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Monday, December 12, 2022

The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2022

 Our annual Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening series will begin tomorrow. 2022, that is to say, is nearly over. For me, it went by fast. In some ways, I experienced it as more of the same as the previous year. COVID19 is still here, extremities in weather continue to ramp up, the line between politics and ethics has become even more blurred, and the right-wing's war on women an the non-cisgendered has inflicted significant damage with a promise of even worse to come. & yet, the struggle continues, especially in our youngest generations, and I'm hopeful for the changes I'm seeing in the way we're thinking about the world.

As a writer, critic, and publisher, I'm dismayed that so many people I know tell me they don't have what it takes to read novels any longer--even when they themselves are continuing to write them. Still, our aesthetic pleasures can take many forms, whether stimulating or comforting, and continue to nourish our moral imaginations. For me, this is always a reason for hope, however thoroughly entangled with our neoliberal economy they may be.

This series in past years has shown, repeatedly, that reading, viewing, and listening pleasures vary widely. (Another reason for hope!) I'm pleased to announce that this blog's annual series of posts on reading, viewing, and listening is about to begin. Once again I've solicited pieces from a bevy of writers and critics to tell us what they particularly enjoyed reading, viewing, and listening to in the last year. This year's edition will include posts by Eleanor Arnason, Andrea Hairston, Lisa Tuttle, Christopher Brown, Nisi Shawl, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Cheryl Morgan, and others. As usual, I'll be adding links below as I upload each new contribution, to provide a list for convenient reference. 

I hope you'll enjoy reading these as much as I have, and that they'll swell the presumably always growing list of titles you want to read. Sometimes it seems that the volume of books published is so tremendous that it's no surprise that really wonderful work often slips below one's personal radar. 

1. Octavia Cade

2. Eleanor Arnason

3. Xian Mao

4. Erin K. Wagner 

5. Tara Campbell

6. Suzy McKee Charnas  

7. Elizabeth Clark-Stern

8. Tansy Rayner Roberts

9. Lisa Tuttle  

10. Gwynne Garfinkle

11. Lesley Wheeler

12. Holly Wade Matter  

13. Susan diRende

14. Sheila Finch

 15. Nisi Shawl

16. Caren Gussoff Sumption

17. Mark Rich  

18. Cheryl Morgan

19. LaToya Jordan

20. Sarah Tolmie

21. Andrea Hairston

22. Lynne Jensen Lampe  

23. Isabel Schechter

24. Christopher Brown

25. Cesi Davidson 

26. Jaymee Goh

27. Nancy Jane Moore

28. Christina M. Rau  

29. Lesley A. Hall

30. Rosanne Rabinowitz

31. Ritch Calvin  

32. Arrate Hidalgo

33. Kiini Ibura Salaam

34. Cynthia Ward


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