New review at The Rumpus

Sarah Marshall compares The Listeners to the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919.

Powell's interview

The wonderful Jill Owens of Powell's Books asks me some questions about The Listeners.

Book trailer for The Listeners

The brilliant Luca Dipierro has made an animated video for my novel, with music by Italian spellbinders Father Murphy.

It's incredibly beautiful. And it uses actual bacon.


The Listeners from Luca Dipierro on Vimeo.

Upcoming readings

I'm excited to read from The Listeners at these fine places:

Word Books, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Loggernaut Series, Portland, OR * April 11
Tin House "Science Fair" at Holocene * April 18
Powell's Books, Portland, OR * May 16 
Annie Bloom's Books, Portland, OR * May 21
Book Soup, Los Angeles, CA * May 24
WORD Books, Brooklyn, NY * June 19
Politics & Prose, Washington, DC * June 23
Juniper Summer Writing Institute, Amherst, MA * June 24-30 (exact date TBA)

Galleys are here.

Advance reader's copies of The Listeners now exist! Thank you to Diane Chonette and Janet Parker of Tin House for the design. This won't be the exact final cover, but the octopus direction—yes.

Art as twisted hymn

McNair Evans of The Black Harbor has made a great short film about the uncanny and splendrous inventions of Luca Dipierro:

My novel has a house!

Entrance to Tin House's main office, in Portland

I'm thrilled that the fantastic Tin House Books is going to publish my first novel, The Listeners, in 2012.

They say on their blog:

"Leni Zumas is no stranger to lovers of short fiction–her debut collection, Farewell Navigator, garnered praise from Joy Williams, Karen Russell, and Miranda July, and gushing reviews from the LA Times, Paste, and The New York Observer, among others. If she’s not a household name now, it shouldn’t be long (if there’s any justice in the world). We couldn’t be more excited to publish her debut novel..."

I couldn't be more excited, either.