Become a Member

Slipstream? Conceptual Fiction? _______?

By

Seth Fischer

•

“I realized that if I could write a book with a monster in it, I could enjoy writing again.”

— From Victor LaValle, in an article at Techland in which Lev Grossman asks what we should call the emerging genre that combines literary fiction and fantasy. (via)

Some have called it slipstream. Others call it conceptual fiction. What do you think? Is there a better name for this?

SHARE

IG

FB

BSKY

TH

Seth Fischer
Seth Fischer’s writing has twice been listed as notable in The Best American Essays and has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize by several publications, including Guernica. He was the founding Sunday editor at The Rumpus and is the current nonfiction editor at The Nervous Breakdown. He is a Dornsife PhD Fellow at USC and been awarded fellowships and residencies by Ucross, Lambda Literary, Jentel, Ragdale, and elsewhere, and he teaches at the UCLA-Extension Writer’s Program and Antioch University, where he received his MFA.

2 responses

  1. Grant Avatar
    Grant

    Whatever else it might be called, I believe that the few examples given–LaValle and Grossman–bring a real dystopian slant.

  2. Shya Avatar
    Shya

    Slipstream is nice because it’s kind of catchy. New Wave Fabulism is another one that’s been used. It sounds authoritative, but it’s a mouthful.

Click here to subscribe today and leave your comment.

You May Also Like