It’s time to say farewell to this year’s Worldcon by brunching with Natalia Theodoridou, the last of four guests from Seattle following Eugenia Triantafyllou, John Picacio, and Lara Elena Donnelly.

Theodoridou’s debut novel, Sour Cherry, was released earlier this year by Tin House (in North America) and Wildfire (in the UK and the Commonwealth). He’s a five-time Nebula Awards nominee, and shared an award earlier this year in the category of game writing for A Death in Hyperspace. He won a Nebula Award for short story in 2018 for “The Birding: A Fairy Tale,” published in Strange Horizons.

He’s also the winner of Moniack Mhor’s 2022 Emerging Writer Award. Additional fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Apex, Uncanny, Psychopomp, khōréō, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and numerous others. He is also a Clarion West Graduate (class of 2018) and holds a PhD in Media & Cultural Studies from SOAS University of London.

We discussed what it felt like attending Clarion the same year he was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, how Karen Joy Fowler’s advice changed the texture of his descriptions, what he needs to know before beginning to write a short story, whether he’s as confident in the writing process as his voice seems to me on the page, why the fact readers won’t need to know anything about Bluebeard to enjoy his Bluebeard-inspired novel is a tragedy, the question to which that novel itself must stand as the only possible answer, why it’s so important for readers to be able to sit with ambiguity and uncertainty, the reason we’ve yet to see a short story collection from him, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us at Luna Park Cafe —

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Here’s what you would have seen us nibbling had you been with us at Luna Park Cafe —

Scott’s Chicken-Fried Steak
with eggs over easy, and a buttermilk biscuit

Natalia’s Blueberry Pancakes

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Coming up two weeks from now, you’ll be able to lunch with Alaya Dawn Johnson, a multi-award winning author, most recently for Trouble the Saints, winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Thanks for listening!