London-born Jenn Brissett is one of those classic overnight success stories who was decades in the making. Her first novel, Elysium: Or, The World After, was the runner-up for the 2015 Philip K. Dick Award and a finalist for the 2015 Locus Best First Novel Award. She’s currently completing the sequel called Eleusis and has had stories published in The Best of Halfway Down the Stairs.

She has a Master degree in Creative Writing specialising in Speculative Fiction, and also an Electrical Engineering degree with a concentration in Visual Art. Prior to winning literary accolades, she owned and ran Indigo Café & Books in Brooklyn.

In today’s MF GALAXY, we discuss:

• Her strategies for creating intimacy for readers
• How, why, and where she takes careful observation of her fellow New Yorkers
• Why she uses analogue methods in a digital age for editing her work
• Her take on using the five senses and, yes, extra senses, in order to make her work the best it can be, and
• How to defeat imposter syndrome

And along the way, Brissett cites fantasy author David Anthony Durham.

She and I spoke on July 22, 2016 by Skype, and we began by discussing which teacher had such a huge impact on her, and why.

 

jennbrissett.com

 

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