The Monthly Aqueduct
News about all things Aqueductian
This month we bring you Rosanne Rabinowitz's Helen's Story, a new title in our Conversation Pieces series; the Fall issue of The Cascadia Subduction Zone; past and forthcoming events, and more. Read on and dive into the latest feminist science fiction news from along the Aqueduct.
|
|
|
Helen's Story,
by Rosanne Rabinowitz
 $10.00 (paperback)
$5.95 (ebook)
Buy now
We're pleased to announce the release of Helen's Story, a novella by Rosanne Rabinowitz, as Volume 58 in Aqueduct's Conversation Pieces series.
Contrary to rumors of her death, Helen Vaughan is alive and well and living in Shoreditch, East London, stirring up the art world with a series of erotically-charged landscapes depicting the strange events of her youth. Brought up by a man who regarded her as loathsome, shuffled between boarding schools and foster homes, young Helen only found pleasure in visits from a secret companion. She made one other close friend, a girl called Rachel who disappeared in full daylight. After that, Helen was left with her companion.
As she remembers her friend, Helen lays on each stroke of paint as if it can bring Rachel back or take her to where Rachel went. She paints to summon her companion once again, and show everyone what really lurks beyond the vanishing point.
Some readers might have met Helen in Arthur Machen's classic novella The Great God Pan. Now she gets to tell her side of the story. Nominated for the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award for outstanding achievement in literature of the "dark fantastic," Helen's Story gives a voice to one of the genre's most enigmatic antagonists.
Read a sample now.
|
|
|
Facebook's algorithm
censors cover of Helen's Story
In early October Facebook removed Aqueduct's (and everyone else's) attempts to link to Helen's Story, presumably because the book's cover image got caught up in Facebook's "community standards" algorithm. (After almost two months, they still haven't responded to appeals from Aqueduct or the book's author.) The history of art is jam-packed with paintings and sculptures of nudes, and it also features numerous artists' self-portraits. Artist Erika Steiskal's cover image of Helen's Story depicts a (woman) artist painting in the nude (perhaps herself, perhaps herself with others). Paula Modersohn Becker is credited with painting a portrait of herself―pregnant―in the nude in 1906 (combining two centuries-old traditions, that of the female nude & that of the self-portrait), and it was considered shocking. Nancy Jane Moore posted a link to photos of Greek statues of nudes on Facebook, wanting to see if this would be deleted by the algorithm as well: and it was not. It seems that in late 2017 women artists painting themselves is still shocking.
|
|
|
|
The Cascadia Subduction Zone,
Vol. 7 No. 3
 $5.00 (print)
$3.00 (PDF)
The Fall issue of The Cascadia Subduction Zone, our literary quarterly is out. This issue features an essay by L. Timmel Duchamp on living amid the many unevenly experienced apocalypses of the early 21st century, poetry by Rose Lemberg and Sonya Taaffe, a Grandmother Magma column on Mildred Clingerman by Nancy Kress, a half-dozen book reviews, and art work by Karen McElroy.
As usual, you can visit the CSZ website for a single issue, or subscribe, either to the printed version for $16 per year or to the electronic version for just $10.
|
|
|
Nancy Jane Moore
at Borderlands bookstore anniversary
 Nancy Jane Moore ( The Weave, 2015) joined a number of other Bay Area writers in signing books at San Francisco’s Borderlands Books on November 18. The event was part of an all-day celebration of Borderlands’ twentieth anniversary. Others among the approximately twenty authors signing included Ellen Klages, Pat Murphy, Katharine Kerr, and Peter Beagle. Borderlands, which recently purchased a building to provide a permanent location for the bookstore, is noted for its support of local writers and as a gathering place for the science fiction community.
You can find out more about Nancy's current writing projects on her recent article "The Ongoing Conversation," in which she addresses feminist self-defense.
|
|
|
|
|
Review of Monteverde
at Bogi Reads the World
 Writer and editor Bogi Takács, who champions diversity in SFF from eir blog, Bogi Reads the World, recently posted a thoughtful review of Lola Robles's novella Monteverde: Memoirs of an Interstellar Linguist, translated by Lawrence Schimel. E has brought attention to the fact that it can be read and promoted as a disability #ownvoices book.
Read a sample.
|
|
|
|
Review of The Adventure
of the Incognita Countess
 Mad Scientist Journal published a lovely review of Cynthia Ward's novella, populated by characters well known to fans of adventure and gothic fiction. "With a cast of characters drawn from all over Victorian-era literature, coupled with the maiden voyage of the HMS Titanic, the story is both familiar and innovative. Puzzling out just who some of the characters actually are is just one of the many perks of this story."
Read how it all begins. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Liberating the Astronauts
booklaunch in Valley Stream, NY
 Join Aqueduct author Christina M. Rau on Friday, December 1 at Sip This Coffeehouse in Valley Stream, NY, for the launch of her poetry collection Liberating the Astronauts, volume 55 in our Conversation Pieces series. From 6.30 pm onwards, there will be trivia, a workshop, prizes, and poetry reading. If you're curious, you can read a sample of her poetry. |
|
|
Andrea Hairston,
Honoured Guest at FOGcon
|
|
|
|
|
Novelist, essayist, and playwright Andrea Hairston (
