Marisca Pichette’s Shelfie
As a collector of oddities, my bookshelf has just as many objects as stories. Is it cluttered? Yes. Is it difficult to access and in need of better organization? Probably. Is it nice to look at? To me — absolutely.
Starting with the top shelf, my triple stacks of contributor copies! Here lie many magazines, anthologies, and collections I've had the privilege to be part of over the years. Poems, essays, and short fiction dominate this shelf, guarded by a row of mushrooms, curios, and the all-important bookmark cup, sculpted and fired for me by a friend. Every time I begin a new read, I carefully select a bookmark from this cup that matches the cover art, genre, or general vibes of the book. I'm sure I'm not the only one with this ritual. My bookmarks are regularly refreshed as I bring back conquests from conferences, bookstores, and travels across the country and the world.
On to shelf two: reference books, art books, journals, and more trinkets galore! This is perhaps the messiest shelf. Please excuse the disorganization, if you can. One highlight here is the heralded inspiration for myself and so many fantasy writers who've come before: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I don't need to describe this one, as the story is well-trod. For me, the best part of this novel is not the plot or the characters, but the lush world and deep lore. I just want to exist here, perusing the appendices like a scholar in study. It seems most at home with the mystical nonfiction on shelf two.
On the third shelf, we come at last to novels, poetry collections, and more. Here I am honored to hold books by my friends.
The Man in the Banana Trees by Marguerite Sheffer is the greatest collection of short fiction I've had the immense pleasure to read. I devoured this book and I would encourage anyone to do the same. Each piece is exquisite, crystalline, writhing with emotion and possibility. A joy from beginning to end.
Nestled alongside Marguerite's stories is Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe by Emma Törzs. Dark fantasy at its finest, equal parts thrilling and comforting, and what author can resist a plot that revolves around magical books written in blood?
Moving down the line, two novellas by more friends: Lovely Creatures by KT Bryski and Countess by Suzan Palumbo. If you have a passion for fraught narratives centering queerness, the surreal, and a desperate struggle against oppression--and not much time--these novellas are for you.
Wrapping up the tour with an acknowledgement that yes, there's a second copy of The Lord of the Rings on this shelf. As its battered spine suggests (beside the similarly battered Silmarillion and my French edition of Bilbo le hobbit), this is my reading copy, which has made the journey across the Atlantic and back on vacations past.
Beloved childhood tales therefore make their home alongside cherished work by friends and artists I encountered later in life. I wish I had the space to celebrate all these books, but I'll settle for a list of authors I hope everyone has the good fortune to experience: Sir Terry Pratchett, Dyani Sabin, Sienna Tristen, Becky Chambers, Corey Farrenkopf, and many, many more.
I bid you farewell and happy reading!
Marisca Pichette works in speculative and literary fiction, poetry, and essay. Her writing has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Pushcart, Best of the Net, Rhysling, Utopia, and Dwarf Stars awards. Straying from fairy tale to horror to the in-between, her work investigates queerness and marginalized identity - often involving monsters.
Marisca's Bram Stoker and Elgin Award-nominated poetry collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, was published by Android Press. Their debut novella, Every Dark Cloud, is out now from Ghost Orchid Press. Her short story “Her Finished Wings” appears in The Elements of Dark Academia.
Shelfies is edited by Lavie Tidhar and Jared Shurin.
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