Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun will make their literary debut with an SFF/horror novel, Random House has announced in a press release.
The press’s Hogarth imprint will publish Public Access Afterworld by the filmmaker known for I Saw the TV Glow, a critical favorite this summer.
I Saw the TV Glow is a horror film about troubled teens whose favorite reality show leads them to question their identities. The film, which premiered at Sundance in January and is being distributed by A24, completed a trilogy about gender transition. The New Yorker’s Richard Brody proclaimed it “a profound vision of the trans experience.”
According to the author, the novel is the logical next step. “All of my work so far has been leading up to this,” said Schoenbrun in the release. “But unlike [the trilogy of films], which focused mainly on pre-transition, this novel is an epic of trans becoming, and probably the biggest cinematic universe I’ll ever create, my attempt to craft a contemporary queer opus on the scale of Sandman, Lord of the Rings, or even, groan, Harry Potter.”
Described by its publisher as a blend of literary fantasy, coming-of-age, science fiction, and horror, Public Access Afterworld traces the mysterious transmissions of a secret television network.
“I fell in love with Jane’s Public Access Afterworld,” said Hogarth editor-in-chief David Ebershoff. “It’s an all-consuming reading experience that engages you on every level with its masterful storytelling, fascinating ideas about gender, identity, and technology; and, above all, its unforgettable characters, especially Bethany, the trans woman who becomes a hero unlike any we’ve ever seen before in epic fiction.”
There is no publication date scheduled for Public Access Afterworld.
Marion Winik hosts NPR’s The Weekly Reader podcast.
