City of weird : 30 otherworldly Portland tales

Format:

Book

Title:

City of weird : 30 otherworldly Portland tales

Other title(s):

30 otherworldly Portland tales

Portland tales

Thirty otherworldly Portland tales

ISBN:

9781942436232

Publication:

Portland, Oregon : Forest Avenue Press, 2016.

Physical Description:

xiv, 304 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Contents:

From the deep. The sturgeon queen / Rene Denfeld -- Octopocalypse : a love story / Brigitte Winter -- Trainwreck / Leslie What -- Orca culture / Leigh Anne Kranz -- From the skies. Transformation / Dan DeWeese -- How I got this job / Brian Reid -- A sky so blue / Stefanie Freele -- Alder underground / Jonah Barrett -- How do you say gentrification in Martian / Jonathan Hill -- To the dogs. A code for everything / Andrew Stark -- Yay / Bradley K. Rosen -- Out of order / Kevin Meyer -- In the books. Aromageddon / Jason Squamata -- The mind-body problem / Susan DeFreitas -- The color off the shelf / Karen Munro -- Of the dead. This many lost things / Nicole Rosevear -- Squatty and weasel boy / Doug Chase -- Stone cold monk / Linda Rand -- The heft of ashes / Kirsten Larson -- Of the undead. Vampire / Justin Hocking -- The fixer: a serial -- 1 -- the duchess / Sean Davis -- The deflowering / Suzy Vitello -- Into the weird. Tunnels / Leni Zumas -- Waiting for the question / Art Edwards -- Letters to the Oregonian in the year 30,000 BC / Mark Russell -- In transit / Kevin Sampsell -- No return. Notes from the underground city / Stevan Allred -- Queen of Tabor / B. Frayn Masters -- Twin carbs on bad news / Jeff Johnson -- Always / Adam Strong.

Summary:

"A collection of thirty otherworldly, sci-fi/fantasy, and ghost stories set in Portland, Oregon"-- Provided by publisher.

Subject(s):

Science fiction, American.

Fantasy fiction, American.

Ghost stories, American.

Portland (Or.) -- Fiction.

Portland (Or.)

Geographic Term:

Portland (Or.) -- Fiction.

Genre:

Added Author:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	FIC (SF) CITY 2016	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Library	813.08 LIT	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Independence Public Library	FICTION - CITY	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

City of Weird conjures what we fear: death, darkness, ghosts. Hungry sea monsters and alien slime molds. Blood drinkers and game show hosts. Set in Portland, Oregon, these thirty stories blend imagination, literary writing, and pop culture into a cohesive weirdness that honors the city's personality, its bookstores and bridges and solo volcano, as well as the tradition of sci-fi pulp magazines. Including such authors as Rene Denfeld, Justin Hocking, Leni Zumas, and Kevin Sampsell, editor Gigi Little has curated a collection that is quirky, chilling, often profound--and always perfectly weird.

Author Notes

Graphic designer Gigi Little of Portland, Oregon, is the creative force behind Forest Avenue Press' visual identity. Outside of the domain of Forest Avenue, she has written and illustrated two children's picture books and her fiction and essays have appeared in anthologies and literary journals.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Little's anthology is a kitschy collection of familiar weird fiction tropes loosely related to Portland, Ore. Many of the stories tread all-too-familiar territory, but there are a few standouts that treat the "Keep Portland Weird" motto with a pinch of humor and irony. Andrew Stark's "A Code for Everything" is a tender and heartwarming story about a robotic canine companion. In a surprising turn of format, "How Do You Say Gentrification in Martian?" by Jonathan Hill is a clever and exquisitely drawn short comic about aliens leveling Burnside and Stumptown Coffee to set up their own hip condos. In "Octopocalypse: a Love Story," Brigitte Winter captures the oddity of some of Portland's residents, including a lovelorn and hungry cephalopod, and "Aromageddon" by Jason Squamata deftly highlights Portland's beloved Powell's Bookstore in loving detail. But these are outliers. Most of the stories decline to describe their setting in detail in favor of assuming the reader is already familiar with the city. This very hit-or-miss compilation of mostly forgettable works might find the right reader in a Portlander thirsting for odd tales built around familiar landmarks. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

The 30 stories collected here come from an impressive cast of authors. All stories are set in Portland, Oregon (you don't need to know anything about Portland to enjoy them), and partake, to varying degrees, of the unique brand of weird that defines that city. Some center around specific landmarks (Powell's bookstore makes several appearances), some reference the history of the town, and some treat the city only as a general setting. These stories range from highly speculative to more mainstream, from upbeat to cynical, silly to serious; stories of love and loss, humor and pathos, from the bizarre to the poetic. There's even an illustrated comic. Some are wonderfully pulpy, and some are more modern. Transformation, by Dan DeWeese, uses an alien invasion as critique of mindless conformity; Yay, by Bradley K. Rosen, is a Christmas Krampus story of madness and indigence; Waiting for the Question, by Art Edwards, is a gritty urban fantasia featuring Alex Trebek. All of the stories are very good, making this a fun and recommended collection.--Keogh, John Copyright 2016 Booklist