Press Page
Press Release:
Ktistec Press releases Feast of Laughter, a tribute to author R. A. Lafferty
Almost entirely out of print these days, Hugo Award winner R. A. Lafferty has definitely not been forgotten by a growing community of fans as well as the many authors, including Neil Gaiman, Samuel Delaney, Gene Wolfe, Alan Moore and Harlan Ellison, who have continually sung his praises and acknowledged his influence on their own work.
Last month, Ktistec Press released the first volume of Feast of Laughter, a collection of essays, analysis, interviews, fiction and poetry inspired by the ever elusive Cranky Old Man from Tulsa.
Just in time for the Lafferty centennial, the generous volume concludes with the classic Lafferty story, The Six Fingers of Time, along with an essay and review by biographer-to-be Andrew Ferguson and editor Kevin Cheek, respectively. A labor of love by inspired fans, the magazine celebrates the literature of an original American treasure.
In the mid-1980s, Lafferty was a member of Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers (OSFW). Some meetings took place at his home. The photo accompanying this story was taken by Keith Purtell in R.A. Lafferty's home, where he wrote on a typewriter surrounded by walls of books. This decades-old photo has not been previously published.
Issue #2 is planned for a March 2015 release and submissions are due January 31, 2015. Anyone interested in contributing can email editor@feastoflaughter.org.
Please contact editor Kevin Cheek for information: editor@feastoflaughter.org (505) 977-3305
Quotations about R. A. Lafferty
“One of the few writers who have made me laugh aloud”
-Arthur C. Clarke
“Lafferty defies categorization; his work is unlike anyone else’s.”
-Harlan Ellison
“Lafferty has to be the maddest, the most colorful, the most unexpected writer alive.”
-Theodore Sturgeon
“Lafferty has the power which sets fire behind your eyeballs. There is warmth, illumination, and a certain joy attendant upon the experience. He's good.”
-Roger Zelazny
Feast of Laughter Web Page: http://www.feastoflaughter.org
On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Laughter-Issue-Ktistec-Press/dp/0692324100/
Press release, images, and full PDF of Feast of Laughter available for download at the bottom of this page.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Origin of the Feast by Kevin A. Cheek
Talking About Talking About Lafferty by Kevin A. Cheek
Laffertography by Rich Persaud
A Few Words About R. A. Lafferty by Eric Walker
If You do not Love Words: The Pleasure of Reading Lafferty by Elaine Cochrane
An Interview with John Pelan by John Owen
Lafferty Deserves a Documentary - a call to action by Andrew Mass
Aloysius Ascending by David Cruces
An Instinct for Friendship by John Owen
To Be Continued? by John Barach
Up Close, and in Particular by Martin Heavisides
Hillary Ardri and Jane Chantal Ardri Illustration by Lydia Petersen
The Epic of Man and His Friends or Slumming It With the Ontic Outcasts or May Our Eyes Be Big Enough To Take In the Nine Hundred Percent Gain in Everything! by Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
Aeviternity: R.A. Lafferty’s Thomistic Philosophy of Time in the Argo Cycle by Gregorio Montejo
Some notes on play, time and Catholic Social Teaching in R.A. Lafferty by John Ellison
O Golden, O Silken, O Mother-Loving World! an original story by Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
The Prybar Spiel by Noah Wareness
The Woman Who Wondered What Onions Think by J Simon
Of Crystalline Labyrinths and the New Creation by Michael Bishop
The Six Fingers of Time - an essay by Andrew Ferguson
The Six Fingers of Time - a review by Kevin A. Cheek
The Six Fingers of Time by R. A. Lafferty