Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with anthology

SF story about formerly-mortal woman

tigrrrlily — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:44:57 -0800

SFShortStoryFilter: Looking for a short(ish) story I must have read in one of the more popular SF anthologies about a human race of nigh-immortals spread out through several verses. The protagonist of the story was a woman who had been born before the advent of the technology of gradually supplanting the human brain with some sort of crystal medium. This made her practically unique in an infinite sea of later generations, and infinitely lonely. She had also, somehow, been responsible for humanity's expansion into different dimensions/verses through some sort of mathematical breakthrough.

Other details I remember:

She'd had a friend in her youth who'd managed to commit suicide. Either that friend or the protagonist herself had some Hungarian-sounding name (Magda? Margit? something like that). There was a game in the story that was reminiscent of volleyball with energy waves. Also, when people grew tired of their surroundings they never said goodbye, they just packed up and slipped away quietly in the night, to set up in some other community.

Short stories like this are the only stories here.

zoomorphic — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:42:08 -0800

I demand to know your favorite short story anthologies. I recently realized that my brain isn't cut out to read novels on the subway, so I've made a left turn to short stories. Single author collections of short stories are great, but I'm looking for anthologies that include various authors to keep things lively. I love the Best American Non-Required Reading series, as well as My Mistress' Sparrow Is Dead. I've also got Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules on my list.

My favorite short story authors are Lorrie Moore, Amy Bloom, Chekov and Flannery O'Connor, but I'm looking to expand.

What else should I pick up?

The best Spanish-language translators and anthologies of English-language poetry

Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:20:24 -0800

Who are the best translators (living or dead) of English-language poetry into Spanish, and what are the best anthologies of English-language poetry translated into Spanish? (I'm interested in hearing about anthologies compiled using any selective criteria, but I'd especially like to know what the best ones are that cover some aspect of twentieth-century American poetry.)

Short story involving children seeing an alternate world in the holes of stones

lockle — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:37:35 -0800

Short Story Filter. I remember a short story that I read in a sci-fi story anthology back in the mid 90's that I haven't been able to find since. There are a group of three boys, one of them substantially younger, who play out in a big field. One of the older boys tells the younger boy, as a joke, that if you look through the hole in the middle of a stone, you can see into another world of some kind. Mysterious circumstances then occur. From what I remember, the three boys are playing out in a field off and on throughout the story. The youngest boy is teased and picked on by the eldest boy the most. The eldest boy decides to play a trick on the youngest and looks through the naturally occuring hole in the center of a river rock and tells the boy that he can see into another world.

The younger boy looks through the hole and gets excited; he can see the world too! This makes the older boy angry since he was just trying to make the little kid feel bad that he couldn't see another world.

The little kid gets obsessed with this other magical world and starts gathering hundreds or thousands of stones in order to construct a small hut. He builds this hut and sits inside so he can look all around him and see into the other world.

The older boy, even angrier now, decides to teach him a lesson and knocks the hut down with the child inside. Instantly feeling guilty, he shifts the stones to get the kid out and the younger kid has disappeared, presumably into this alternate world.

Any idea what the title or author might be? Thanks!

Managing an Anothology Project

divabat — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:16:08 -0800

What should I take into consideration when spearheading an anthology project? What resources are out there for us? I'm organizing a book project to collect real-life stories related to the Others (non-Malay/Chinese/Indian, classified as "Other" on all official documentation) in Malaysia. This only started a few days ago, so it's all planning at this stage, but currently I've built up a great team and we're discussing issues on content, definitions, research, publication, and publicity.

While some of us in the group have some experience with publishing (as a writer, editor, or just part of the process somehow), none of us really have that much experience in starting, organizing, and managing such a project. I'm doing quite a bit of brainstorming to work out what we need to consider, but would like some ideas and tips in case I left anything out.

1. Publication - I've contacted a well-known socially-conscious (and somewhat alternative, but great for our target audience) local publisher, who is interested in looking at our manuscript when we're done. Their advice was to "just do it". This is great, but I'd also like Plans B, C, D, Etc.

How else can we find possible publishers, what should we look for in a publisher, and what should we ask them? Some in our group have suggested self-publishing - what should we take into consideration about this option? What other alternative options are there? (Malaysians, particularly our target readers, are quite web-savvy, but it is a bit difficult to purchase online due to Paypal/bank restrictions.)

2. Rights - how do we manage rights and contracts with contributors? I would like the contributors to keep the copyright to their works (and give an option for a Creative Commons license), but would this be a good idea overall? We're planning on field interviews (to get stories from people who won't necessarily write their own tales, such as older folk) and may possibly deal with translations - who gets the rights to those?

3. Finances - assuming we make money out of this, what would we do with the money? I don't think we'll ever make enough to pay each contributor individually (though that would be great!!). Donating the proceeds to an NGO would be great, but our topic is in-between niche and general and there isn't a specific NGO for Malaysian Others yet.

Also, I've heard a lot about how we shouldn't pay to get something published. If we're getting published through an established publisher, are there any costs we still have to look out for? We're thinking of possibly getting sponsorship - is it worth it? Would we need sponsorship? (Perhaps to cover costs of research and compilation?) Where would be good resources for money?

4. Timelines - what's a typical timeline for this project? I was thinking 6 months - get the Call for Submissions and guidelines ready within 3-4 weeks, get submissions for about 3-4 months, edit and compile and get everything ready for publication by Month 6. Is that realistic, or too short? What's normal?

5. Team needs - currently I'm scouting people for editorials, research/field interviews, publicity/promotions, website management, and logistics/finance/publishing. What other skills and roles would we need for a project like this?

Are there any resources for managing a project like this? I've seen plenty of books and articles on non-fiction writing, but those tend to assume you're the sole writer. Any resources on managing anthologies?

Thanks so much!

My god, it's full of Stars

Artw — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:27:24 -0800

I'm looking for a series of hardback science fiction anthologies I dimly remember from childhood (sometime in the mid 80s). I think it had a one word title with a number, and the series went up to at least number five. I remember two stories in particular... In one a childs home starmaking experiment goes wrong when he puts too much matter into his simulated universe, creating a spinning cylindrical black hole which escapes and destroys the earth.

In another two creatures, essentially sentient stars, play a game in which they throw their cores at each other. The cores are of different colors, and the color difference is analogous to a gender difference. In the end the "male" star impregnates the "female" star but loses it's core. As a dying act it creates life on an earth like planet and then flings the planet out into space.

Any ideas?

What is the perfect 25-track mix-cd of mostly-modern classical music?

beelerspace — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:06:57 -0800

If you were to give someone a 25-track crash course on classical music (a "mix-cd/playlist"), what compositions would you include? Such an anthology should of course have some historical context from, say Baroque and Romantic periods, but it'd be more helpful for me if it leaned towards modern composition and gave some idea of where classical music is progressing. Assume the listener (me?) has already taken an entry level college musical education class and therefore has heard the "classics" from classical music.

quite a tale indeed...

jadepearl — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 05:33:35 -0800

ScienceFictionfilter: Suggestions for gift subscriptions of science fiction magazines, journals printed in English and dead tree format I have reviewed the mefi post on anthologies but need specific magazines publishing current material. Is Analog still the best or is there better science fiction magazines? The focus should be short stories, printed in English though authors can be international or extraterrestrial and available in dead tree format. This is a requested gift from someone who is not into science fiction but wants to read the best available. He is definitely anti-fantasy so dragons, unicorns need not apply while the damsel in distress better be Princess Leia from Episode IV not slave girl Leia.

Can I legitimately ask prospective anthology contributors for money?

Faint of Butt — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:27:19 -0800

I want to publish a fiction anthology, and pay contributors for accepted submissions. Is it unutterably shady and horrible to ask prospective contributors to send a token fee (perhaps $1) with their submissions to defray costs? I know that a lot of scam "poetry contests" ask contributors to pay for consideration. My anthology concept is not a scam (naturally!); I just need money to defray costs and afford to pay people whose stories I accept. Is a request for money just a huge red flag that would get me blacklisted from every writer's mental Rolodex, or do legitimate publishers ever do this?

The best collections to help me learn to love poetry?

aebaxter — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 09:39:27 -0800

The best collections to help me learn to love poetry? Years ago a friend gave me Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Excited to be all literary, I tried to read the poems, but they were either over my head at that age or I wasn't putting forth the proper effort required to understand and appreciate them, probably both. I've recently tried again and I'm enjoying the poetry much more. Song of the Universal is my favorite so far.

I'd like to read other collections of poems. What are some really excellent starters for a poetry beginner?