined that it’s a textbook example of how to make sentences do more than one or two things at once.

If, like me, you are looking for books that don’t go where you expect them to, and which feature characters that feel like real, flawed people—that don’t flinch away from showing us as we are than as we pretend to be, then EileenÌýwas a singular triumph, and it rightly received high critical and reader praise.

Which is all to say that when I heard Moshfegh had a story collection coming out, I begged an advance copy from the publisher as soon as they were available and read it from start to finish in one or two sittings. Homesick For Another World, in addition to having a great title, displays great cohesion in its depiction of a series of misfits and down-and-out characters who are fascinating in part because of Moshfegh’s great eye and ear for the unusual detail. From the mental contortions the title character in “Mr. Wu� puts himself through in his infatuation with a woman at a video arcade to Jeb in “An Honest Woman,� who is grotesque in his interactions with his neighbor but rendered startlingly three-dimensional, Moshfegh displays a gift for interiority that astonishes. By the final story in Homesick for Another World, “A Better Place,� so many unique inner landscapes have been revealed to the reader that the sense of the speculative or surreal seems well-earned not despite the realism of what has come before but because of it. Her work is beautiful because of what it lays bare.

This is all a remarkable gift for the reader, yes, but also for writers, in how Moshfegh makes mundane, in the best possible way, the perverse and the things we try to edit out of the myth of who we are—restoring what was often always there but not put onto the page. This isn’t just a case of having a map showing one way to do deep characterization—it is also about liberating the imagination from the self-editing that can occur, to not say the forbidden thing, to shy away from topics that have been categorized as taboo or have been marginalized and pushed to the edges. I know that just the sheer bravado of Moshfegh’s fiction has had a deep effect on what I feel I can tackle in my own work—similar in a way to how encountering Vladimir Nabokov and Angela Carter’s fiction when I was just starting out put me on a path to becoming a better, more mature writer. Moshfegh’s stories are also for this reason essential reading for beginning writers today, who need the reminder because they exist in the public sphere amid an ever widening maelstrom of reactions.

It’s not a given that writers who take chances get rewarded for it. Thankfully, though, Ottessa Moshfegh has been rewarded for those chances. In addition to wide-spread critical acclaim, Moshfegh has won the Fence Modern Prize in Prose, the Believer Book Award, the PEN/Hemmingway Award for debut fiction, the Pushcart Prize, anÌý O. Henry Award, the Plimpton Discovery Prize, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Please join me in welcoming Ottessa Moshfegh to Hobart and William Smith�.

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(Yes, there is a talking marmot in the series; image by Yves Tourigny)

By now, many of you may have seen the news that I’ve sold a YA trilogy to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, per the Publishers Lunch announcement. (There is also other brilliant news about this trilogy I can’t share quite yet, but perhaps you can guess given the trend re what’s happened with my other recent novels.)

Jeff VanderMeer’s JONATHAN LAMBSHEAD AND THE GOLDEN SPHERE, and the next two books in the planned Adventures of Jonathan Lambshead trilogy, about a boy who inherits his grandfather’s mansion on the condition he catalogue the contents, only to uncover not just a basement of collectibles, but three strange doors, evidence his grandfather did not die of natural causes but spectacularly unnatural ones, and clues to the family’s ties to an alternate Europe immersed in a war fought with WW1 technology and dark magic; to Wesley Adams at Farrar, Straus & Giroux Children’s,Ìýat auction, in a significant deal by Sally Harding at The Cooke Agency. (World English)

I’m excited about these books for a variety of reasons, one of them being that it continues the Lambshead story that I’ve been developing for the last fifteen or sixteen years. Long-time fans will recognize the Lambshead name from two anthologies I co-edited, Dr. Thackery T. Lambshead’s Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases and the Dr. Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. For both books I had to create an extensive life for Dr. Lambshead and there was a lot of history and information in notebooks that never got onto the printed page. (It’s also an improbable ascension–Dr. Lambshead started out as a chapbook idea, and then grew and grew, published by an indie and then the majors, and now this�)

About five years ago, the character of Jonathan Lambshead leapt into my head, the idea of a grandson to whom his grandfather, Dr. Lambshead, was mysterious. A youth who had an affinity for the wilderness and for animals, which manifested in an empathy almost at times like magic. A youth who had grown up in England and the wilds of North Florida, much as I grew up in the British Commonwealth and then Gainesville and Tallahassee, Florida. Someone who was in some ways advanced for his age and in some ways much younger than his age.

So I let that percolate, in a space where I recall with affection the childhood and teenage favorites I loved growing up (I was always a soft touch for talking animals, so it should come as no surprise that there are talking animals in my series.) And in the same space rose up an parallel Earth called Aurora and a ruthless dictator (all too like, without my meaning it, a certain personage today) of a Franco-Germanic Empire whose sidekicks include the disembodied resurrected head of Napoleon as a military adviser (who lives atop a pneumatic column so he can look down on all he surveys). In opposition, a rag-tag opposition of Bavarian and Czech magicians (yes, there’s magic in the series) and a democratic Muslim Republic. Oh yes–there’s also a land bridge between England and the continent.

What is Jonathan Lambshead’s place in all of this? Well, he and his friends will have to find out–including the meaning of the three doors in Dr. Lambshead’s basement, the strange woman lurking in the shrubbery, and the marmot he encounters that seems preternatural in many ways. Not to mention the Golden Sphere of the title, which is perhaps more consciously elusive than one might expect. Along the way, expect an animated Eiffel Tower, a widening context in which we learn European expansion in Aurora’s timeline has been held in checkÌýfor a variety of reasons, and some rather peculiar details about Jonathan’s childhoodÌýon the coast, near Yorkshire.

Of course, some things remain constants in most of my fiction and that won’t change here. The magic of a Prague character is steeped in the world of plants and fungus. The talking animals have their own agency and allow me to explore, through Jonathan’s connection to the natural world, many of the themes near and dear to my heart.ÌýThere are also a host of secondary characters I’m having a lot of fun with and other elements that I think readers will enjoy. The fact that it’s all steeped in the world of Dr. Lambshead, which I know like the back of my hand, is a huge plus as well.

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I thought I’d provide a round-up of all the 2017 books I’ve blurbed, along with one reprint, Lives of the Monster Dogs, that I’ve written a new introduction for. I’m really enthusiastic about all of these titles, and hopefully there’s a little something for everyone! My blurb in italics before a brief description. � Jeff VanderMeer

[image error] , Kirsten Bakis (FSG Classics, May)

“An unforgettable meditation on both animals and humans, and the ways in which we are entangled, and the ways in which neither party can escape the methods of our genesis and our upbringing.� � from my introduction

After a century of cruel experimentation, a haunted race of genetically and biomechanically uplifted canines are created by the followers of a mad nineteenth-century Prussian surgeon. Possessing human intelligence, speaking human language, fitted with prosthetic hands, and walking upright on their hind legs, the monster dogs are intended to be super soldiers. Rebelling against their masters, however, and plundering the isolated village where they were created, the now wealthy dogs make their way to New York.

[image error] , Leonora Carrington (Dorothy, April)

“The definitive collection of Carrington’s short fiction is a treasure and a gift to this world. A stunning achievement.�

Surrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a master of the macabre, of gorgeous tableaus, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination. Nowhere are these qualities more ingeniously brought together than in the works of short fiction she wrote throughout her life.ÌýPublished to coincide with the centennial of her birth, the complete storiesÌýcollects for the first time all of her stories, including several never before seen in print. With a startling range of styles, subjects, and even languages (several of the stories are translated from French or Spanish), this collectionÌýcaptures the genius and irrepressible spirit of an amazing artist’s life.

[image error] , Jac Jemc (FSG Originals, August)

“A stunning, smart genuinely creepy page-turner that I couldn’t put down. It’s got depth, thrills, twists, and great writing.ÌýI’d recommend this novel to anyone.ÌýOne of the few haunted house stories that sticks the landing.â€�

The Grip of ItÌýtells the eerie story of a young couple haunted by their new home. Julie and James settle into a house in a small town outside the city where they met. The move?prompted by James’s penchant for gambling, his inability to keep his impulses in check?is quick and seamless; both Julie and James are happy to leave behind their usual haunts and start afresh. But this house, which sits between lake and forest, has plans for the unsuspecting couple.

, Ben Loory (Penguin, September) [image error]

“Parables, dark fables, quirky flash fictions—call them what you will, Ben Loory has perfected the form and inÌýTales of Falling and FlyingÌýproves once again he can disturb a little and entertain a lot. Easily read, not easily forgotten.â€�

Ben Loory returns with a second collection of timeless tales, inviting us to enter his worlds of whimsical fantasy, deep empathy, and playful humor, in the signature voice that drew readers to his highly praised first collection. In stories that eschew literary realism, Loory’s characters demonstrate richly imagined and surprising perspectives, whether they be dragons or swordsmen, star-crossed lovers or long-lost twins, restaurateurs dreaming of Paris or cephalopods fixated on space travel.

[image error], Carmen Machado (Graywolf Press, October)

“Genius: part punk rock andÌýpart classical, with stories that are raw and devastating but also exquisitely plotted and full of delight. This is a strong, dangerous, and blisteringly honest book—it’s hard to think of it as a ‘debut,â€� it’s that good.â€�

Machado’s stories mix sci-fi, horror, frank realism, and fabulism as they shift from urban legend to post-apocalypse and more. A woman lists her sexual encounters as a plague spreads across the world. A resident at a writersâ€� colony is haunted by the memory of a long-ago night at Girl Scout camp. A young wife refuses to remove the green ribbon from her neck, despite her husband’s pleading. And the centerpiece is the virtuosic novella “Especially Heinous,â€� in which Machado recaps every single episode ofÌýLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit, dropping Benson and Stabler into a phantasmagoria of doppelgängers and girls-with-bells-for-eyes.

[image error]T , Giorgio De Maria, translated by Ramon Glazov (Liveright, February)

“A chilling novel that conjures up the creepy claustrophobia ofÌýThe TenantÌýand the mind-bending epic horror ofÌýHouse of Leaves?except spread across an entire city. Odd libraries, uncanny monuments, horrific deaths, and terrifying puppet shows…even days later, I’m still flinching at shadows, unable to forget the riveting details of a newly unearthed uncanny classic.â€�

Written during the height of the 1970s Italian domestic terror, a cult novel, with distinct echoes of Lovecraft and Borges, makes its English-language debut. In the spare wing of a church-run sanatorium, some zealous youths create “the Library,� a space where lonely citizens can read one another’s personal diaries but when their scribblings devolve into the ugliest confessions of the macabre, the Library’s users learn too late that a malicious force has consumed their privacy and their sanity.

[image error] , Molly Tanzer (John Joseph Adams Books, November)

“A delightful, dark, and entertaining romp with serious intent behind it. The writing is so smart and sharp—Molly Tanzer is at the top of her form in this beautifully constructed novel. Sure to be a favorite of readers and critics alike.�

Victorian London is a place of fluid social roles, vibrant arts culture, fin-de-siècle wonders . . . and dangerous underground diabolic cults. Fencer Evadne Gray cares for none of the former and knows nothing of the latter when she’s sent to London to chaperone her younger sister, aspiring art critic Dorina. Unfortunately for Evadne, she soon learns too much about all of it when Dorina meets their uncle’s friend, Lady Henrietta “Henryâ€� Wotton. A semi-respectable aristocrat in public, in private she is secretly in the thrall of a demon obsessed with beauty and pleasure.ÌýCombining swordplay, demons, and high society,ÌýCreatures of Will and TemperÌýshows a timeless world and adventure readers won’t soon forget.

by [image error]Karin Tidbeck (June)

“Karin Tidbeck’s Amatka is a stunning, truly original exploration of the mysteries of reality and what it means to be human. It’s brutally honest and uncompromising in its vision—a brilliant short story writer has been revealed as an even more brilliant novelist. One of my favorite reads of the past few years, an instant classic.�

Vanja, an information assistant, is sent from her home city of Essre to the austere, wintry colony of Amatka with an assignment to collect intelligence for the government. Immediately she feels that something strange is going on: people act oddly in Amatka, and citizens are monitored for signs of subversion.ÌýWhen she stumbles on evidence of a growing threat to the colony, and a cover-up by its administration, she embarks on an investigation that puts her at tremendous risk.ÌýIn Karin Tidbeck’s world, everyone is suspect, no one is safe, and nothing—not even language, nor the very fabric of reality—can be taken for granted. AmatkaÌýis a beguiling and wholly original novel about freedom, love, and artistic creation by a captivating new voice.

[image error] , J.D. Wilkes (Two Dollar Radio, March)

“A sly, rollicking Southern phantasmagoria that finds the sweet spot between tall tale and something more dangerous and psychological. Hilarious, profane, entertaining, and sneakily written. The illustrations are brilliant, too.�

In a forgotten corner of western Kentucky lies a haunted forest referred to locally as “The Deadening,� where vampire cults roam wild and time is immaterial. Our protagonist and his accomplice—the one and only, Carver Canute—set out down the Old Spur Line in search of the legendary Kudzu House, where an old couple is purported to have been swallowed whole by a hungry vine. Their quest leads them face to face with albino panthers, Great Dane-riding girls, protective property owners, and just about every American folk-demon ever, while forcing the protagonist to finally take stock of his relationship with his father and the man’s mysterious disappearance.

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I thought I’d provide a round-up of all the 2017 books I’ve blurbed, along with one reprint, Lives of the Monster Dogs, that I’ve written a new introduction for. I’m really enthusiastic about all of these titles, and hopefully there’s a little something for everyone! My blurb in italics before a brief description. � Jeff VanderMeer

[image error] , Kirsten Bakis (FSG Classics, May)

“An unforgettable meditation on both animals and humans, and the ways in which we are entangled, and the ways in which neither party can escape the methods of our genesis and our upbringing.� � from my introduction

After a century of cruel experimentation, a haunted race of genetically and biomechanically uplifted canines are created by the followers of a mad nineteenth-century Prussian surgeon. Possessing human intelligence, speaking human language, fitted with prosthetic hands, and walking upright on their hind legs, the monster dogs are intended to be super soldiers. Rebelling against their masters, however, and plundering the isolated village where they were created, the now wealthy dogs make their way to New York.

[image error] , Leonora Carrington (Dorothy, April)

“The definitive collection of Carrington’s short fiction is a treasure and a gift to this world. A stunning achievement.�

Surrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a master of the macabre, of gorgeous tableaus, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination. Nowhere are these qualities more ingeniously brought together than in the works of short fiction she wrote throughout her life.ÌýPublished to coincide with the centennial of her birth, the complete storiesÌýcollects for the first time all of her stories, including several never before seen in print. With a startling range of styles, subjects, and even languages (several of the stories are translated from French or Spanish), this collectionÌýcaptures the genius and irrepressible spirit of an amazing artist’s life.

[image error] , Jac Jemc (FSG Originals, August)

“A stunning, smart genuinely creepy page-turner that I couldn’t put down. It’s got depth, thrills, twists, and great writing.ÌýI’d recommend this novel to anyone.ÌýOne of the few haunted house stories that sticks the landing.â€�

The Grip of ItÌýtells the eerie story of a young couple haunted by their new home. Julie and James settle into a house in a small town outside the city where they met. The move?prompted by James’s penchant for gambling, his inability to keep his impulses in check?is quick and seamless; both Julie and James are happy to leave behind their usual haunts and start afresh. But this house, which sits between lake and forest, has plans for the unsuspecting couple.

, Ben Loory (Penguin, September) [image error]

“Parables, dark fables, quirky flash fictions—call them what you will, Ben Loory has perfected the form and inÌýTales of Falling and FlyingÌýproves once again he can disturb a little and entertain a lot. Easily read, not easily forgotten.â€�

Ben Loory returns with a second collection of timeless tales, inviting us to enter his worlds of whimsical fantasy, deep empathy, and playful humor, in the signature voice that drew readers to his highly praised first collection. In stories that eschew literary realism, Loory’s characters demonstrate richly imagined and surprising perspectives, whether they be dragons or swordsmen, star-crossed lovers or long-lost twins, restaurateurs dreaming of Paris or cephalopods fixated on space travel.

[image error], Carmen Machado (Graywolf Press, October)

“Genius: part punk rock andÌýpart classical, with stories that are raw and devastating but also exquisitely plotted and full of delight. This is a strong, dangerous, and blisteringly honest book—it’s hard to think of it as a ‘debut,â€� it’s that good.â€�

Machado’s stories mix sci-fi, horror, frank realism, and fabulism as they shift from urban legend to post-apocalypse and more. A woman lists her sexual encounters as a plague spreads across the world. A resident at a writersâ€� colony is haunted by the memory of a long-ago night at Girl Scout camp. A young wife refuses to remove the green ribbon from her neck, despite her husband’s pleading. And the centerpiece is the virtuosic novella “Especially Heinous,â€� in which Machado recaps every single episode ofÌýLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit, dropping Benson and Stabler into a phantasmagoria of doppelgängers and girls-with-bells-for-eyes.

[image error]T , Giorgio De Maria, translated by Ramon Glazov (Liveright, February)

“A chilling novel that conjures up the creepy claustrophobia ofÌýThe TenantÌýand the mind-bending epic horror ofÌýHouse of Leaves?except spread across an entire city. Odd libraries, uncanny monuments, horrific deaths, and terrifying puppet shows…even days later, I’m still flinching at shadows, unable to forget the riveting details of a newly unearthed uncanny classic.â€�

Written during the height of the 1970s Italian domestic terror, a cult novel, with distinct echoes of Lovecraft and Borges, makes its English-language debut. In the spare wing of a church-run sanatorium, some zealous youths create “the Library,� a space where lonely citizens can read one another’s personal diaries but when their scribblings devolve into the ugliest confessions of the macabre, the Library’s users learn too late that a malicious force has consumed their privacy and their sanity.

, Molly Tanzer (John Joseph Adams Books, November)

“A delightful, dark, and entertaining romp with serious intent behind it. The writing is so smart and sharp—Molly Tanzer is at the top of her form in this beautifully constructed novel. Sure to be a favorite of readers and critics alike.�

Victorian London is a place of fluid social roles, vibrant arts culture, fin-de-siècle wonders . . . and dangerous underground diabolic cults. Fencer Evadne Gray cares for none of the former and knows nothing of the latter when she’s sent to London to chaperone her younger sister, aspiring art critic Dorina. Unfortunately for Evadne, she soon learns too much about all of it when Dorina meets their uncle’s friend, Lady Henrietta “Henryâ€� Wotton. A semi-respectable aristocrat in public, in private she is secretly in the thrall of a demon obsessed with beauty and pleasure.ÌýCombining swordplay, demons, and high society,ÌýCreatures of Will and TemperÌýshows a timeless world and adventure readers won’t soon forget.

[image error] , J.D. Wilkes (Two Dollar Radio, March)

“A sly, rollicking Southern phantasmagoria that finds the sweet spot between tall tale and something more dangerous and psychological. Hilarious, profane, entertaining, and sneakily written. The illustrations are brilliant, too.�

In a forgotten corner of western Kentucky lies a haunted forest referred to locally as “The Deadening,� where vampire cults roam wild and time is immaterial. Our protagonist and his accomplice—the one and only, Carver Canute—set out down the Old Spur Line in search of the legendary Kudzu House, where an old couple is purported to have been swallowed whole by a hungry vine. Their quest leads them face to face with albino panthers, Great Dane-riding girls, protective property owners, and just about every American folk-demon ever, while forcing the protagonist to finally take stock of his relationship with his father and the man’s mysterious disappearance.

The post appeared first on .