“Fields of Gold”, by Rachel Swirsky, is nominated for a Nebula this year. This story gets at the heart of fantasy: nostalgia for the losses and misses of a life. Lyrical, funny, beautiful. The ending does what Swirksky does best: just when you think it’s winding down, it lifts you up and takes you somewhere wondrous.
In case you’re catching up on your 2011 short fiction reading, here’s a list of stories I thought were noteworthy.
“Six Months, Three Days” by Charlie Jane Anders is an amazing, funny, sad, super cool story about a man who sees the future and a woman who sees futures. Beautiful. Totally awesome that it’s up for a Nebula. Go read it now.
SFWA has announced the Nebula finalists. Congrats to all the nominees! I know many of them and the nominated works, and they’re all deserving. I’d be happy to see any one of them win.
I’m honored to see that “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” and “The Paper Menagerie” are on the list.
I’m grateful to many people, especially all the reviewers who said kind things about my works and publicized them. But for now, I want to single out Erica Naone, who encouraged me to finish my novella (I was ready to give up on it until she came along), and Dario Ciriello and Gordon Van Gelder, my publishers, who believed in my stories.
And as always, I thank my wife Lisa, who is not afraid to tell me when she thinks something I write isn’t any good.
I’ve said before that I think of the quintessential Clarkesworld style as “awesome scifi.” Helena Bell’s “All the Young Kirks and Their Good Intentions” in the current issue is a great example.
All the young Kirks in Riverside are in love with Jamie. She wears tight green skirts and impractical shoes. When she crosses and uncrosses her legs all the Kirks, even the girls, turn their heads ever so slightly to watch. Jamie does not have a boyfriend as none of the Kirks are so bold as to admit their feelings to another.
Gorgeous, isn’t it? It pulls you right in and makes you want to follow along even if you aren’t sure what’s going on.
Bell’s bio says that she’s a poet. I bet that’s true of a lot of Clarkesworld authors. Xia Jia, whose story I translated for this issue, is another Clarkesworld author who writes scifi poetically.
Update 2/3/2012: the other stoy in the issue, Mari Ness’s “And the Hollow Space Inside,” is beautiful and haunting. I like this one even more than her Clarkesworld story from last year, which was lovely. I can’t say much about it without giving away the point, so you should go read it yourself. This whole issue is really good.
“The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” is the work that I’m most proud of.
I’ve been really moved and honored by some of the recent comments on it from other writers.
Aliette de Bodard recommended it.
Jamie Todd Rubin posted about it here.
Michael A. Burstein wrote about it here. Michael is the author of “Kaddish for the Last Survivor”, which I greatly admired.
Rachel Swirsky discussed it in her 2011 novella recommendations.
I feel very luck as a member of the speculative fiction communities in English and Chinese. The best part of this business is writing about something important to you and then be understood.
“Recognizing Gabe: un cuento de hadas”, by Alberto Yáñez, is just the kind of story that I associate with Strange Horizons. A fairy tale about gender, It’s beautiful both in the idea and the execution. (And now I wish I had come up with something this cool…)
“Canto MCML,” by Lewis Shiner, F&SF, Jan/Feb 2012 — a short short at 1200 words, this is among the best flash pieces I’ve read. What I admire the most is the craft: the details are chosen to convey just as much as you need to know, and no more. There’s much I can learn from Shiner. Highly recommended.
Just finished reading an incredible new story from Chen Qiufan. I can’t wait till the market it’s meant for purchases it so that I get to translate it. (He’s got two stories that I’d love to translate right now. I just have to find the time…)
It’s awards season, and I want to know what stories I should be nominating.
I didn’t read nearly enough in 2011, and I want to remedy that. So please tell me what you wrote in 2011 that you were proud of, what really got your attention, what you think I ought to read. I’ll try to keep a list here.
So far, these are the ones that I liked and would recommend:
“The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, by E. Lily Yu, at Clarkesworld (April). A complex, beautiful political fable with a sting as sharp as those of the titular insects. Picked up by two of the Year’s Best anthologies. Easy to see why.
“Her Husband’s Hands”, by Adam-Troy Castro, at Lightspeed (October). I loved Castro’s Arvies from last year, and this one was just as good. A moving story about love, even in pieces.
“The Fish of Lijiang”, by Chen Qiufan, at Clarkesworld (August). I translated this story into English, so I’m somewhat biased. But Chen is one of the most talented writers I know, and I wish I managed to convey some of the beauty of his words in my translation.
I’ll add to this list as I read more in the coming weeks. So let me know what I should be reading! Thank you.
P.S., to see the updated list of recommendations, go here.
