Marian Womack Explained

Alma Mater:Glasgow University,Wadham College (University of Oxford)Wolfson College (University of Cambridge)Anglia Ruskin University
Occupation:Writer, translator and editor
Notable Works:Lost Objects, The Swimmers
Website:www.marianwomack.com

Marian Womack is a bilingual Hispanic-British writer, translator and editor of Weird Fiction, Horror, Speculative Fiction, Science fiction and Fiction of the Anthropocene. She lives in Cambridge, UK.[1] As a translator in Spain she has worked mostly for independent publishing houses. She writes both in English and Spanish. Womack has been included in various collective works in Spain and Latin America, the UK, the US and Australia.[2] Her writing is characterised by mixing elements from the Gothic, Science Fiction and Horror, creating a hybrid genre that Womack uses to highlight the uncanny. She often uses fragmentation, writes experimental prose, and mixes genres.

Womack has published two collections of short fiction and three novels in English, as well as two novels in Spanish. Her ecological fiction has been included in international art installations,[3] translated to Italian and Norwegian,[4] and shortlisted for two British Fantasy Awards and one British Science Fiction Association Award.

Early life and education

Womack was born in Cádiz and studied in the UK. She studied English with Film Studies (Glasgow University), holds a Master's in European Literature (Oxford University), a DEA in Literatura Comparada (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), a Master's in Creative Writing (University of Cambridge) and a PhD in Creative Writing (Anglia Ruskin University).

Career

In her work as a publisher, Womack co-founded, together with British translator and poet James Womack, the indie press Nevsky Prospects, specialising in Russian Literature. The press mainly published Russian and Soviet genre fiction (Science fiction, Gothic) together with classic authors such as Pushkin, Dostoevsky or Dmitri Grigorovich, offering a wide and non-mainstream understanding of this literature. Womack coordinated the imprint Fábulas de Albión, which she used to publish, for the first time in Spanish, female speculative fiction authors such as Nina Allan, Lisa Tuttle, Anna Starobinets or Karin Tidbeck.

Womack has worked in academic libraries and archive collections for more than a decade, including Oxford University's Bodleian Library, and the Modern and Medieval Faculty Library at Cambridge University, where she worked as Hispanic and Lusophone Librarian for five years. She also works intermittently as editor, translator, and bookseller. Womack has taught creative writing, publishing studies and book history in Spain and the UK, and for three years was a creative writing tutor on the Oxford University Creative Writing MSt. Womack is the first Spanish person to attend the Clarion Workshop.

Critical reception

Womack published her first collection in English, Lost Objects, in 2018. Nina Allan wrote in Interzone: "[T]he themes of climate change and ecological destruction are more urgently expressed in this short book than in any other I have recently read, yet it is Womack's bravery in stating these themes in terms of poetry, of metaphysics, of personal loss that lifts them above polemic... This book, with its sharp edges and its thematic urgency and its painful admissions of weakness and of fear, is a collection that highlights everything that speculative fiction, of all possible modes of literature, excels at."[5] Laura Mauro wrote in Black Static that "Lost Objects is a gorgeous, intelligent collection, both masterfully written and cannily prescient... and crafted in a manner that I suspect we will come to recognise as uniquely Womack."[6] Jonathan Thorton wrote in The Fantasy Hive: "These stories deal with landscapes that have been transfigured by humanity's carelessness and hubris, worlds in mourning for everything we have so casually destroyed. They serve as a vital and timely reminder of our current climate crisis, and the responsibility we have to both the world and ourselves."[7] Timothy J. Jarvis wrote in the Los Angeles Review of Books that Lost Objects addresses "humankind's senseless despoliation of its home in subtle, profoundly affecting ways."[8]

Womack's first novel in English, The Golden Key (2020), was described by Publisher's Weekly as an "ethereal debut novel, precise and eerie... Patient readers willing to wade through Womack's murky, off-kilter world will be rewarded with moments of disquieting beauty."[9] Jonathan Thorton wrote in The Fantasy Hive: "A bold, ambitious and genre-bending novel, one that isn't afraid to assume a sensitive and intelligent reader."[10] Womack's second novel The Swimmers (2021) was given a Starred Review in Publisher's Weekly: "Womack draws in readers immediately with her dreamy depictions of the landscape and its dangers. At its heart, however, the novel is a probing examination of cultural and class differences. Readers will be captivated." The Guardian said it was "a richly imagined eco-gothic tale",[11] and The Times said it was "exquisitely realised", selecting it as one of the ten best science fiction novels of 2021.[12]

Personal life

Womack is married to British poet and translator James Womack. They met while they were both students at Wadham College, Oxford. Womack cannot vote in the UK, but she is a member of the Green Party of England and Wales.[13] Womack identifies as bisexual and of Roma ascendency.[14] Womack studied at a convent school, and has written about her rejection of Catholicism as an institution.[15]

Published works

Narrative

Novels

Science Fiction

The Walton & Waltraud Inquiry Agents Mysteries

Spanish

Short Fiction in English

Colections

As editor

Short fiction in anthologies and magazines

Short Fiction in Spanish

Academic works

Books
Essays

Translations

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: November 3, 2024. Marian Womack. Weird Fiction, Speculative Fiction, & Fiction of the Anthropocene. www.marianwomack.com.
  2. Web site: November 3, 2024. Marian Womack. Weird Fiction, Speculative Fiction, & Fiction of the Anthropocene. www.marianwomack.com.
  3. Web site: Reduce Speed Now! By Justin Brice Guariglia. 23 January 2019.
  4. Web site: November 3, 2024. Marian Womack. Weird Fiction, Speculative Fiction, & Fiction of the Anthropocene. www.marianwomack.com.
  5. Allan. Nina. 2018. Time Pieces. Interzone. 276. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20220617075947/https://shop.ttapress.com/products/interzone-276. June 17, 2022.
  6. Mauro. Laura. 2018. Case Notes: Book Reviews. Black Static. 65.
  7. Web site: November 3, 2024. Lost Objects by Marian Womack. www.fantasy-hyve.co.uk.
  8. Web site: Jarvis. Timothy J.. April 13, 2019. Strange Details Accrete: Marian Womack's Weird Tales of Slow Catastrophe. Los Angeles Review of Books. November 4, 2024.
  9. Web site: November 3, 2024. The Golden Key. www.publishersweekly.com.
  10. Web site: Thornton. Jonathan. November 3, 2024. The Golden Key by Marian Womack (Review). www.fantasy-hive.co.uk.
  11. Web site: Tuttle. Lisa. November 3, 2024. The best recent science fiction and fantasy – review roundup. www.theguardian.com.
  12. Web site: Ings. Simon. November 3, 2024. 10 Best SF Books of 2021. www.thetimes.com.
  13. Web site: November 3, 2024. Marian Womack. Weird Fiction, Speculative Fiction, & Fiction of the Anthropocene. www.marianwomack.com.
  14. Book: Womack, Marian. Beauty is complicated: Essays on the Weird. 2024. Calque Press. 978-1-7384836-0-0. Cambridge. 2024. Introduction.
  15. Book: Womack, Marian. Beauty is Complicated: Essays on the Weird. Calque Press. 2024. 978-1-7384836-0-0. Cambridge. 2024. 24. The joys of time travel.

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