Visit an Uncanny Future in This Excerpt From Graham Rae’s “Soundproof in Satellite Town”

"Soundproof in Satellite Town"

We’re pleased to publish an excerpt from Graham Rae’s novel Soundproof in Satellite Town, set in a futuristic version of Scotland. For more on the book, here’s the publisher’s description:

Soundproof in Satellite Town is a new Scottish sorta-futuristic novel set in the 22nd century, published by Anxiety Press. In it, Johnny Certex and Ratsoup, two disenfranchised young men, have a mad, fast, weird last weekend of drugs, booze, digigames, sex, and muzak, before starting their manufactured jobs on Monday morning, In this excerpt from the book, the two youngstars go to visit their teknofreak friend Eddie Arcadian, who has a strange friend visiting…

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Five Books About Filmmaking That Could Be Turned Into Films

Book stack

My new novel, Sleeping With Friends, asks what would happen if memories of film watching were to become the only thing an amnesiac woman has left. And what if the film memories can reveal to her who among her friends has tried to kill her? 

Combining film and the printed word is usually considered an act of crossing the streams. It’s true for the most part—the mediums are vastly different in what they require from language. The novelist struggles to write a raindrop in words. A screenwriter will likely be fired if they get more detailed than “It’s raining.”  Reading is active. Watching is passive. Or is it that simple? 

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Black Punk is the Movement of the Future: On “Black Punk Now”

"Black Punk Now" cover

Coming on the heels of Shotgun Seamstress, the collection of zines by the same name edited by Osa Atoe, Black Punk Now — edited by James Spooner and Chris L. Terry — expands the definition of black punk by including many fiction and non-fiction texts, as well as comics. The fiction varies from fantasy to sci-fi to gripping political tales that examine the nature of friendship, identity, and the problem of class structures. The non-fiction texts include essays on how to create DIY zines and how to opt out of the surveillance and policing tactics of the digital age, as well as lyrical pieces that explore grief, pain, and the relationship between the older generation and the younger. Atoe reappears in the book where she interviews the musician and polymath Charlie Valentine, and there is a screenplay for a short film by Kash Abulmalik about young Muslim brothers, one of whom is a punk, and their relationship with their parents. Collectively, all the texts in the book develop our notion of what Black punk is about in all its complexity; politically fierce but tender as well, musically varied, queer, or straight, white or Black; it’s about the new revolution which won’t be televised because it’s off the radar, secretive, nomadic, creative, imaginative, not bound by walls, codes or laws.

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“Deadlines Scare the Hell Out of Me”: An Interview with Mallory Smart

Mallory Smart

Writers, musicians, painters, and film makers all bring us the human condition through their art.  One might think that over time everything that could be said has been said.  The number of pop songs and poems written about love, loss, anxiety, and dreams is endless.  Yet everyday someone somewhere finds a new way to say what we’re all feeling.  Mallory Smart’s new novel I Keep My Visions To Myself follows Stevie, a musician in LA grappling with success and identity. Over the course of a week Stevie has an existential crisis when her band, Electric Stardust, is on the verge of a life-changing decision. Plagued by past relationships, Stevie navigates life’s path with help from her community. 

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Dmitry Samarov on the Literal Art of Correspondence

"To Whom It May Concern"

Catching up with old friends and acquaintances can be a rewarding experience; it can also be emotionally unsettling, unearthing challenging and painful emotions or reminding you of why you’d grown distant to begin with. In his new book To Whom It May Concern, Dmitry Samarov blends writing and art as he looks back on people he’s known and the letters he did and didn’t send them. I spoke with Dmitry about his new book, how it connects to his other work as a writer and artist, and what’s next for him.

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Adrian Van Young on the Uncanny Origins of “Midnight Self”

Adrian Van Young

I’ve long admired the writings of Adrian Van Young, and I’m happy to report that his new collection Midnight Self continues his trademark blend of visceral imagery, contemplative plotting, and occasional forays deep into the uncanny. This is a collection in which historical figures encounter bizarre figures and where a thrift-store find becomes something both truly alien and truly alienating. I caught up with Van Young to learn more about the book’s origins and to get to the bottom of some of the nightmare fuel that emerged from these tales.

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“I Hope People Keep Pushing Boundaries More and More”: An Interview With Jami Nakamura Lin

Photograph of Jami Nakamura Lin

Jami Nakamura Lin‘s speculative memoir, The Night Parade, breaks genre barriers by illuminating the author’s mental health narrative with Japanese ghost stories that parallel the horrors of her bipolar diagnosis. Lin uses this hybrid template to demonstrate how brain illnesses, thought to be aberrant, are connected to a shared storytelling practice. Lin and I met over Zoom, where we talked about mental health stigma, the media’s influence on mental illness, and her exciting contribution to the speculative nonfiction subgenre. Lin even shared an impromptu craft lesson with me—Hint: it involves colored markers, a table-sized sheet of paper, and plenty of floor space.

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Six Ridiculous Questions: William Brandon III

William Brandon III

The guiding principle of Six Ridiculous Questions is that life is filled with ridiculousness. And questions. That only by giving in to these truths may we hope to slip the surly bonds of reality and attain the higher consciousness we all crave. (Eh, not really, but it sounded good there for a minute.) It’s just. Who knows? The ridiculousness and question bits, I guess. Why six? Assonance, baby, assonance.

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