The Mumpsimus

by Geoffrey H. Goodwin (Geoffrey Goodwin was last seen around these here parts when he interviewed Thomas Ligotti . I'm thrilled that he has now returned with an interview with Jedediah Berry, author of The Manual of Detection and of one of my favorite stories of recent years, "Minus, His Heart" (first published by Chicago Review and conveniently reprinted in Best American Fantasy 2008 ). Jed has worked for Conjunctions and Jubilat , and he is currently Wizard-of-Many-Things [my term] at Small Beer Press .) Geoffrey H. Goodwin: You've worked in the field a long time. When did you last have a job outside of books and publishing? Jedediah Berry: My first job out of college was with PEN , the non-profit writers’ organization, and before that I was doing a work study job with the literary journal Conjunctions . I would have to go back to my first year of college, when I was washing dishes and painting curbs yellow. (Laughs.) So it's been a very long ti...

One thing I love about blogs is seeing people discover books that have become so much a part of my own life that I develop the sense that everybody else on Earth has also read them, and so there's no need for me to talk about them, because we all know these are great books, right? It's nice to be reminded that this is a fantasy -- nice to see people suddenly fall in love with books I've known for a little while already. The great and glorious Anne Fernald just posted a list of some books she's read lately with joy and happiness, and the two books on the list that I've read are ones I recommend without reservation: Tropical Fish by Doreen Baingana and Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys. I first heard about Tropical Fish when I was in Kenya for the SLS/Kwani conference and Doreen Baingana was part of a panel discussion; I found her captivating. Later, a Ugandan friend (who also told me about FEMRITE ) exhorted me to read the book. I did. I exhort you to do th...