BOOKS and ARTICLES

Chinese SF

Journal Special Issue

2021

Vector  293 (Spring 2021)

Edited by Yen Ooi and Regina Kanyu Wang. Vector 293 is a collaboration with guest editors Yen Ooi and Regina Kanyu Wang. Yen Ooi introduces the issue as well as many of its recurring concepts, such as techno-orientalism. Regina Kanyu Wang takes us through the history of women writing SF in China. Artist and curator Angela Chan interviews Beatrice Glow about her work with colonial histories and the ability of science fiction to ‘tell truthful histories and envision just futures together’ through art. The conversation about history, futures, science fiction and art continues in Dan Byrne-Smith’s interview with Gordon Cheung. Chinese SF scholars Mia Chen Ma, Frederike Schneider-Vielsäcker and Mengtian Sun offer glimpses of their recent and ongoing research. Authors Maggie Shen King (An Excess Male) and Chen Qiufan (Waste Tide) interview each other about their recent novels. Feng Zhang introduces us to the SF fandom in China, while Regina Kanuy Wang brings us up to speed with accelerating Chinese SF industry. Dev Agarwal questions the maturity of the Chinese SF blockbuster as can be judged from Shanghai Fortress and The Wandering Earth (both available on Netflix). Virginia L. Conn explores Sinofuturism, while Emily Xueni Jin delves into the implications of translating a growing body of SF work from Chinese into English. We learn about the global perspectives on Chinese SF from an illustrious panel assembled at WorldCon 2019, and about transnational speculative folklore of the Uyghur people from Sandra Unerman. Niall Harrison completes the issue with an illuminating survey of Chinese short SF in the 21st Century.

Front and back cover images by Cao Fei, courtesy of the Serpentine Gallery.

_{Category: Journal Special Issue}

Curating Climate

Journal Special Issue

2021 (2020)

Nordisk Museologi  Vol. 30 No. 3

Edited by Bergsveinn Þórsson. The articles in this issue spring from the international workshop Curating Climate- Museums as contact zones of climate research, education and activism (28-29 October 2019; Oslo, Norway). The workshop was hosted by the Natural History Museum in Oslo and organized by the Curating Climate Collaboratory.

_{Category: Journal Special Issue}

The Epic of Damarudhar

Introduced with a Translation, author biography

2021

Seagull; Global Distribution: University of Chicago Press

Originally published between 1910 and 1917, and collected in book form in 1923, The Epic of Damarudhar story cycle occupies an important and unique position in the history of Bengali literature. Tackling cosmology and mythology, class and caste abuse, nativist demagoguery and the harsh reality of rural poverty, all by means of unrelentingly fierce black comedy, Trailokyanath Mukhopadhyay’s cycle of seven stories featuring the raconteur Damarudhar remains prescient social commentary to this day. With its generic fusion of tall tales, science, myth, politics, and the absurd, the work also announces the emergence of the genre of modern fantasy in Bengal. A detailed introduction, bibliography, and extensive annotation bring to life the context for these stories, highlighting key intertexts, political nuances, and important mythological references. This volume also contains the first translation of a rare biographical piece on the author, which includes long autobiographical parts written by Trailokyanath himself. Carefully translated and thoroughly researched, this volume will introduce a trenchant Indian voice to the English-language readership.

_{Category: Translation}

Goutam Ghosh: 3 Flowers Measured in a White Evening Star

Edited Collection

2021

Kunsthaus Hamburg; Catalogue No. 147

Edited by Katja Schroeder and Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay.

Designed by João Sousa

_{Category: Artist Catalogue}

Matti Braun

Edited Collection

2020

Snoeck

Edited by Matti Braun, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, and Beth Citron. The publication presents Matti Braun’s artistic production of the last ten years. The book brings together texts by Parashuram, Santu Bag, Beth Citron, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Dip Ghosh, Ranen Ghosh, Soham Guha, Sudhir Kakar, Sami Ahmad Khan, Matthia Löbke, and Amrita Shah, highlighting the myriad interconnections of the work of Rabndranath Tagore, Vikram Sarabhai, Satyajit Ray, and Indian and Bengali science fiction.

Designed by Yvonne Quirmbach, Berlin

_{Category: Artist Catalogue}

Indian Genre Fiction: Pasts and Future Histories

Edited Collection

2018/19

Routledge

Edited by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Aakriti Mandhwani, and Anwesha Maity. This volume maps the breadth and domain of genre literature in India across seven languages and nine genres for the first time. Over the last few decades, detective/crime fiction and especially science fiction/fantasy have slowly made their way into university curricula and consideration by literary critics in India and the West. However, there has been no substantial study of genre fiction in the Indian languages, least of all from a comparative perspective. This volume, with contributions from leading national and international scholars, addresses this lacuna in critical scholarship and provides an overview of diverse genre fictions.

Cover art by Soujanya Chakraborty, Kolkata

_{Category: Academic}

All Borders are Temporary

Edited Speculative Fiction+Art Anthology; Language: Norwegian

2018

Transnational Arts Production, Oslo

Anthology of Global Science Fiction + Art, in Norwegian. The authors are Oluwole Talabi (Nigeria / Malaysia), Susana Maia (Portugal), Gabriela Lee (The Philippines), Matthew Daniels (Canada) Martine Svanevik (Norway), Isa Prospero (Brazil), Max Knight (Australia / Vietnam), Toby Bennett (South Africa) and Ximena Miranda (Costa Rica). In addition, 9 international artists illustrate the pages with SF art.

Designed by João Doria, Oslo

_{Category: Fiction & Art Anthology}