Author’s quest for humanity at the heart of gods and monsters
They are tales set among the stars but grounded in the human experience.
Palmerston North author Zak Rodgers set himself the goal of telling “everyday stories” within genres that lurk in the outer limits for his new collection of short stories and poems.
The book, The Cure For Gravity, endeavours to show that the world of gods and monsters in science fiction, fantasy and horror can be surprisingly human.
“There’s that idea of those nerdier genres – like, they’re completely made up, they’re in fairyland, none of it is real.
“Sure, we may have a story about a pub at the end of the universe that exists outside of time, but it’s really a story about fatherhood and child abandonment, and absenteeism. My goal is to set stories in crazy situations but make them about something every one of us has experienced,” he said.
The 24-year-old, who works as a senior service guide at Palmerston North Central Library, received a $3000 Earle Creative and Development Trust grant towards the project.
He said he accepted that for many people, science fiction could seem impenetrable because of its intricate world-building and myriad characters.
He challenged himself to craft stories of between 2000 and 8000 words that were self-contained and accessible.
Rodgers said he loved how sensoryrich science fiction was. It was often labelled the “thinking man’s genre”, which risked making it seem remote or exclusive. “Which I again wanted to challenge with this collection. It’s for everybody because it’s about everybody. But it’s so visually rich.”
Rodgers said working at a library and being surrounded by books all day provided him with plenty of inspiration.
When shelving books in the sci-fi and fantasy section, he would sometimes be “looking at the blurbs on the back, and thinking, ‘Oh, that’s a cool idea – I’ll have to read that’. Artists are thieves, right?”
A number of other authors worked at the library, which sparked many deep, creative conversations.
He and workmate Cam Dickons contributed stories to the anthology Ship of Horrors: A Manifest Of Nightmares last year, and had even devised a horror story set in a library – but it wasn’t finished in time for The Cure For Gravity.
“We thought, what if we write a horror story set in a library, where the bad guy is the silverfish that pour out of the books at night? ... This is what happens when you mess with librarians.”
Rodgers said it was a huge honour to receive an Earle Trust grant for a second time, having earlier received support for his 2021 book of poems, Playful Anarchy. The money paid for the publishing of 200 copies through Ligare in Auckland, as well as for the publicity, which included launch events in Manawatū and Hawke’s Bay.
The new book will be sold in both regions and Whanganui – and possibly further afield. “I’m pushing harder this time to get the book outside Manawatū.” The Palmerston North launch of The Cure For Gravity will be held on the city library’s mezzanine floor at 6.30pm on March 13, hosted by The Comedy Hub’s Justin Ngai.