Or, "Word After Word: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Book Club" — "Speculative fiction" (science fiction, fantasy, horror) has always been a vehicle for writers to explore identity, social inequality, the strangeness of the world, and the hopes and fears for the future. In this monthly book club we'll be reading works of speculative fiction by women and nonbinary writers, discussing the ways these works make us think, feel, and reflect on reality.
Hosted by Haley Cowans: an editor, former bookseller, and secret writer of unpublished fiction, essays, and poems. She has worked on various projects with Two Dollar Radio and also enjoys volunteering at Thurber House. Her lifelong obsessions include Joan of Arc, animated film, and browsing staff recommendations at bookstores. Her most recent obsession is her adopted cat Lulu.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020, 7pm
How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
"The most celebrated science fiction and fantasy writer of her generation... Jemisin seems able to do just about everything."
―New York Times
Tuesday, April 28, 2020, 7pm
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
“A founding epic in the vein of Virgil’s Aeneid . . . though in its sprawling size, its flavor of picaresque comedy and its fusion of family lore with national politics it more resembles Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children.”
—The Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 7pm
Lake Like a Mirror by Ho Sok Fong (Translator: Natascha Bruce)
By an author described by critics as “the most accomplished Malaysian writer, full stop," Lake Like a Mirror is a scintillating exploration of the lives of women buffeted by powers beyond their control.
"These tales follow different women whose lives are shaped and twisted by forces beyond their control. Atmospheric and occasionally dreamlike."
—Stylist
Tuesday, June 23, 2020, 7pm
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar
From the pen of one of Iran’s rising literary stars, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is a family story about the unbreakable connection between the living and the dead. Set in Iran in the decade following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, this moving, richly imagined novel is narrated by the ghost of Bahar, a thirteen-year-old girl, whose family is compelled to flee their home in Tehran for a new life in a small village, hoping in this way to preserve both their intellectual freedom and their lives.
“Azar’s narrative exudes fairy tale charm driven by moments of deep connection that ultimately celebrate human and humane bonds unbroken even in death.” ―Booklist
Tuesday, July 28, 2020, 7pm
The Seep by Chana Porter
PAST PICKS FOR THE FEMINIST SCI-FI BOOKCLUB,
CURATED BY HALEY COWANS
February 2020: The Deep by Rivers Solomon
January 2020: Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker
December 2019: The Power by Naomi Alderman
November 2019: The Female Man by Joanna Russ
October 2019: The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington
September 2019: In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
August 2019: The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza
July 2019: Mars: Stories by Asja Bakić
June 2019: Radio Iris
May 2019: The Wilds by Julia Elliott
April 2019: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
February 2019: The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich.
BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE HERE, OR IN THE STORE.
January 2019: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado.
BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE HERE, OR IN THE STORE.
January 2019: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.
BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE HERE, OR IN THE STORE.
December 2018: Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link, published by Small Beer Press.
BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE HERE, OR IN THE STORE.
November 2018: Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen, published by Two Dollar Radio.
BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE HERE, OR IN THE STORE.
October 2018: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE HERE, OR IN THE STORE.
September 2018: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, published by Akashic.
BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE HERE, OR IN THE STORE.
August 28, 2018: The Only Ones by Carola Dibbell, published by Two Dollar Radio.
BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE HERE, OR IN THE STORE.
July 19, 2018: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE HERE, OR IN THE STORE.