The 2021 Nebula Awards conference begins two weeks from today — but as far as Eating the Fantastic is concerned, it begins right here, right now. That’s because if this year’s event had been held in meatspace rather than gone virtual, I’d have taken this episode’s guest out for a meal in a Los Angeles restaurant and chatted with them about who they are and how they came to be. Instead, we each baked one of their favorite go-to recipes so we could nibble prosciutto bread while pretending the weekend was already here.

And now it’s time for you to do the same!

Nino Cipri is on both the Nebula and Hugo Awards ballots for their novella Finna. Its sequel, Defekt, was released last month. Their 2019 story collection Homesick won the Dzanc Short Fiction Collection Prize, was a finalist for the World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson awards, and was chosen as one of the top 10 books on the ALA’s Over the Rainbow Reading List. Their fiction has been published in Tordotcom, Fireside, Nightmare, Daily Science Fiction, and other places. Their YA horror debut, Burned and Buried, will be published by Holt Young Readers in 2022.

We discussed how they made peace with the heat death of the universe, the way their favorite endings also feel like beginnings, the false assumption things will always get better, how their award-nominated novella started out as a screenplay, their trouble with titles and fascination with trees, the many pleasures of ambiguity, how we almost lost them to mortuary science, why they’ve been called a verbal terrorist, and much more.

Here’s how you can take a seat at the table with us —

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3) Or listen using the embed below.

Here’s what we chewed on while we chatted —

Nino’s Prosciutto Bread

Nino’s Prosciutto Bread Spread

Scott’s Prosciutto Bread

If you enjoyed this episode and want to support my mission of breaking bread (in this case literally) with creators of the fantastic while letting you eavesdrop, there are several ways you can help bring this podcast to the attention of potential new listeners looking for science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comics ear candy —

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Two weeks from now, my guest will be Karen Osborne — author of Architects of Memory — with whom I actually shared an in-person meal — without masks — the first time that’s happened in 428 days! Please join me to find out whether I can manage to make it through the episode without hyperventilating.

Thanks for listening!