The Outspoken and the Incendiary: Interviews with Radical Speculative Fiction Writers

In-depth, intense, insightful.

For more than a decade, radical science fiction author and activist journalist Terry Bisson interviewed some of the most provocative and outspoken authors of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Anarchism, sexuality, creativity, and the future of humanity itself--no topic was taboo. Bisson's prankster spirit also shone through as he quizzed his subjects about what cars they drove, played free association games, and created an atmosphere of two old friends having intimate late-night chats. Collected from PM Press's award-winning Outspoken Authors series for the first time, The Outspoken and the Incendiary showcases insightful and long-form explorations into the lives and minds of some of today's most politically charged fiction writers.

"PM's Outspoken Authors series looks almost like a science fiction Who's Who or Hall of Fame, except that I included myself. Because I could." --Terry Bisson

Words and Thoughts By: Eleanor Arnason, Terry Bisson, Michael Blumlein, John Crowley, Samuel R. Delany, Cory Doctorow, Meg Elison, Karen Joy Fowler, Eileen Gunn, Elizabeth Hand, Cara Hoffman, Nalo Hopkinson, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Paul Krassner, Joe R. Lansdale, Jonathan Lethem, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ken MacLeod, Nick Mamatas, Michael Moorcock, Paul Park, Gary Phillips, Marge Piercy, Rachel Pollack, Rudy Rucker, Kim Stanley Robinson, Carter Scholz, Nisi Shawl, John Shirley, Vandana Singh, and Norman Spinrad, with additional new contributions by Nalo Hopkinson, Jonathan Lethem, Nisi Shawl, Peter Coyote, and Rudy Rucker.

Nalo Hopkinson is a Canadian, Jamaica-born, award-winning superstar of modern fantasy. She has edited and coedited several fantasy anthologies and taught at the Clarion workshops and other venues. She has won the Theodore Sturgeon Award, World Fantasy Award, Aurora Award, and the Sunburst Award (twice), among others. In 2020, Hopkinson was named the 37th Damon Knight Grand Master, in recognition of "lifetime achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy." Her Outspoken Authors book is Report from Planet Midnight.

Terry Bisson (1942-2024) was an author, editor, political activist, and friend to many. He was a Hugo and Nebula award-winning writer of seven novels, numerous short works of fiction, and over a dozen books for children and young adults. He was the author of On a Move: The Story of Mumia Abu Jamal and editor of PM Press's Outspoken Authors series. PM Press published his books TVA Baby, Fire on the Mountain, and The Left Left Behind. He also wrote the long-running "This Month in History" series for Locus. His radical politics landed him in jail for refusing to give testimony to a grand jury investigating the radical underground. He operated Jacobin Books, a "revolutionary" mail-order book service, from 1985 to 1990. He was as much an activist's activist as he was a literary powerhouse.

Jonathan Lethem is the author of The Fortress of Solitude, Brooklyn Crime Novel, and eleven other novels. His stories and essays have been collected in seven volumes. His Outspoken Authors book is The Collapsing Frontier.