“Groucho: A Life in Review” Starring Frank Ferrante

By Steve Vertlieb: Saw “Groucho: A Life in Review” at The Walnut Street Theater last weekend, and thought it was superb. Frank Ferrante as Groucho (Julius) Marx is brilliant as he portrays the legendary comedian from his early days in burlesque and vaudeville to success at Paramount Pictures, while later at MGM under the watchful, discretionary eyes of Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer.

The performance reverently follows Marx into his later years with new, wholly unexpected fame on television as the host of NBC’s classic quiz show, You Bet Your Life.

While Ferrante’s interpretation of Groucho as a young, anarchic, rising comic in the late twenties and early thirties is joyous, and hysterically funny, it is his later persona as a fragile, elderly, beloved comedic icon that is, ultimately, most endearing, poignant, and melancholy.

Worshipped by modern comedians and talk show hosts, such as Dick Cavett, Ferrante’s Groucho lapses into sadness over the loss of his beloved brothers, particularly Chico (Leonard) Marx whose tender love for his older sibling sustained each other through good times and bad.

The cheers of “Bravo,” with standing ovations and emotional cheers, at the conclusion of the performance were both heartfelt and endearing. Andy Marx, author Arthur Marx’s son, and Groucho’s grandson, pictured here with Ferrante and Groucho’s great granddaughter, appeared on stage before the curtains fell one last time to praise the star for his richly researched, inspired, and impassioned performance.

Arthur Marx, Groucho’s son, wrote the play upon which this performance was based, as well as the two funniest books that it has ever been my privilege to read … Life With Groucho, about his beloved father, and Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime, concerning the storied careers of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

Should this wonderful show visit your town or backyard, I urge you to see it. It is superb. Frank Ferrante has brought Groucho back to vibrant, vital life and comedic genius. “Minnie’s Boys” would be proud. BRAVO!

Uncanny Magazine Issue 56 Launches January 2

The 56th issue of the Uncanny Magazine, winner of seven Hugos and a British Fantasy Award, will be available on January 2 at uncannymagazine.com

Hugo Award-winning Publishers Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas are proud to present the 56th issue of their seven-time Hugo Award-winning online science fiction and fantasy magazine, Uncanny Magazine. Stories from Uncanny Magazine have been finalists or winners of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards. As always, Uncanny features passionate SF/F fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, provocative nonfiction, and a deep investment in the diverse SF/F culture, along with a Parsec Award-winning monthly podcast featuring a story, poem, and interview from that issue. 

All of Uncanny Magazine’s content will be available in eBook versions on the day of release from Weightless Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and Kobo. Subscriptions are always available through Weightless Books. The free online content will be released in 2 stages- half on day of release and half on February 6. 

Follow Uncanny on their website, or on Twitter and Facebook.

Uncanny Magazine Issue 56 Table of Contents:

Cover

  • Resurrecting Venus by Galen Dara

Editorial

  • “The Uncanny Valley” by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas

Fiction

  • “Marginalia” by Mary Robinette Kowal (1/2)
  • “A Recipe for Hope and Honeycake” by Jordan Taylor (1/2)
  • “Do Houses Dream of Scraping the Sky?” by Jana Bianchi (1/2)
  • “An Elegy of Soil” by Natalia Theodoridou (2/6)
  • “La mandíbula del río” by Ana Hurtado (2/6)
  • “The Feast of Baku & the Yume no Seirei” by Cheri Kamei (2/6)
  • “A Contract of Ink and Skin” by Angela Liu (1/2)

Nonfiction

  • “Scalzi on Film: When Fun Becomes Homework” by John Scalzi (1/2)
  • “Lest We Become Possessed” by Alex Jennings (1/2)
  • “A Novel Is an Empathy Engine” by Cecilia Tan (2/6)
  • “Dance Dance Matrix Revolutions” by Amanda Wakaruk and Olav Rokne (2/6)

Poetry

  • “Six of Swords Becomes The Emperor” by Ali Trotta (1/2)
  • “We Drink Lava” by Ai Jiang (1/2)
  • “fowlskin” by C. S. E. Cooney (2/6)
  • “genesis” by Sodïq Oyèkànmí (2/6)

Interviews

  • Jordan Taylor interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (1/2)
  • Natalia Theodoridou interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (2/6)

Podcasts

  • Episode 56A (1/2): Editors’ Introduction, “Marginalia” by Mary Robinette Kowal, as read by Erika Ensign, “We Drink Lava” by Ai Jiang, as read by Matt Peters, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Mary Robinette Kowal.
  • Episode 56B (2/6): Editors’ Introduction, “La mandíbula del río” by Ana Hurtado, as read by Matt Peters, “fowlskin” by C. S. E. Cooney, as read by Erika Ensign, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Ana Hurtado.

2024 Clarion Workshop Instructors Named

The instructors have been announced for the 2024 Clarion Workshop: Sam J. Miller, Jeffrey Ford, Matt Bell, Nalo Hopkinson, Alyssa Wong, and Isabel Yap. 

The event runs from June 23 –August 3, 2024 at UC San Diego. Applications to attend will be accepted beginning December 1

Sam J. Miller will teach the first week of the 2024 workshop. Jeffrey Ford will take the reins in Week 2. Matt Bell will guide students in Week 3. In Week 4, students will have a week free of workshop to encourage time for writing, reflection, and other activities, all overseen by Nalo Hopkinson. Alyssa Wong and Isabel Yap will team for Weeks 5 and 6.

Sam J. Miller‘s books have been called “must reads” and “bests of the year” by USA TodayEntertainment WeeklyNPR, and O: The Oprah Magazine, among others, and have been translated into nine languages. His work has won the Nebula, Locus, Shirley Jackson, and Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards, as well as the hopefully-soon-to-be-renamed John W. Campbell Memorial Award. He’s also the last in a long line of butchers. Sam lives in New York City, and at samjmiller.com.

Jeffrey Ford is the author of nine novels, including The Girl in the Glass and five short story collections, including A Natural History of Hell. He has received multiple World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson awards as well as the Nebula and Edgar awards, among others. He’s been a college English teacher of writing and literature for thirty years. He lives with his wife Lynn in a century old farm house in a land of slow clouds and endless fields.

Matt Bell is the author most recently of the novel Appleseed (a New York Times Notable Book) and the craft book Refuse to Be Done, a guide to novel writing, rewriting, and revision. His writing has appeared in The New York TimesEsquireTin HouseFairy Tale ReviewAmerican Short FictionOrion, and many other publications. A native of Michigan, he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.

Nalo Hopkinson is the author of six novels and numerous short stories. Her writing has received the John W. Campbell Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Andre Norton (Nebula) Award, the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Award, among numerous others. She has received honorary Dr of Letters degrees from Anglia Ruskin University and the Ontario College of Art and Design University. In 2021 the Science Fiction Writers of America honored her with the Damon Knight Memorial “Grand Master” Award. In 37 years she was the youngest person to receive the award, and the first woman of African descent.

Alyssa Wong writes award-winning fiction, comics, novels, and games. Their stories have won the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award. Alyssa was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and their fiction has been shortlisted for the Hugo, Bram Stoker, and Shirley Jackson Awards. Alyssa’s comic credits include Star Wars: Doctor AphraMarvelDC, and Adventure Time. In 2023, Alyssa joined the Star Wars: The High Republic storytelling initiative and their debut novel will be released in January, 2024.

Isabel Yap’s debut story collection, Never Have I Ever, was published in 2021 by Small Beer Press and won the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection. Her work has been a finalist for the Ignyte, Locus, Crawford, and World Fantasy Awards, and has appeared in venues including Lithub and Year’s Best Weird Fiction. She is @visyap on Twitter and her website is https://isabelyap.com.

[Based on a press release.]

The Last Dangerous Visions Progress Report

J. Michael Straczynski shared an update about Harlan Ellison’s The Last Dangerous Visions in social media today.

Blackstone Publishing has release dates and pre-order pages for the first two anthologies in the series.

Dangerous Visions — release date March 26, 2024

Again, Dangerous Visions — release date June 1, 2024

Also, these two books now link to Blackstone Publishing’s Harlan Ellison author page.

The  Mayyas

By Michaele Jordan: Friends, you probably didn’t expect to see a dance review on File 770. What does a dance performance have to do with SF/F? Hard to explain, but you’ll understand when you see it (which you can do here. Perhaps their name will give you hint. Mayyas is a Lebanese word meaning ‘the proud walk of a lioness’.

The Mayyas are a Lebanese all-female alternative precision dance group. (Female dancers are rare in Lebanon, and all-female anything even rarer.)

The company has 36 dancers, and their routines are choreographed by their founder, Nadim Cherfan. They’ve won a lot of awards in all those ‘Got Talent’ shows: In 2019, they reached the semi-finals in Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions, and took first place in Arabs Got Talent. Then in 2022 they won America’s Got Talent, snagging the Golden Buzzer in the process.

Lebanese Order of Merit

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati praised them, as did the Lebanese army command. President of the Republic General Michel Aoun awarded them the Lebanese Order of Merit.  They also out-performed Beyoncé at  the opening of the Atlantis Royal Dubai Hotel.

(Want to see another? Click here.)

If you haven’t watched the attached videos yet, let me explain further why the Mayyas seem skiffy to me. They are described as a ‘precision dance group’.  And they are precise – as meticulously choreographed as a Busby Berkeley routine, where every dancer’s wrist or ankle exactly matches the wrists and ankles of all the others. But while a Busby Berkeley performance is like a marching band with sequined girls doing high kicks, the Mayyas are soft and sinuous. (How’s that for an odd concept – soft, sinuous precision?)

The dancers are not arranged in a circle or a forward-facing line so that the audience can admire how they match. More often they are in single file, so that seen from the front, the silhouettes merge into each other. Only the arms remain separate, but the movements of these are perfectly synchronized. The overall effect is of a single multi-armed dancer –  or a Hindu god summoning the faithful, or maybe a giant sentient snake, seducing its prey. It’s very alien and utterly entrancing. (Here’s another.)

The 2023 Philip K. Dick European Science Fiction Film Festival Returns To Lille, France

[From a press release.] The Philip K. Dick European Science Fiction Film Festival has announced the full lineup for its upcoming season celebrating the legacy of novelist Philip K. Dick. The two-day event held from October 27-28 at the L’Hybride theater in Lille, France will showcase films with themes of scientific and technological advancements, extraordinary events, and dystopian worlds.

This year’s event continues the festival’s longstanding tradition of showcasing films throughout Europe. “France is an integral location for the science fiction genre,” said DanielAbella, the founder and director of the festival. “The rich cultural life of Lille is a popular area for learning, and appreciating all things sci-fi.” The festival will also commemorate its namesake by attributing his work as a reflection of modern society. “Philip K. Dick foresaw the aspects of technology to free and liberate us,” said Abella. “If you look around at the technological advancements of our world, many of his stories have come to pass and the festival recognizes his vision. He understood that the fluid nature of reality and the lure of transhumanism is becoming a real phenomenon.”

The film program follows the jump.

Continue reading

Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Vol. 4 Arriving

On October 17 Pyr Books will release The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Vol. 2 edited by Paula Guran. It’s the fourth from the current publisher, but overall volume 14 in a series Guran started in 2010 (covering the stories of 2009).

This volume of The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror offers four hundred pages of handpicked tales from 2022.

Writers and stories in the collection:

  • “The Voice of a Thousand Years” by Fawaz Al-Matrouk (F&SF 5/6-22)
  • “The Lending Library of Final Lines” by Octavia Cade (The Dark #80)
  • “A Belly Full of Spiders” by Mário Coelho (PseudoPod 813)
  • “Red Wet Grin” by Gemma Files (Screams from the Dark, ed. E. Datlow)
  • “The Long Way Up” by Alix E. Harrow (The Deadlands #9)
  • “Men, Women, and Chainsaws” by Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
  • “Swim the Darkness” by Michael Kelly (The Dark #87)
  • “How Selkies Are Made” by Cassandra Khaw (Breakable Things)
  • “Lemmings”, Kirstyn McDermott (Weird Horror 5)
  • “Challawa” by Usman T. Malik (Dark Stars, ed. J. F. D. Taff)
  • The Summer Castle by Ray Nayler (Nightmare #113)
  • “In the Smile Place” by Tobi Ogundiran (Fiyah #24)
  • “Douen” by Suzan Palumbo (The Dark #82)
  • The Dyer and the Dressmakers by Bindia Persaud (Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror, ed. S. Tantlinger)
  • “The Feeding of Closed Mouths” by Eden Royce [(Re)Living Mythology, eds. S. N. Kagunda, Y. L. Ndlovu, H.D. Hunter, & LP Kindred]
  • “The Woman Who Married the Minotaur” by Angela Slatter (The Sunday Morning Transport 10-23-22)
  • “The Ercildoun Accord” by Steve Toase (Lackington’s #25)
  • “Bonesoup” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Strange Horizons 7-11-22)
  • “Shadow Plane” by Fran Wilde (Weird Tales #365)
  • “Sharp Things, Killing Things” by A.C. Wise (Nightmare #121)
  • “A Monster in the Shape of a Boy” by Hannah Yang (Apex #131)

Sixth Annual Psychedelic Film And Music Festival Screenings Announced

The Psychedelic Film and Music Festival has announced the program for its sixth annual event, with a lineup of science fiction and fantasy films, documentaries, music videos, and a screenplay competition. Screenings will be held from October 20-22 at the Producers Club Theaters in Midtown Manhattan, with passes available here.

The mission of the festival is to raise awareness about the psychedelic experience through media and meditative practices, with an emphasis on exploring creativity and self-expression.

“The festival offers an array of films, talks, and documentaries where kindred souls and good ideas collide,” said event director Daniel Abella. “Our goal is to educate and entertain attendees about how psychedelic practices are approached, which will allow for new pathways towards everyday life.” By offering a wide range of entertainment and imagery, the festival hopes to enlighten audiences’ perspective of their own identities.

The schedule follows the jump.

Continue reading

Saga Press Expands Team and Title List

Saga Press is growing its team. Editorial Director Joe Monti, Senior Editor Amara Hoshijo, and Editorial Assistant Jéla Lewter announced the following additions to the Saga Press staff on September 15.

Nivia Evans will join Saga Press as a Senior Editor, moving from Orbit Books. A 2020 Publishers Weekly Star Watch Superstar and Hugo Award-nominated editor, Evans acquisitions include New York Times bestselling author Alix E. Harrow, Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Son of the Storm, H. G. Parry’s The Magician’s Daughter, Sara Hashem’s The Jasad Heir, and forthcoming Georgia Summers’ The City of Stardust. She starts on October 2nd.

Sareena Kamath has joined Saga Press as an Editor, coming most recently from Zando, where she acquired Samantha Allen’s Patricia Wants to Cuddle, New York Times bestseller Alaina Urquhart’s The Butcher and the Wren, Gerardo Sámano Córdova’s Monstrilio, and the forthcomingElaine U. Cho’s Ocean’s Godori. Previously, she was at Little, Brown and Company/Mulholland Books. She will begin on September 25th.

Caroline Tew joins Saga Press as an Editorial Assistant, coming from Franklin & Siegal Associates, where she was a Junior Scout.

Christine Calella is a lifelong fan of fantasy, folklore, and horror who studied genre writing at Columbia University’s MFA program. She has been at the flagship imprint of Simon & Schuster for 5 years, rising to the title of Senior Publicist, where she worked with such authors as Bob Woodward, Howard Stern, and Hillary Clinton. She is tremendously excited to be joining the Saga Press team.

Savannah Breckenridge joined Saga Press in June 2023. She previously worked at Abrams Books as a Marketing Associate. This is a return to Simon & Schuster for Savannah where she began her career as a Marketing Assistant, working on campaigns for Tracy Deonn and Chloe Gong.

Karintha Parker also joins Saga Press’s publicity team as an Associate Publicist. Parker comes from HarperCollins where she helped work on the recent campaigns for Barbara Kingsolver as well as Justin C. Key.

In addition to the personnel growth, Saga Press will be moving to the flagship division of Simon & Schuster, beginning with its 2024 publications. Joe Monti will be reporting to Tim O’Connell, Vice President and Editorial Director of Fiction at Simon & Schuster.

With this expanded team in place Joe Monti plans to double the number of titles the imprint will publish by 2026.

Since its founding in 2015, Saga Press at Simon & Schuster has been a leading publisher of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and speculative fiction, with a dedicated mission to curate a list of powerful and diverse authorial voices, which has included acclaimed authors Chloe Gong, Charlaine Harris, Stephen Graham Jones, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ken Liu, Peter S. Beagle, R. A. Salvatore, and Rebecca Roanhorse.

[Based on a press release.]

Straczynski Gives Harlan Ellison Book Updates

J. Michael Straczynski, executor of Harlan and Susan Ellison’s estate, including Harlan’s literary estate, announced Ellison’s Greatest Hits collection is available for preorder. JMS posted on X:

Hey check it! These days publishers tend to do a “soft launch” of their books to see who’s paying attention, and Union Square, owned by Barnes & Noble, just put up a page for Harlan Ellison’s Greatest Hits! Available now for pre-order! (Cover coming soon)

Greatest Hits by Harlan Ellison, which features Ellison’s best and most award-winning stories from across the many years of his career, will be released on March 12, 2024. The collection has an introduction by JMS and a foreword by Neil Gaiman.

Greatest Hits features these stories and many more: 

  • “‘Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (1966) – Hugo Award winner
  • “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” (1999) – Bram Stoker Award winner
  • “Mefisto in Onyx” (1993) – Bram Stoker Award winner
  • “Jeffty Is Five” (1979) – British Fantasy Award winner
  • “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” (1974) – Edgar Allan Poe Award winner

About the job of picking which stories to include Straczynski says:

It was terribly hard. Some stories like ”’Repent, Harlequin’” and “I Have No Mouth…” are no-brainers…but beyond that it became a matter of finding the most recognized stories that also showed his amazing range… going from speculative fiction, to urban fantasy, to some things that were just two degrees away from mainstream…to show all the different shades of his work. I think we hit the right balance.

LAST AND OTHER DANGEROUS VISIONS. Straczynski also told Twitter followers that Last Dangerous Visions is “done, in final copyediting stage with the publisher, and will be out fall ’24.” And he had more to say on Facebook:

Since there’s a lot of interest in what’s happening with Dangerous Visions, and a lot I can’t say pending announcements, let me say what little I can say.

As I write this, the copyedited Last Dangerous Visions has been sent from the publisher for any final notes or edits on my part. This is the last stage before locking the galleys for review and publication. The file is sitting in my computer and I have until next week to turn it around so we can hit publication deadlines.

The publisher of the three Dangerous Visions books has coordinated the re-release of the first Dangerous Visions to the release of Harlan Ellison’s Greatest Hits by the other publisher involved. This will let them combine publicity and marketing strategies to get the most bang for their respective bucks and make that month (which will be announced soon I hope) basically Harlan Ellison Month. This will be all about putting Harlan’s work in front of critics, university bookstores, online and print press, and basically making a lot of noise.

Again, Dangerous Visions will then be released 3 months later, and The Last Dangerous Visions three months after that. The publisher and I are now working on designing a unified series of covers to span all three books.

We are hoping to have a launch party for Greatest Hits and the first DV republication at Harlan’s house, which will also be the launch of the place as a memorial library/museum. By then all the repairs, renovations and refits to make it safe for (very small) tour groups and academics will be completed, and we hope to have a lot of press in attendance as well as folks from the City of LA to help ensure that the house is designated a historical landmark for long term preservation.