Nick Mamatas
Nick Mamatas | |
|---|---|
Long Island, New York | |
| Occupation |
|
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Stony Brook University New School University Western Connecticut State University (MFA) |
| Genre | Horror, fantasy, science fiction, personal essay |
Nick Mamatas (
editor for Haikasoru's line of translated Japanese science fiction novels for Viz Media. His fiction has been nominated for a number of awards, including several Bram Stoker Awards. He has also been recognised for his editorial work with a Bram Stoker Award, as well as World Fantasy Award and Hugo Award nominations. He funded his early writing career by producing term papers for college students, which gained him some notoriety when he described this experience in an essay for Drexel University's online magazine The Smart Set.[1]
Biography
Nick Mamatas was born on
Icaria
.
Career and themes
Mamatas is most known for his horror and dark fiction but claims broad influences.[3] Writer Laird Barron described the short fictions in You Might Sleep... as running "the gamut of science fiction, fantasy, metafiction, horror, generic lit, to the realms of the effectively unclassifiable".[4]
The Internet Review of Science Fiction, reviewing You Might Sleep, contends that "J.D. Salinger [is] an obvious but unacknowledged influence" and also compares Mamatas' work to "Lewis Carroll with an ISP, Mishima hammering out his death poem on a BlackBerry or Harlan Ellison hyped up on crystal meth..." while suggesting a certain immaturity to Mamatas's themes: "Despite his tremendous gifts, Mamatas dares little. One wonders how he would handle more profound materials, how his narrative sorcery might encompass (for example) bereavement, real tragedy or loss of self through enlightenment or love."[5]
A thematic touchstone for Mamatas is
Village Voice reviewed the book and its peculiar meshing of Lovecraft and Kerouac, writing, in part, "In fact, Kerouac's 'bebop prosody' and the Cthulhu mythos dovetail nicely, and what seems at first like literary stunt-casting actually gives Mamatas room to recast the Beats' fall from grace in fanciful terms unhindered by their tricky psychology, the strictures of reality and realism—or lingering platitudes."[6] Publishers Weekly reviewed Move Under Ground, discussing the novel's "credible pastiche" of Kerouac's voice and declared the book "sophisticated, progressive horror..."[7]
A number of his short works, such as the novelette Real People Slash and the flash fiction "And Then And Then And Then", also explicitly combine Lovecraftian themes with the voices of non-fantastical literature. The short story "That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable", first published in the anthology Lovecraft Unbound is a pastiche of Lovecraft and several of the works of Raymond Carver. The Damned Highway combines a character based heavily on Hunter S. Thompson and Lovecraftian themes.
Satire is also a significant element of Mamatas's fiction.
The Los Angeles Times review column, described Mamatas's Under My Roof—a short novel about the formation of a microstate on Long Island—as an "accurate, fast-moving satire that transcends mere target shooting by virtue of its narrator, Daniel’s 12-year-old son Herbie".[8] A starred review in Publishers Weekly for the same title also highlighted the satirical elements in the work, declaring: "A big-bang ending caps the fast-paced novel, and there's much fun to be had watching Mamatas...merrily skewer his targets."[9]
Mamatas's nonfiction work includes essays on
National Public Radio and reprinted in a pair of textbooks, both published by Nelson Education.[17][18]
Major works
Novels
- Northern Gothic - ISBN 978-1887128742
- ISBN 978-1892389916
- Under My Roof - Soft Skull Shortlit (2007) ISBN 978-1933368436
- Sensation - ISBN 978-1604863543
- The Damned Highway (with ISBN 978-1595826855
- ISBN 9781926851716
- Love is the Law - Dark Horse Books (2013) ISBN 978-1616552220
- The Last Weekend: A Novel of Zombies, Booze, and Power Tools - Night Shade Books (2016 reprint) (2014) ISBN 978-1597808422
- ISBN 978-1597808354
- Sabbath - ISBN 978-1250170118
- The Second Shooter - ISBN 978-1786184443
Short story collections
- 3000 MPH In Every Direction At Once: Stories And Essays - ISBN 978-1930997318
- You Might Sleep... - ISBN 978-0809573127
- The Nickronomicon - ISBN 978-1927990087
- The People's Republic of Everything - ISBN 978-1616963002
Anthologies edited by
- The Urban Bizarre - Prime (2004) ISBN 978-1930997394
- Spicy Slipstream Stories (with ISBN 978-1590210253
- Haunted Legends (with ISBN 9780765323002)
- The Future is Japanese (with ISBN 978-1421542232
- Phantasm Japan:Fantasies Light and Dark, From and About Japan (with Masumi Washington) - Haikasoru (2014) ISBN 978-1421571744
- Hanzai Japan:Fantastical, Futuristic Stories of Crime From and About Japan (with Masumi Washington) - Haikasoru (2015) ISBN 978-1421580258
- Mixed Up: Cocktail Recipes (and Flash Fiction) for the Discerning Drinker (and Reader) (with ISBN 978-1510718036
Non-fiction
- Kwangju Diary (with Jae-Eui Lee & Kap Su Seol) - ISBN 978-1883191030
- Starve Better:Surviving the Endless Horror of the Writing Life - ISBN 978-0984553587
- Insults Every Man Should Know (Stuff You Should Know) - ISBN 978-1594745249
- Quotes Every Man Should Know (Stuff You Should Know) - Quirk Books (2013) ISBN 978-1594746369
- The Battle Royale Slam Book:Essays on the Cult Classic by Koushun Takami (with Masumi Washington) - Haikasoru (2014) ISBN 978-1421565996
Poetry
- Cthulhu Senryu Prime - (2006) ISBN 978-0809562411
Work as editor
- Phantom Magazine, Issue #0 (November 2005)
- Clarkesworld Magazine (August 2006-August 2008)
- Viz Media (August 2008–present)[20]
Personal life
Mamatas is a student of
push hands competition[22] at the 3rd Annual "Golden Gate" Chinese Martial Arts Championship in San Francisco, California. In 2015, he won the silver medal in push hands at the twenty-third Berkeley Chinese Martial Arts Tournament.[23]
In 2019, he came in second in the 19th annual Mokomoko Invitational's gi-sumo competition, in the 180+ pound division.
References
- ^ "The Paper Market". On the Media. 2008-11-28. Archived from the original on 2009-03-23.
- ^ "The Term Paper Artist" Archived 2008-10-24 at the Wayback Machine, article in The Smart Set by Nick Mamatas
- Apex Book Company. April 2009. Archivedfrom the original on 2009-05-17.
- ^ "On You Might Sleep by Mamatas (or I come not to praise Caesar but deliver the goods on Caligula)". Imago1, Laird Barron's LiveJournal. September 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-08-18.
- ^ "With Cautious Anticipation A review of You Might Sleep... by Nick Mamatas". The Internet Review of Science Fiction. May 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27.
- Village Voice. May 25, 2004. Archivedfrom the original on November 1, 2010.
- ^ "Fiction Review: Move Under Ground". Publishers Weekly. April 12, 2004. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012.
- latimes.com. April 2007. Archivedfrom the original on 2011-08-31.
- ^ "Fiction Review: Under My Roof". Publishers Weekly. December 18, 2006. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012.
- ^ Mamatas, Nick (February 20, 2001). "Elven Like Me". The Village Voice, New York. 46 (7): 35. Archived from the original on October 7, 2008.
- ISBN 9780071491631.
- Village Voice. March 1, 2005. Archivedfrom the original on June 21, 2011.
- ^ Cohen, Julie E. (2005–2006). "The Place of the User in Copyright Law". Fordham Law Review. 74: 347. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
- Case Western Reserve Law Review. 55: 963. Archivedfrom the original on 2016-03-03.
- ^ "Leave Them Kids Alone - A Proposed Fair Use Defense for Noncommercial P2P Sharing of Copyrighted Music Files". Florida International Law Review. 2007–2008. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.
- Apex Publications. 2011. Archivedfrom the original on 2011-05-13..
- ^ "Table of Contents: Essay Essentials". Nelson Education. 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-03-23.
- ^ "Canadian Content, 7th Edition". Nelson Education. 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21.
- ^ Heller, Jason (August 3, 2016). "'I Am Providence' Is A Love/Hate Letter To A Literary Subculture". NPR. Archived from the original on March 8, 2017. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
- ^ Nick Mamatas's Livejournal Entry about editorial job at Viz Media
- ^ "The Good Fight". The Smart Set. April 2, 2009. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012.
- ^ "San Francisco Kung Fu Tournament Results for 2012: Taiji Push Hands". International Chinese Martial Arts Championships. Sep 22, 2012.
- ^ "Berkeley CMAT Scores". Berkeley Chinese Martial Arts Tournament. March 16, 2015.
External links
- Online version of Move Under Ground
- 2002 interview
- 2006 interview on the Sturgeon's Law podcast
- Clarkesworld Magazine
- Nick Mamatas at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Story behind Bullettime - Online Essay by Nick Mamatas
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