Like oak leaves in autumn, cascading on stiles

[sovay]

Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, R.I.P. I grew up on this series. Each year I bought the new collection, scoured used book stores for past years; I discovered writers through them—they were the reprint market to which all short stories and poems aspired. They were a field guide as well as a gathering of flowers. And I am not, not pleased to see them go.

Comments

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Well, THAT's the cherry on the shit sundae.

Not ONLY are we not pregnant this month, I can't hoard up my Barnes and Noble GC from the holidays in order to run out and buy YBF&H.

I think I'm going to go engage in full-on nervous collapse now.

[sovay]

I can't hoard up my Barnes and Noble GC from the holidays in order to run out and buy YBF&H.

Yeah. Intellectually, it's a terrible loss for the field; and forget the landscape of fiction, I wanted to read this year's collection! I do not like writing obituaries for books.

I think I'm going to go engage in full-on nervous collapse now.

*hugs*

Please do not. I like you uncollapsed.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

It is a terrible loss for the field. I never cared quite as much for it post-Datlow-Windling, but that was me, and I did find SOMETHING -- multiple somethings -- to love every year.

The collapse is from housing crisis/leftover miscarriage emotional trappings/my actually quite enjoyable job/hating people for no logical reason and feeling like a hypocrite/a sinus infection. All at once. I am sure you can relate.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

As I wrote over at lcrw:

"This is just . . . wrong.

"YBF&H is what writers aspired to; where readers found the indispensable and undiscovered; where scholars read 'the abstract and brief chronicles of the time.' It has been truly an anthology, a garland of green.

"Many many thanks to all who worked on it, who made that long shelf of brilliant, provocative, astonishing stories and poems."

But field guide is perfect.

So bittersweet to see you in this last edition; so sad to think we'll never open next year's or the next to read a poem or a story by a rising friend, an immortal, a newfound voice...

Nine

[sovay]

All at once. I am sure you can relate.

Yes.

You are loved.

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

. . . the hell? Why? The linked article doesn't explain.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You too are loved.

Do you know any rabid goats I could borrow?

[sovay]

Why? The linked article doesn't explain.

Jeff VanderMeer has some ideas.

[sovay]

so sad to think we'll never open next year's or the next to read a poem or a story by a rising friend, an immortal, a newfound voice...

I know. Who would I have discovered next?

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry to hear.

They were good anthologies--I hope maybe in a couple of years they can get them back running again.

[gwynnega]

So sad and disappointing.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

You and me both. And an awful lot of other people too, to judge by my f-list.

My suspicion is that it's not gone for long, that some enterprising small press will pick it up (a series with that rep and an established readership? Oh, surely...). But I have been wrong before.

[sovay]

Do you know any rabid goats I could borrow?

I don't even know any healthy goats. There used to be llamas at Wilson Farms. Is that an acceptable substitute?

[sovay]

And an awful lot of other people too, to judge by my f-list.

It's like national mourning.

that some enterprising small press will pick it up (a series with that rep and an established readership? Oh, surely...).

Seriously. I wish you a well-founded suspicion!

[sovay]

So sad and disappointing.

And where am I going to look for year's best poetry now?

[sovay]

They were good anthologies--I hope maybe in a couple of years they can get them back running again.

I don't know where they would go. But I can hope. I don't like the idea of a world without such an institution.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

No, no. Rabid. *sighs* But llamas do spit...

[mer-moon.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

A big part of me wonders whether a letter campaign of "please, don't" to St Martin's would have any effect on their decision.

[sovay]

A big part of me wonders whether a letter campaign of "please, don't" to St Martin's would have any effect on their decision.

The worst that would happen is it fails . . . ?

[eredien]

Oh, what a shame. I guess this will encourage me to go out and read the volumes I haven't yet, but I was hoping to really sink my teeth into the next one, and when I was small kept thinking, "I want to be in that, one day"--and now, won't have the chance.

[sovay]

and when I was small kept thinking, "I want to be in that, one day"--and now, won't have the chance.

I know. I would entirely have approved of seeing you reprinted.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Exactly. We can hope, at least.

desperance's idea is a good one. I hope there's a small press out there willing and able to give it a try.

[eredien]

Wow, thank you.