2020 in Review: Fragments from a Fragmentary Reading List by John Langan locusmag.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from locusmag.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
I was on not one but
two award juries in 2020. I told myself it was reasonable because there was a lot of overlap in the potential nominee pools, so it wouldn’t be
that much extra reading. I didn’t count on 2020 being a year of unusual strain and psychic deterioration, which increased the difficulty of reading, thinking, making critical judgments, and really doing anything that required executive function. Still, I got through my mountains of books, and even found some comfort (or, at least, distraction) there. I’ll highlight ten of my favorites.
The best book of the year for me was
Locus magazine’s February 2021 issue, the list is a consensus by the
Locus editors, columnists, outside reviewers, and other professionals and critics of genre fiction and non-fiction editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi; reviews editor Jonathan Strahan;
Locus reviewers Liz Bourke, Alex Brown, Karen Burnham, Katharine Coldiron, Paul Di Filippo, Amy Goldschlager
, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, Maya James, John Langan, Russell Letson, Adrienne Martini, Ian Mond, Colleen Mondor, Tim Pratt, Elsa Sjunneson, Gary K. Wolfe, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; Bob Blough; critics and authors Gwenda Bond, James Bradley, Niall Harrison, Paul Kincaid, Cheryl Morgan, Adam Roberts, and Graham Sleight. Art books were compiled with help from Arnie Fenner, Karen Haber, and senior editor Francesca Myman. Short fiction recommendations had input from editors and reviewers Rachel S. Cordasco, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Vanessa Fogg, Maria Haskins, Charles Payseur, Nisi Shawl, TG Shenoy, Sheree Renée Thomas, Sea
Fall 2020 brought a new online magazine, a new print periodical, and the return of a digital magazine.
Baffling launched October 1, 2020 with four “unapologetically queer and unashamedly weird” stories of under 1,200 words. (Going forward they will publish one flash story a month on Patreon, compile the offerings quarterly, then publish that for free online.)
Baffling #1 offers a welcome glimpse of
Jewelle Gomez‘s vampire Gilda in the future with “
Merida, Yucatan: 2060” and a terrifying tale of suburban wildlife in “
Velvet” by
From the Deep, the Music Rises” by
Izzy Wasserstein and
Cellars, Caskets, and Closets“, a story of madness.
Weird Horror #1 also debuted in October. It is a handsome new print periodical featuring “pulpy dark fiction in the weird fiction and horror genres” with plans to publish twice yearly. The inaugural issue is something of a mixed bag. “
Company news: Barclay Damon law firm announces new managing partner, other changes
Updated Jan 07, 2021;
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Barclay Damon announced
Connie Cahill has been elected managing partner of the law firm’s 475-person organization, a full-service firm with offices in the Northeastern United States and a particular focus on energy, intellectual property, labor and employment, and health care.
She began a three-year position as deputy managing partner in 2018 to prepare for the transition to managing partner. She is the first woman to lead the organization in its 165-plus-year history.
Cahill joined
Hiscock & Barclay now Barclay Damon in 2006 as the firm’s public finance practice area co-chair and became the sole chair in 2018. Cahill also has held positions as the firm’s financial services practice group leader and Albany office managing director.