Kelly Link

I think they're difficult to separate.

There's this great, fabulous writer, Kelly Link, who has this notion that the speculative or the fantastic in a story works as a kind of accelerator for the mundane or for emotions or for pathos.

And so, you know, typically I'll start with like a speculative premise, whether it's, you know, what would happen if a couple would travel around the country trying to see every single park that is haunted? Or what would happen if...

know a ghost got really obsessed with um with like reliving his past or what would happen if um you know if you have the opportunity to go back in time right so like kind of like starting with these premises that are like fun and pulpy and really appeal to the side of me that grew up watching the twilight zone and lost and reading kurt vonnegut but then kind of as soon as you establish that premise the question becomes what is the story about what characters can you put into the story that are going to really make the speculative premise sing

Exactly.

The collection of 15 new short stories honoring her legacy, featuring heavyweights like Anne Leckie, Kelly Link, Charlie Jane Anders, and I.G. Yang.

Now, we all know Le Guin's massive shadow over the genre.

We've all read The Left Hand of Darkness or The Dispossessed.

Yeah, I'm not sure when I would think about that in general.

I definitely... think about readership, but more in terms of like, especially for the surreal or speculative, is this comprehensible? Have I seen someone almost get away with this? Like sometimes you have things that are less, like Kelly Link's work sometimes I read, and she has a lot of good examples of, you know, it's not explained specifically what the rule in the world that's different is.

You kind of sometimes even open for interpretation even at the end.

And I find that very difficult in judging what an audience is willing to accept in those kind of stories.

And I think the pace at which it develops is a really nice way in which you've achieved that.

It's such a kind of slow burn in that growth of surreality that I feel like it lulls you into it in a really nice way.

You mentioned Kelly Link's work just there.

Are there other writers or filmmakers or artists who you feel have been kind of really influential on your craft?

... and broke my toe, and I spent the rest of the day with a broken toe.

But I did get to see Kelly Link for the very first time, and she was interviewing Kate Bernheimer, and it was amazing.

Yay.

So that's like my happy memory, not about my toe, but about-

The toe

... [laughs] getting to see Kelly Link.

And this one, The Lion's Den, is historical fiction about two teens in the 1980s.

I'm also reading The Occidental Book of the Dead by T. Geronimo Johnson, which comes out October 6th, which I will tell you more about after we hear from a sponsor.