Stan’s Kitchen: A Robinson Reader is a collection of material written by Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2020. It contains both fiction (extracts from novels, short stories, poems) and non-fiction material (introductions to books by other writers, articles published in print or online).
It is a limited edition of 600 signed copies, edited by David G. Grubbs and printed the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA Press). It was created for the occasion of Boskone 57 convention in Boston, for which Robinson was the Guest of Honor.
The synopsis reads:
Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the most well-known SF writers in the world, applauded in non-SF circles for his grasp of vital ecological and political issues. His Mars trilogy, his Science in the Capital trilogy, and his recent novels 2312, Aurora, New York 2140, and Red Moon are all modern SF classics, each exploring directions in which our world may be heading. In this book, Stan offers you a rare treat, a selection of his favorite pieces of his own writing, which offers a unique view into important ideas within many of his areas of interest. Stan has chosen examples of his entertaining fiction, including a band disaster, an exploration of the idea of whether Vinland existed or not, how a curveball might work on Mars, and his final Mars story. Also included are insightful and wide-ranging essays on Gene Wolfe, Cecelia Holland, Joanna Russ, Stanislaw Lem, George Orwell, Philip K. Dick, Ursula Le Guin, and Chip Delany that should make you want to run out to find and read more of their works. You’ll read of some of his optimistic and naturalistic visions of our world in essays on predicting the future, on utopias and dystopias, on his Antarctic adventures, on hiking experiences in the wild, and on the fight to name a mountain. This personal collection of prose and poetry is the next best thing to sitting in Stan’s kitchen, sharing a cup of coffee and conversation with the master.
Contents
- What’s in My Pocket (from The Martians)
- Stan’s Kitchen An Introduction by Michael Blumlein (original)
- The Part of Us That Loves (first published in Full Spectrum 2, 1989; also in Remaking History)
- “A Story,” by Kim S. Robinson (introduction to The Very Best of Gene Wolfe, 2009)
- Notes for an Essay on Cecelia Holland (first published in Foundation 40, 1987)
- An Introduction to The Female Man by Joanna Russ (first published in The Cascadia Subduction Zone, 2014)
- Lem in California (first appearance in English)
- Animal Farm in 1992 (introduction to Animal Farm, 1992)
- An Introduction to Ubik by Philip K. Dick (introduction to Ubik, 2019)
- Happy Birthday Ursula (from 80! Memories and Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin, 2010)
- Delany Considered (first publication, transcript of talk from 1990)
- Vinland the Dream (first published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, 1990; also in Remaking History and The Best of KSR)
- Six Poems from If Wang Wei Lived on Mars (from The Martians)
- Discovering Life (from The Martians (paperback))
- How to Predict the Future (first published in Scientific American, 2016)
- What Can’t Happen Won’t (first published in boingboing, 2015)
- Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars (from The Martians)
- Dystopia/Utopia (first published in Commune 3, 2019)
- Enough Is As Good As a Feast (first published in University of Plymouth blog, 2018)
- Source of the Peach Blossom Stream (from Red Moon)
- Six Day Poems by the Widow Kang (from The Years of Rice and Salt)
- Prometheus Unbound, at Last (And None Too Soon) (first published in Nature, 2005)
- The Worst Journey in the World Revisited (a shorter version was first published in Smithsonian Magazine, 2017)
- Introduction to In the Sierra: Mountain Writing by Kenneth Rexroth (introduction to that book, 2012)
- Somewhat Lost (first published in Slate.com, 2013)
- Naming Mount Thoreau (first published in Naming Mt. Thoreau, 2017)
- Kistenpass (first published in Flurb 4)
- Zürich (first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 1990; also in Remaking History and The Best of KSR)
- Oral Argument (first published in Tor.com, 2015)
- Seven Shaman Songs (from Shaman)
- The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, April 1942 (first published in The Best of KSR)
- Pippilouette’s Story (from Shaman)
Resources
- The dust jacket illustration is “Isosceles Peak from Dusy Basin” by Tom Killion.
- ISFDB entry