Name: J.M. Sidorova w/ Rashida J. Smith, THE WITCH OF PRAGUE
Start: 2026-04-02T19:00:00-07:00
End: 2026-04-02T20:00:00-07:00
Location: The Elliott Bay Book Company

$J.M. Sidorova w\/ Rashida J. Smith, THE WITCH OF PRAGUE$

A work of magical realism set during the 1968 Prague Spring about bodily autonomy and the fight against authoritarian regimes everywhere.
About this Event

JM Sidorova discusses her novel The Witch of Prague, a work of magical realism set during the 1968 Prague Spring about bodily autonomy and the fight against authoritarian regimes everywhere. She’s joined by Clarion West’s Rashida J. Smith.

The Witch of Prague is the first book from the small press Homeward Books.

In Cold War Czechoslovakia, dyslexic teenager Alica escapes her troubled home by answering a newspaper ad. Instructed in typing, deportment, and political intrigue by a forbidding older woman with a long history of manipulating powerful men, she becomes a secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she's surrounded by surveillance, corruption, and rancid abuses.

When her mentor gifts her an ancient tapestry with mysterious properties, Alica finds herself haunted by dreams of a violent hunt and a mutilated forest. By day, her powers of manipulation are only growing-and around her, the currents of resistance are beginning to electrify the country. As her city teeters on the brink, Alica must uncover the power that only she can wield.

A work of magical realism set during the 1968 Prague Spring, The Witch of Prague is a book about bodily autonomy and the fight against authoritarian regimes everywhere.

J.M. Sidorova was raised in the USSR, Singapore, and Germany, and spent most of her adult life in the United States, where she has been working as a biomedical research scientist and writing speculative fiction. Her novel The Age of Ice, two parts history, one part magic realism, received an honorable mention in Tor.com’s best fiction of 2013 list. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

By day, Rashida J. Smith wrangles students and instructors for Clarion West. By night (pre-dawn, actually), she writes Prague-based fantasy romance as Jasmine Silvera (Grace Bloods, Tooth & Spell). Rashida attended Clarion West's Six-Week Workshop in 2005. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and their opinionated doodle Obi Hund Kenobi.