Fearful Symmetries - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1771481935 ISBN 13: 9781771481939

Publisher: ChiZine Publications, 2014

Synopsis

2015 World Fantasy Award nominee! "This is an excellent anthology for horror fans, with a nice range of tones and styles and some intriguing new voices." - PW "This anthology, born out of a Kickstarter and published by ChiZine, is a collection of some of the most talented horror and speculative fiction authors writing today." - BuzzFeed Fearful Symmetries is a 2014 Bram Stoker Award Winner for Best Anthology and is a Shirley Jackson Award Nominee! From Ellen Datlow, award-winning and genre-shaping editor of more than fifty anthologies, and twenty of horror's established masters and rising stars, comes an all-original look into the beautiful, terrible, tragic, and terrifying. Wander through visions of the most terrible of angels, the Seven who would undo the world. Venture through Hell and back, and lands more terrestrial and darker still. Linger a while in childhoods, and seasons of change by turns tragic and monstrously transformative. Lose yourself amongst the haunted and those who can't let go, in relationships that might have been and never were. Witness in dreams and reflections, hungers and horrors, the shadows cast upon the wall, and linger in forests deep. Come see what burns so bright. . . .

About this title

From the Author:

From my introduction: Introduction
 
 
Fearful Symmetries was funded by Kickstarter, a crowd funding mechanism that has in the last few years increased in  popularity. Why did I do this rather than use a traditional approach to publishing an anthology? I've rarely had problems selling theme anthologies to book publishers. Before a publisher commits to buying a book (novel, single-author collection, or anthology) the publisher must sell the book to its marketing and sales people, who in turn have to sell it to bookstores. But non-theme anthologies  have always been a hard sell, and it's even more difficult it today's publishing climate.  
Using Kickstarter was an experiment. I've donated to several Kickstarter projects, but had never been involved with one before. I approached Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi, owners of the Canadian ChiZine Publications, to partner with me on the project. I thought they'd be a good match for what I had in mind because I enjoy what they publish and I love their production values and commitment to good-looking books. They also have excellent distribution, which means their books are available in most bookstores. This is important, so that the book is available to the general reading public, not only our several hundred backers. I was delighted (and relieved) when we reached our goal, and shocked when we went above it. The one thing we'd forgotten to factor in to our financial estimates was the percentage paid out to Amazon, who handled our payments, and to Kickstarter itself. So the money that went over our initial requirements went for that.
             I solicited some of the writers I've worked with in the past and also a few whose work I've admired but never published before. And in a break from my usual working method, Brett, Sandra, and I decided to hold a month-long open reading period. We promised to keep at least a couple of slots open for unsolicited stories submitted during that period. We received 1,080 submissions. There were several readers, including Sandra and a prominent Australian publisher/editor. Of those 1080 submissions, 119 were passed on to me. I ended up buying four.
            Every anthology is a balancing act, be it reprint or original, theme or unthemed.  While I love editing themed anthologies, there's something especially challenging and fun molding an anthology with fewer boundaries. The editor has to be even more aware of varying tones, themes, voice, and locale in the stories she acquires.
            So what can you look forward to in Fearful Symmetries? There are monsters--human and non-human. There are children -those who victimize, and those who are victims. There are supernatural horrors, psychological terrors, nourish dark fantasies, and downright weird fictions.
            Come on in, and make yourself a cozy little nook in the dark, and enjoy.

About the Author:

Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for over thirty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short fiction for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited more than fifty science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year, Lovecraft's Monsters, Fearful Symmetries, Nightmare Carnival, The Cutting Room, the six volume series of retold fairy tales starting with Snow White, Blood Red, and Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy  (the latter anthologies with Terri Windling).
Forthcoming are The Doll Collection and The Monstrous.
       She's won nine World Fantasy Awards, and has also won multiple Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre" and was honored with the Life Achievement Award given by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career. She has also won the Life Achievement Award given by the World Fantasy Convention.
      She lives in New York and co-hosts the monthly Fantastic Fiction Reading Series at KGB Bar.  More information can be found at datlow.com, on Facebook, and on twitter as @EllenDatlow.

About this edition

• Publisher: ChiZine Publications
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1771481935
• ISBN 13: 9781771481939
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400
• Editor: Ellen Datlow