Author of The Grace of Kings and The Paper Menagerie
The Italian translation of “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” is out from 40k Books: L’uomo che mise fine alla Storia (Italian Edition). The translator is Elena Cantoni.
You can get a copy from Amazon for your Kindle here
40k has a consistent style for their covers which works well for books in a spectrum of different styles, subjects, and tones. I think they did an excellent job here. The background image of the sun alludes to the Japanese Imperial Army’s flag.
My translation of Li Cixin (刘慈欣)’s “Taking Care of God” (《赡养上帝》) is now out in Pathlight, an English-language publication of People’s Literature Magazine (人民文学). You can download a free electronic copy of the magazine on their web site.
It’s a science fiction story with a lot of heart. I really recommend it.
Some context for readers who don’t know much about China’s literary history: Liu Cixin is among China’s most prominent science fiction authors, and People’s Literature is something like a Chinese version of Ploughshares. It’s very rare for a literary magazine like People’s Literature to go genre — but with Pathlight, edited by a Western staff, the idea is to introduce Chinese authors who’re a bit more outside the well-trodden path to English readers.
I’m really honored to have been given a chance to translate this work. Liu is a literary hero of mine and influenced me more than a little.
Hope you enjoy!
My story, “To the Moon,” appears in the inaugural issue of Fireside magazine. The founder and publisher, Brian White, has been amazing to work with. And I really like his vision for Fireside as a magazine of “many genres, no limits, just good stories.”
And it’s not just real. It’s really good. The first story, To the Moon by Ken Liu, follows the struggles of a young lawyer and the stories we tell ourselves to validate our illusions. Next is Chuck Wendig’s Emerald Lakes, a prequel to his Atlanta Burns novella Shotgun Gravy. In our story, Atlanta is dealing out more justice with a mix of brains and blood. Our comic, Snow Ninjas of the Himalayas, written by Adam P. Knave and D.J. Kirkbride, drawn by Michael Lee Harris, and lettered by Frank Cvetkovic, is a story about why some secrets are best left unrevealed. Then we have Christie Yant’s Temperance, a story about a drunk, an intolerant town, and a mysterious woman. And we close with Press Enter to Execute by Tobias Buckell, a near-future sci-fi thriller set in a world where someone is finally doing something about all that spam in our inboxes.
Please consider supporting him and the writers and artists appearing in the magazine by purchasing the first issue.
“To the Moon” is a little unusual for me because it’s not a fantasy/scifi story at all. But the themes it explores are ones that have long fascinated me. It’s mainly based on my experiences working on asylum cases and my thoughts about what it means to be American.
I’m really pleased that artist Amy Houser did the cover image based on “To the Moon.” It’s gorgeous and lovely and captures exactly the mood I wanted for the story.
I’m really honored to announce that two of my works, “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary”, a novella, and “The Paper Menagerie”, a short story, have been nominated for the Hugo Awards.
Like many SF writers, I’ve dreamed about a moment like this since I started writing. And now that it’s actually happening, I’m having trouble believing it.
Thank you to everyone who supported me over the years so that I didn’t quit writing. You’re the best, the real stars.
Congrats to all the nominees and best of luck!
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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.