 Cover of the first edition. | |
| Editors | James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Isabelle Rozenbaum(image) & John D. Berry (designer) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Slipstream |
| Publisher | Tachyon |
Publication date | 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | 1-892391-35-X |
Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology is an anthology of slipstream fiction, edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel, published in 2006 by Tachyon Publications. [1]
Feeling Very Strange seeks to define the slipstream genre as well as present the foremost examples of it. The editor's foreword consists primarily of attempts to define the genre, and the stories are interspersed with a series of essays and arguments from other authors and commentators, under the heading "I Want My 20th Century Schitzoid Art".
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| "Al" | Carol Emshwiller |
| "The Little Magic Shop " | Bruce Sterling |
| "The Specialist's Hat" | Kelly Link |
| "The Healer" | Aimee Bender |
| "Light and the Sufferer" | Jonathan Lethem |
| "Sea Oak" | George Saunders |
| "Exhibit H: Torn Pages Discovered in the Vest Pocket of an Unidentified Tourist" | Jeff VanderMeer |
| "Hell Is the Absence of God" | Ted Chiang |
| "Lieserl" | Karen Joy Fowler |
| "Bright Morning" | Jeffrey Ford |
| "Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-planes'" | Benjamin Rosenbaum |
| "The God of Dark Laughter" | Michael Chabon |
| "The Rose in Twelve Petals" | Theodora Goss |
| "The Lions Are Asleep this Night" | Howard Waldrop |
| "You Have Never Been Here" | M. Rickert |
Feeling Very Strange has received mixed reviews, with most of the negative responses stating that they were unconvinced of the viability of slipstream as a legitimate subgenre. The review on The SF Site was particularly concerned with this element, stating that "stylistic variations among the selections don't help to clarify exactly what slipstream is." [2] A review in Strange Horizons expressed further concern with the definition given, stating that "slipstream is not a genre (and) a slipstream anthology risks seeming arbitrary in its selections. Even if it's a form on its way to becoming a genre, "slipstream" can be seen as an imperialist coinage, a land-grab by the ghetto." It went on to note, however, that "the quality of the stories in this book, with a couple of exceptions...is not in doubt. [3] Publishers Weekly made a similar proviso, stating that "While these intriguing stories (and accompanying essays) may not be enough to define the canon of a new subgenre, they provide plenty of good reading." [4] Susurrus Magazine were less qualified in their praise, stating that "though it's hard to define exactly what is happening, it's a pleasure to read." [5]
Speculative fiction is an umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or other imaginative realms. This catch-all genre includes, but is not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, magical realism, superhero fiction, alternate history, utopia and dystopia, fairy tales, steampunk, cyberpunk, weird fiction, and some apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. The term has been used for works of literature, film, television, drama, video games, radio, and their hybrids.
John Joseph Vincent Kessel is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. He is a prolific short story writer, and the author of four solo novels, Good News From Outer Space (1989), Corrupting Dr. Nice (1997), The Moon and the Other (2017), and Pride and Prometheus (2018), and one novel, Freedom Beach (1985) in collaboration with his friend James Patrick Kelly. Kessel is married to author Therese Anne Fowler.
Gordon Van Gelder is an American science fiction editor. From 1997 until 2014, Van Gelder was editor and later publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, for which he has twice won the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form. He was also a managing editor of The New York Review of Science Fiction from 1988 to 1993, for which he was nominated for the Hugo Award a number of times. In 2015, Van Gelder stepped down as editor of Fantasy & Science Fiction in favor of Charles Coleman Finlay, but remains publisher of the magazine.
The slipstream genre is a term denoting forms of speculative fiction that blends together science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction or do not remain in conventional boundaries of genre and narrative. It directly extends from the experimentation of the New Wave science fiction movement while also borrowing from fantasy, psychological fiction, philosophical fiction and other genres or styles of literature.
Ellen Klages is an American science, science fiction and historical fiction writer who lives in San Francisco. Her novelette "Basement Magic" won the 2005 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. She had previously been nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards. Her first (non-genre) novel, The Green Glass Sea, was published by Viking Children's Books in 2006. It won the 2007 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Portable Childhoods, a collection of her short fiction published by Tachyon Publications, was named a 2008 World Fantasy Award finalist. White Sands, Red Menace, the sequel to The Green Glass Sea, was published in Fall 2008. In 2010, her short story "Singing on a Star" was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. In 2018 her novella Passing Strange was nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature.
James Patrick Kelly is an American science fiction author who has won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.
David Geddes Hartwell was an American critic, publisher, and editor of thousands of science fiction and fantasy novels. He was best known for work with Signet, Pocket, and Tor Books publishers. He was also noted as an award-winning editor of anthologies. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes him as "perhaps the single most influential book editor of the past forty years in the American [science fiction] publishing world".
Sycamore Hill Writer's Workshop is an annual workshop for science fiction writers. Since its origin in 1985, it has been held in Raleigh, North Carolina; Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania; and most recently in Little Switzerland, North Carolina.
Speculative poetry is a genre of poetry that focusses on fantastic, science fictional and mythological themes. It is also known as science fiction poetry or fantastic poetry. It is distinguished from other poetic genres by being categorized by its subject matter, rather than by the poetry's form. Suzette Haden Elgin defined the genre as "about a reality that is in some way different from the existing reality."
Mundane science fiction (MSF) is a niche literary movement within science fiction that developed in the early 2000s, with principles codified by the "Mundane Manifesto" in 2004, signed by author Geoff Ryman and "The Clarion West 2004 Class". The movement proposes "mundane science fiction" as its own subgenre of science fiction, typically characterized by its setting on Earth or within the Solar System; a lack of interstellar travel, intergalactic travel or human contact with extraterrestrials; and a believable use of technology and science as it exists at the time the story is written or a plausible extension of existing technology. There is debate over the boundaries of MSF and over which works can be considered canonical. Rudy Rucker has noted MSF's similarities to hard science fiction and Ritch Calvin has pointed out MSF's similarities to cyberpunk. Some commentators have identified science fiction films and television series which embody the MSF ethos of near-future realism.
Keith Brooke is a British science fiction author, editor, web publisher and anthologist from Essex, England. He is the founder and editor of the infinity plus webzine. He also writes children's fiction under the name Nick Gifford.
Tachyon Publications is an independent press specializing in science fiction and fantasy books. Founded in San Francisco in 1995 by Jacob Weisman, Tachyon books have tended toward high-end literary works, short story collections, and anthologies.
Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology is a collection of postcyberpunk short stories, published by Tachyon Publications and edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel. It features 16 short stories which fall into the loose categorisation of postcyberpunk, intercut with excerpts from a series of letters exchanged by Kessel and fellow science fiction author Bruce Sterling in which they discuss and debate the nature of cyberpunk, the implication being that the issues which they raise have led to the formation of the postcyberpunk trend.
Jason Sanford is an American science fiction author whose 2022 novel Plague Birds was a finalist for the Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards. He's also known for his short fiction, which has been published in Interzone, Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Year's Best SF 14, InterGalactic Medicine Show and other magazines and anthologies.
Pastoralia is short story writer George Saunders’s second full-length short story collection, published in 2000. The collection received highly positive reviews from book critics and was ranked the fifth-greatest book of the 2000s by literary magazine The Millions. The book consists of stories that appeared in The New Yorker; most of the stories were O. Henry Prize Stories. The collection was a New York Times Notable Book for 2001.
Claude Lalumière is an author, book reviewer and has edited numerous anthologies. A resident of Montreal, Quebec, he writes the Montreal Gazette's Fantastic Fiction column. He also owned and operated two independent book stores in Montreal. He and Rupert Bottenberg are co-creators of lostmyths.net.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2007 is an anthology of award winning science fiction short works edited by Mike Resnick. It was first published in trade paperback by Roc/New American Library in March 2007.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2012 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel. It was first published in trade paperback by Pyr in May 2012.
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R. B. Lemberg is a queer, bigender, and autistic Ukrainian-American author, poet, and editor of speculative fiction. Their work has appeared in publications such as Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology, Uncanny Magazine, and Transcendent 3: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction 2017.