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Carol Emshwiller Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories
August 2002, 193152002X, $16
Cover painting by Erica Harris.

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"Creature" won the 2002 Nebula

What if the world ended on your birthday -- and no one came? What if your grandmother was a superhero? What if the orphan you were raising was a top-secret weapon, looked like Godzilla, and loved singing nursery rhymes? What if poet laureates fought to the death, in stadiums? Emshwiller's previous books (Joy in Our Cause, Carmen Dog, Ledoyt, and others) have won her a devoted cult following. Her short fiction is about women and men, monsters, obsessions, art, and falling in love. She writes witty, humane, endearingly odd stories that play with all the genres and conventions you can put a name to -- science fiction, Western, romance, postmodern, tabloid, literary -- and some that haven't even been invented yet.

Suspect that life is much stranger than anyone ever admits? Buy this book. Unhappy in love? Buy this book. About to visit the dentist or embark on a long voyage? Buy this book. Troubled by dreams you can never quite remember in the morning? Buy this book. Love good short fiction? Buy this book.

• Read "Mrs. Jones"
• Read "Water Master"
• T-shirts, mugs, &c.

Nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award Locus 2002 Recommended Reading List Praise for Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories: "I cannot recommend this collection highly enough. Emshwiller proves over and over again why she should be venerated as the treasure she is: relationships, superheroes, sentient reptiles -- it's all in there, and she makes it all work." -- Peggy Hailey, Book People Carol Emshwiller's stories are wonder-filled, necessary, and beautifully crafted. It's a high pleasure indeed to see this new collection. -- Samuel R. Delany, author of Dhalgren I am disappointed by these stories. Disappointed that they have not (yet) won Emshwiller the Pulitzer she deserves as our premier magic realist. Disappointed that their sly and scary intimacy has not (yet) altered the tone of all science fiction for the better. Disappointed that she wrote them, not I. --Terry Bisson, author of The Pickup Artist Carol Emshwiller makes fiction out of the stuff of our everyday lives; about moms and memory and monsters that end up as familiar as Border Collies. She's deceptively deft, full of strange things that end up feeling as familiar as your own kitchen. --Maureen F. McHugh, author of Nekropolis I read one of the stories in Carol Emshwiller's new collection, Report to the Men's Club, in progress several years ago and have thought about it ever since. I could even quote you lines! And now, having read the rest of the elegant, complex, insightful stories, I know she's done the same thing to me again eighteen times over! Emshwiller knows more about men and mortality and love and loss and writing and life than anybody on the planet! Dazzling, dangerous, devastating writer! Unforgettable (and I mean that literally!) collection! Wow! Wow! Wow! --Connie Willis, author of Passage Cover art by Erica Harris Click here for a Larger image

Table of Contents Grandma The Paganini of Jacob's Gully Modillion Mrs. Jones Acceptance Speech One Part of the Self is Always Tall and Dark Foster Mother Creature The Project It Comes from Deep Inside Prejudice and Pride Report to the Men's Club Overlooking Water Master Abominable Desert Child Venus Rising Nose After All

Carol Emshwiller's stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Century, Scifiction, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, The Voice Literary Supplement, Omni, Crank!, Confrontation, and many other places.

Carol's three previous collections are The Start of the End of it All, Verging on the Pertinent, and Joy in Our Cause.

Strange Horizons recently devoted a special issue to Carol Emshwiller in which they posted an interview, "The Circular Library of Stones," and a review of Ledoyt by Ursula K. Le Guin.

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