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The SPECULATIONS READINGS SERIES continues monthly, mostly on Wednesdays, at DreamHaven Books, 2301 38th St E, Minneapolis. Each Speculations Reading event runs from 6:30-7:45 p.m., including a post-reading reception with free soda pop and cookies.
On Wednesday, January 14, 2015, we’re trying something different: a night of Round Robin Readings from 6:30-7:45 p.m. Interested persons should bring poetry or short prose submissions sufficient for a five-minute reading, plus up to five minutes of additional material in the event that the first round gets done early.
On Wednesday, March 25, HEIDI SKARIE reads from her fiction at 6:30 p.m. Ms. Skarie writes novels that are an intoxicating amalgam of action, adventure, and romance, featuring strong, spiritually inquisitive heroines. Star Riders on the Razor’s Edge is her first science fiction novel. The story is about a team of undercover operatives sent to another planet to overthrow the government. She previously published Red Willow’s Quest, a Native American historical novel. Skaric lives in Minnetonka with her husband and cat, where she’s currently working on another book in the Star Riders series.
On Wednesday, April 22 ELEANOR ARNASON reads from her new short fiction collection, Hidden Folk: Icelandic Fantasies at 6:30 p.m. Ms. Arnason is the author of six novels and almost 50 works of shorter fiction. Her novel Ring of Swords, acclaimed by the New York Review of Science Fiction as one of the best SF novels of the 1990s, won a Minnesota Book Award. Her novel A Woman of the Iron People won the Tiptree and Mythopoiec Society awards. Other works have been shortlisted for both the Nebula and Hugo. She has been called “the acknowledged heir to the feminist legacy of Russ and Le Guin,” and Andrea Hairston has called her “a treasure.” Ms. Arnason lives in the Twin Cities metro area.
On Wednesday, May 20 LAUREL WINTER reads her fiction and, maybe, poetry. Laurel Winter lives, um, in Rochester? She’s in her son’s basement while she is sorting through possessions and getting ready to head for wherever. She does writing, art, energy healing, house-&-pet-sitting and plays poker. Her middle grade novel, Growing Wings, is still getting requests for sequels, and she perhaps has an idea now. Other publication projects are in the works. (Quite possibly Do Not Attempt This at School, which garnered her a McKnight Fellowship.) She won a World Fantasy Award for “Sky Eyes” and one of her award-winning poems, “egg horror poem”, now appears in several high school literature textbooks. She’s recently sold short romance stories to Woman’s World.
On Wednesday, June 17 TYLER TORK reads his fiction at 6:30 p.m. An unprecedented fusion of man and mineral, Tyler Tork is a longtime lurker on the Twin Cities speculative fiction scene, known to some by a different name. With the issuance of his first novel from a local small press (Rampant Loon), he has become a person of vast importance, bestriding the world like a rhinoceros, if a rhinoceros was of like size to the world. Film producers seek him, paparazzi watch for him, agents lurk on his doorstep, but he is elusive, like some creature which is also elusive. But the staff of the local speculative fiction coffeeshop know him, and you, lucky person, may attend his reading. He will allow time for questions on any topic. However, he can’t guarantee that the answers will be useful or even make any sense.
On Thursday, July 23 at 6:30 YTASHA L. WOMACK and ROB CALLAHAN read from their works.
YTASHA L. WOMACK is a filmmaker/author/journalist and choreographer. She is the author of Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture (2013), and author/creator of the popfuturist novel 2212: Book of Rayla, first in a series. Her other books include Post Black: How a New Generation is Redefining African American Identity (Lawrence Hill Books). She also co-edited the anthology Beats, Rhymes and Life: What We Love and Hate About Hip Hop (Harlem Moon/Random House). Her film projects include The Engagement (director) and Love Shorts (producer/writer). She is a Chicago native.
ROB CALLAHAN is a professional purveyor of made-up stories about the way we really are. His works of fiction include the novel Hellbound Snowball and the short stoy collection A Wish Upon a Fallen Sky. He has written and performed two award-winning spoken shows, Idiosynchronicity and The Last Ditch (co-written with Allegro Lingo), and he regularly joins the Minneapolis entertainment troupe The Rockstar Storytellers on stage. His nonfiction has been featured in Secrets of the City, Salon.com, l’etoil Magazine, and Cracked.com. He lives in the Twin Cities.
On Wednesday, August 26, JOHN CALVIN REZMERSKI reads his poetry. Mr. Rezmerski was born in Pennsylvania, and again in Ohio, then again in Kansas, and three times more in Minnesota. By some accounts he has three lives left, but he is not taking any bets because he doesn’t believe in cats. He is a member of Lady Poetesses from Hell by virtue of the fact that he channels Grace Lord Stoke (via email), from whom he has learned a great deal. He has published 20 books, chapbooks, and anthologies, including The Frederick Manfred Reader, a screenplay, and three plays. He has performed his work for schools, libraries, bookstores, science fiction conventions, clubs, professional organizations, senior centers, museums, festivals, fairs, coffee houses, bars, and on television, and on radio, including National Public Radio’s Wha’d Ya Know?, and collaborated with painters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, dancers, theatrical troupes, and scientists. Over 35 years, he taught creative writing, journalism, linguistics, science fiction, and storytelling at Gustavus Adolphus College. His poetry includes 22 from TOTU and Breaking the Rules: Starting with Ghazals.
On Wednesday, September 30, ADAM STEMPLE reads from his fiction. Adam Stemple is the author/coauthor of seven fantasy novels, ten short stories, one "sci-fi-ku", and more songs than he can remember. His first novel, Pay The Piper, coauthored by his mother, the indomitable, Jane Yolen, won the 2006 Locus award for Best Young Adult Book. The final book in their middle grade trilogy, The Seelie Wars (theseeliewars.com) is at the publishers and will be coming out soon.
On Wednesday, October 28, MICHAEL MERRIAM reads from his fiction. Michael Merriam is an author of speculative fiction living in Hopkins, MN. He has published three novels, two short story collections, three novellas, and over 80 pieces of short fiction and poetry. His novel, Last Car to Annwn Station, was named a Top Book in 2011 by Readings in Lesbian & Bisexual Women’s Fiction. Michael is the co-organizer of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers and a member of the Artists with Disabilities Alliance, the Steampunk Artists and Writers Guild, and Story Arts Minnesota. Visit his homepage at www.michaelmerriam.com
On Wednesday, November 18, JASON D. WITTMAN reads from his fiction. Mr. Wittman lives and works in Minnesota. In addition to having two games published by Steve Jackson Games, he has had fiction published in SCIFI.Com, Baen's Universe, and Tales of theUnanticipated, and he now has a stand-alone novella, Saint Nicole, available at Sam’s Dot Publishing.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015, from 6:30-7:45 p.m., will be our second annual night of Round Robin Readings. Interested persons should bring poetry or short prose submissions sufficient for a five-minute reading, plus up to five minutes of additional material in the event that the first round gets done early.
Speculations is a co-production of DreamHaven Books and SF MINNESOTA.
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