MFA Greensboro Alum Kelly Link Reviewed for Her Anthology, "Steampunk!"

Steampunk! edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J Grant
     by Mal Peet
The exclamation mark in the title of this collection suggests an
announcement, a new arrival. In fact, the term was coined in 1987 to
denote a burgeoning sub-genre of fantasy in which the principles of Gibsonian cyberpunk are projected backwards on a wildly reimagined 19th century.

I can only guess at what yearnings underlie this weird historical
revisionism, but I find myself drawn to it. Perhaps this is because
steampunk, despite its obsession with kit, boasts a great many feisty
heroines who are handy with a wrench or a temporal displacement
occulator. On the strength of this anthology, it is no boys-only genre.

Or
perhaps I'm attracted because steampunk has no truck with the
semi-conductor, preferring a world without i-things and e-things; it
eschews social networking and mobile phones, those pesky nuisances when
it comes to suspenseful plotting. Instead, it rejoices in steam-driven
automata, coal-fired dirigibles, leather flying helmets and goggles,
clockwork, and anything made of brass, including hair and prostheses.
Steampunk loves brass.

Read the full review here: www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/09/steampunk-kelly-link-gavin-grant-review?newsfeed=true

Find out more about the MFA Writing Program here:http://mfagreensboro.org