Excerpt
My story should have ended on the day I died. Instead, it began there.
Sun pounded on my back as I rode through the Mountains where the Sun Rests. My horse’s hooves beat in syncopation with those of the donkey that trotted in our shadow. The queen’s midget Kyan turned his head toward me, sweat dripping down the red-and-blue protections painted across his malformed brow.
“Shouldn’t… we… stop?” he panted.
from "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers by The Queen's Window"
Bio
Rachel Swirsky is a Nebula Award-winning author of short science fiction and fantasy. Her first collection, Through the Drowsy Dark, a slim volume of feminist poetry and stories, came out from Aqueduct Press in 2010. Her second collection is forthcoming from Subterranean Press.
Publications
"The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers," Subterranean Online, Nebula Award-winner and nominated for the Hugo and Locus Awards in 2010
"Eros, Philia, Agape," Tor.com, nominated for the Hugo, Locus, Sturgeon and Million Writers Awards in 2010
"The Monster's Million Faces," Tor.com
"Dispersed by the Sun, Melting in the Wind," Subterranean Online
Through the Drowsy Dark, collection published by Aqueduct Press
Writing Description
"Swirsky is an insightful, incisive writer, and with these stories she gently (sometimes not so gently) vivisects reality, uncovering truths -- often painful, occasionally joyful, frequently delightful -- that are sometimes revelatory but that, at their most effective, feel familiar, make me feel I may have allowed myself to get too comfortable living as though I didn't already know them. Swirky's imagery is sensual, her stories sensitive and honest, but it is the feelings they evoke that have lingered, that have made these stories stand out in my mind and my imagination." --Nathan Blumenfeld
Goals
I've been hard at work on a novel since November, and I'm excited to complete it.
Attending Clarion West Writers Workshop was one of the best experiences of my life, personally and professionally, and I'm honored to help support it.
Website
