with Kij Johnson and Anya Johanna DeNiro

Saturday, October 14, 2023
Fine Arts Stage, 11:00-11:45am
*This event is ASL interpreted!

For the entirety of the 21st Century, the Massachusetts-based Small Beer Press has been a vanguard publisher of literary science fiction and fantasy—introducing readers to the work of Kelly Link and restoring to print the groundbreaking feminist writer Carol Emshwiller, among so many other treasures. Join two Small Beer authors, who both explore the nature of gender and of storytelling itself, as they present their new books from this visionary publisher: Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award-winning writer Kij Johnson launches The Privilege of the Happy Ending, which collects stories drawing on everything from Icelandic tales to OuLiPo experimentation, while Anya Johanna DeNiro offers her playful and aching novel OkPsyche, which follows an unnamed trans woman on her journey to find her place in the world, finding friends both real and imaginary to help her along the way. Readers, don’t miss this chance to witness the cutting edge of speculative fiction in real time!

About the Authors

Kij Johnson writes speculative and experimental fiction, and has won the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards (among others). She also writes gaming material, puzzles, and nonfiction. She teaches creative writing, novel development, and science fiction and fantasy, for her own Novel Architects group, the Ad Astra Institute, and various universities. For many years, she was the associate director for the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction.

Anya Johanna DeNiro is a trans woman and writer living in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, and received a BA in English from the College of Wooster and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia. Her novella City of a Thousand Feelings was published by Aqueduct Press in 2020 and was on the Honor Roll for the Otherwise Award. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues, including One Story, Catapult, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Santa Monica Review, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere. Her work has been a finalist for the Crawford Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award, and longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Her novel OKPsyche is forthcoming from Small Beer Press in September 2023.