“What makes a writer? What makes a radical? After reading The Outspoken and the Incendiary the answer is clear: a heaping of joy, dollops of dreams of a better world, and a soupçon of strange. Terry Bisson, himself an agile and at-a-slant writer, here guides us deep into the hearts, minds, and eyebrow-raising origins of PM's Outspoken Authors—some of the most subversive, sharp, and wickedly funny cultural producers of our time. What changes the world? Story. And these are people doing it.”
—Nicola Griffith, author of Menewood

“This superb book represents nothing less than a group portrait of the radical mind in conversation with itself. The interviews are illuminating and entertaining in equal measure, as some of the great speculative writers of our time expound upon what has propelled them on their artistic journeys. The book is also a tribute to the late Terry Bisson, literary provocateur, writer extraordinaire, and—as evidenced here—genius interviewer.”
—JJ Amaworo Wilson, author of Nazaré

“These interviews read like blazing samizdat missives on the last half century of the culture, mainstream, and underground, conducted by a man who witnessed much of it and is interested in all of it.”
—Andrew Nette, coeditor of Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950–1985

“I’ve come to think of PM Press’s Outspoken Authors series, which has by now been going on for some thirteen years under the editorship of Terry Bisson, as my favorite collection of author hang­outs. These modest collections of fiction, essays, bibliographies, and interviews have ranged from legendary authors like Le Guin and Delany to newer voices like Meg Elison and Vandana Singh, and each one feels like spending a fascinating evening with the subject.”
—Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

“Terry’s been an outspoken writer for a very long time, and that he thought what I had to say was important enough to be heard is a lovely thing.”
—Nalo Hopkinson

“Fluent and moral and wry, and very much a writer dominated by aftermath issues and emotions, Bisson will continue to be read with great intensity by those who hope to recognize the version of the Matter of America whose complex stories he told, and so wisely and wryly cherished.”
—The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

“Terry Bisson was a man of the left—the far left (as his novel Fire on the Mountain makes abundantly clear)—and one of his great contributions to SF was his editorship of the Outspoken Authors series.”
—Rich Horton, editor of The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy series

Foreword: Nisi Shawl
Introduction: Jonathan Lethem
Eleanor Arnason “At the Edge of the Future”
Terry Bisson “Fried Green Tomatoes”
Michael Blumlein “A Babe in the Woods”
John Crowley “I Did Crash a Few Parties”
Samuel R. Delany “Discourse in an Older Sense”
Cory Doctorow “Look For the Lake”
Meg Elison “Sprawling into the Unknown”
Karen Joy Fowler “More Exuberant Than is Strictly Tasteful”
Eileen Gunn “I Did, and I Didn’t, and I Won’t”
Elizabeth Hand “Flying Squirrels in the Rafters”
Cara Hoffman “My Favorite Amphibian”
Nalo Hopkinson “Correcting the Balance”
James Patrick Kelly “Encounter with a Gadget Guy”
John Kessel “I Planned to Be an Astronomer”
Paul Krassner “Reflections of A Realist”
Joe R. Lansdale “That’s How You Clean a Squirrel”
Jonathan Lethem “Rooms Full of Old Books Are Immortal Enough for Me”
Ursula K. Le Guin “A Lovely Art”
Ken Macleod “Working the Wet End”
Nick Mamatas “Put Your Twist in the Middle”
Michael Moorcock “Get the Music Right”
Paul Park “Punctuality, Basic Hygiene, Gun Safety”
Gary Phillips “But I’m Gonna Put A Cat On You”
Marge Piercy “Living Off the Grid”
Rachel Pollack “Radical, Sacred, Hopefully Magical”
Rudy Rucker “Load On the Miracles and Keep a Straight Face”
Kim Stanley Robinson “A Real Joy to Be Had”
Carter Scholz “Gear. Food. Rocks.”
Nisi Shawl “The Fly in the Sugar Bowl”
John Shirley “Pro Is for Professional”
Vandana Singh “A Source of Immense Richness”
Norman Spinrad “No Regrets, No Retreat, No Surrender”
Afterword: Nalo Hopkinson
Elegies: Rudy Rucker and Peter Coyote