Ron Riekki – författare

Michigan's Upper Peninsula is distinct from the rest of the state in geography, climate, and culture, including a unique and thriving creative writing community. In The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works, editor Ron Riekki presents poetry, fiction, and non-fiction from memorable, varied voices that are writing from and about Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In all, this unique anthology features new works from forty-two writers, including rising star Ellen Airgood, Edgar Award winner Steve Hamilton, Rona Jaffe Award winner Catie Rosemurgy, Jonathan Johnson of Best American Poetry, Michigan Notable Book Award winner Keith Taylor, and Michigan Author Award winner John Smolens. In 49 poems and 20 stories-diverse in form, length, and content-readers are introduced to the unmistakable terrain and characters of the U.P. The book not only showcases the snow, small towns, and idiosyncratic characters that readers might expect but also introduces unexpected regions and voices. From the powerful powwow in Baraga of April Lindala's ""For the Healing of All Women"" to the sex-charged basement in Stambaugh of Chad Faries's ""Hotel Stambaugh: Michigan, 1977"" to the splendour found between Newberry and Paradise in Joseph D. Haske's ""Tahquamenon,"" readers will delight in discovering the work of both new and established authors. The contributors range widely in age, gender, and background, as The Way North highlights the work of established writers, teachers, students, labourers, fishermen, housewives, and many others. The Way North brings the U.P.'s literary tradition to the awareness of more readers and showcases some of the most compelling work connected to the area. It will be welcomed by readers interested in new fiction and poetry and instructors of courses on Michigan writing.

One of the top-grossing independent films of all time, The Evil Dead (1981) sparked a worldwide cult following, resulting in sequels, remakes, musicals, comic books, conventions, video games and a television series.Examining the legacy of one of the all-time great horror films, this collection of new essays covers the franchise from a range of perspectives. Topics include The Evil Dead as punk rock cinema, the Deadites' (demon-possessed undead) place in the American zombie tradition, the powers and limitations of Deadites, evil as affect, and the films' satire of neoliberal individualism.

After its publication in 1986, Stephen King's novel It sparked sequels, remakes, parodies and solidified an entire genre: clown horror. Decades later, director Andy Muschietti revitalized King's popular novel, smashing all box office expectations with the release of his 2017 film It. At the time of its release, the movie set the record for the world's highest-grossing horror film. Examining the legacy of the controversial cult novel, the 2017 box office sensation and other incarnations of the demonic clown Pennywise, this collection of never-before-published essays covers the franchise from a variety of perspectives. Topics include examinations of the carnivalesque in both the novel and films, depictions of sexuality and theology in the book, and manifestations of patriarchy and the franchise, among other diverse subjects.

The frightening yet comic clown is one of the best and most enduring characters in literature, theater, television, and film. Across the centuries, from Shakespeare's Porter in Macbeth to Edgar Allan Poe's "Hop-Frog," or Stephen King's Pennywise, horror and comedy have blended to create the perfect recipe for entertainment. This volume gives an in-depth analysis of the clown horror genre, including essays by revered horror scholars such as Kevin Wetmore, Dale Bailey, Kim Hester Williams, Jennifer K. Cox, and Joanna Parypinski. Their essays cover topics such as nostalgia, race, class, and new portrayals of the scary clown as zombies or phantoms. It also offers interviews with actors and directors working in the clown horror genre: Eoghan McQuinn (Stitches), Kevin Kangas (Fear of Clowns), and Jaysen Buterin (Kill Giggles). Some of fiction's most terrifying creations--like the Killer Klowns, Captain Spaulding, Art the Clown, Krusty, Frowny, the Joker, and Twisty--jig through these pages of analysis and deconstruction, asking what these many iterations of scary clowns have to say about our society and its fears.

More than sixty years after the The Twilight Zone debuted on television, the show remains a cultural phenomenon, including a feature film, three television reboots, a comic book series, a magazine and a theatrical production. This collection of new essays offers a roadmap through a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. Scholars, writers, artists and contributors to the 1980s series investigate the many incarnations of Rod Serling's influential vision through close readings of episodes, explorations of major themes and first-person accounts of working on the show.

With a worldwide box office of more than a half-billion dollars, The Purge franchise has become one of the top horror franchises in film history, with many reviewers wowed by the concept of the series and differentiating on the execution. With five films and a TV show (and another film possibly in the works), the series seems unstoppable. The franchise's main concept taps into underlying tensions throughout America. The vast differences between the films are largely due to the ever-changing casts, including actors, writers, and directors, so that each film has its own unique commentary, sometimes getting right at the nerve of social issues that seem to be best discussed in fictional worlds' metaphors and parables.Acclaimed film and television critics and horror scholars such as Dale Bailey, Jason V. Brock, Chesya Burke, Lisa Morton, Katherine A. Troyer, and Kevin J. Wetmore give a wide range of analyses of just what The Purge films are saying about modern-day America and the world. Essays in the collection examine politics, violence, Trump, Freud, class issues, feminism, race, and more.

In My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I am Melting in Extinction, Ron Riekki presents a collection of non-fiction, short stories, and poetry about the Karelian- and Saami-American experience. In true nomadic fashion, his writing takes the reader to Kuusamo, Utah, Berkeley, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Lake Mohave, Yosemite, Karelia, and a hazmat facility where all the animals on site have been forgotten.A mix of Anselm Hollo, Gregory Orr, Eric Torgersen, and Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Riekki’s writing forces the Saami-American voice to be heard, a voice that some might not even realize exists. It does. Furiously.