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Now Appearing in Inkwell.vue: Martha Soukup
What do we know of Martha Soukup? She's fun and articulate on The WELL, yet she has no home page. Ah, well. It turns out people are discussing her amazing stories and her new book around the 'net. Her short-story collection from DreamHaven Books, The Arbitrary Placement of Walls, has just been reissued. It's now available both in trade paper and hardcover editions. A bibliography of her writings can be found at S.F. Site.
Reviews"Beginning with her first published work, "Dress Rehearsal," these stories take readers along a treacherous emotional trail composed of abrupt turns, sheer drop-offs, and impossible peaks. Using touches of magic and science, Soukup examines the many facets of personal relationships with stories containing elements reminiscent of fairy tales, parables, fables, and even an old-fashioned murder mystery.... Short stories must draw the reader in quickly, and Soukup's skill in this area is admirable." Ray Davis explores this book in an essay for The New York Review of Science Fiction. Ray says, "From the first, Martha Soukup's stories have puzzled me. Not that they're unclear; quite the contrary. They're written in a clean, unindulgent style. They're free of digression, fully self-contained; straightforward in every way, really. "Yet I feel entangled by them, tripped up, sometimes even implicated in some vague guilt." Her most recent story is "The House of Expectations" in Starlight 2 (Patrick Nielsen Hayden, ed.; Tor Books, November 1998). Amazon weighs in on The Arbitrary Placement of Walls: "This collection of 17 stories puts together a solid case for Martha Soukup's preeminence among science fiction short story writers at the end of the 20th century." You may find her book at your local store or via Amazon in the WELL Bookstore. And read her interview topic, Inkwell.vue 16.
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