She Is HereâStill Here!
US: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | PM Press
UK: Amazon | Waterstones | Blackwells | WH Smith
Tuesday is traditionally book-launch day. Today She Is Here has been out three months but as a small book from a small, independent press known for its anarchist leanings (see two of my favourites from their merch offerings, below) you might not have seen it reviewed in the usual places. (I didnât go on tour, and did only two book eventsâone in person right here in Seattle, and one virtual for City Lights in San Francisco.)
Both events were great, and PM Press are very happy because sales have, by their lights, been unexpectedly strong. (Yay!) But I know there are more people out there who might enjoy the book if only they knew about it.
Some might enjoy what Gary Wolfe in his Locus review characterises as the four âgood short but stabby poems.â Some might prefer the essaysâincluding epistolary criticism such as âTheWomen You Didnât See,â which is my analysis of how Tiptreeâs identity shaped her short fiction. But what Iâm really keen on getting readers to discover are the four pieces of my short fictionâparticularly the original novella, Many Things in Dumnet. Why should you seek them out? Well, here Iâm going to quote Wolfe again to save me the embarrassment of praising myself:
More than half the book consists of the four fiction selections. The shortest is âGlimmerâ⊠a showpiece for Griffithâs lyrical prose, as a woman (who describes herself as âa crippleâ) is transformed as she travels through time and space â âpulsing, lengthening, cooling, a cord stretched past the horizon along which she slides like a bead.â âDown the Path of the Sunâ, one of Griffithâs earliest stories, is a grim but powerful postapocalyptic, postplague account of the narratorâs attempts to protect her sister in a violent, desperately diminished world. Both âCold Windâ and âMany Things in Dumnetâ are rare Griffith fantasy stories. âCold Windâ, which begins in a womenâs bar in contemporary Seattle, explores the complex relationships of predator and prey, as both the narrator and the strange woman she meets there both turn out to be not quite what they seem. âMany Things in Dumnetâ is set in what appears to be a fantasy version of Griffithâs early medieval Britain, in which a musician, Anya Reine, arrives in Dumnet, âmost southwesterly of the kingdoms of Albion,â and quickly lands a gig at a tavern â only to be warned that no one is allowed to perform without the approval of Macalla, who at first appears to be a local crime boss. But Macalla turns out to be far more than that, and so does Anya. Aided by totemic figures such as a silver fox, she eventually finds herself defending the kingdom from the predations of Macallaâs âwodebreath.â Apart from its supernatural fireworks and its convincing portrayal of a haunted medieval setting, the story also serves as a moving paean to the power of musicâŠ
Those who follow me on Patreon know quite a bit about Dumnetâitâs part of an SFnal alt-history set in a ninth-century Dumnonia (Cornwall and Devon) in which, over four hundred years earlier, the Fall of Rome coincided with the Fall of Something Nasty From the Sky and utterly changed the trajectories of every civilisation on earth. (Iâm choosing my words carefully here.) But as that novel isnât actually written yet, this novella is presented as a fantasyâthe best way for it to make sense as a standalone. And having now written it and read part of it aloud that way, I remembered just how much enjoy writing fantasy: I can feel myself changing my mind. I think I will turn the novel into a a big-olâ sword-swanginâ alt-history science-fantasy! Full of all those delicious tropes that writing realism (whether historical fiction, crime fiction, contemporary fiction about fighting ableism, science fiction), doesnât always allow for: Music can save the world! Sex can save the world! Violence can be a good and useful and even, yâknow, kind of cool thing! Lather everything in love and lust and loss and longing! And lesbians. And villainsâeeeeeevil villains who can be defeated by lusty lesbians who love to sing! Fighting to save the whole fucking *world*!!! Oh, yep now that sounds excitingâŠ
Er, anyway, my point is that if you like novels such as Spear, Hild, Menewood, and Ammonite, you will like this novella. So do me and PM Press and perhaps yourself a favour and go read âMany Things in Dumnetââonly to be found in She Is Here.
To whet your appetite, here are a few nice things people have said about the book:
- âBeyond having an astute way with words, [Griffith] speaks with an emphatic, take-no-prisoners clarity. Griffith plays brilliantly to this strength in her new collection She Is Here.ââ Eric Olson, Seattle Times
- âFresh work from [one] of the greats in the queer literary canon! This new book contains essays, poems, art, and stories. Griffith can indeed do it all.â â Autostraddle on She Is Here
- âGriffithâs sharp and uncompromising voice comes across clearly in the nonfiction and the interview, but the important news for Griffithâs readers lies in the four short fiction pieces, especially an excellent novella, âMany Things in Dumnetâ, which is original to the volume [and] serves as a moving paean to the power of music ⊠She is Here is a revealing and rewarding self-portrait of one of our most importantâand most outspokenâvoices.â âGary Wolfe, Locus
- âA winning survey of Griffithâs work.â â Reactor on She Is Here
- âThe collection starts with the most shocking piece, Griffithâs âA Writerâs Manifesto.â I was thrilled to hear Griffith read it aloud. âI want to write a novel that invades you,â Griffith said. âI want to control what you think and feel, to put you right there, right then, killing and being killed, fâking and being fâked, cooking and starving, drinking and thinking, barely surviving and absolutely thriving. I want to give you a life youâve never had and change the one you live.â From a lesser writer, these few sentences would sound arrogant, even egotistical. As it is, the manifesto is intense andâŠa little frightening. For Griffith, itâs a distillation of what she wants to do (and what she does) in all of her fiction. She is Here is an excellent and deeply personal introduction to both Griffithâs writing and her perspective on writing.â â Chaitna Deshmukh, The Daily
US: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | PM Press
UK: Amazon | Waterstones | Blackwells | WH Smith
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