Forthcoming fictions (it never rains but it pours)

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After a couple years’ dry spell on the fiction front, I am happy and relieved to share some news. Over the last few weeks I’ve had three pieces of my own writing accepted for publication. I’m not sure yet when these things will appear, but appear they shall, and I shall write proud excited blog posts about them when they do. For now, I’ll keep things brief.

First, Asimov’s has accepted my short story “Island History”.

Second, Nature magazine runs an online short fiction series called “Futures,” which will include my flash piece titled “Better Get Hit in Your Soul” (a title for which I am obviously endebted to Charles Mingus).

Third, Escape Pod has agreed to produce a podcast version of “Rena in the Desert,” which originally appeared in the March/April 2020 issue of Asimov’s.

What else is going on? Isn’t that enough? Well, there’s some translation news coming in the near future, but I’m keeping it under wraps until everything’s official.

In the meantime, be placated with this picture of my new dog. This is Jolie. The story is, Jolie escaped a (hypothetical) mean person who hauled her around by the collar a lot, and ended up pregnant and wandering the streets of Jasper, Alabama. Somebody brought her into a shelter, where she produced a single puppy. She ended up at a rescue organization here in Minnesota, where she did some mothering before sending the pup off to college and coming to live with us. As with my old dog Romeo (who was a stray from Brooklyn, NY), I like a dog with an interesting past, even if, in this case, we’ve got some training to do.

Jolie!
Likes: Peanut butter, belly rubs, fetch.
Dislikes: Leashes, kennels, collar-grabbers.

More news soon, I hope.

Into the heart of the malevolent horde: SOLO VIOLA by Antoine Volodine, out now!

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The actual book, out in the wild! This one belongs to my sister, who was kind and clever and preordered. Gorgeous cover by Michel Vrana, photographed by Maura Swope Batson.

Today! is the official publication date! of my translation! of Antoine Volodine’s book, Solo Viola! I am so excited! I might just have to use a lot of exclamation points!

More calmly, however: Over the past few years of working on the translation, this story has felt more and more relevant, closer and closer to the world that we currently inhabit. I am so glad that it’s finally coming out, now in 2021, here in the United States—a time and place where I think we can really read it and benefit from it. And, I hope, enjoy it.

The inestimable Brian Evenson says:

Antoine Volodine’s Solo Viola is a deft evisceration of fascism, seen through another lens and dislocated to a fantastical world. Volodine, here and elsewhere in his hugely important work, shows how the political and the fantastical can be intertwined in a way that allows a powerful reevaluation to occur—a reevaluation that feels all too starkly relevant to twenty-first-century America.

The Chicago Review of Books chose it among their “12 Must-Read Books for May“:

Antoine Volodine has been exploding the boundaries of fiction for decades in his native France; now University of Minnesota Press brings one of his most fascinating experiments to U.S. readers with this new translation of Solo Viola. Its vision of performers and prisoners held under the sway of an authoritarian buffoon echoes eerily with our tumultuous present.

And for Foreword Reviews, Ho Lin writes that:

Antoine Volodine’s superb post-exotic novel Solo Viola imagines a society that’s one step removed from reality. With a narrative spiced up by absurdity and a dead serious message, this is a brisk, engrossing, and phantasmagorical take on tyranny and curbed freedoms.

I am so grateful to all the people who helped make this book happen: to the editors at Univocal and the University of Minnesota Press, to fellow translators who offered feedback and advice, to the cover artist, because I really freaking love that cover, to Lionel Ruffel for his insightful introduction, and to Antoine Volodine, if that is his real name (hint: it’s not), for answering my étonnantes questions. And I’m looking forward to seeing how readers react to this odd, profound, and to the best of my abilities, beautiful work.

To purchase: You can order Solo Viola from your local independent bookstore, which would be awesome. You can order it straight from the University of Minnesota Press. You can request it from your library. If you like e-books, you can get this one on Kindle or Nook.

However you choose to read: thank you, and I hope you like it.

Cover Art! for Solo Viola

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I’ve received an image of the cover art for Solo Viola, my translation of Antoine Volodine’s Alto Solo, which is forthcoming in January 2021. You guys, I like this cover a lot.

Really excellent work by the University of Minnesota Press design team.

What else is going on? Well, I’ve been translating a book of poetry by Maxime Coton, and some articles and essays by a variety of people, which are not for publication, or at least not yet. I’ve been writing some fiction—not a lot, unfortunately, but like many people, I have been caught in the deluge of news and events that we call 2020. Currently I’m trying to focus my attention away from things that induce feelings of anxiety and helplessness (i.e. the pandemic, the authoritarianism, police violence and wildfires and climate change and and and) and more towards things that are actually somewhat under my control—like my work and my writing—and things that make me feel good, like running and camping and paddling a canoe.

By the time this book comes out, in January May 2021, who knows what the world will look like? Not me. So for now let’s just enjoy this gorgeous cover art.