"Science Fiction Has Given the Umlaut in Upper High German a Run for Its Money"

The title of this post comes from a very worthwhile audio interview with Samuel R. Delany at The Dragon Page (you'll have to listen to find out what it means!  The interview is about a third of the way into the podcast).  It was the first time I'd publicly heard the release date of Chip's new novel, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, which is scheduled to be releaed in November from Alyson Books, where the great Don Weise, who was the editor for Dark Reflections, is now the publisher.  A version of part of the new novel appeared in Black Clock 7 a few years ago, and Chip read some of it aloud at Readercon this past summer.  It tells the story of the relationship of two men, starting in 2007 and continuing for about seventy years into the future.

The interview also contains interesting discussions of The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, of why Chip writes what he does, of his work at Temple University, and of the growing acceptance of some forms of genre writing among the country's MFA writing programs.

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