Carmen Maria Machado

In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store's prom dresses. One woman's surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella Especially Heinous, Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naively assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgangers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes. Earthy and otherworldly, antic and sexy, queer and caustic, comic and deadly serious, Her Body and Other Parties swings from horrific violence to the most exquisite sentiment. In their explosive originality, these stories enlarge the possibilities of contemporary fiction. The husband stitch -- Inventory -- Mothers -- Especially heinous -- Real women have bodies -- Eight bites -- The resident -- Difficult at parties

When your memories are stolen, what would you give to remember? Follow El and Vee as they search for answers to the questions everyone else forgot. Shudder-to-Think, Pennsylvania, is plagued by a mysterious illness that eats away at the memories of those affected by it. El and Octavia are two best friends who find themselves the newest victims of this disease after waking up in a movie theater with no memory of the past few hours. As El and Vee dive deeper into the mystery behind their lost memories, they realize the stories of their town hold more dark truth than they could've imagined. It's up to El and Vee to keep their town from falling apart...to keep the world safe from Shudder-to-Think's monsters. Collects issues # 1-6.

This omnivorous selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and World Fantasy Award finalist Carmen Maria Machado is a display of the most boundary-pushing, genre-blurring, stylistically singular science fiction and fantasy stories published in the last year. By sending us to alternate universes and chronicling ordinary magic, introducing us to mythical beasts and talking animals, and engaging with a wide spectrum of emotion from tenderness to fear, each of these stories challenge the way we see our place in the cosmos. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 represents a wide range of the most accomplished voices working in science fiction and fantasy, in fiction, today—each story dazzles with ambition, striking prose, and the promise of the other and the unencountered.

What do children know that adults can’t begin to believe? The answer is hidden in plain sight in this haunting short story by the bestselling author of Her Body and Other Parties. Tiger, tiger, burning bright, in the forests of the night. In the town of Never-Again, Pennsylvania, this hand-game song contains a history—centuries of inexplicable tiger sightings. A researcher arrives to write yet another academic paper about the well-studied town, called “Big Cats in the Children’s Hand-Games of Never-Again, Pennsylvania.” Nobody expects to find new clues—but, years after a scene of unimaginable violence, the truth about this childish chant is about to come out. Carmen Maria Machado’s Bloody Summer is part of Trespass, a collection of wild stories about animal instincts, human folly, and survival from award-winning, bestselling authors. Read or listen to each in a single sitting.

For years Carmen Maria Machado has struggled to articulate her experiences in an abusive same-sex relationship. In this extraordinarily candid and radically inventive memoir, Machado tackles a dark and difficult subject with wit, inventiveness and an inquiring spirit, as she uses a series of narrative tropes—including classic horror themes—to create an entirely unique piece of work which is destined to become an instant classic.

El testimonio personal de una historia de abusos en el marco de una relación lésbica relatado con un estimulante virtuosismo literario. Cuando era una joven aspirante a escritora, Carmen Maria Machado conoció a una chica menuda, rubia, de clase alta, licenciada en Harvard, sofisticada y fascinante, con la que inició su primera relación lésbica, después de varias experiencias sexuales con hombres. La chica poseía una idílica cabaña en Bloomington, que es la casa de los sueños del título. Pero los sueños se convierten en pesadillas cuando la novia de Machado empieza a mostrarse celosa, controladora y paranoica, para acusarla de engañarla con todo el mundo y acabar agrediéndola verbal e incluso físicamente. El libro es el testimonio de una relación tóxica, en el que además la autora juega con los géneros narrativos –la novela romántica, la erótica, la de iniciación, la de terror...–, lo cual le permite contar su historia y reflexionar a la vez sobre cómo contamos nuestras historias.

«As mulheres reais têm corpo.» Uma mulher recusa deixar o marido tirar-lhe o misterioso laço verde que ela traz ao pescoço, é um pedaço sagrado, inviolável, de si e ninguém pode tocar-lhe. Outra mulher, isolada numa ilha enquanto uma praga aniquiladora se espalha pela Terra, lista os seus encontros sexuais ao longo da vida, tentando identificar aquele que a condenou. Há ainda uma outra epidemia que torna invisíveis algumas mulheres (sobretudo as jovens e bonitas), que depois reaparecem numa loja de vestidos num centro comercial, assombrando a empregada de balcão. As narrativas destas páginas combinam realidade e cultura popular com mito, folclore e fábula, e assim desafiam fronteiras, questionam o género como identidade, e pelo caminho contribuem para mapear a vida das mulheres, a sua força e vulnerabilidade, os seus apetites e compulsões, as suas transgressões e agressões. Histórias terrenas e surreais, excêntricas e sensuais, alegres e cáusticas, cómicas e profundamente sérias, em que o corpo pode ser inconsequente, os humanos podem ser monstros, e a raiva pode ser erótica. O corpo dela e outras partes é uma visão simultaneamente sombria e luminosa, simples e extravagante, sobre o mundo no feminino, estendendo ao leitor um espelho ligeiramente distorcido do seu mundo e um convite a repensar o seu lugar nele. Finalista do prestigiado National Book Award, O corpo dela e outras partes foi um dos livros-sensação do último ano e anuncia uma das mais promissoras novas vozes da literatura americana.

Carmen Maria Machado racconta lo smarrimento e la solitudine di trovarsi in una relazione segnata dall’abuso psicologico, e allo stesso tempo ci consegna, oltre a una toccante autobiografia, una profonda riflessione sulla scrittura e sulla natura stessa del memoir. Per analizzare il suo rapporto con una donna bella e carismatica, ma anche instabile e violenta, e capire come quello che le è successo l’abbia plasmata nella persona che è ora, Machado attinge a piene mani da numerosi generi letterari e dalla cultura pop. Capitolo dopo capitolo siamo trasportati dalla casa stregata al bildungsroman, dal noir alla novella picaresca, da Čechov alle fiabe, da Star Trek ai cattivi della Disney, in un tour de force sul trauma e sulla sua elaborazione che smantella lo stereotipo dell’idilliaca relazione tra donne. Al centro di tutto la casa dei sogni, il simbolo di ciò che poteva essere e non è stato.

«Αν το χρειάζεσαι, τότε αυτό το βιβλίο είναι για σένα.» Το Σπίτι των Ονείρων είναι η παθιασμένη ερωτική ιστορία, η κοινή ζωή, η πνευματική και σωματική σύνδεση δύο γυναικών, που σταδιακά μετατρέπεται σε φυλακή και σε εφιάλτη. Η Κάρμεν Μαρία Ματσάδο αφηγείται την κακοποιητική σχέση που βίωσε, από την ενθουσιώδη αρχή της μέχρι το επώδυνο τέλος της, προσπαθώντας να κατανοήσει αυτό που της συμβαίνει και αναζητώντας μια έξοδο διαφυγής. Περιγράφει την τρυφερότητα και την ένταση, τις αυταπάτες και το ψέμα, την αίσθηση της μοναδικότητας και της κοινοτοπίας, συνδέοντας το προσωπικό της βίωμα με το παραμύθι, τη λογοτεχνία, την κουήρ θεωρία και την ποπ κουλτούρα. Μετατρέποντας κάθε κεφάλαιο αυτής της ιστορίας σε άσκηση ύφους, με μια γλώσσα που παραμένει πάντα βαθιά συναισθηματική, η Ματσάδο ανατρέπει τις αντιλήψεις μας για το τι είναι και τι μπορεί να κάνει η αυτοβιογραφία.

Una mujer se niega a permitir que su marido le quite una misteriosa cinta verde que lleva alrededor del cuello; otra mujer relata sus encuentros sexuales mientras una letal plaga se extiende por el planeta; una intervención quirúrgica para perder peso tiene unos resultados siniestros; un par de detectives investigan varios crímenes acompañados por los fantasmas de las chicas asesinadas; una mujer es capaz de oír los pensamientos de los actores de las películas porno... Los ocho cuentos que componen este libro exploran el universo femenino mezclando sin complejos terror, realismo mágico, erotismo, ciencia ficción y comedia. Aquí la sexualidad confluye con lo siniestro, el deseo se torna perturbador, el humor deriva hacia lo grotesco y el cuerpo y la carnalidad se convierten en el sugestivo e inquietante centro de la creación literaria.

Uma poderosa coletânea de contos da autora finalista do National Book Award Uma esposa se recusa a remover a fita verde de seu pescoço mesmo após súplicas de seu marido. Uma mulher relata seus encontros sexuais lentamente, como uma praga que consome a humanidade. Uma vendedora descobre algo terrível dentro das costuras dos vestidos de festa de uma loja. Uma cirurgia de redução de peso resulta em um hospedeiro indesejado. Ao mesmo tempo antiquado e sexy, estranho e mordaz, cômico e extremamente sério, O corpo dela e outras farras alterna uma violência brutal e o sentimento mais rebuscado. Em sua originalidade explosiva, essas históriasextrapolam as possibilidades da ficção contemporânea. Carmen Maria Machado derruba as fronteiras arbitrárias entre realismo, ficção científica, comédia, horror, fantasia e fábula. Nesta coletânea de contos provocativa, considerada um Black Mirror feminista, gêneros literários são desafiados em narrativas que mapeiam a realidade das vidas das mulheres e a violência a que são submetidos seus corpos.

"A dark jewel reflecting something startling—familiar and strange" —Suzanne Moore, The Guardian "Ravishingly beautiful" —Observer "Daring, chilling, and unlike anything else you've ever read" —Esquire In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing experience with a charismatic but volatile woman, this is a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Each chapter views the relationship through a different lens, as Machado holds events up to the light and examines them from distinct angles. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction, infusing all with her characteristic wit, playfulness and openness to enquiry. The result is a powerful book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.

"‘I have heard all of the stories about girls like me, and I am unafraid to make more of them.’ If you read this story out loud, please use the following voices: Me: as a child, high-pitched, forgettable; as a woman, the same. The boy who will grow into a man, and be my spouse: robust with his own good fortune. My father: Like your father, or the man you wish was your father. My son: as a small child, gentle, rounded with the faintest of lisps; as a man, like my husband. All other women: interchangeable with my own. Carmen Maria Machado is the celebrated author of the memoir In the Dream House and the vibrant story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Brooklyn Public Library Literature Prize, a Shirley Jackson Award and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize.

By the time he returns from the bathroom, his date is already coming. Although he wants her, he thinks it better to sit and watch, figuring some things are worth watching without interference. Meanwhile, an onlooker in the next apartment building is also watching, thinking of her wife and their adventures on board a cruise ship. About the Author Carmen Maria Machado’s fiction and nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, NPR, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best Horror of the Year, Year’s Best Weird Fiction, and Best Women’s Erotica. Her short story “The Husband Stitch” was nominated for the Shirley Jackson and Nebula Awards, awarded a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, and longlisted for the Tiptree Award. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Michener-Copernicus Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the CINTAS Foundation, the Speculative Literature Foundation, the University of Iowa, the Yaddo Corporation, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She teaches creative writing in Philadelphia.