Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing (Paperback)

by Delia Sherman (Editor), Theodora Goss (Editor)
Key Phrases: sewer fields, mortal anxiety, Mary Kay, Gunther Lopez, Redemption Mountain (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Nineteen writers dig into the imaginative spaces between conventional genres—realistic and fantastical, scholarly and poetic, personal and political—and bring up gems of new fiction: interstitial fiction.

This is the literary mode of the new century, a reflection of the complex, ambiguous, and challenging world that we live in. These nineteen stories, by some of the most interesting and innovative writers working today, will change your mind about what stories can and should do as they explore the imaginative space between conventional genres. The editors garnered stories from new and established authors in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and also fiction translated from Spanish, Hungarian, and French. The collection features stories from Christopher Barzak, Colin Greenland, Holly Phillips, Rachel Pollack, Vandana Singh, Anna Tambour, Catherynne Valente, Leslie What, and others.

"A wildly varied cacophony of a book, by turns beautiful, funny, frightening, frustrating, and baffling, but never boring."
—New Haven Review

"Odd, Deep, Delightful"
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"This idea of playing with genre conventions is interstitiality's charm and what makes it a movement for the hypertext age. We want words to do more now and for our time not to have been spent with just one idea."
—Adrienne Martini, Baltimore City Paper

Delia Sherman was born in Tokyo and brought up in New York City. She earned a PhD in Renaissance studies at Brown University and taught at Boston and North-eastern universities. She is the author of the novels Through a Brazen Mirror, The Porcelain Dove (a Mythopoeic Award winner), and Changeling. Sherman co-founded the Interstitial Arts Foundation, dedicated to promoting art that crosses genre borders.

Theodora Goss was born in Hungary and spent a peripatetic childhood in various European countries. She teaches at Boston University, is completing a PhD, and is introducing classes on the fantastic tradition in English literature. She is the author of a short story collection, In the Forest of Forgetting.

About the Author
Delia Sherman was born in Tokyo, Japan and brought up in New York City. She earned a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies at Brown University and taught at Boston University and Northeastern. She is the author of the novels Through a Brazen Mirror, The Porcelain Dove (Mythopoeic Award winner), Changeling, and The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Interstitial Arts Foundation (April 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931520240
• ISBN-13: 978-1931520249
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #251,719 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interstitial means the space between., April 8, 2007

By	Eleanor Skinner (Albany, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The stories in this collection are:
Karen Jordan Allen, "Alternate Anxieties"
Christopher Barzak, "What We Know About the Lost Families of - House"
K. Tempest Bradford, "Black Feather"
Matthew Cheney, "A Map of the Everywhere"
Michael DeLuca, "The Utter Proximity of God"
Adrián Ferrero, "When It Rains, You'd Better Get Out of Ulga" (translated from Spanish)
Colin Greenland, "Timothy"
Csilla Kleinheincz, "A Drop of Raspberry" (translated from Hungarian)
Holly Phillips, "Queen of the Butterfly Kingdom"
Rachel Pollack, "Burning Beard - The Dreams and Visions of Joseph Ben Jacob, Lord Viceroy of Egypt"
Joy Marchand, "Pallas at Noon"
Anna Tambour, "The Shoe in SHOES' Window"
Veronica Schanoes, "Rats"
Léa Silhol, "Emblemata" (translated from French)
Jon Singer, "Willow Pattern"
Vandana Singh, "Hunger"
Mikal Trimm, "Climbing Redemption Mountain"
Catherynne Valente, "A Dirge for Prester John"
Leslie What, "Post hoc"

I count at least 6 really good stories out of 19, which is a lot better than most anthologies. 'Willow Pattern' is a catalogue of ceramics in a collection, which include at least one piece depicting aliens. 'A Drop of Raspberry' is the story of a lake who saves the life of a drowning man, and what they do after. In 'Timothy,' the namesake character turns into a man and shows up for dinner, as usual. 'The Utter Proximity of God' is funny. 'Queen of the Butterfly Kingdom' is by Holly Phillips, which means it's good; it's about a writer whose beloved is being held in a hostage situation. 'Burning Beard' is about the seer Joseph - yes, Joseph from the Bible. 'Climbing Redemption Mountain' is about two brothers whose semi-abusive father has died, and is very very good.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rockin' Anthology, May 10, 2007

By	mungo181 (New York) - See all my reviews

If you're a fan of experimental fiction or literary fiction, you can't go wrong with this anthology. So many of the stories are memorable, but some standouts are "What We Know About the Lost Families of _____ House" by Christopher Barzak, where a town tells a story of a woman who falls in love with a haunted house, and Rachael Pollack's "Burning Board" is a very non-traditional rewrite of the story of Joseph ben Jacob, the Old Testament Hebrew prophet. Leslie What's "Post Hoc" is a sort of homage to Eudora Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O." A pregnant woman mails herself to her unresponsive ex-boyfriend, only to end up in the dead-letter office. There are so many good stories in this book, it's hard not to love.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good, And Pushes Your Expectations of Genre, February 27, 2008

By	S. S. White "Calico Reaction" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What is interstitial fiction? This short story anthology does its best to find out. From the intro, which defines interstitial being between borders, but something that's not a hybrid, to each of the 19 stories crafted by some damn talented voices in fiction, I have to say, I learned a lot. Interstitial writing isn't just about genre, or only about genre. In some stories, interstitality had to do with place, or with character, or with a particular moment in life. This book is shelved in the SF/F section of the store, and indeed, some of the stories certainly have a magical realist flair, but if I had to classify this book as anything, it's literary fiction. It's not an anthology that's for everyone, but for anyone with a love of language and fine writing with an open and inquisitive imagination, I think you'll find this anthology worth your while. I know I sure did.