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The Webworld of Writer Leslie What
Storytime
a list of my life in lettersStorytime
Here's what people say about my work:
Crazy Love,
Stories by Leslie What
with an introduction by Kate WilhelmCrazy Love,
Stories by Leslie What
ISBN 978-1-877655-59-3
coming July 2008 from Wordcraft of Oregon
"Queen of Gonzo" What (Olympic Games) drags love out of its gooey, schmaltzy rut and takes it for a joyride in this exuberant collection of 17 stories. "Finger Talk" is a poignant take on unwanted pregnancy and cavalier men. "Babies" gives a Kafkaesque touch to a pregnancy that may or may not have been affected by pesticides during the first trimester. "All My Children" asks whether the provider of a sperm sample is legally responsible for the children that come from its use - and if he is, how does he pay for 10,000 college tuition fees? The 1999 Nebula-winning "The Cost of Doing Business" posits possibly the most incredible premise in the book: a love for others that is completely selfless and nonjudgmental. No matter how brief or long, no matter how bizarre, each tale in this collection grabs readers and demands they rethink how they see all the myriad forms of love.~ Publishers Weekly starred review 05/12/08
"Crazy Love is crazy good! Leslie What's brain is evidently crowded with strangeness, awfulness, wonderfulness, wildness, madness of all kinds...and love. Lots of love. How lucky we are that her imagination runs deep, runs true, runs onto the page in crazily beautiful stories - and lucky, so very lucky, to be holding those stories right now in our hands."
~ Molly Gloss
"If unbearable guilt makes you wish to suffer vicariously, and professionally, for others; if you suddenly find yourself the father of thousands and thousands of children; if your ambition is to occupy the Chair of Hermit Studies at the University of Oregon, or to be a ghost in a hot-air balloon, or if you have considered wearing a gorilla mask while having an abortion - Crazy Love is your operating manual. These seventeen achingly funny and hilariously sad stories will give you invaluable advice on how to love, how to be crazy, how to be human.""At times deeply emotional and mature but also clever and entertaining, Leslie What's short fiction always come from the heart. A collection from her can only be a cause for celebration."
~ Ursula K. Le Guin"Classic Leslie What!"
~ William Sullivan"Leslie What finds a surreal joy in the most awful things that can happen."
~ Eileen Gunn~ Jeff VanderMeerCover art by Jessica Plattner
Cover design by Kristin Summers, redbat design
Post hoc
"Surrealism - or perhaps I should call it surreality - of one sort or another is also an element that permeates this collection. It seems sometimes to be a matter of style more than substance, seemingly mismatched images veering close to word salad (and also close to preciosity), but never quite going over the edge. More interesting are those in which the surreal quality is foundational, such as Leslie What's amazing and completely engaging "Post Hoc," in which a pregnant woman, trying to mail herself to her lover, winds up living in the post office.
~ Robert M. Tilendis, Rambles.net
"This very funny fantasy
is especially impressive in the way it turns serious and genuinely
moving in
its final pages."
"Leslie What's stories
have the power to strike an emotional chord in me, and whether
that chord
summons tears or laughter it is deeply satisfying."
"Leslie
What's Things the Mirror Sees does what speculative fiction
ought to do;
it provides us with a wonderful piece of alien viewpoint. The true
and best
piece of speculative fiction is changing the nature or perception by
giving us
something new or truly marvelous to consider."
"What do you mean you don't like
tongue? You loved tongue. You used to eat it all up. Don't tell
stories."
Leslie's writing has been translated into German, Italian, French,
Japanese, Russian, Greek, and Klingon.
A
normal
family out for a walk.
First came
love, then came marriage, then two babies, a mini-van, and lots of
stories.
Updated May
2008 Website gltiches?
Please tell the site
genie.
The Sweet and Sour
Tongue
"Her ingenious whimsey takes her tales to a whole
other level
of sublime
metaphor and surreality."
~ Publishers Weekly
Olympic Games
"This
is a wonderful novel; it may well become a cult classic."
~ Elizabeth
Hand
~ Michael Berry, San Francisco Chronicle
Why I Wash the
Dead
"A powerful, lean, direct, taut, sinewy, substantive, holy,
prayerful piece
of work that matters."
~ Brian
Doyle
Other Stuff
"Over the past few years I
have been watching Leslie What blossom from a nice little comic
talent into a
great big scary comic talent."
~ Damon Knight
~ Kate Wilhelm
~ Don Webb
~ Leslie's Mom
Mask by Leslie What, Knitting by Leslie's mom.
Say Hello on my Blog
Contents
copyright 2002-2008 by Leslie What. All rights reserved,
but you can
ask.