Second Volume Announcement

Prime Books announces the second volume of a prestigious new anthology series, Best American Fantasy, guest edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, with Matthew Cheney serving as the series editor. The second volume will be published in June 2008, showcasing the best North American fantasy short fiction from the preceding year. The editors will apply as wide a definition of the term "fantasy" as is necessary for the integrity and quality of Best American Fantasy—including magic realism, surrealism, postmodern experiments, and all other applicable permutations.

Best American Fantasy provides a stylish forum for the best short work from U.S. and Canadian writers published in North America. A list of honorable mentions limited to 25 to 50 stories will be included in each volume.

The anthology will feature rotating guest editors, with the series editor providing continuity and stability. Ann & Jeff VanderMeer will serve as guest editors for 2007 and 2008 to help establish Best American Fantasy as one of the premier year's best anthologies in North America.

Reviewers, publicists, and other media should contact Prime editor Sean Wallace.

Prime Books is an award-winning imprint that specializes in literary and cutting-edge cross-genre novels and short story collections.

Guidelines

Literary journals, magazines, anthologies, and other venues based in North America are encouraged to submit their publications to Best American Fantasy so that the content can be considered for inclusion. All publications received will be listed in Best American Fantasy. Please send two copies of materials for consideration to:

Jeff VanderMeer (BAF Coordinator, POB 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315), who will pass materials on to the guest editors.

Eligible short fiction must fulfill the following rules.

1. A work of respectable literary quality first published in a U.S. or Canadian periodical (magazines, anthologies, websites, etc.)
2. Publication in English by U.S. or Canadian writers, or foreign writers who have made U.S. or Canada their home.
3. Original publication as short stories. Excerpts from novels will not be considered.
4. Work longer than 10,000 words will not be considered.
5. All work to be considered must be received by January 16, 2008.

The definition of fantasy shall include fabulation, non-realist fiction, magic realism, surrealism, post modern experimentation, cross-genre, etc. The editors will apply as wide a definition of the term as is necessary for the integrity and quality of Best American Fantasy. Editors or individuals should not pre-judge the fantastical content of individual stories or periodical issues but simply send in all possibly relevant materials. Sending tearsheets is discouraged.

Individuals and editors of online magazines can make recommendations via the Best American Fantasy Recommendation Form found to the right. No self-published work will be considered.

About the Editors

Well known for his novels The Brief History of the Dead and The Truth About Celia, guest editor Kevin Brockmeier is also an eminent short story writer, having received three O. Henry Awards (one, a first prize), the Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Award, and an Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award. His stories have been published in a wide variety of venues, including The New Yorker, The Georgia Review, McSweeney's, and The Oxford American, and have been reprinted in Best American Short Stories, The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, and the first volume of Best American Fantasy. Brockmeier's short fiction has been collected in Things That Fall from the Sky and his most recent book, The View from the Seventh Layer. He has also published two children's books, City of Names and Grooves: A Kind of Mystery. He lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Guest Editor Jeff VanderMeer is a two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award. His books from Pan Macmillan, Tor, and Bantam have made the year's best lists of Publishers Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Weekly, Publishers' News, and Amazon.com, among others, and his short fiction has appeared in several year's best anthologies. Novels and story collections by VanderMeer have been translated into twelve languages. As an editor, he is best known for founding the award-winning Ministry of Whimsy Press and its landmark anthology series, Leviathan. He lives in Florida.

Guest Editor Ann VanderMeer has been a publisher and editor for over twenty years, running her award-winning Buzzcity Press, and she is currently the fiction editor of Weird Tales. Work from her press and related periodicals has won the British Fantasy Award, the International Rhysling Award, and appeared in several year's best anthologies. Books published by Buzzcity Press include the Theodore Sturgeon Award finalist Dradin, In Love by Jeff VanderMeer and the IHG Award winning The Divinity Student by Michael Cisco. A Best of the Silver Web is forthcoming from Prime Books in November 2006. She lives in Florida.

Series Editor Matthew Cheney has published fiction and nonfiction with Strange Horizons, One Story, Locus, Rain Taxi, Rabid Transit, Pindeldyboz, Failbetter, and others, and his work has been shortlisted for Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, and The Pushcart Prize. He has served on the jury for the Speculative Literature Foundation's Fountain Award, and his weblog, The Mumpsimus, was a finalist for the 2005 World Fantasy Award. He currently teaches English and Women's Studies at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire.