Podcast appearances and mentions of jennifer marie brissett

The following audio was recorded live at the KGB Bar on April 10, 2024, with guests Robert Levy & Jennifer Marie Brissett. We need your help to stay funded! Support the reading series by clicking here!​​​​ ​   Robert Levy... Continue Reading →

You Can't Destroy my Light, Baby | Episode 115   Amber and Beyn discuss there first ever movie premier, scamming politicians and recovering from trauma. Join them as they read the book by Jennifer Marie Brissett, Destroyer of Light.    Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wallinfam  Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/thescifisighpodcast/?hl=en Follow on Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@burr_iam?lang=en Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-quzNQbZTQ&list=PLRgBIvxlI3NZ8OyviVDNrn71KxhFWSBhK   Click here to listen on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music and Vodacast:   https://linktr.ee/thescifisighpodcast 

Sharifah and Jenn discuss updates on the Sandman adaptation, B&N's Best Books of 2022 list, some recent favorite under-the-radar reads, and more. Follow the podcast via RSS here, Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here. The show can also be found on Stitcher here. To get even more SF/F news and recs, sign up for our Swords and Spaceships newsletter! This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. News Update on The Sandman Adaptation [The Mary Sue] Catching up on Disney+/Marvel Kamala Khan news [PopSugar] SFF leads B&N Best Books List [B&N Reads] Unburnable copy of The Handmaid's Tale sold at auction [The Guardian] Books Discussed Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett (cw: graphic harm to children, rape, sexual assault) Elegy for the Undead by Matthew Vesely Reconstruction: Stories by Alaya Dawn Johnson (cw: unwanted pregnancy and abortion access issues, harm to women and children, slavery, racism, body horror, etc) Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K. Jarboe (cw: dysmorphia, self-harm, fat shaming, ableism, child abuse) Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn (cw: pregnancy horror; child death) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Jenn discusses two recent favorites from the last couple years. Follow the podcast via RSS here, Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here. The show can also be found on Stitcher here. To get even more SF/F news and recs, sign up for our Swords and Spaceships newsletter! This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Books Discussed: The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (cw: drug abuse; mention of suicide, mention of domestic violence) Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett (cw: graphic harm to children, rape, sexual assault) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Destroyer of Light (Tor Books, 2021) is Jennifer Marie Brissett's long-awaited follow up to her critically acclaimed debut Elysium, winner of a Philip K. Dick Special Citation and a finalist for the Locus and the Tiptree awards. Her new novel takes readers far into the future where humans are settling a new planet. They are the survivors of the world described in Elysium—an Earth where four-dimensional aliens known as the Krestge have destroyed human civilization. The frame of Destroyer of Light is a mystery—a search for a missing boy. But a deeper story follows the relationship of a mother and her young daughter, who is kidnapped and abused by a warlord building an army of child soldiers. The book is also about the relationship between humans and their former antagonists, the Krestge. Some of the aliens' descendants now live peacefully among humans. While some people are willing to forgive the crimes of the past, going so far as to start families with the Krestge, others see their aliens' crimes as unforgivable. “There's a lot of difficulty in answering questions as to what kind of people the Krestge are because to get to know one is not to get to know all. The first alien you meet in the beginning, the stepfather of the missing [human] boy, is really worried about his son and wants to do everything he can to try and find him,” Brissett says. “And yet I think the distrust that humanity has for the Krestge is not unfounded, and it's not without its history and not without its reason. The feeling of not being told the entire truth, of not owning up to past sins, to just sort of pretending that it all just went away because you've decided to not be that anymore, doesn't really happen.” Jennifer Marie Brissett is British-Jamaican American, born in London and raised in Cambridge, Mass. owned an independent bookstore called Indigo Café & Books. She obtained her master's in creative writing from the Stonecoast MFA Program and a bachelor's in Interdisciplinary Engineering from Boston University. Rob Wolf is a writer and host of New Books in Science Fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Destroyer of Light (Tor Books, 2021) is Jennifer Marie Brissett's long-awaited follow up to her critically acclaimed debut Elysium, winner of a Philip K. Dick Special Citation and a finalist for the Locus and the Tiptree awards. Her new novel takes readers far into the future where humans are settling a new planet. They are the survivors of the world described in Elysium—an Earth where four-dimensional aliens known as the Krestge have destroyed human civilization. The frame of Destroyer of Light is a mystery—a search for a missing boy. But a deeper story follows the relationship of a mother and her young daughter, who is kidnapped and abused by a warlord building an army of child soldiers. The book is also about the relationship between humans and their former antagonists, the Krestge. Some of the aliens' descendants now live peacefully among humans. While some people are willing to forgive the crimes of the past, going so far as to start families with the Krestge, others see their aliens' crimes as unforgivable. “There's a lot of difficulty in answering questions as to what kind of people the Krestge are because to get to know one is not to get to know all. The first alien you meet in the beginning, the stepfather of the missing [human] boy, is really worried about his son and wants to do everything he can to try and find him,” Brissett says. “And yet I think the distrust that humanity has for the Krestge is not unfounded, and it's not without its history and not without its reason. The feeling of not being told the entire truth, of not owning up to past sins, to just sort of pretending that it all just went away because you've decided to not be that anymore, doesn't really happen.” Jennifer Marie Brissett is British-Jamaican American, born in London and raised in Cambridge, Mass. owned an independent bookstore called Indigo Café & Books. She obtained her master's in creative writing from the Stonecoast MFA Program and a bachelor's in Interdisciplinary Engineering from Boston University. Rob Wolf is a writer and host of New Books in Science Fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Destroyer of Light (Tor Books, 2021) is Jennifer Marie Brissett's long-awaited follow up to her critically acclaimed debut Elysium, winner of a Philip K. Dick Special Citation and a finalist for the Locus and the Tiptree awards. Her new novel takes readers far into the future where humans are settling a new planet. They are the survivors of the world described in Elysium—an Earth where four-dimensional aliens known as the Krestge have destroyed human civilization. The frame of Destroyer of Light is a mystery—a search for a missing boy. But a deeper story follows the relationship of a mother and her young daughter, who is kidnapped and abused by a warlord building an army of child soldiers. The book is also about the relationship between humans and their former antagonists, the Krestge. Some of the aliens' descendants now live peacefully among humans. While some people are willing to forgive the crimes of the past, going so far as to start families with the Krestge, others see their aliens' crimes as unforgivable. “There's a lot of difficulty in answering questions as to what kind of people the Krestge are because to get to know one is not to get to know all. The first alien you meet in the beginning, the stepfather of the missing [human] boy, is really worried about his son and wants to do everything he can to try and find him,” Brissett says. “And yet I think the distrust that humanity has for the Krestge is not unfounded, and it's not without its history and not without its reason. The feeling of not being told the entire truth, of not owning up to past sins, to just sort of pretending that it all just went away because you've decided to not be that anymore, doesn't really happen.” Jennifer Marie Brissett is British-Jamaican American, born in London and raised in Cambridge, Mass. owned an independent bookstore called Indigo Café & Books. She obtained her master's in creative writing from the Stonecoast MFA Program and a bachelor's in Interdisciplinary Engineering from Boston University. Rob Wolf is a writer and host of New Books in Science Fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-fiction

Let's talk science fiction! Continuing with my “Where to Start” series, this episode is on where to start reading sci-fi. I'm joined by YouTubers Angela from the Literature Science Alliance and Tori Morrow. For exclusive bonus content and early access to episodes, consider joining the Chapter 3 Podcast Patreon   Looking for a book mentioned in the episode? Check here! *Note that all links are affiliate links from which we earn a commission to support the podcast Books from On My Radar segment: A Dark and Starless Forest by Sarah Holowell: https://amzn.to/3nmf0ur It All Comes Back to You by Farah Naz Rishi: https://amzn.to/38ZaLfO White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson: https://amzn.to/3k0Q8Xa Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune: https://amzn.to/3E8dQZm City of Thieves by Alex London: https://amzn.to/2X8mdUm First Light by Casey Berger: https://amzn.to/2Xcqo1j No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull: https://amzn.to/3C1mK9q Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brisset: https://amzn.to/3l6cFkA Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky: https://amzn.to/3hleIQJ Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson: https://amzn.to/3txf77w Other Books/Authors Mentioned His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman: https://amzn.to/2XbwYVG Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor: https://amzn.to/2X8b2KO The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: https://amzn.to/38Xr0dC The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: https://amzn.to/3ntSCz8 The Giver by Lois Lowry: https://amzn.to/3niUDyg Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card: https://amzn.to/3E4jJ9X The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov: https://amzn.to/3BUWI7w The Replicas series by Marilyn Kaye: https://amzn.to/3E64Ns8 Myst series: https://amzn.to/3tzUbNk Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang: https://amzn.to/3BWY01Z Do You Dream of Terra-Two by Temi Oh: https://amzn.to/3tvTJiU Exhalation by Ted Chiang: https://amzn.to/3hmax7d Kindred by Octavia Butler: https://amzn.to/2YMHp2A Expanse series by James S.A. Corey: https://amzn.to/3yYS4Dx The Martian by Andy Weir: https://amzn.to/3niPg29 World War Z by Max Brooks: https://amzn.to/3twoKTP Jurassic Park by Michael Crighton: https://amzn.to/2XiaJgO Dune by Frank Herbert: https://amzn.to/3yYsA9r The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells: https://amzn.to/2X5erdm Binti by Nnedi Okorafor: https://amzn.to/2YMRCvV The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers: https://amzn.to/3jWd4GR A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers: https://amzn.to/3A3UeDd We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker: https://amzn.to/3lgJfQC Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel: https://amzn.to/3z3jJ6i An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green: https://amzn.to/2VvTub4 Hyperion by Dan Simmons: https://amzn.to/3hl5zrt Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee: https://amzn.to/38Xua0Y To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers: https://amzn.to/3nnFZWC The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin: https://amzn.to/3EgHxrs Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden: https://amzn.to/3Aefu9m The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden: https://amzn.to/3E0s1jj A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine: https://amzn.to/2XggWtR Catfishing on Catnet by Naomi Kritzer: https://amzn.to/3E78rSf This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada: https://amzn.to/3hmoYbf The Stand by Stephen King: https://amzn.to/3k0k45x Nyxia by Scott Reintgen: https://amzn.to/3k2ds6Y The Fold by Peter Clines: https://amzn.to/38UDXEO The Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson: https://amzn.to/3k2y0fe Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson: https://amzn.to/390Agxv Scythe by Neal Schusterman: https://amzn.to/3C2e2re The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord: https://amzn.to/3hlCufq Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon: https://amzn.to/3z26jb1 Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell: https://amzn.to/3E9HRrG Exit West by Mohsin Hamid: https://amzn.to/3nlnVw9 Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett: https://amzn.to/3tuouVm This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: https://amzn.to/2YBEGsA Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart: https://amzn.to/3z2WLfR   Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok @Chapter3Podcast and you can also find Bethany talking about books on YouTube @BeautifullyBookishBethany. You can now find episodes on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy6yRiktWbWRAFpByrVk-kg Interested in early access to episodes, private Discord channels and other perks? Consider joining the Chapter 3 Patreon! Or join our public Discord. A new episode will be available to download in two weeks!  This episode was recorded using a Blue Yeti USB condenser microphone kit: https://amzn.to/342dnqx

These are the books that are going to be part of our reading life this Fall. What titles are you looking forward to reading? Books mentioned in this episode: The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yokomizo, A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix by C. B. Lee, Ski Weekend by Rektok Ross, The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker, Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske, Fan Fiction: A Mem-Noir: Inspired by True Events by Brent Spiner, The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki, The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley, This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno, How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days by K. M. Jackson, Act Cool by Tobly McSmith, Trashlands by Alison Stine, The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke, and Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett. Be sure to tune in next week for Part Two of our Most Anticipated Reads of Fall 2021. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/keepitfictional/message

We try to explain Audible's new plans, decide if Pinocchio is fantasy (especially if Mussolini is involved), and wrap-up our thoughts on Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett.

Kamanti’s Child and Through the Veil by Jenniffer Marie Brissett Jenniffer Marie Brissett is a Manhattan author and winner of the 2014 Philip K. Dick Special Citation Award and finalist for the Locus Award. Brissett’s work has been published in many magazines since 2009, and has an upcoming book, Destroyer of Light, set to be … Continue reading Ep 045 Jennifer Marie Brissett →

In the sixth episode of Gotham Writers' Inside Writing, host Josh Sippie conducts a panel discussion with author Jennifer Marie Brissett and literary agent DongWon Song. They discuss Science Fiction and Fantasy, the scope of the genres, and what it means to write without boundaries.

This episode is the second episode of our podcast series diving back into our 2016 Publishing Conference, which we held at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn. The panel we’re sharing this week is titled “Breaking into Speculative Fiction”, featuring Jennifer Marie Brissett, author of the novel Elysium, and the upcoming 2020 novel Destroyer of Light, and Malka Older, author of the Centenal Cycle trilogy, which includes the novels Infomacracy, Null States, and State Tectonics. And last year Malka Older published the serial story Ninth Step Station. Their conversation on speculative fiction will be moderated by speculative fiction editor Tim O'Connell.  Remember this audio is from 2016, so some parts of the conversation are interesting to hear in retrospect, like when they talk about the “upcoming 2016 election” !  

In which we eat cake, celebrate our tenth birthday, and say goodbye. Cake Reminiscences & Podcast recs   The Guilty Feminist The Good Place, The Podcast Be The Serpent As my Wimsey Takes Me Antimatter Pod: https://antimatterpod.podbean.com  NEWS   Nebula finalists https://www.tor.com/2020/02/20/announcing-the-2019-nebula-awards-finalists/  Hugo noms are closing Tansy’s Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/castlecharming/castle-charming CULTURE CONSUMED:   Alisa: Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists, Jane Rawson; The City We Became, N K Jemisin (also her short story The City Born Great in How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?); Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist   Tansy: Birds of Prey (& Harley Quinn), Six the Musical (Sydney), Future culture: https://www.serialbox.com/serials/jessica-jones, Black Friday (StarKid)   Alex: For All Mankind, on Apple TV; Altered Carbon S2; Elysium, Jennifer Marie Brissett; Amelia Peabody (Elizabeth Peters) and Mary Russell (Laurie R King) Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!  

Breeze in the Boughs by Jennifer Marie BrissettSet in an unnamed neighborhood, squirrel finds that his neighbor has some disagreeable habits. He fears that they might bring trouble to the rest of the neighborhood and soon. If you would like to read along, you can find the story in Fiyah Lit Magazine issue three at FiyahLitMag.com. If you want to find out more about this week’s author, visit her website at jennbrissett.com. Support the podcast by visiting patron.com/talesfromablackuniverse.Follow atSoundcloud | Soundcloud.com/talesfromablackuniverseFacebook |Facebook.com/TalesfromablackuniverseTumblr |talesfromablackuniverse.tumblr.comTwitter| @TalesFromABlackUMusic Fireheart by J1*Support the show (http://patreon.com/talesfromablackuniverse)

Sharifah and Jenn discuss Starbucks secret menus, Octavia Butler opera, a possible new Merlin series, and small press sci-fi and fantasy. This episode is sponsored by Heart on Fire by Amanda Bouchet and The Night Market by Jonathan Moore.   News Harry Potter Starbucks secret menu! Parable of the Sower becomes an opera Gritty Robin Hood movie coming Ridley Scott in talks to direct Merlin origin story for Disney   Books Discussed An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, Akashic Press Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett, Aqueduct Press Djinn City by Saad Hossain, Unnamed Press Small Beer Press, Sofia Samatar (A Stranger in Olondria, Winged Histories, Tender: Stories) Falling in Love With Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson, Tachyon MEM by Bethany C. Morrow, Unnamed Press, May 22, 2018 In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan, Big Mouth House (Small Beer Press imprint)

The following audio was recorded live at the KGB bar on October 18, 2017, with guests James Patrick Kelly & Jennifer Marie Brissett.  Thanks as always to Gordon Linzner for providing the audio recording.   James Patrick Kelly James Patrick Kelly has won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. His most recent publications are the […]

Jennifer Marie Brissett‘s first novel, Elysium, or the World After (Aqueduct Press, 2014), portrays a fractured world, one whose seemingly irreversible destruction does nothing to dampen the survivors’ collective will to live. Brissett showed similar determination in writing the book, whose non-traditional structure places it outside the mainstream. Fortunately, her approach has been validated, first by her teachers at Stonecoast Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine, where she wrote Elysium as her final thesis, and later by the committee that selected Elysium as one of six nominees for the Philip K. Dick Award. (The winner will be announced April 3). “I wasn’t sure there was a space for me in this writing world. And to a certain degree I still sort of wonder. But the idea that I could write and that my stories are worthy of being told was something [Stonecoast] really helped to foster in me,” Brissett says in her New Books interview. In some respects, Elysium is simple: it tells a story of love and loss between two people. But Elysium is also complicated because those two people morph from scene to scene, changing from two brothers to father/daughter to husband/wife to boyfriend/boyfriend to girlfriend/girlfriend. When imagining the future, conventional science fiction often focuses too much on gadgets and not enough on people, Brissett says. “We think [science fiction] is about … the new machines we’ll have, the little gadgets that will make our lives easier … but I think the civil rights movement is one of the most science-fictional things that could have probably happened, because all of a sudden this entire group of people that was totally ignored showed up at the table and said ‘We want in.'” As a child, Brissett found the Wonder Bread future depicted in The Jetsons frightening. “I remember watching as a kid the Jetsons and thinking ‘That is an absolutely terrifying vision of the future. Where are all the black people?'” she says. “The future belongs to everybody. It doesn’t really belong to any one group. And yet when you see visions of the future, it’s usually mostly white heterosexual people wandering around.” In the early 2000s, Brissett owned an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she experienced the publishing industry’s struggles firsthand. Rather that discourage her from becoming a writer herself, the experience seems to have solidified her desire to tell stories in the way she wants to tell them. “You have to love this field to be here. If you’re here for money, you are certifiably crazy,” she says. Spoiler Alert From 6:45 to 10:24 we talk about a major part of the plot, which is revealed on the book jacket but isn’t explained until near the end of the book. Listeners might want to skip this part (and not read the jacket copy) if they want to approach the story as a mystery whose answer lies in the book’s structure. Related Links * Elysium was inspired, in part, by Roman Emperor Hadrian’s love of Antinous. * Brissett mentions her recently deceased friend, the writer Eugie Foster. * She also mentions a number of her teachers, including Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Marie Brissett‘s first novel, Elysium, or the World After (Aqueduct Press, 2014), portrays a fractured world, one whose seemingly irreversible destruction does nothing to dampen the survivors’ collective will to live. Brissett showed similar determination in writing the book, whose non-traditional structure places it outside the mainstream. Fortunately, her approach has been validated, first by her teachers at Stonecoast Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine, where she wrote Elysium as her final thesis, and later by the committee that selected Elysium as one of six nominees for the Philip K. Dick Award. (The winner will be announced April 3). “I wasn’t sure there was a space for me in this writing world. And to a certain degree I still sort of wonder. But the idea that I could write and that my stories are worthy of being told was something [Stonecoast] really helped to foster in me,” Brissett says in her New Books interview. In some respects, Elysium is simple: it tells a story of love and loss between two people. But Elysium is also complicated because those two people morph from scene to scene, changing from two brothers to father/daughter to husband/wife to boyfriend/boyfriend to girlfriend/girlfriend. When imagining the future, conventional science fiction often focuses too much on gadgets and not enough on people, Brissett says. “We think [science fiction] is about … the new machines we’ll have, the little gadgets that will make our lives easier … but I think the civil rights movement is one of the most science-fictional things that could have probably happened, because all of a sudden this entire group of people that was totally ignored showed up at the table and said ‘We want in.'” As a child, Brissett found the Wonder Bread future depicted in The Jetsons frightening. “I remember watching as a kid the Jetsons and thinking ‘That is an absolutely terrifying vision of the future. Where are all the black people?'” she says. “The future belongs to everybody. It doesn’t really belong to any one group. And yet when you see visions of the future, it’s usually mostly white heterosexual people wandering around.” In the early 2000s, Brissett owned an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she experienced the publishing industry’s struggles firsthand. Rather that discourage her from becoming a writer herself, the experience seems to have solidified her desire to tell stories in the way she wants to tell them. “You have to love this field to be here. If you’re here for money, you are certifiably crazy,” she says. Spoiler Alert From 6:45 to 10:24 we talk about a major part of the plot, which is revealed on the book jacket but isn’t explained until near the end of the book. Listeners might want to skip this part (and not read the jacket copy) if they want to approach the story as a mystery whose answer lies in the book’s structure. Related Links * Elysium was inspired, in part, by Roman Emperor Hadrian’s love of Antinous. * Brissett mentions her recently deceased friend, the writer Eugie Foster. * She also mentions a number of her teachers, including Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Marie Brissett‘s first novel, Elysium, or the World After (Aqueduct Press, 2014), portrays a fractured world, one whose seemingly irreversible destruction does nothing to dampen the survivors’ collective will to live. Brissett showed similar determination in writing the book, whose non-traditional structure places it outside the mainstream. Fortunately, her approach has been validated, first by her teachers at Stonecoast Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine, where she wrote Elysium as her final thesis, and later by the committee that selected Elysium as one of six nominees for the Philip K. Dick Award. (The winner will be announced April 3). “I wasn’t sure there was a space for me in this writing world. And to a certain degree I still sort of wonder. But the idea that I could write and that my stories are worthy of being told was something [Stonecoast] really helped to foster in me,” Brissett says in her New Books interview. In some respects, Elysium is simple: it tells a story of love and loss between two people. But Elysium is also complicated because those two people morph from scene to scene, changing from two brothers to father/daughter to husband/wife to boyfriend/boyfriend to girlfriend/girlfriend. When imagining the future, conventional science fiction often focuses too much on gadgets and not enough on people, Brissett says. “We think [science fiction] is about … the new machines we’ll have, the little gadgets that will make our lives easier … but I think the civil rights movement is one of the most science-fictional things that could have probably happened, because all of a sudden this entire group of people that was totally ignored showed up at the table and said ‘We want in.'” As a child, Brissett found the Wonder Bread future depicted in The Jetsons frightening. “I remember watching as a kid the Jetsons and thinking ‘That is an absolutely terrifying vision of the future. Where are all the black people?'” she says. “The future belongs to everybody. It doesn’t really belong to any one group. And yet when you see visions of the future, it’s usually mostly white heterosexual people wandering around.” In the early 2000s, Brissett owned an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she experienced the publishing industry’s struggles firsthand. Rather that discourage her from becoming a writer herself, the experience seems to have solidified her desire to tell stories in the way she wants to tell them. “You have to love this field to be here. If you’re here for money, you are certifiably crazy,” she says. Spoiler Alert From 6:45 to 10:24 we talk about a major part of the plot, which is revealed on the book jacket but isn’t explained until near the end of the book. Listeners might want to skip this part (and not read the jacket copy) if they want to approach the story as a mystery whose answer lies in the book’s structure. Related Links * Elysium was inspired, in part, by Roman Emperor Hadrian’s love of Antinous. * Brissett mentions her recently deceased friend, the writer Eugie Foster. * She also mentions a number of her teachers, including Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices