Welcome, comrade! I’m Sean Guynes, a critic and cultural historian of fantasy, sf, and horror, and an acquiring editor. Genre Fantasies is an ongoing blog on the cultural history of American fantasy, sf, and horror—mostly focused on fantasy fiction, c. 1960s–1990s.

I write about the cultural history of genre fiction—with attention to power, empire, capitalism, and race—for academic and popular publications, including Strange Horizons, Los Angeles Review of Books, World Literature Today, Reactor Magazine (formerly Tordotcom), and more. My shorter writing beyond this blog (e.g. peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, essays, reviews, etc.) is available here, and information about the books, journal issues, and book series I’ve edited can be found here. I am also the associate editor of the sf section at Los Angeles Review of Books.

In my day job, as the senior acquiring editor for Lever Press, I work to bring diverse, conversation-changing scholarship into the world, emphasizing writing that appeals to general audiences, speaks truth to power, and reveals the many ways inequality operates. I value writing that works toward practicable critical and community responses, that seeks to do something for the world.

Bookseller Acknowledgments

Everything I read and write about is made possible by a network of used booksellers, some of whom I find through eBay and other digital stores, but many of which I have visited in person, and some of which have since, sadly, gone out of business. These include: Autumn Leaves (Ithaca, NY), Barner Books (New Paltz, NY), Black Walnut Books (Glen Falls, NY), The Book Nook (Hobart, NY), The Book Vault (Endicott, NY), Books End (Syracuse, NY), Books & Melodies (Syracuse, NY), Cherry Valley Bookstore (Cherry Valley, NY), Curious Book Shop (East Lansing, MI), Dawn Treader Book Shop (Ann Arbor, MI), Early Owego Antique Center (Owego, NY), Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library Book Sale (Ithaca, NY), Half Price Books (Fort Wayne, IN; Cleveland, OH; Columbus, OH; Tukwila, WA), Inquiring Minds Bookstore (Saugerties, NY; New Paltz, NY), John W. King Books (Detroit, MI), Liberty Rock Books (Hobart, NY), Magpie Bookshop (Catskill, NY), Northern Thrift (Endicott, NY), One Green Horse (Trumansburg, NY), Our Bookshop (Saugerties, NY), Quarry Books (Hobart, NY), ReUse Center (Ithaca, NY), Rick’s Recycled Books (Rochester, NY), Riverow Bookshop (Owego, NY), Second Editions Bookshop (Elmira, NY),Sound Go Round (Vestal, NY), The Strand (New York, NY), Thrifty Shopper (Binghamton, NY; Endwell, NY), Upstate Anarchist Book Fair (Binghamton, NY), Water Brothers Books (Livonia, MI), and Willis Monie Books (Cooperstown, NY).