Climbing Lightly Through Forests,
A Poetry Anthology Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin, Edited by R.B. Lemberg & Lisa M. Bradley
Aqueduct Press, January 2021
Ursula K. Le Guin, celebrated for her speculative fiction, was also a prolific poet. Although poetry framed Le Guin’s life, her poetic oeuvre never garnered the same acclaim as her fiction. Distinct from the cosmic worldbuilding of her science fiction and fantasy, Le Guin’s poems were “smaller scale, more intimate, more fragile.”
As a tribute anthology, Climbing Lightly Through Forests hosts multiple conversations: poets respond to Ursula K. Le Guin, her work, or their own reactions to Le Guin or her work; editors Lemberg and Bradley put the poets in conversation with each other and with readers. Poets from around the world contribute perspectives that both honor and challenge Le Guin’s legacy. In addition, Lemberg, a Le Guin Feminist Science Fiction Fellow, provides a retrospective essay analyzing Le Guin’s nine full-length poetry collections.
EXILE
Rosarium Publishing, June 2019
Twenty years ago, a toxic spill in the small Texas town of Exile poisoned residents with permanent rage. Now, only residents who pass the feds’ 4-S test can escape Exile’s heavily fortified borders. Heidi Palermo, unwilling medic to her family of bloodthirsty street warriors, has taken the test repeatedly, trying to prove she’s smart, strong, sterile, and sane. Three out of four ain’t bad, but the feds don’t grade on a curve.
“Exile is a thrilling adventure that snags the reader on page one and never lets up. Bradley offers sharp examinations of how our society forces marginalized people further into the margins, and the community and complex relationships within Exile are as gripping as the action sequences. Heidi is a fascinating narrator whose flaws and strengths are equally compelling. I’ve never read anything quite like this, and I loved every moment of it!”
–Julia Rios, editor, Fireside Magazine
“Taut and fast-paced, Exile sets you down in a chemical disaster zone that has become a petri dish for violence, sex, and sublimated dreams. Bradley’s characters struggle to define consent in a town where survival demands acquiescence and government interdiction kills hope. Sharp, smart and provocative, Exile grabs you from the first page and never lets go.”
–Sabrina Vourvoulias, author of Ink
The Haunted Girl,
Poetry and Short Stories
21 poems and 5 stories that explore the borders between dream and reality, horror and fantasy, past present future, this world and other realms.
Available as paperback and e-book from Aqueduct Press and Amazon.
Anthologies including my work
Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation — “Readers who’ve had their fill of dystopian fiction will want to explore these more positive futures.” —Publishers Weekly
Spelling the Hours: Poetry Celebrating the Forgotten Others of Science and Technology
Mythic Delirium Volume 1 — “Rich word choices and settings that blend speculative concepts with quotidian reality highlight this stellar anthology of prose and poetry from well-known editor Mike Allen (Clockwork Phoenix) and his wife and copublisher, Anita Allen … This anthology is a winner from cover to cover.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
Here, We Cross — 22 queer and genderfluid poems from the digital pages of Stone Telling magazine. This chapbook is a celebration of speculative poetry that is diverse and varied; here you will find poems with speakers or protagonists who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, genderqueer, trans*, asexual, and neutrois; speakers who struggle with the body and the society’s imposed readings of that body. It is a painful book, a triumphant book, full of works that soar and breathe and live. Just like us.
The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry
Fungi — A collection of fungal wonders…and terrors. In this new anthology, writers reach into the rich territory first explored by William Hope Hodgson a century ago: the land of the fungi. Japanese edition now available!
WisCon Chronicles 7: Shattering Ableist Narratives — In science fiction and fantasy, just as in the world we all inhabit, disability is often misunderstood, maligned, and disregarded…In the spirit of WisCon’s continuing mission to boldly go where no con has gone before in breaking down barriers, this volume seeks to smash ableist narratives that keep disabled people from full participation in the present we inhabit and the speculative futures we hope to create.
Journals and Introductions
Introduction to Poetry for Uncanny‘s special issue, “Disabled People Destroy Fantasy” (served as Poetry Editor)
Introduction to Algorithmic Shapeshifting by Bogi Takács, Aqueduct Press
Lisa M. Bradley 