Hello Inkmongers!

It is finally October, which means it is time to run our FIRST EVER Inkmonger Book Club!

This month, our book club pick is:

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Before I get into the "why" of this selection, let me gather some context around it. As you may know, one of the goals of this Bindery community is to become a publishing imprint. Once Inkmonger has enough members, we'll be able to make real publishing decisions, and our community members will be a part of the process.

My dream for this community is to contribute to the literary tradition that Ursula K. Le Guin and other visionary speculative fiction (SF) writers founded: SF that asks important questions, imagines alternative worlds to the one we currently inhabit, and imagines equitable futures for humanity. How cool (exciting, fulfilling, mind-blowing) would it be for Inkmonger to publish a future winner of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize?

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu was a 2022 finalist for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, and was chosen for that honor because of its place in the SF canon– in many ways, it's part of the continuation of Le Guin's literary lineage. The 2026 winner will be announced on 10/21, so reading a book from the Prize's backlog feels fitting this month.

"The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction is an annual $25,000 cash prize given to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction. This award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech—realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now" (The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction).

While this book was not selected as the winner of the Prize, it is the only finalist that I currently own a copy of (and that's quite important to me, financially).

I'll be starting my read of How High We Go in the Dark as soon as I finish my current read! I hope you'll read with me :)

Sam 🦑