About the Author

RIKKI DUCORNET Introduction IRA SHER Lionflower Hedge LEENA KROHN The Son of Chimera ANGELA CARTER The Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe KATE KASTEN Ever and Anon WILLIAM LUVAAS Lithia Park MICHAEL MOORCOCK The Third Jungle Book: A Mowgli Story MAUREEN N. MCLANE White Girl KIM STANLEY ROBINSON The Lucky Strike MARY MACKEY Third Initiation: A Gift from the Land of Dreams JANICE LAW Side Effects CAROLE ROSENTHAL The Concert Pianist's Flight STEPHEN SHUGART Making Faces JUSTIN COURTER The Town News CAROL SCHWALBERG The Midnight Lover TOM LA FARGE Night Reconnaissance SHELLEY JACKSON Short-Term Memorial Park PAUL PEKIN The Magnificent Carp of Hichi Street L. TIMMEL DUCHAMP The Tears of Niobe RIKKI DUCORNET Lettuce RANDALL SILVIS The Night of Love's Last Dance ALASDAIR GRAY Five Letters From an Eastern Empire ANNA TAMBOUR The Beginnings, Endings, and Middles Ball RUDY RUCKER The Jack Kerouac Disembodied School of Poetics IRA SHER Nobody's Home LEENA KROHN The Ice Cream Vendor KAREN HEULER Jubilee Dreams BRIAN EVENSON An Accounting K. BANNERMAN Armegedn, or The End of the Word BRADFORD MORROW Gardener of Heart LAURA MORIARTY Maryolatry KEVIN W. REARDON The Cloud Room NOELLE SICKELS The Tree TERRY GATES-GRIMWOOD Nobody Walks in London GLADYS SWAN The Tiger's Eye JUSTIN COURTER Skunk MICHAEL ANDRE-DRIUSSI Old Flames in New Bottles CHARLIE ANDERS Power Couple, or Love Never Sleeps RIKKI DUCORNET Who's There? JEFF VANDERMEER The Secret Paths of Rajan Khanna MERCEDES SANCHEZ Dream Catcher ROBIN CATON B, Longing LAIRD HUNT Three Tales LEENA KROHN About the Henbane City STEPAN CHAPMAN Losing the War MARK WALLACE The Flowers JEFFREY FORD The White Man MICHAEL CONSTANCE Finding the Words LAURA MULLEN English / History URSULA K. LE GUIN The Birthday of the World MICHAEL MOORCOCK Cake

Reviews

"ParaSpheres demonstrates that its editors, Rusty Morrison and Ken Keegan, truly took Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists, a project dear to me, to heart, for it inspired them to assemble this marvelous, marvelously generous collection of stories that dart back and forth over the boundary supposedly separating the genre of the fantastic from mainstream literature. By means of the excellence of their taste and the breadth of their vision, Morrison and Keegan prove not only that this so-called boundary has become remarkable for its porosity, but that many of the stories coming from the down-low side of the wire make up some of the most innovative and exciting fiction being written today."--Peter Straub

"ParaSpheres...offers something for everyone, even those inclined toward 'literary' fiction...yet these stories go beyond the classification of fantasy, magical realism, and speculative fiction. The editors...have sought out some fine examples of literary fiction with fantastic elements...the stories...are compelling, moving, amusing, and often profound. Some...are simply such great tales that readers will find it easy to cry or laugh...There is plenty more to challenge the imagination--and the status quo--in this excellent anthology of fabulist tales."-- "ForeWord Magazine"

"At over 600 pages, this meaty collection of stories may seem overwhelming at first blush, but for the short story reader it's a blessing between two paperback covers. ParaSpheres, published by Omnidawn, gives readers such as myself such an escape from the normal, the humdrum, the darkening skies of November that make me grit my teeth until the porcelain begins to shatter, that I've been only too happy to bury my nose in nothing but this for the timebeing."-- "Carp(e) Libris Reviews"

"Omnidawn Publishing's massive new anthology, ParaSpheres...is a feast of fine writing and striking applications of the fantastic to the everyday...Indeed the particular value of ParaSpheres lies in its exhibition of a large group of established mainstream writers cutting their teeth on the fantastic or (more to the point) revealing that the fantastic has always been fundamental to their technique, implying that the envelope of speculative fiction should be cast a lot wider than we often suppose it can be. After reading ParaSpheres, I found myself eagerly searching for more work by a lot of the 'literary' authors sampled here: Ira Sher, Paul Pekin, William Luvaas, Randall Silvis. But to open in more familiar territory: ParaSpheres does include some strong reprints by major genre names, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Rudy Rucker, Jeffrey Ford, Michael Moorcock. Of its best original entries, two are by genre contributors. Jeff VanderMeer's 'The Secret Paths of Rajan Khanna'...[and] L. Timmel Duchamp's novelette 'The Tears of Niobe'...Michael Moorcock's: 'The Third Jungle Book: A Mowgli Story' is good, a look at contemporary British realities through the prism of Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs; Michael Andre-Driussi sardonically entraps an unwary lover in an alternate reality in 'Old Flames in New Bottles'; Terry Gates-Grimwood gleefully savages the UK's body politic in 'Nobody Walks in London.' ...An SF audience should appreciate all the items just mentioned...And yet there's equal enjoyment to be had either side; and in pointing this fact out, ParaSpheres performs and inestimable service."-- "Locus"

"Perhaps more than anything, the book makes an argument regarding how perceptions about fiction are cultivated, how we seek to categorize literature before we even start reading it. ParaSpheres is full of superb stories, but the results in regards to its argument are not clear-cut--even though the anthology is probably stronger because of that. Just as the individual stories risk a great deal in their linguistic and structural play, the overarching conceits of the collection provide a reading experience that is not easy to categorize."-- "Rain Taxi"

"The editors have cast an impressively wide net...As a collection of stories, and an introduction to a number of interesting new writers, ParaSpheres is fine, and well worth your attention."-- "Interzone"

"The editors of ParaSpheres have cast their nets widely and brought back a marvelous anthology full of marvelous tales. The sum of an anthology can sometimes be greater than its parts, and these parts-these stories-are bold, haunting, and remarkable."--Kelly Link

"While it would be possible to make a number of minor criticisms about a handful of the stories in this anthology, the overwhelming majority are very strong. ParaSpheres has succeeded in addressing a significant question in the world of literature by presenting an excellent selection of unique writing and providing an alternative framework through which it may be understood. Because that framework is divergent rather than convergent, the pieces become a platform of potential, not a string of stories written to a rigorous formula. It is a work that has great relevance to the evolution of literature and, functioning as both an anthology of fiction and a reference volume, should be of interest to the reader and academic alike."-- "HorrorScope"