best american fantasy

BAF coming to an end after three volumes

2010-08-12T22:08:00.001-05:00

After three volumes, we’re discontinuing the Best American Fantasy series founded by me, Ann VanderMeer, and Sean Wallace, along with Matthew Cheney. The amicable move from Prime to Underland following the publication of BAF2 was meant to rejuvenate the series and to finally achieve stability for it. Unfortunately, this didn’t occur, for a variety of reasons. BAF did not having a wide margin for error. A cross-genre fantasy year’s best that focused not just on genre magazines but also on literary magazines, that required sympathy and generosity from both the mainstream and genre, as well as the right placement in the chains, was always going to be a difficult sell.
Although we are disappointed in this outcome, we’re mostly sad for Larry Nolen, the new series editor, and for Minister Faust, the guest editor, both of whom had put work into what would have been volume 4. (Not to mention the extensive online reading completed by Alan Swirsky and Fabio Fernandes’s efforts re Latin America.) It also would have been wonderful to see what the guest editors for volumes 5 and 6, Junot Diaz and Catherynne M. Valente, would have chosen, just as we enjoyed reading Kevin Brockmeier’s selections for volume 3.
On the plus side, the various BAF volumes picked up a wonderful blurb from Michael Chabon, made NPR’s recommended summer reading list, were placed on year’s best lists, and garnered a few nice reviews in large newspapers. In addition, a lot of bloggers supported us, and we received good feedback from the readers who picked up the books. Many libraries have stocked them, and all three are still available for sale on Amazon, providing a nice alternative view of the year’s best for those three years. We also made inroads into the literary mainstream through events like the AWP conference, and we were very successful in convincing literary magazines and genre magazines to send us material. In addition, we brought writers into contact with each other who might otherwise not been aware of each other’s work, and our correspondence with magazine editors and writers while running BAF led to many, many other creative liaisons and projects.

***

But before we shut the door on this wonderful project, here is the list of stories I had marked for consideration (comprising a little over 2/3 of the total stories sent to BAF 4 guest editor Minister Faust to choose from for the final list):

1. Leah Bobet, "Six" (Clockwork Phoenix 2)

2. Kelly Barnhill, "Open the Door and the Light Passes Through" (Clockwork Phoenix 2)

3. Peter Beagle, "Dirae" (Warriors)

4. John Langan, "City of the Dog" (Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2010)

5. Ander Monson, "Decidicousness: The Mechanism" (Ninth Letter, Fall/Winter 2009-10)

6. Antonia Clark, "How to Shoot a Tomato" (Mipoesias, September 2009)

7. Robert Mayette, "Prison of the Gnome" (Mipoesias, September 2009)

8. Rachel Swirsky, "A Memory of Wind" (Tor.com, November 2009)

9. N.K. Jemisin, "Non-Zero Probabilities" (Clarkeworld Magazine, September 2009)

10. Eric Schaller, "The Sparrow Mumbler" (New Genre, #6)

11. Christian Moody, "Horusville" (Best New American Voices 2010)

12. Julee Newberger, "Calvin Makes His Escape" (Gravity Dancers)

13. Matt Bell, "The Cartographer's Girl" (Gulf Coast, Winter/Spring 2010)

14. Deborah Schwartz, "Music in the Storm" (Gulf Coast, Winter/Spring 2010)

15. Fred Gavran, "The Reincarnation of Horlach Spencer" (Harvard Review, #37)

16. Benjamin Percy, "The Tree" (Ecotone, #8)

17. Aimee Bender, "The Color Master" (Cincinnati Review, 7.1 Summer 2010)

18. Brian Beglin, "Something Ancient" (Cincinnati Review, 7.1 Summer 2010)

19. Saladin Ahmed, "Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela" (Clockwork Phoenix 2)

20. Catherynne M. Valente, "The Secret History of Mirrors" (Clockwork Phoenix 2)

21. Michael Blumlein, "California Burning" (Asimov's, August 2009)

22. Eugene Mirabelli, "Love in Another Language" (Not One of Us, #42)

23. Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, "Monkeys of the Sea" (Glimmer Train #74 Spring 2010)

24. Jenny Boully, excerpt from "not merely because of the unknown that was stalking towards them" (Gulf Coast, Summer/Fall 2009)

25. Matt Bell, "A Long Walk, with Only Chalk to Mark the Way" (Redivider, vol. 7, issue 2)

26. Joe Celizic, "Reborn" (Redivider, vol. 7, issue 2)

27. Christopher Boucher, "Maryland" (Redivider, vol. 7, issue 2)

28. Deirdra McAfree, "The Shield of the Norns" (The Georgia Review, Fall 2009)

29. Amit Majmudar, "Azazil" (The Kenyon Review, Fall 2009) (Note: TKR is serializing this in 4 issues, I think)

30. Will Kaufman, "Eris Sink Pluto" (Kaleidotrope, April 2010)

31. Joan Connor, "Cassie Bunyan's Yarn: A Short Tale" (Green Mountains Review, XXII, #2)

32. L. Annette Binder, "Halo" (Green Mountains Review, XXII, #2)

33. Benjamin Percy, "Terminal" (Ninth Letter, Fall/Winter 2009-10)

34. Viet Dinh, "Stomp Tokyo" (Ninth Letter, Fall/Winter 2009-10)

35. Stephen Marche, "What Rought Beast" (Ninth Letter, Spring/Summer 2010)

36. Traci O. Connor, "Starla and June" (Gargoyle 54)

37. Adam McOmber, "Of Wool" (Ascent, Winter 2009)

38. A.C. Wise, "A Mouse Ran Up the Clock" (Electric Velocipede 19)

39. Teresa Milbrodt, "Cyclops" (Indiana Review, Summer 2009)

40. Ben Marcus, "The Moors" (Tin House 42)

41. Karen Russell, "The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach" (Tin House 41) Note: She was chosen as one of The New Yorker's "20 under 40" writers

42. B.R. Smith, "Caregivers" (Witness XXIII, 2010)

43. Joe Meno, "Birdmen of Mars" (Redivider, Spring 2009)

44. Judith Cooper, "Sister Light-of-Love Love Dove" (Shenandoah, Winter 2009)

45. Kelly Luce, "Wisler" (The Southern Review, Autumn 2009)

46.Gilbert Allen, "Ecumenical Bedding" (The Southern Review, Autumn 2009)

47. Sean McMullen, "The Art of the Dragon" (Fantasy & Science Fiction, August/September 2009)

48. Wayne Wightman, "Adaptogenia" (Fantasy & Science Fiction, June/July 2009)

49. Elizabeth Hand, "The Far Shore" (Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2009)

50. M. Rickert, "The President's Book Tour" (Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2009)

51. Damien Dressick, "Accrual" (Gargoyle 55)

52. Anthony Farrington, "Oh, You Turtledoves, All You Birds under Heaven, Come Help Me" (The Kenyon Review, Spring 2010)

53. Melanie Rae Thon, "Lost Children" (The Southern Review, Spring 2009)

54. Debbie Urbanski, "Taken" (The Southern Review, Spring 2010)

55. Benjamin Percy, "The Mud Man" (The Southern Review, Winter 2010)

56. James B. Pepe, "I am Enkidu, His Wild Brother" (Sybil's Garage, #6)

57. Richard Parks, "The Queen's Reason" (Lady Churchhill's Rosebud Wristlet #25)

58. J.W.M. Morgan, "Superfather" (Lady Churchhill's Rosebud Wristlet #24)

59. Blake Butler, "Our Anniversary, Repeated" (Redivider, vol. 7, #1)

60. Brad Modlin, "Dark Gray Door" (Indiana Review, 31.2)

61. Aimee Bender, "Among Us" (The New Dead)

62. Adam Peterson, "Blood Work" (The Cincinnati Review, 6.2)

63. Micah Riecker, "The Drowned Girl" (The Cincinnati Review, 6.2)

64. Laura C.J. Owen, "The Execution Trick" (American Short Fiction, Winter 2009)

65. Tabaré Alvarez, "The Translation of the Bones" (ep;phany, Fall/Winter 2009)

As I've said elsewhere, it was a privilege to work alongside Ann and Jeff, Matt, Minister, Fábio Fernandes, Alan Swirsky, and all the other people that helped make BAF something worth reading and working on for nearly four years. Thank you for your support.

LA Times review of BAF 3

2010-03-14T14:53:00.000-05:00

Excerpt from Ed Park's Astral Weeks column:

The audience for "Real Unreal," I suspect, are those fans of writers whose gift for the fantastic has not precluded mainstream notice: writers like Jonathan Lethem, Kelly Link, Michael Chabon (who provides a vigorous front-cover blurb, calling the book "an important -- no, a crucial -- map of the richness and strangeness and startling range of the modern American short story"). Which is to say, a better way of marketing "Real Unreal: Best American Fantasy Volume 3" might have been to scrap the defensiveness, switch the title to "Excellent Recent Short Fiction" and leave it at that.

Brockmeier has discriminating taste, and "Real Unreal" is a satisfying mix of styles and sensibilities, featuring fiction drawn from such diverse sources as Fairy Tale Review, Tin House and the Oxford American.

Entertaining long works such as "The Last Unicorn" novelist Peter S. Beagle's warm, precisely dialogued "Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel" and John Kessel's joke-transcending Austen-meets-Frankenstein pastiche "Pride and Prometheus" alternate with brief but potent pieces. Jeffrey Ford's "Daltharee" turns a city-in-a-bottle experiment into a metaphor for storytelling (I raved about it in this space in 2008, after its appearance in "The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy"). Martin Cozza's even shorter "For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing" is a three-paragraph parable that begins "The president came over for lunch" and ends with the commander-in-chief defacing the narrator's family pictures. (Published in the July 2008 issue of the literary journal Pindeldyboz, it's a cryptic nightmare of Bush-as-invader.)

Best American Fantasy 4 Guidelines & Reading Period

2010-01-04T15:16:00.000-05:00

The Best American Fantasy series (Underland Press) founded by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer is now reading fantasy short stories up to 10,000 words published or to be published from May 1, 2009 through May 31, 2010 for volume 4.
Stories must be by Latin American or North American residents and published in Latin American or North American publications (or magazine websites) during the May-to-May period. All work must have been published in English to be eligible.

Guest Editor: Minister Faust
The guest editor for BAF4 is critically acclaimed writer Minister Faust. The guest editor for volume 5 will be Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz and the guest editor for volume 6 will be World Fantasy Award finalist Catherynne M. Valente. Each of these guest editors will bring excellence, expertise, and their own unique perspective to the position.

Announcing New Editors
BAF is proud to announce that the new series editor for BAF4 is reviewer and critic Larry Nolen, with translator/writer Fábio Fernandes serving as head of Latin American acquisitions and writer Alan Swirsky serving as first reader for online venues.

BAF founders Ann and Jeff VanderMeer will remain as managers/administrators of the anthology series, while former series editor Matthew Cheney will stay on as an advisor. Clayton Kroh and Tessa Kum will serve as assistant editors for BAF beginning with volume 4.

How to Submit Stories
—All relevant print publications and anthologies published in North America should be sent by the publishers to: Larry Nolen, BAF Series Editor, 151 Few Road, Dickson, TN 37055 USA.
—Editors of online publications based in North America should send relevant URLs to the first reader for online publications, Alan Swirsky (jynxshot@gmail.com).
—Editors of online publications based in Latin America should send relevant URLs to Fábio Fernandes (zeroabsoluto@gmail.com), while editors of print publications based in Latin America should query Fernandes about how best to send in eligible work.
—If you have already sent your print publication or anthology to either Matthew Cheney or Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, the materials will be forwarded to the series editor and do not need to be sent again.
As and when possible, and keeping in mind constraints such as expense and a need for additional personnel, the Best American Fantasy series eventually hopes to consider material published in Spanish and Portuguese.

More Information on BAF Editors
Guest editor Minister Faust is an Edmontonian writer, community broadcaster and organiser. His second critically-acclaimed novel was the winner of the 2007 Carl Brandon Society Kindred award, and was the runner-up for the Philip K. Dick Award. His first novel was hailed by The New York Times Review of Books, and was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Locus Best First Novel award and the Compton-Crook award, and made several year’s best lists, including those for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, January Magazine, and SFSite.com.

Series editor Larry Nolen is a history and English teacher who devotes much of his spare time to reading and translating interviews and articles from Spanish into English. Since 2004, he has been blogging at the literary fantasy site, OF Blog of the Fallen. He also has had his reviews, interviews, and columns published at the Nebula Awards site, Strange Horizons, and Omnivoracious. In addition, several of his interviews and columns have been translated into Spanish and Portuguese and published in Spain and Portugal.

Latin American acquisitions editor Fábio Fernandes is a writer living in São Paulo, Brazil. Also a journalist and translator, he is responsible for the Brazilian translations of several prominent SF novels including Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and A Clockwork Orange. His short stories have been published in Brazil, Portugal, Romania, UK, New Zealand, and USA. Fernandes also published a non-fiction book on the work of William Gibson, A Construção do Imaginário Cyber, and an SF novel, Os Dias da Peste (both in Portuguese). In 2008, he created the SFF review blog Post-Weird Thoughts.

BAF 3 Publisher's Weekly Review

2009-12-22T09:34:00.000-05:00

We've received some praise from Publisher's Weekly:

Real Unreal: Best American Fantasy, Vol. 3 Edited by Kevin Brockmeier. Underland (PGW, dist.), $14.95 paper (318p) ISBN 978-0-9802260-8-9
Brockmeier (The Brief History of the Dead) compiles 20 eclectic and exceptional stories that “graft” fantasy with realistic fiction for this third installment of the annual anthology cofounded by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Standout selections include Stephen King's poignant “The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates,” in which a woman receives a phone call from her recently deceased husband, and two World Fantasy Award finalists: Peter S. Beagle's “Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel,” an exploration of redemption and salvation as an angel demands to be a 76-year-old painter's muse, and John Kessel's “Pride and Prometheus,” a mashup uniting Pride and Prejudice's plain sister, Mary Bennet, and Victor Frankenstein. These and other wildly imaginative tales will appeal to fans of fantasy and literary fiction alike. (Feb.)

Best American Fantasy 3 Contents

2009-08-20T18:02:00.000-05:00

Best American Fantasy 3: Real Unreal

Guest Editor Kevin Brockmeier, Series Editor Matthew Cheney

to be published by Underland Press, January 2010

Table of Contents

"Safe Passage" by Ramona Ausubel (One Story, Issue 106)

"Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel" by Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)

"Cardiology" by Ryan Boudinot (Five Chapters, 2008)

"The Pentecostal Home for Flying Children" by Will Clarke (The Oxford American, Issue 61)

"For a Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing" by Martin Cozza (Pindeldyboz, July 6 2008)

"Daltharee" by Jeffrey Ford (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)

"Is" by Chris Gavaler (New England Review, Volume 39, Number 2)

"The Torturer's Wife" by Thomas Glave (The Kenyon Review, Fall 2008)

"Reader's Guide" by Lisa Goldstein (F&SF, July 2008)

"Search Continues for Elderly Man" by Laura Kasischke (F&SF, September 2008)

"Pride and Prometheus" by John Kessel (F&SF, January 2008)

"The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates" by Stephen King (F&SF, October/November 2008)

"Couple of Lovers on a Red Background" by Rebecca Makkai (Brilliant Corners, Summer 2008)

"Flying and Falling" by Kuzhali Manickavel (Shimmer, The Art Issue 2008)

"The King of the Djinn" by David Ackert & Benjamin Rosenbaum (Realms of Fantasy, February 2008)

"The City and the Moon" by Deborah Schwartz (The Kenyon Review, Spring 2008)

"The Two-Headed Girl" by Paul Tremblay (Five Chapters, 2008)

"The First Several Hundred Years Following My Death" by Shawn Vestal (Tin House 34)

"Rabbit Catcher of Kingdom Come" by Kellie Wells (Fairy Tale Review, The White Issue)

"Serials" by Katie Williams (American Short Fiction, Summer/Fall 2008)

BAF News: Future Guest Editors, Staff Changes, Latin America...

2009-08-20T17:57:00.000-05:00

The Best American Fantasy series has undergone a series of important changes, starting with the publisher. Underland Press has acquired the Best American Fantasy series, and will publish the third volume, "Real Unreal," in January of 2010. BAF4, tentatively titled "Imaginary Borders," will appear in March 2011. BAF3 contains work by, among others, Stephen King, Lisa Goldstein, Peter S. Beagle, and John Kessel, as chosen by guest editor Kevin Brockmeier with assistance from series editor Matthew Cheney. The cover of BAF3 was designed by John Coulthart.

The guest editors for volumes 4 through 6 will be: Minister Faust, Junot Diaz, and Catherynne M. Valente. Each of these critically acclaimed writers will bring excellence and expertise to the position. BAF4 will include work published in 2010, as the series skips a year to accommodate the time needed for the change in publisher and general reorganization.

"Victoria Blake at Underland has worked hard to create the perfect home for this unique series," BAF co-founder Jeff VanderMeer said, "and the guest editors we've put in place reflect an exciting diversity of opinions about and approaches to fiction. Each will bring their own spin to the volume they edit, and that's going to be great in terms of keeping the series vital and relevant."

Starting with BAF4, the series will consider stories published in English in Latin American publications, as well as translations of Latin American writers into English in North American publications. In short, any story published in English in a Latin American or North American publication or website, and written by a Latin American or North American resident, is eligible for inclusion in BAF. (As and when possible, and keeping in mind constraints such as expense and a need for additional personnel, the Best American Fantasy series eventually hopes to consider material published in Spanish and Portuguese.)

A series of staffing changes have also occurred. Matthew Cheney, who has done wonderful work on the first three volumes, will be stepping down as series editor due to other demands on his time. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer will perform the role of series editor going forward, while Cheney remains in an advisory position. Former first readers Clayton Kroh and Tessa Kum will serve as assistant editors for BAF beginning with volume 4. Fábio Fernandes and Larry Nolen have been added in an editorial capacity, especially as regards the Latin American publishing community. Further staff additions will occur over the next year as necessary.

Guidelines for BAF4 will be made available by January of 2010. Any publications sent to Matthew Cheney will be forwarded to the VanderMeers. Publications should not be sent to the guest editors at this time. Please address queries to POB 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315. The BAF website will be updated with all of this information shortly.

Guidelines for BAF4 will be made available by January of 2010. Any publications sent to Matthew Cheney will be forwarded to the VanderMeers. Publications should not be sent to the guest editors at this time. Please address queries to bestamericanfantasy@gmail.com or POB 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315. The BAF website will be updated with all of this information shortly. Bookmark http://www.bestamericanfantasy.com and http://www.bestamericanfantasy.blogspot.com for future updates.

BAF Moving to Underland Press!

2009-02-27T14:13:00.002-05:00

We are pleased to announce that the Best American Fantasy series is moving to Underland Press for the future, starting with Best American Fantasy 3, guest-edited by Kevin Brockmeier. We owe thanks to Prime and Sean Wallace for helping the series get launched, and thanks to Victoria Blake at Underland for giving us a new home.

Kevin has made his preliminary selections for BAF 3, and once I have secured reprint rights for all the stories, I'll announce the contents -- it's a pretty exciting list!

BAF 3 will be published by Underland in early 2010.

Volume 2 ... still coming...

2009-02-17T12:31:00.003-05:00

As Jeff has noted, volume 2 of Best American Fantasy got held up because of the economic downturn that has affected the entire publishing industry. According to Amazon.com, it is now in stock there, and with luck it will be available elsewhere soon.

Best American Fantasy 2008: The contents

2008-06-21T09:10:00.002-05:00

We have now finally settled on the contents for Best American Fantasy 2008 (to be released this fall) and tracked down all the permissions, which means I can now announce the stories that will be included:

"Bufo Rex" by Erik Amundsen (Weird Tales)
"The Ruby Incomparable" by Kage Baker (Wizards)
"The Last and Only" by Peter S. Beagle (Eclipse 1)
"Mario's Three Lives" by Matt Bell (Barrelhouse)
"Interval" by Aimee Bender (Conjunctions)
"Minus, His Heart" by Jedediah Berry (Chicago Review)
"Abroad" by Judy Budnitz (Tin House)
"Chainsaw on Hand" by Deborah Coates (Asimov's)
"The Drowned Life" by Jeffrey Ford (Eclipse 1)
"The Naming of the Islands" by David Hollander (McSweeney's)
"Light" by Kelly Link (Tin House)
"The Revisionist" by Miranda Mellis (Harper's)
"In the Middle of the Woods" by Christian Moody (Cincinnati Review)
"Story with Advice II: Back from the Dead" by Rick Moody (Mississippi Review)
"Ave Maria" by Micaela Morissette (Conjunctions)
"Logorrhea" by Michele Richmond (Logorrhea)
"Memoir of a Deer Woman" by M. Rickert (Fantasy & Science Fiction)
"The Seven Deadly Hotels" by Bruce Holland Rogers (shortshortshort.com)
"How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth" by Rachel Swirsky (Electric Velocipede)

Thanks to Ann & Jeff VanderMeer for great work on this volume and our previous one. And now our next guest editor, Kevin Brockmeier, is already reading his heart out for volume 3...

(x-posted to The Mumpsimus)

(And also check out Jeff's announcement.)

Best American Fantasy 3: The Guest Editor

2008-04-07T17:13:00.003-05:00

Here's the press release:

BEST AMERICAN FANTASY ANNOUNCES NEXT GUEST EDITOR

Prime Books and Best American Fantasy are pleased to announce that the next guest editor for the annual anthology series will be the critically acclaimed and bestselling writer Kevin Brockmeier, who will edit Best American Fantasy 3 (to be released in September 2009 by Prime Books, an imprint of Wildside Press). Michael Chabon called the first volume of BAF "an important -- no, a crucial -- map of the richness and strangeness and startling range of the modern American short story" and Publisher's Weekly gave it a starred review. The second volume, guest-edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, will be published this September.

Well known for his novels The Brief History of the Dead and The Truth About Celia, 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.

Series editor Matthew Cheney said, "The challenge for finding our next guest editor was to find someone who would be able to maintain the high quality of the series while also bringing their own slant and perspective. Kevin is perfect -- he was one of the writers included in our first volume, making him already part of the family, and he's also one of the few writers to have appeared not only in Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Awards, but also The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.”

Best American Fantasy 3 will contain stories published during 2008. Publishers who want to be sure their work is considered for inclusion should continue to send copies to Matthew Cheney and to Jeff & Ann VanderMeer, who who will remain involved with BAF to coordinate distribution of materials to future guest editors and assist with public relations and administrative tasks. Guidelines and addresses are available at http://bestamericanfantasy.com.

Ain't It Cool News Likes BAF

2007-10-24T23:02:00.000-05:00

Without question, I really think this is the best genre anthology of the year. Best American Fantasy did something more ambitious than any of the others could even dare. It might have single-handedly disproved the notion of the 'SF ghetto'.

--Adam Baum
Ain't It Cool News

READ THE FULL REVIEW

Buy a BAF, Get a Hobart

2007-10-04T11:33:00.000-05:00

Hobart is a young literary magazine, and editor Aaron Burch is so excited that a story he published, Catherine Zeidler's "Pregnant", is included in Best American Fantasy that he's named Prime Books to be Hobart's Small Press of the Month and he is willing to send a back issue of Hobart to anybody who orders BAF from now on. (Although I expect he'll have to put some limitations on that, as millions of you are now about to go buy more copies...)

If you're interested in Hobart, be sure to stop by the website ... and do consider subscribing -- it's an attractively-designed magazine with eclectic content (in a good way).

(cross-posted from The Mumpsimus)

BAF Audio Sample by Tyler Smith

2007-08-20T14:28:00.000-05:00

With Best American Fantasy safely in bookstores and with the Publishers Weekly starred review and NPR Recommended Summer Reading List attention in the rearview mirror, we thought readers might appreciate this reading by Tyler Smith of his story "A Troop [sic] of Baboons," one of the more tongue-in-cheek stories in the anthology.

Tyler Smith is in the process of finishing a novel, with pieces coming out soon in McSweeney's, Barrellhouse, Fresh Yarn and Monkeybicycle. He has also been contributing regularly to Newsgroper, while the website he edits, Demockeracy, will relaunch with a new and improved format sometime in early September.

You can also listen to an excerpt from Kelly Link's "Origin Story" on the NPR site.

Both the Smith and Link contain some objectionable language, for those with sensitive ears...

In Stores Now!

2007-08-17T13:07:00.000-05:00

The long-awaited day has arrived -- Best American Fantasy is now available in stores as well as online!

Release Date Update

2007-07-21T20:52:00.000-05:00

A few people have contacted us, wondering when exactly Best American Fantasy will be in stores. A fine question indeed.

The book is currently at the printer and should be leaving there by the middle of this week. That means it should be arriving in stores by the last moments of July or, more likely, the first week of August.

New Address

2007-07-19T21:44:00.000-05:00

For anyone who is sending us material to consider for next year's BAF, please note that one of the addresses has changed to:

Matthew Cheney
series editor, Best American Fantasy
P.O. Box 3038
Hoboken, NJ 07030

NPR Review

2007-06-04T15:56:00.000-05:00

At NPR's "All Things Considered", reviewer Alan Cheuse says nice things about Best American Fantasy, and the site includes a generous excerpt from Kelly Link's "Origin Story" and an audio clip of her reading from it.

Publisher's Weekly Starred Review

2007-05-30T16:32:00.000-05:00

Best American Fantasy
Edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer.
Prime (www.primebooks.net), $14.95 paper (460p) ISBN 978-0-8095-6280-0

In a genre where yearly “best of” volumes often repeat one another, the first in Prime’s new annual fantasy anthology series is a breath of eclectic and delightfully innovative fresh air. While the VanderMeers have included such fantasy veterans as Kelly Link and Elizabeth Hand, most of the 29 stories are by nongenre authors as well as gifted newcomers. Among the more memorable tales are Tyler Smith’s “A Troop [sic] of Baboons,” about a troupe of unruly baboon thespians, and Tony D’Souza’s whimsical “The Man Who Married a Tree,” about a man in love with a birch tree. This outstanding entry in the crowded “best of” stakes may not be the most commercially successful fantasy anthology of the year, but genre and mainstream fiction fans alike will be pleasantly surprised by these unconventional short fiction gems. (July)

LINK: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6446277.html

BAF on NPR

2007-05-30T16:28:00.000-05:00

We've gotten word that Best American Fantasy will be highlighted on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" as a great summer book. The plan is for there to be a brief reading by Kelly Link from her story "Origin Story" along with the review. Once we know when the show is to be aired, we'll let you know.

The Blurb

2007-05-30T16:22:00.000-05:00

We feel incredibly lucky to have captured the attention of Michael Chabon, who read an advance copy of Best American Fantasy and liked it enough to send us a quote for the cover:

"A cabinet of dark wonders, and an important—no, a crucial—map of the richness and strangeness and startling range of the modern American short story."

—Michael Chabon

Introduction

2007-04-02T12:29:00.000-05:00

Fantasy and the Imagination
by Jeff & Ann VanderMeer

In her extraordinary creative writing book The Passionate, Accurate Story, Carol Bly presents a hypothetical situation. One night at dinner a girl announces to her father and mother that a group of bears has moved in next door. In one scenario, the father says (and I paraphrase) “Bears? Don’t be ridiculous,” and tells his daughter to be more serious. In the other scenario, the father says, “Bears, huh? How many bears? Do you know their names? What do they wear?” And his daughter, with delight, tells him.

The imagination is a form of love: playful, generous, and transformative. All of the best fiction hums and purrs and sighs with it, and in this way (as well) fiction mirrors life. This is how we think of the fiction collected in this first volume of Best American Fantasy. There’s a flicker, a flutter, at the heart of these stories that animates them, and this movement—ever different, ever unpredictable—makes each story unique.

Does it matter if the imaginative impulse is “fantastical” in the sense of “containing an explicit fantastical event”? No. It matters only that, on some level, a sense of fantastical play exists on the page. Bears have moved in next door.

We often disregard this sense of play. Why? In part, the idea of “play” seems immature or frivolous, especially in a society still blinkered by its Puritan origins. However, we also tend to discount play because it speaks to an aspect of the imagination that defies easy measurement. It brings yet another level of uncertainty to an endeavor already supersaturated with the subjective.

During Medieval times, the imagination was often associated with the senses and thus thought to be one of the links between human beings and the animals. Only with the Rennaissance was the imagination firmly linked to creativity and thus the intellect. Both views, however, and modern ideals of functionality and utility—even, sometimes, the idea in modern fiction of invisible prose—ignore or have no place for the sense of play that precedes and infuses creative endeavor.

This is perhaps no surprise, given that you cannot teach imagination in a creative writing workshop. As Bly explicitly states in The Passionate, Accurate Story, by the time a person reaches the age where they want to write and be taught to write fiction, that particular muscle, that particular manifestation of the soul, is firmly locked in place. A good instructor can perhaps draw out an imaginative impulse in a timid student but cannot instill it as other, more empirical aspects of fiction, can be instilled with patience and a firm hand.

To pull out a hoary old quote, Jung once wrote: “The dynamic principle of fantasy is play, which belongs also to the child, and as such it appears to be inconsistent with the principle of serious work. But without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.”

In the stories contained in Best American Fantasy, events continually challenge and surprise our own imaginations. In this anthology, you will find talking alligators, a man as big as a county, baboon playwrights, a flying woman, sordid superheroes, men who marry trees, the fragments of a storyteller, and the very edge of the world. You may even find the end of narrative.

What you will not find is a set definition of “fantasy.” If you enter into reading this volume eager for such a definition or searching for the fantastical event that you believe should trigger the use of the term, you will overlook the many other pleasures that await you. These are the same pleasures you can find in non-fantastical stories: deep characterization, thematic resonance, clever plots, unique situations, pitch-perfect dialogue, enervating humor, and luminous settings. The extraordinary depth of imagination in the best stories affects not merely their content but their form, the form shaping the content, until we realize the two are not separate, that they are, in the best writing, united by the same imaginative act.

In a sense, defining “fantasy” in the context of fiction is a losing proposition—simply not worth the effort. We do not really talk like people talk in fiction. Lives do not have the kind of narrative arc or denouement often found in fiction. Therefore, we should not look askance at writers who change the paradigm, who have no interest in replicating reality if it does not suit their purposes. (A more interesting discussion of fantasy, beyond the scope of this introduction, might be to define it in the context of metaphor, because a writer’s voice may be described as fabulist rather than mimetic based solely on metaphor, regardless of the nature of the events occurring in the story.)

In all of this, it is important to remember that even flights of fancy must have anchors to be successful. The fantastical has no reality without its characters. The alligator knows the plot of the tale better than anyone. The man as big as a county is weeping for a reason. The flying woman has an admirer. The failed superhero has bills to pay. The edge of the world isn’t the end of everything. Even baboon playwrights and men who marry trees may have hidden depths. The fragments of the storyteller collect themselves long enough to tell one last story.

There’s no real end to narrative, just as there is no real end to the ways in which “fantasy” elements can be put to use in the service of narrative. Every time someone reads Bly’s A Passionate, Accurate Story and comes to the part where the father asks his daughter about the bears, there’s the tantalizing possibility in the reader’s mind that she’ll say something different—something wonderful or horrible or bittersweet.

There’s every possibility that what she says will be different for every reader, depending solely on the generosity of the individual imagination.

2007-03-25T17:02:00.000-05:00

Below are the stories in the first edition of Best American Fantasy, which includes work published in 2006:

A Hard Truth About Waste Management
by Sumanth Prabhaker
from Identity Theory

The Stolen Father
by Eric Roe
from Redivider

The Saffron Gatherer
by Elizabeth Hand
from Saffron & Brimstone (M Press)

The Whipping
by Julia Elliott
from The Georgia Review

A Better Angel
by Chris Adrian
from The New Yorker

Draco Campestris
by Sarah Monette
from Strange Horizons

Geese
by Daniel Coudriet
from The Mississippi Review

The Chinese Boy
by Ann Stapleton
from Alaska Quarterly Review

The Flying Woman
by Meghan McCarron
from Strange Horizons

First Kisses from Beyond the Grave
by Nik Houser
from Gargoyle

Song of the Selkie
by Gina Ochsner
from Tin House

A Troop [sic] of Baboons
by Tyler Smith
from Pindeldyboz

Pieces of Scheherazade
by Nicole Kornher-Stace
from Zahir

Origin Story
by Kelly Link
from A Public Space

An Experiment in Governance
by E.M. Schorb
from The Mississippi Review

The Next Corpse Collector
by Ramola D
from Green Mountains Review

The Village of Ardakmoktan
by Nicole Derr
from Pindeldyboz

The Man Who Married a Tree
by Tony D'Souza
from McSweeney's

A Fable with Slips of White Paper Spilling from the Pockets
by Kevin Brockmeier
from Oxford American

Pregnant
by Catherine Zeidler
from Hobart

The Warehouse of Saints
by Robin Hemley
from Ninth Letter

The Ledge
by Austin Bunn
from One Story

Lazy Taekos
by Geoffrey A. Landis
from Analog

For the Love of Paul Bunyan
by Fritz Swanson
from Pindeldyboz

An Accounting
by Brian Evenson
from Paraspheres (Omnidawn)

Abraham Lincoln Has Been Shot
by Daniel Alarcón
from Zoetrope: All-Story

Bit Forgive
by Maile Chapman
from A Public Space

The End Of Narrative (1-29; Or 29-1)
by Peter LaSalle
from The Southern Review

Kiss
by Melora Wolff
from The Southern Review

Preface

2007-03-23T09:25:00.000-05:00

BEST AMERICAN FANTASY
by Matthew Cheney

The three words in our title do not have stable definitions. Instead of a cause of frustration, this lack of stability can be a source of wonder.

Best. According to whom? Under what criteria? Relative to what?

American. Where? Is it a geography or a mindset? Is it governments or landscapes? Is it a history or a bunch of histories or the eradication of history? Is it by birth or choice? Is it more about and and less about or?

Fantasy. Swords and dragons? Dreams and portents? Nonsense? Does fantasy have to include magic, or can it simply hint at strangeness? Is it a genre or a lens? Is it subject or object? Can it live within the structure of a story, or must it emanate from the content? Where does fiction end and fantasy begin?

To explore these instabilities and pose impermanent answers to the questions, we have settled on two principles for this series: after the second volume, each book will have different guest editors; and every editor will be encouraged to search as broadly as possible for stories that fit within their conception of what best, American, and fantasy mean. If there is one prejudice at the heart of these anthologies, it is a prejudice in favor of the theory that great writing does not show up only in predictable places, under predictable labels, in predictable forms—great writing is, in fact, the least predictable.

* * *

You could be excused for wondering why the world needs yet another best-of-the-year collection when dozens are published annually by big and small publishers alike.

I can only answer by telling a story.

More forcefully than any other books, a series of best-of-the-year anthologies edited by Judith Merril in the 1950s and 1960s taught me how limitless and powerful short fiction can be. I discovered a few of these anthologies in a used bookstore when I was in my teens, and for some reason or another I bought them and read them. Though at first they challenged and frustrated me, soon I found those books to be among the most thrilling collections of short fiction I ever read.

The first of Merril’s anthologies came out in 1956, was titled The Year’s Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy, and had an introduction by Orson Welles. The last came out in 1968 and was titled SF 12. Merril had always had eclectic taste, but the last few volumes of her series are monuments to diversity. That last volume puts Donald Barthelme’s “The Balloon” beside J.G. Ballard’s “The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D”; it puts a short-short story by Günther Grass beside a novella by Samuel Delany; it puts writers generally considered traditional genre writers (Katherine MacLean, Fritz Leiber, Charles L. Harness) beside writers who skirted the boundaries of genres (Sonya Dorman, Thomas M. Disch, Carol Emshwiller) beside writers generally seen as “literary” writers (William S. Burroughs, John Updike, Hortense Calisher).

What is most remarkable to me now when I look at Merril’s last few annuals is that they represent the fiction of their time so well. Many of the writers she included are writers who have, for one reason or another, maintained strong reputations for decades. Certainly, there are stories and authors that have lost their appeal over the years, and stories that do not hold up well when read now, but the contents of those books still, forty years later, impress. (Consider, for instance, the authors listed on the cover of the beat-up old Dell paperback of the eleventh volume that I have: Arthur C. Clarke, Alfred Jarry, Isaac Asimov, J.G. Ballard, Roald Dahl, Thomas M. Disch, Gerald Kersh, Donald Barthelme, Jorge Luis Borges, John Ciardi, Harvey Jacobs, Fritz Leiber, and Art Buchwald. “And many more.” Indeed.)

Best-of-the-year collections today sometimes make an attempt to add writers of a variety of styles from various types of publications, but none to my knowledge make it part of their purpose the way Judith Merril did. That is the gap we seek to fill, because we believe the world of fiction is as diverse and exciting as it was when Merril was compiling her collections, and there should be one anthology, at least, to chronicle such diversity.

* * *

Why have any limits, then? Why best? Why American? Why fantasy?

One of the reasons we set limits is that we do not have time to read everything written everywhere in any one year. There are tens of thousands of short stories published annually in big and small magazines, in anthologies and single-author collections, on websites and via email subscriptions. We searched high and low and far and wide for every sort of fiction we could find, and yet we know there are great swathes we never even glimpsed.

I am haunted by all the stories I know we missed, the gems we never discovered, the masterpieces that got away. Nonetheless, I was amazed by the quality of writing we encountered—stories of vivid imagination, stylistic brilliance, narrative power, and personal vision. Every one of the dozens and dozens of stories I recommended to Ann and Jeff was one I thought would do the book proud if included. The stories we settled on including were the ones that we couldn’t forget, the ones we couldn’t bear to let go, the ones that held our interest even after we had read them again and again.

The list of Recommended Reading at the back of the book is a list of stories we seriously discussed including. We’re not lying when we say we recommend them. Seek them out. Support the publishers of these stories, because it is their efforts that allow quality writing of all types to thrive.

We have planned from the beginning to have Ann and Jeff VanderMeer as guest editors for two volumes, because we want to establish as solid a foundation for the series as possible, and I don’t know of anyone better qualified than the VanderMeers to help make this anthology vibrantly unique. Indeed, the project was their idea originally, and it would not exist without their vision and effort. Working with them on it has been both an honor and a joy.

SCOTT EAGLE: COVER ARTIST

2007-03-16T13:41:00.000-05:00

One thing we've decided to institute for BAF is a last page giving more information on the cover artist chosen for each volume. Each artist chosen will be North American and reflect on some aspect of the fantastic.

For the 2006-07 volume, Scott Eagle did the artwork. It's wonderful stuff.

Here's what we've included about Eagle in the book.

Jeff

“I have been tremendously influenced by the teachings of Joseph Campbell. One of his main themes was that ‘God is an intelligible sphere whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.’ He also insisted that the function of mythology and religion is to put the human spirit in accord with its environment and the artist is the symbol maker and the visionary in tune with both.” – Scott Eagle

The cover artist for the inaugural volume of Best American Fantasy is Scott Eagle. Eagle serves as Associate Professor and Area Coordinator of Painting and Drawing at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. His artworks have been exhibited and reproduced internationally. Publications featuring his artwork include The Oxford American, The New York Times, and the Cleveland Plains Dealer.

In the often harrowing, dreamlike world that Eagle conjures in his art, humans are perpetually at the mercy of forces beyond their control. They're beheaded, attacked by sharks, menaced by tornadoes, sent tumbling through space and otherwise rendered powerless, while mysterious events unfold around them.

“Eagle's work aptly reflects the uncertainty and frequent perils of corporeal existence. It's a timeless theme, but one that seems particularly relevant during troubled times.” - Tom Patterson, Winston-Salem Journal

“Perfectly capable of capturing the essence of his art historical sources, Eagle develops his borrowings into intensely personal statements, dense with implications. This introspective man, casting a wide net in his search for answers that ultimately come from within, distills what he has learned into accomplished paintings that glow darkly with a complicated commentary on these complicated times.”
- Huston Paschal, Curator, North Carolina Museum of Art

For more information on Eagle’s art, please visit his website.

Second Volume Announcement

2007-02-01T16:09:00.001-05:00

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

2007-02-01T16:08:00.003-05:00

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.

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

2007-02-01T16:05:00.001-05:00

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.