New Zealand suburbs and nonbinding polls
Happy New Year!
I began the year in the manner traditional for me, which means I went from the bosom of my family straight to the largest math conference in North America. This year it was in Boston. I didn't have much time for tourism, but I did sneak out to meet a friend in the Boston Library. The library has a pair of stone lions that look like they roam the halls at night in the best children's literature tradition:
Time on airplanes means time for novels. I reviewed Arkady Martine's forthcoming book Rose/House, an architectural ghost story set in the near-future Mojave desert, and Aubrey Wood's first novel Bang Bang Bodhisattva, a trans noir cyberpunk comedy that uses every part of that description.
Though Wood spent some time in California as a child, she now lives in New Zealand. While reading her book, I played the game of comparing her fictional city of New Carson with my own memories of life at the edge of LA County. One thing I puzzled over was odd formatting in the addresses her detective visits. One example is "149 Greater Allison Court, Sefton, New Carson." What's Sefton? Why does this address have an extra city and no state or zip code? The answer, it seems, is that New Zealand addresses include suburbs--not in the American sense, where suburbs are usually distinct municipalities, but in the sense of a subset of an urb.
On the personal writing front, I have a grab bag of Asimov's news! My novelette "The Fifteenth Saint" has an official publication date: it will be in the May/June 2023 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Individual copies should appear at the end of April, or if you're feeling adventurous you could subscribe to the magazine.
Meanwhile, the 2022 Readers' Award Ballot is open, where you can vote for your favorite Asimov's work from the past year. My poem Going Up to Hanford and my novelette The Last Tutor are both eligible, and I'd be chuffed if people who are not me voted for me.
May your month be full of exuberance!
Yours, Ursula.