Robin McLean

READ IT!

Hey friends,

 

Get'm Young, my new collection of stories, just made the long list for the inaugural 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize, a very fancy new prize only for small literary presses in the US and Canada. (I'm so thrilled!) The prize been awarding adventuresome small presses (and books) in the UK since 2017, but now they have come to North America.

 

If you have time to join, please put this Zoom event and a reminder on your calendar:

 

Celebrating the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Longlist
Mar 1, 2023 06:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83968867587?pwd=YVdxRFNoMzBuei9SenJvMlNqM2NzZz09

 

Meeting ID: 839 6886 7587
Passcode: 791574

 

I'd love to see you there and feel friends cheering And Other Stories, Get'em Young and me.

 

I'll be reading from Get'em and talking about the book with all of the five judges, my genius editor Jeremy Davies and the brilliant authors and translators of the nine books on the long list. 

 

The shortlist will be announced sometime after this event. Crossing fingers for Get'em Young!

 

See you there!

 

Robin 

Whoa, this is pretty exciting... Get'em Young was just longlisted for the 2022 (inaugural) US and Canada Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses.

 

I'm so honored to be among this bunch of so so amazing writers!! 

 

Look at the whole announcement here, its inspiring and heartening comments from the founders and judges. 

 

Sign up for a live reading of the long list. (March 1, 6pm CST)

 

As the announcement explains, this is a prize spotlighting literary fiction from small presses only, because they believe these works -- often too risky for larger presses -- are necessary to the world of books. Aside from lavishing attention, this prize also rewards the all small presses on the longlist with badly needed hard cash. I'm so proud of these folks for dreaming up, then bringing to reality, this new and necessary prize. I'm blow away that my book is being considered for the shortlist.

 

Thanks to all the judges for picking my book, and to Tom Flynn from And Other Stories (and the whole press) for submitting the stories.  

 

I was invited onto a podcast called "Across the Pond" with Republic of Consciousness founder (and Dallas bookstore owner), Lori Feathers, and Sam Jordison, an wonderful indie publisher in the UK. Listen to it here.

 

Crossing fingers for the short list!

 

Join me (in person) with Sonora Jha who is launching her wonderful and important novel THE LAUGHTER at Book Passage, in Corte Madera, California, on Feb. 18 @ 4:00pm PST.

 

More info here.

 

Thank so much to Word Factory (again) and to Aspen Pettinson, in particular, for inviting me to meet at a cool wine bar in Edinburgh, Scotland last month. Our chat resulted in this interview . We got talking about all kinds of stuff, from stories to animals to trees. It was fun. 

 

Word Factory also published a wonderful review of Get'em Young by Amy Steward last month. Thanks for all the attention and for all you guys are doing for short fiction! 

 

 

Hey, so here's a collaborative podcast with Darran McLaughlin from Bookhaus (Bristol, UK) and me, orchestrated by Pluto Press (London), one of the world's leading independent, radical publishers. The conversation was recorded on Nov. 30 by the water in Bristol, along with a little gang of hard core readers. 

 

If you are interested in buying my books, please do from indie stores that have supported my book tour, like Bookhaus or one of the many US bookstores listed here. (Books are signed and the stores all ship.)

 

Thank you Darren and Jesse at Bookhaus and to Pluto Press for making this go!

If you're into Substack, Evan Dent, a book seller in NYC, takes deep dives into new and old books in his literary newsletter. And he really likes my books.

 

Two made his Best of 2022 lists today, Get'em Young in the "published in 2022" category -- along with the likes of Mark Haber and Yilun Li -- and Pity the Beast on the "read in 2022" list -- along with the like of Toni Morrison and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Yikes.  

 

Thanks, Evan, for finding my books! 

 

Hey Instagramers... here are a few photos from the US book tour for Get'em Young, Oct & Nov, 2022.

 

The first, here, is National Book Award Winner, Jonathan Lethem, and me at Skylight Books in LA on Election night 2022. Thanks Jonathan for a great conversation, so far-ranging and inspiring. Here's to next time....

 

More photos from the trip in the next days...

 

Thanks Stephanie Steiker for taking this one...

 

 

Thanks Amy Stewart and Word Factory for all the attention lately, starting  with a wonderful review of Get'em Young by Amy out today, and also an upcoming interview with Aspen P., coming soon.  (It was fun to meet A.P. in a subterranian, but kind of glam, wine cellar in Edinburgh for that one.)

 

Thanks for all you do for short fiction and for writers like me. 

 

Gotta love Scotland!

Thanks Lori Feathers and Sam Jordison for inviting me on Across the Pond, your cool podcast, again, to talk this time about Get'em Young, Treat'em Tough, Tell'em Nothing...(was on with Pity the Beast last year at about this time.) The collection is up for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, which Lori co-founded. So it was lucky to get to chat.

 

It was fun and cool to talk with you guys, and hopefully interesting for all. Lori and Sam also dive into about Joyce's "The Dead" on this broadcast, so Joyce fans, get ready.

 

Listen here.