Dispatches from Anarres
Available via > Powell's > Bookshop > Indiebound > Amazon
A finalist for the Foreword INDIES
A Powell's "Picks of the Season"
Named for the anarchist utopia in Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction classic The Dispossessed, Dispatches from Anarres embodies the anarchic spirit of Portland, Oregon, Le Guin’s hometown, while paying tribute to her enduring vision.
Fonda Lee’s “Old Souls” explores the role of violence and redemption across time and space; Rachael K. Jones’s “The Night Bazaar for Women Turning into Reptiles” touches on gender oppression and a woman’s right to choose; Molly Gloss’s “Wenonah’s Gift” imagines coming-of-age in a post-collapse culture determined to avoid past wrongs; and Lidia Yuknavitch’s “Neuron” reveals that fairy tales may, in fact, be the best way to understand the paradoxes of science. Other contributors include Curtis Chen, Kesha Ajọsẹ-Fisher, Juhea Kim, Tina Connolly, David D. Levine, Leni Zumas, Rene Denfeld, and Michelle Ruiz Keil, with a foreword by David Naimon, co-author (with Le Guin) of Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing. In stories that range from fantasy to sci fi to realism, some of Portland’s most vital voices have come together to celebrate Ursula K. Le Guin’s lasting legacy and influence on that most subversive of human faculties: the imagination.
"DeFreitas collects 31 impressive stories to honor Ursula K. Le Guin’s legacy.…Speculative fiction readers will find much to enjoy in this well-crafted celebration."
"Ursula K. Le Guin never inspired others to write like her; she inspired them to find their own imaginative powers. These deeply original stories are the result: magical, moral, wise, beautiful, and full of surprises."
—Julie Phillips, authorized Le Guin biographer and author of The Baby on the Fire Escape: Motherhood, Creativity, and the Mind-Baby Problem
"This anthology lights many fires from the brightly burning torch of Le Guin's timeless science fiction."
—Meg Elison, author of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
"From the whimsical to the political, these Portland writers' magical imaginations and commitment to social justice shine through on every page."
—Ariel Gore, author of Hexing the Patriarchy
"Each story is its own magical offering to be scooped up and savored by readers."
—Annie Carl, bookseller, The Neverending Bookshop
HOT SEASON
Winner of the 2017 Gold Independent Publishers Association (IPPY) Award for Best Fiction of the Mountain-West.
Available via > Powell's> Indiebound >Amazon >Barnes & Noble
Recommended by Get Booked, the personalized book recommendation podcast from BookRiot.
An outlaw activist on the run. A pipeline set to destroy a river. And three young women who must decide who to love, who to trust, and what to sacrifice for the greater good.
Based in part on real events in the Northwest and the Southwest in the early Nineties and mid-Aughts, Hot Season explores what Oregon Book Award Winner Cari Luna called “the charged terrain where the youthful search for identity meets the romantic, illicit lure of direct action.”
"From Franzen on down, activist lit is so hot right now. Portland’s Susan DeFreitas gets it right."
—The Portland Mercury
“A brisk read with a potent mix of wit and edge.”
—Arizona Daily Sun
"[A] really fun read with a complex political issue interwoven into its narrative of three young women, and all in the span of 200 pages—as if Donna Tartt had been edited by Gordon Lish."
—Read It Forward
"Hot Season is both relevant and prophetic, given how recently, shockingly more perilous our world has become."
—Huffington Post Books
"A stunning book, choked with the beauty of the natural world and our conflicts of how to manage both it and our desires."
—Rene Denfeld, author of The Enchanted
"Literature not only deploys the lexicon of empathy, but is quite possibly one of the few languages left that can still interrupt monostories of power. As far as examples go, Hot Season is fucking fantastic."
—Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan
"In Susan DeFreitas's riveting debut, the desert landscape looms large over the dreams and desires of three friends contending with big questions—such as who to love, who to trust, and what to sacrifice for the greater good. A tale of youth, lust, and activism, Hot Season is a beguiling college novel in the tradition of The Secret History."
—Mo Daviau, author of Every Anxious Wave
"The characters of Susan DeFreitas’s exuberant new novel populate the American Southwest with wit and pathos. Half collegiate romp and half impassioned plea, Hot Season is a heartfelt debut that will grip readers with the fervor of first love."
—Jamie Duclos-Yourdon, author of Froelich's Ladder
"Susan DeFreitas’s powerful, timely novel asks big questions—not only about water rights and the importance of riparian corridors in the West, but about what it means to fight for the natural world. Young and idealistic, her characters are vulnerable, intricately rendered, and utterly engaging. Hot Season is a knockout."
—Michaela Carter, author of Further Out Than You Thought
"Steeped in a slow-boil sensuality and the wide-eyed innocence of the young, but also with the suspicion of the status quo, this examination of current climate fears is a must-read."
--Powell's Books, 2016 Staff Pick
"This is a striking story about living on the fringes and the difficulty of settling on an identity in that fluid moment of young adulthood when everything seems possible."
—Book Nudge (UK)
"Relavant to things that [we’re] are seeing in the news right now…digital privacy, and how the Patriot Act has affected people who are protesting and participating in politics.”
—BookRiot
"Enjoy the gorgeous prose and thought-provoking narrative in HOT SEASON, and wait for the next novel from this talented writer.”
—EcoLit Books
“DeFreitas gives us a moment on the timeline of our lives–when, over a four-year span, we grow from someone in search of an identity into fully formed humans with ideas, opinions, true friends and a wisdom often gleaned from our own stupidity.”
—Carmel Magazine
"A beautiful book that asks the crucial question, is it worse to destroy a dam or to destroy a river? Which is to say, how do we live our conscience on a crowded, corrupted planet? DeFreitas has captured what it means to be coming of age in a tangle of love, politics, and environmental degradation."
—Monica Drake, author of The Folly of Loving Life
"Hot Season, Susan DeFreitas’s finely wrought debut novel, explores the charged terrain where the youthful search for identity meets environmental activism and the romantic, illicit lure of direct action. A compelling book."
—Cari Luna, author of The Revolution of Every Day
"In Hot Season, Susan DeFreitas debuts a striking novel that reaches beyond its Southwestern landscape and touches on the universal. Her activist characters are driven equally—and compellingly—by their passions and their flaws, and the resulting narrative is one that’s lustful, political, tremendous fun, and unafraid of tackling difficult questions."
—Tracy Manaster, author of You Could Be Home by Now
"DeFreitas's voice is irresistible-funny and whip smart and dead-on. Come listen. -- David Long, author of The Inhabited World
