6 Books with Bogi Takács

Bogi Takács (e/em/eir/emself or they pronouns) is a Hungarian Jewish agender trans person and an immigrant to the US. E is a winner of the Lambda award for editing Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, the Hugo award for Best Fan Writer, and a finalist for other awards like the Ignyte and the Locus. Eir new short story collection Power to Yield and Other Stories is coming in February 2024. You can find Bogi talking about books at Bogi Reads the World, and check out eir daily SFF story and poem recommendation newsletter on Buttondown.

Today, read about Bogi's Six Books:

1. What book are you currently reading?

Words Under the Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye, recommended to me by Rasha Abdulhadi after I read Everything Comes Next: Collected & New Poems by her, aimed more at a child and teen readership. Words Under the Words is more for adults, though a lot of her poems work for all audiences. She has a gentle speculative sensibility to her work, even though it’s usually not marketed as speculative poetry. By the time this instalment of Six Books comes out, I’ll have a poem recommendation from this book in my daily speculative story and poem recommendations newsletter.

 

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar – I got an advance review copy I’ve already read, but I’m really eager for other people to read it so that I can discuss it with them! I’m excited by everything from her, to be honest. But this one was the way I’m always imagining what dark academia could be and it often isn’t. Written with a real awareness of the horrors perpetuated in academia, in the name of scholarship; but also understanding the beauty of the universe and the essential liberty that is everyone’s birthright regardless of one’s academic and/or social standing. Also, this is a prison spaceship story in addition to all of that.

 

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

The Fallen by Ada Hoffmann – I’m about to read the third volume of their Outside trilogy, and I usually refresh my memory of a series before I read a new volume. I loved the first two books, and happily had a chance to blurb them, but the third volume was in production when I was in the middle of changing jobs, so I had to miss out on it. Now I’m catching up!

 

4 A book that you love and wish that you yourself had written.

I generally don’t wish I’d written books by other people, the books I love are often quite different from what I personally write. It might be easier to find anthologies I wish I’d edited? Recently I absolutely loved Infinite Constellations edited by Khadijah Queen and K. Ibura, though I think it’s wonderful the way they put it together, it doesn’t need me :) I also got an advance copy of this early last year, but now it’s out and you can all read it!

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

Not so much on my writing, but more on my life in general, which of course includes my writing – the Nausicaä manga by Hayao Miyazaki found me in high school at a very vulnerable and emotional time, where I was ready to give up on everything. This series got it across to me that even when we know things are going to be destroyed, it’s still possible to live on and strive. That was an approach I didn’t see anywhere else at that point, and I really needed to hear it. 

 

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome? 

My latest book is Power to Yield and Other Stories, my second short story collection coming this February from Broken Eye Books. It has people changing into plants, a telepathic AI kid talking to aliens, angry clothing, and saving the day with sadomasochism. It all gets quite complicated, which I hope counts as awesome! I aim to capture some tiny shards of life with its infinite complexity in my work.

Thank you, Bogi!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin