susan dirende
fantasy farce fable
susan dirende
fantasy farce fable
2025 San Ginese Artist/writer Retreats in Tuscany
1 week -$880 • 2 Weeks - $1600
One of 4 rooms for the 2024 artist residencies at the Locanda San Ginese in Tuscany.
The 2025 San Ginese Artist/Writer Retreats are now open for registration. We are offering four residency dates for the summer in June and September where you can come for one or two consecutive weeks.
Alert: Special Session Added June 15-21, 2025 Social & Political Action Through The Arts In response to the political and social chaos, we are offering one session for those who want to explore how their work as creatives artists can meet this moment and help change it for the better. This very intimate retreat includes only 5 individual artist/writer/creatives per week. Each resident artist/writer/creator has a private room with its own bath and continental breakfast prepared by the hosts. There are daily excursion options at no extra charge organized in the area. More details on the RESIDENCY here page or by emailing me.
2025 Dates: June 8-14, June 15-21, August 31-September 6, and September 7-13. The week long residencies are 7 days/6 nights. You can book two weeks in September and pay the two-week price so long as space is available in both weeks.
You must place a $200 deposit to reserve a place.
click to order* *if you buy, I get a bit of the sale
Review of KNIFE WITCH in Locus Magazine
“It’s a beach read for all us geeks who grew up with a copy of Bulfinch’s Mythology in one hand and a Terry Pratchett novel in the other, with a History Channel documentary on Blackbeard or the PBS’s Power of Myth playing in the background, for company. In fact, this reader would go as far as to assert that Knife Witch is the book for all the readers who felt unseen as they tore their way through Treasure Island, or any of those books, full of adventure and excitement, but which felt squarely tailored for the cis-boys. It’s too clever and too exciting for that (although I fear that having a girl as a narrator, and that it comes from the most venerable SF/F feminist press, will make it less likely to be read by men, an unfortunate miss for those who pass on it). However, the quirky Knife Witch’s fierce independence, her voice, and her responses to the world and the various complications she encounters, is, indeed, a decidedly feminine one.” —Caren Gussoff Sumption, Locus Magazine
It's a fantasy! It's a farce! It's a winner!
Recipient of the 2017 Philip K. Dick Awards Special Citation for Excellence.
An interstellar romp, this utopia with attitude follows Rose Delancy, a disgruntled Jersey waitress picked by lottery to represent the Earth on a planet of peaceful, pink blobs. Rose settles in and starts teaching the natives all about humans with the help of Hollywood movies, junk food, and the occasional bout of PMS. Find out more ...
GOING SOLO
digital nomad Susan diRende’s column in Splash Magazines
All I've got is story
“Circus performer. Topless dancer. Spy. Writer.”
-Susan diRende Six-Word Memoir in
“Not Quite What I Was Planning”
All I've got is story
“Circus performer. Topless dancer. Spy. Writer.”
-Susan diRende Six-Word Memoir in
“Not Quite What I Was Planning”
I go to the canvas or the computer to find what I didn't know was in me.
Susan diRende communicates big ideas with a unique concoction of irreverence and insight. Her published works, from serious academic to sci-fi space farce, share a common thread of humor. Born in New Jersey of Italian parents, she has always looked to create at the intersection of worlds. An accomplished painter as well as writer, a strong visual imagination keeps her grounded in the "thingness" of the plastic arts alongside the ephemeral "wordness" of the literary.
“Susan diRende presents an alternative off-world reality that will transport you out of whatever everyday funk you happen to be in.”
Unpronounceable
Winner 2017 Philip K. Awards special citation of excellence
An interstellar romp, this utopia with attitude follows Rose Delancy, a disgruntled Jersey waitress picked by lottery to represent the Earth on a planet of peaceful, pink blobs. Rose settles in and starts teaching the natives all about humans with the help of Hollywood movies, junk food, and the occasional bout of PMS. Find out more ...
“Reminiscent of the space fantasies of Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut, this improbable tale spoofs popular star-trooper fiction, as well as the vain politics of both Washington and Hollywood.”
What the funny?!
When the Farce Is with You
I was 28 and heartbroken. I lamented to my friend, Roberta, that what I would miss about my ex was how funny he was. That I loved to laugh and I myself was not funny at all. Roberta’s expression of warm sympathy stuttered. She started laughing one of those high, giddy arpeggios you hear when someone is tickled to the bone. She turned to me and said, "Susan, you are one of the funniest people I know." This surprised me no end. I thought I was intellectual, serious, and a bit on the drippy, sentimental side. Telling Roberta this only made her laugh louder.
Until that day, it hadn't occurred to me that I was funny, even though I had toured as a clown in a small circus. I had been a silent, sad clown after all. And there I was, making those same sad clown eyes at Roberta while she laughed with glee. Since then, I have tried to live up to my nature, to transform my once ponderous writing into frothy farce. I found my voice, and it was cranky, contrarian, and unapologetic. However, the greatest benefit of this revelation has not been in my writing at all, but in my life. I laugh a lot these days. At and with myself.
“Female comedies generally do not follow the Aristotelian model of a single giant climax followed by a cigarette (also known as the “dénouement.”) Instead of criticizing the missing “big one” as a weakness, think of these comedies as a way for men to experience the multiple orgasms women take for granted.”
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