The Best American Fantasy series has undergone a series of important changes, starting with the publisher. Underland Press has acquired BAF and will publish the third volume, Real Unreal, in January of 2010. Real Unreal will contain 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.
This will be the final volume to be edited by Cheney, whose duties as series editor will be taken up by co-founders Ann and Jeff VanderMeer in future volumes. Cheney will remain in an advisory capacity to the VanderMeers, who previously served as guest editors for volumes one and two of the series.
Jeff VanderMeer is excited about the future of the series.
“Going forward, it will be great to assist the new guest editors in realizing their own visions for their years. Best American Fantasy is the only fantasy ‘year’s best’ that has a different editor every year selecting the stories,” said VanderMeer. “That keeps the series fresh and relevant, while negating traditional hierarchies and ideas of privilege within genre. No one set of tastes can rule for more than one year.”
Privilege and bias have been hot topics of discussion in recent years—especially when it comes to anthologies. Cheney said that diversity in the BAF series begins with the kind of literature considered for inclusion.
“In terms of diversity, one of the approaches that helps us is the diversity of our sources-we are not looking for stories only from one literary subculture, and each year we get different people to do the looking. The recent arguments within the SF community (some of which I’ve participated in, so I’m not unbiased here) have primarily been about severe gender imbalances in many anthologies and about increasing inclusion of writers who are not just straight white guys, because given the historical and social power that straight white guys have had in the world of writing and publishing, they’re the default, and that’s no good for anybody, including straight white guys,” said Cheney. “We haven’t had, in my memory, any conversations about this among the guest editors, but our track record, particularly with gender, is pretty good so far, mostly because we’re looking at so many different kinds of publications—a lack of diversity in a table of contents is, I think, often the result of too narrow a reading focus. Future volumes of BAF, though, make a concerted effort to undermine the idea of straight white guys as the default. Our next editors are Minister Faust, Junot Diaz, and Catherynne Valente, and we’ve finally got the resources to do something we’d hoped to do from the beginning: add Latin American fiction to our purview.”
According to Cheney, future volumes of 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. The editors also eventually hope to consider material published in Spanish and Portuguese.
With fiction from multiple genres being considered for inclusion, one might be curious as to what properly constitutes “fantasy.” Volume three guest editor Kevin Brockmeier’s choices were informed by an eclecticism that is thoroughly in keeping with the BAF series.
“I’m attracted to the distinction Samuel Delany draws in The Jewel-Hinged Jaw when he says that a naturalistic story is one about which we would say, ‘This could have happened,’ while a fantastic story is one about which we would say, ‘This could not have happened,’ a definition that has the advantage of being elastic enough to contain just about everything we mean when we talk about fantasy. Beyond that I have only my own personal taste to offer,” said Brockmeier. “I’ll confess, for instance, that Tolkien is not an author to whom I gravitate—Borges said of him, ‘I think of him as rambling on and on,’ and, ‘The problem with Lord of the Rings is that you’re left outside the book,’ to which my thoughts are yes, and yes—but I love Philip Pullman and Kelly Link and Italo Calvino and Angelica Gorodischer and Tim Pratt and any number of other fantasy writers who have published with both genre and literary presses. What I selected for the anthology, then, were the twenty this-could-not-have-happened stories that happened to speak most strongly to my own predilections, predilections which I tried to examine in the book’s introduction, which you can find at the Underland Press site. A few of the stories seemed to present the option of reading their fantastic elements as either legitimate occurrences or delusions on the part of the protagonist, and I can tell you that when that happened I chose to interpret them as authentic fantasy rather than some form of schizophrenic naturalism.”
It was Brockmeir’s fiction that led to his position as guest editor, according to Ann VanderMeer.
“Kevin had a story in BAF1 that I loved, and between that and his amazing novel I thought he would have the right sensibilities to edit BAF—that he got it, because his fiction is truly fantastical and truly American,” said Ann VanderMeer.
For more about the Best American Fantasy three, including a list of this year’s stories, visit http://www.bestamericanfantasy.com.
It seems they have a really good grip on “best” and “fantasy” but they’re hazy on the word “American”.
So, Latin American is American! “American” doesn’t just mean the US. They’re using it in the inclusive sense to mean the whole American continent. Fine… How about Canadian? But they have no intention of including French (Spanish and Portugese only) so maybe “American” somehow means the US and Latin America and not Canada — that’s probably a reasonable assumption, as while I didn’t recognise all the names on this year’s TOC, I didn’t see any Canadian writers. I could be wrong, and they might indeed be intending to collect the best US and Canadian and Latin American fantasy. In that case, by what argument does it make sense to leave out British and European and African and Australian fantasy?
There’s just something very odd about this, as if they’ve forgotten that the word “American” has any meaning. Or maybe they’re like SFWA, the Science Fiction Writers “of America”, oh yes, but we what we actually mean by “America” is “the whole world”.
Of course we include Canada. It’s in our original brief, so it didn’t seem necessary to emphasize it. Minister Faust is Canadian, and he’s the next guest editor. I am unsure if there are any Canadians in BAF3, but I do know we seek out Canadian publications.
French-Canadian work in translation is of course also eligible. I’m sure when we have further resources, we can consider French-Canadian fiction in French. But it’s somewhat ridiculous, with all due respect, to make the leap of logic you have above.
I’m also having a hard time–a very hard time–parsing the logic behind claiming we don’t know what “American” means and then also saying we’re mehow leaving out British, European, African, and Australian fantasy.
Our brief is “Best American Fantasy”. Other year’s bests cover everything. We’ve decided to have a more narrow focus so we can better concentrate on it and to bring more resources to bear on a smaller sample–and to explore the idea of “American”. So, no, we’re not like SFWA.
But, I appreciate your positive and supportive attitude–it’s always good when undertaking a difficult, time-intensive project that doesn’t pay anything to us as managers/administrators to get this kind of positive and useful reinforcement. So, thanks!
I’m sorry, I’m having a very grouchy day. I didn’t mean to snarl at you.
I’m very glad you’ll be including Canadian fantasy and Quebecois fantasy in translation.
I can see the point in having “Best Fantasy of the US” and I can see the point in having “Best Fantasy of the World” but I can’t see the point in having “Best Fantasy of the American continents” because I can’t see a way that makes a useful set. But as I said, I’m grouchy today, so maybe it makes sense to everyone else.
Well, if you consider the definition of genre as “works in close conversation with each other”, Canadian and other non-US American authors are often in closer conversation with the US F/SF conversation then authors from Europe, Africa or Asia might be.
The published material crosses the borders quite easily (e.g., books printed in the US having both US and Canadian dollar prices, on the assumption that the can and will be sold and read in both markets) and authors have easy access to each other, being likely to attend the same cons, use the same publishers, and be involved in the same conversations in other ways.
Also for English-language authors outside the US and Canada, there may not be a large enough English-language F/SF community to support their own “Best Of” anthologies, so that being included as eligible for an “American” Best-Of gives a chance at exposure to English language audiences that they might not otherwise have.
Canadian and other non-US American authors are often in closer conversation with the US F/SF conversation then authors from Europe, Africa or Asia might be.
This seems to hold true for Canadian SF to a much greater degree than for Latin American SF. I think the real unifying factor is the English language rather than geography. British SF feels much more like part of the conversation than Mexican and Argentinean SF – if only because US/Canadian writers are routinely reading the British stuff and being influenced by it.
But that’s why I think this is such a cool project. It broadens the sphere of possible influences. Apart from the Angelica Gorodischer I picked up at the Small Beer Press fire sale, I never see Latin American genre writing. The annual Best-ofs from Dozois, Strahan and Hartwell & Cramer already constitute an English-centric selection: why not cut the pie by region instead of language?
My only question: are there plans to include science fiction as well as fantasy?
If you like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings then you’ll love THE BROOMWHISTLE CHRONICLES. You get to meet Uncle Pindby and his Detective Academy for Near and Distant Relations. You meet also THE DWILL – a curious new group on the scene of Science Fiction and Fiction and their improbable war against the creatures in MONTROLLA.