Hey everyone,

Ian Tan here, lead editor and project coordinator of UnCensored Ink: A Banned Book Inspired Anthology, set to release this October 29. Here is the UnCensored Ink interview series to introduce you all to the incredible writers, as well as the local bookstores and libraries that gave them safe creative spaces. Hopefully you can put these incredible places on your to-visit list, and feel inspired to support your own local bookstore, library and indie authors.

Today I am with Vi Putrament, from London. She is a writer, editor and translator born in Warsaw and raised in New York City, specializing in science, folklore, fantasy and magic. She’s also a language editor for an astrophysics journal based at the Paris Observatory and writes science fiction and fantasy in every rare speck of spare time.  

1. You’ve written a fine piece for UnCensored Ink: a banned book anthology. Can you give us a synopsis? How did the idea for this piece come about?

My SFF story Stranger in the Archives is about a jaded administrator working in a library of old earthly books on the planet KOI316.02. When she witnesses the theft of one of the rare tomes in the illicit collection, she ends up caught in the grips of this enigmatic book smuggler and rediscovers the role of literature in making us human. 

1. Now, we would love to know you more! What do you enjoy doing in your free time, what is your favorite book quote, and how did you get into reading and writing?

I don’t really have many hobbies so most of my free time is spent going for walks and reading books. I’ve always been a writer, ever since I was a child, but my career in writing began in earnest after I started translating curatorial texts and art books for museums and cultural institutions. My favorite book is Orlando by Virginia Woolf and honestly every single line in that book is a banger.

2. Do you have a favorite local library or bookstore? Also can you remember bookstores and libraries from your childhood, if they are not the same as the ones now? 

One of my favorite bookshops in London is The Common Press in East London, packed with dynamic queer energy and awesome books.

3. Tell us more about this bookstore/library. What do you love most about it? 

I discovered this bookshop not too long ago, when I attended a panel on queer neurodivergent YA books by some of the most incredible local authors of the moment: Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Elle McNicoll, Leanne Egan and Theo Parish, moderated by Rosie Talbot. It was such a good event, full of serious takes but jokes and laughs too. I felt so welcome there and the selection of books is a dream. Plus, they have a coffee shop right at the front of the shop.

4. What do you have to say on the importance of sustaining bookstores and libraries?

When I was a kid, the local library was my babysitter and my whole world. We couldn’t really afford to buy too many books and my hunger for stories was insatiable. I would take out stacks and stacks of books every week and gobble them all up. I would spend hours at the library after school since my mother would be working really late and it was my sanctuary from the drabness of the world around me – and a channel for my imagination. I don’t think I ever dared to dream that I’d find my books on the shelf at the library one day, but little me would be so proud today to see my name on the title page of a book!

5. Do you have any projects that your current and future readers can look forward to?

I have a SFF novel titled ULTRALUMINOUS about an art heist at the galaxy’s first space university that I hope to publish in the near future. The mixed-race protagonist comes from Brooklyn (like me) and is a scholarship student (also like me), so she has to navigate the obstacles of prejudice and marginalization to achieve her goal of winning back a digital painting made by her late mother, which had been smuggled into space at the dean’s behest.

• Lastly, what platforms can we find you?

Twitter: @ViPutrament

IG: @ultra.luminous

And that is a wrap on London, the UK, everyone. Stay tuned for our final hop down under to Australia, and then this interview series is done!

Purchase UnCensored Ink at Barnes & Noble

Purchase UnCensored Ink at Amazon