My first experience with Catherynne Valente was with her delightful “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making”. A mouthful, yes, but characteristic of her lovely originality. I’ve read about 3 ½ of her books, and it has been more than enough to make me not only a fan, but make Valente quite possibly my favorite modern author.

Here are the first lines from a book of hers that I am currently reading, “Palimpsest”:

“On the corner of 16^th street and Hieratica a factory sings and sighs. Look: its spires flash green, and spit long loops of white flame into the night…workers carry their lunches in clamshells. They wear extraordinary uniforms: white and green scales laid one over the other, clinging obscenely to the skin, glittering in the spirelight.”

I would say that this is pretty representative of what her writing is like. There is this wonderful surreal nature to her fantastical worlds and it is absolutely a pleasant experience to read her books. If I had to compare her to another writer, I would compare her to Ray Bradbury, who I have always thought has an unmatched life and vitality in his works. Everything I have yet read from her is fabulously creative and original, and in the instances where she does borrow from mythology, she draws from places wide and far, and studs her work with stories from all over like so many jewels.

She appears to be a super neat person outside of her literary pursuits; she has a Patreon, the justification for which is that she “wants to put more fiction into the world”, including fiction of others, and as such, she offers tips and workshops for writing fiction, and there is even the chance through this site that she will personally critique an aspiring writer’s work. I mainly think that is super cool because despite her magical literary skills, she is still way humble. Additionally, she evidently “occasionally performs with singer/songwriter SJ Tucker, who along with her own varied discography composes albums based on Valente's work. The pair perform reading concerts throughout North America, often featuring dancers, aerial artists, art auctions featuring jewelry and paintings based on the novels, and other performances.” I mean, how cool is that?!

Overall, Catherynne Valente breathes life into a world rife with many novels that just feel like rehashings of the same tired old plot. Seriously, go read her stuff!