It’s time to return to Pittsburgh for another episode of Eating the Fantastic recorded during last month’s Nebula Awards weekend, following up on my Nebula Awards Donut Jamboree and dinner with Kelly Robson. On the Friday of that event, I snuck away with A. M. Dellamonica for lunch at Senti, which my research told me was one of the best places to go in the city for classic Italian.

Dellamonica‘s first novel, Indigo Springs, won the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Their fourth, A Daughter of No Nation, won the 2016 Prix Aurora. They are the author of more forty short stories on Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed and most recently Beneath Ceaseless Skies. They were also co-editor of the Heiresses of Russ anthology.

We discussed how a long list of random things they liked eventually grew into their first novel, the intricate magic system they created for their series, how their novel Child of a Hidden Sea taught them they were less of a plotter and more of a pantser than they’d thought, the doggerel they wrote when they was five years old (which you’ll get to hear them recite), how discovering Suzy McKee Charnas at age 15 was incendiary, which run of comics made them a Marvel fan, what it was like attempting to live up to the pioneering vision of Joanna Russ while editing the anthology Heiresses of Russ, which YouTube series happens to be one of their favorite things in the world, the way John Crowley’s teachings might have been misinterpreted by their class during the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop, the three mystery novels of theirs you’ll hopefully be reading in the future, and much more.

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Here’s what Alyx and I devoured for lunch during that Nebula Awards weekend—

Alyx’s Rucola
arugula, sliced pears, shaved parmesan, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar

My Barbabietola e Cipolle al Forno
roasted beets, honey roasted pearl onions, raisins,
burrata, frisée and poppyseed vinaigrette

Alyx’s Salmone
grilled salmon, roasted yukon potatoes, grilled asparagus

My Lasagna alla Vaneta
veneto style, beef ragù, and béchamel

Alyx’s Crostata della Stagione
Blueberry tart with house-made crème fraîche ice cream

My Cheesecake
mascarpone and ricotta cheesecake

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And I hope you’ll join me next episode, when my guest will be Matthew Kressel, who was one of the Nebula Award finalists that weekend for his short story “The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard).”

Thanks for listening!