Recorded Monday, April 28 at WORD bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. Special thanks to Susan Emshwiller for operating the camera, and to Eric Rosenfield for hosting the event and uploading the video!
The interview was preceded by a magic show.
A Report from the NYRSF Reading & Birthday Party
At SF Scope, Mark L. Blackman has written up a report on the birthday party for Carol Emshwiller hosted by the New York Review of Science Fiction's Reading Series. (And Mrs. Emshwiller herself popped into the comments to offer a few corrections!)
If, like me, you were, alas, hundreds of miles from the event, follow that link to see what you missed!
If, like me, you were, alas, hundreds of miles from the event, follow that link to see what you missed!
Carol Emshwiller on The Bat Segundo Show
Ed Champion has just posted a marvelous new interview he did with Carol Emshwiller for his Bat Segundo Show podcast. It's really delightful. Here are some text excerpts, but I highly recommend listening to the show itself:
Correspondent: In the introduction for The Collected Stories, which has been collected all in one book and published just in time for your birthday, you allude to there being five different phases of your writing life. What was interesting to me was that you mentioned the fourth phase, which was just after your husband had passed away, and you say that you were writing stories and these Western novels because you wanted to have a family. Your kids had gone away and all that. I was curious why the family on page meant more or needed to be there in addition to the real people in your life.Listen to the show! It also includes an interview with Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts!
Emshwiller: Well, my family wasn’t there. (laughs) That’s the point! You know, the kids had all gone off. And I didn’t have any kids anymore near me. And then I didn’t have a husband anymore. And I was by myself. And what I did was — well, it’s sort of a long story. The very first thing, to get into that cowboy stuff, my daughter had a wonderful idea. She said, “Why don’t you go to this dude ranch that I know of?” Right? And I said, “I don’t even like horses anymore!” And I didn’t want to go. And I just fought her and fought her. And she said, “You gotta do something. You gotta go some place you never went before. Do something you never did before.” And she pushed me up there. And then, in two days, I was just back to horses and farm life and cows and everything. They had everything up there. Pigs and chickens. Everything.
Correspondent: Why the aversion to horses?
Emshwiller: What?
Correspondent: Why the aversion to horses?
Emshwiller: Oh, before, you mean?
Correspondent: Yeah.
Emshwiller: Well, when I was a twelve-year-old girl, I was into horses. And if I had a dollar, which I didn’t have very often, I would go and ride. Which was not every often. And after that, I grew up.
A Birthday Gift to Carol Emshwiller from Kessel & Kelly
John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly's upcoming anthology from Tachyon Publications, Kafkaesque, will include Carol Emshwiller's short story "Report to the Men's Club".
But I have also be given permission to reveal one more element of the book today -- its dedication, which will read:
To Carol Emshwiller
on the occasion of her ninetieth birthday
A Birthday Greeting from China Miéville
 |
| photo by Beth Gwinn |
China Miéville is the author of Perdido Street Station, Iron Council, Un Lun Dun, The City & The City, and many other books. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Arthur C. Clarke, and British Fantasy Awards.
Slideshow: Emshwiller Family Photos
Eve Emshwiller scanned this delightful set of family photos. Many thanks to her and her family for sharing!
UPDATED now to include photos contributed by Susan Emshwiller.
all rights to photographs reserved -- please ask for permission before reprinting
UPDATED now to include photos contributed by Susan Emshwiller.
all rights to photographs reserved -- please ask for permission before reprinting
New York is the City of Emshwiller in April!
 |
| NYC is the Empire of Emshwiller! |
The city of New York will be celebrating Carol Emshwiller's 90th birthday with two gigantic, out-of-this-world celebrations:
Tuesday, April 12, The New York Review of Science Fiction Readings will be devoted to a fête (festival! celebration! paaaaarrrrrty!) of all things Emshwillericious. This is the actual birthday, so much singing is to be expected. Details:
NYRSF Readings
The SoHo Gallery for Digital Art
138 Sullivan Street
------------------------------
Doors open at 6:30 PM
Program begins at 7:00
Admission Free
$7 donation suggested
Monday, April 18, the Wold Newton Reading Series will offer an interview of Carol Emshwiller by Matthew Cheney, the person currently typing this. He would tell you more details if his mind were not still struggling to assimilate the information (he keeps pinching himself, saying, "I'm going to get to talk to Carol Emshwiller!") The organizers of the event have called Matt a "science fiction scholar", which is probably just meant to remind him to do something other than just sit up there and say, "By the way, I love your work. Have I already told you that? I love your work. I mean, I really love your work. I know I've probably said it before, but I love your work..."
There will also be magic by a person who uses the utterly practical sobriquet Magic Brian.
Details:
April 18, 2011, 7.30pm
WORD Bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
126 Franklin Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
These two events offer readers the chance to thank Carol Emshwiller for continuing to provide the sorts of stories that sustain us, challenge us, and enlighten us. Come join in the celebration!
Gavin Grant on the Many Wonders of Carol Emshwiller
Gavin Grant of Small Beer Press wrote the following for the 2007 World Fantasy Convention Program Book. Carol Emshwiller's novel The Mount and collection Report to the Men's Club were originally published by Small Beer, and her first novel, Carmen Dog, was the debut novel of their Peapod Classics line of reprints.
Working with Carol Emshwiller is one of the most unexpected and wonderful benefits of the foolishness that is our dance through the world of independent publishing.
Carol is everything that I could hope author to be: brilliant, hard working, gracious, polite, deeply knowledgeable and informed within and without her field, determined, willing to compromise, absolutely single-minded, intelligent, a teacher, and always open to learning. She is an inspiration—not only for her writing, in which she takes on the most trenchant problems of the day in politics, gender (and genre) relationships, and the ambiguities of everyday life—but also in her uncompromising dedication to others. For many years she has taught and taken part in workshops where she has shown her generosity and ability to see other writers’ visions of their stories. All the while, her own enthusiasm and commitment to writing burn ever brighter. Her latest novel, The Secret City, is a beautiful play on many of her favorite themes: innocence, how to live—alone or with others, and the simple and complex difficulties of communication.
These are salad days for fans of Carol’s work. In the last five years she has published three novels, The Mount (2002), Mister Boots (2005), and The Secret City (2007), as well as two collections, Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories (2002) and I Live with You (2005). And in that time she has been awarded the Philip K. Dick Award for The Mount, two Nebula Awards for short stories, “Creature” and “I Live with You” (both F&SF, 2002 and 2006), and a World Fantasy Life Achievement Award.
In other words: if you like science fiction and fantasy and you haven’t read her, perhaps now is the time?
Carol hasn’t been resting on her laurels. Her most recent publication (that I know of, she’s hard to keep track of) is “At Sixes and Sevens” in the October/November Asimov’s. She says she is too impatient to send stories out to magazine with long reading times, so I feel we are very lucky to have one of her stories, “Sanctuary,” for LCRW.
This covers only Carol’s recent years. I first remember reading her work when I read a Women’s Press edition of Carmen Dog in the UK and by the time I met her in the 1990s in New York, she was already in her seventies. (And she is still more energetic than most people I know.)
Other writers and friends will need to fill in her earlier years. I am very happy to have spent some time with Carol (although as yet I have not gone hill climbing with her!) and I hope that everyone who attends this convention will be able to spend at least a couple of minutes with her.
Working with Carol Emshwiller is one of the most unexpected and wonderful benefits of the foolishness that is our dance through the world of independent publishing.
Carol is everything that I could hope author to be: brilliant, hard working, gracious, polite, deeply knowledgeable and informed within and without her field, determined, willing to compromise, absolutely single-minded, intelligent, a teacher, and always open to learning. She is an inspiration—not only for her writing, in which she takes on the most trenchant problems of the day in politics, gender (and genre) relationships, and the ambiguities of everyday life—but also in her uncompromising dedication to others. For many years she has taught and taken part in workshops where she has shown her generosity and ability to see other writers’ visions of their stories. All the while, her own enthusiasm and commitment to writing burn ever brighter. Her latest novel, The Secret City, is a beautiful play on many of her favorite themes: innocence, how to live—alone or with others, and the simple and complex difficulties of communication.
These are salad days for fans of Carol’s work. In the last five years she has published three novels, The Mount (2002), Mister Boots (2005), and The Secret City (2007), as well as two collections, Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories (2002) and I Live with You (2005). And in that time she has been awarded the Philip K. Dick Award for The Mount, two Nebula Awards for short stories, “Creature” and “I Live with You” (both F&SF, 2002 and 2006), and a World Fantasy Life Achievement Award.
In other words: if you like science fiction and fantasy and you haven’t read her, perhaps now is the time?
Carol hasn’t been resting on her laurels. Her most recent publication (that I know of, she’s hard to keep track of) is “At Sixes and Sevens” in the October/November Asimov’s. She says she is too impatient to send stories out to magazine with long reading times, so I feel we are very lucky to have one of her stories, “Sanctuary,” for LCRW.
This covers only Carol’s recent years. I first remember reading her work when I read a Women’s Press edition of Carmen Dog in the UK and by the time I met her in the 1990s in New York, she was already in her seventies. (And she is still more energetic than most people I know.)
Other writers and friends will need to fill in her earlier years. I am very happy to have spent some time with Carol (although as yet I have not gone hill climbing with her!) and I hope that everyone who attends this convention will be able to spend at least a couple of minutes with her.
Gavin Grant: Notes Toward an Article on Carol Emshwiller
 |
| Gavin Grant & Carol Emshwiller |
If someone were to compile one of those futile lists of the top hundred writers in the world right Now! I’d have to hack into the results and replace the name of one of the politely-angry young men in the top ten with Carol Emshwiller’s. I wouldn’t put her in the top five, but only to avert the pollsters suspicions. Number six then, or number seven.
I imagine that when they discovered I’d spoofed their poll, said pollsters might be ticked off. But if they attempted to track me down, I expect there would be a Spartacus moment (perhaps without all the cleft chins) as writers from all around the world would stepped themselves forward to say, “I put Carol Emshwiller in the top ten,” or, “It was I who fixed your silly poll,” and so on.
Carol Emshwiller’s writing, and she herself, inspires that kind of action.
CONTINUE READING
Carmen Dog: A Review by Nymeth
Carol Emshwiller is very funny – funny in a straight-faced, ironic way that reminded me a little of Margaret Atwood. And being funny, of course, doesn’t mean that this isn’t a serious book with very frightening implications. The fact that it’s a humorous fantasy might make it possible for us to distance ourselves from what’s happening in a way that a more realistic story about cruelty, discrimination, powerlessness and subjugation wouldn’t allow. But then again, it also allows Carol Emshwiller to take it to places where a realistic story wouldn’t go—and this is why I love fantasy. The harshness is there all the same, and there are things to be learned from this distance. If you look beyond the surface, it's really as disturbing as The Handmaid's Tale.
CONTINUE READING
Justine Larbalestier on Emshwiller & Le Guin (2003)
Saturday’s conversation between Carol Emshwiller and Ursula Le Guin was fabulous and moving and for me the highlight of the 2003 WisCon. Eileen Gunn fed them the occasional question, but mostly they chatted amongst themselves, covering writing about the recent war (Ursula needs to stew on things for a while, so hasn’t yet; for Carol the process is more immediate—she’s already sold a number of stories on the subject, at least one of which is in print), teaching the craft of writing (Ursula loves to steer her students towards contemplating the fine art of comma placement), raising childen while trying to write (apparently the trick is to get them to go to bed by 7:30pm) and a great deal more about the road they’ve had to hoe as writers. It was glorious wittnessing such a warm and easy friendship between two very different women. Ursula’s path has been for the most part golden (does anyone truly have an easy path?) with supportive parents and spouse, while Carol came to writing later, with little support and a certain amount of hinderance from her spouse. Her discussion of the difficulties of stealing time to write whle raising her children ("I felt like I couldn’t breathe," she said at one point, smiling) elicited hisses for her late husband from the audience, and yet there was no condemnation in her words nor even the faintest whiff of bitterness. Ursula claimed to be a rabbit in comparison to Carol’s bravery. Carol claimed that she too was a rabbit. John Kessel dryly pointed out from the audience that, if so, she was a very brave rabbit. The audience laughed a great deal, and I know that I was not the only one whose eyes filled with tears.
CONTINUE READING
CONTINUE READING
Carol Emshwiller: An Appreciation by L. Timmel Duchamp (2003)
This essay first appeared in the WisCon 27 Souvenir Book.
Souvenir-Book appreciations are typically written by friends and long-time associates of a con’s Guests of Honor and usually focus on the GoH’s personal and professional biography. Since I have had the pleasure of meeting Carol Emswhiller personally only once, I will focus instead on my many years’ relationship with a single aspect of the person who is Carol Emshwiller, viz., that mysterious presence readers sense lurking within or perhaps behind the texts of her stories and novels, a presence generally known as the "author." This relationship between a single reader and the particular presence of an author, although seemingly abstract and impersonal, is in practice a deeply intimate one. It is also an extremely privileged relationship, since only a relatively few authors’ texts create a sense of that mysterious, very particular presence with which readers so delight in engaging. I recognized and engaged with that presence the first time I read a Carol Emswhiller story, a presence that so intrigued and teased and dialogued with me that the author went at once onto what I call my "magic" list of must-buy authors whose work I’m always on the lookout for.
CONTINUE READING
Souvenir-Book appreciations are typically written by friends and long-time associates of a con’s Guests of Honor and usually focus on the GoH’s personal and professional biography. Since I have had the pleasure of meeting Carol Emswhiller personally only once, I will focus instead on my many years’ relationship with a single aspect of the person who is Carol Emshwiller, viz., that mysterious presence readers sense lurking within or perhaps behind the texts of her stories and novels, a presence generally known as the "author." This relationship between a single reader and the particular presence of an author, although seemingly abstract and impersonal, is in practice a deeply intimate one. It is also an extremely privileged relationship, since only a relatively few authors’ texts create a sense of that mysterious, very particular presence with which readers so delight in engaging. I recognized and engaged with that presence the first time I read a Carol Emswhiller story, a presence that so intrigued and teased and dialogued with me that the author went at once onto what I call my "magic" list of must-buy authors whose work I’m always on the lookout for.
CONTINUE READING
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)