Elsewhere: Tales of Fantasy

Elsewhere #1

by Terri Windling (Editor), Mark Alan Arnold (Editor), John Crowley (Contributor)

From the secret places of the soul to sorcerous lands of faraway from hidden magical coves to vast and dragon-haunted plains:
ELSEWHERE
Fantasy worlds created by the masters of the genre, including original stories by:
C. J. Cherryh — "Sea Change"
M. John Harrison — "Virivonium Knights"
Michael Moorcock — "Elric at the End of Time"
Evangeline Walton — "Judgement of St. Yves"
and other tales fo timeless fantasy — plus an "Islandian Tale" from teh unpublished writings of Austin Tappan Wright, author of the American utopia classic ISLANDIA.
Come journey through realms of twilight and enchantment that like just beyond the everyday world...
ELSEWHERE
30 short stories, poems and drawings from the best of fantasy literature.
* Introduction (Elsewhere) • essay by Mark Alan Arnold and Terri Windling
* The Green Child • short story by John Crowley
* Pooka's Bridge • short story by Gillian Fitzgerald
* The Hosting of the Sidhe • (1893) • poem by W. B. Yeats [as by William Butler Yeats]
* The Judgement of St. Yves • short story by Evangeline Walton
* Sweetly the Waves Call to Me • short story by Pat Murphy
* The Merman in Love • poem by Jane Yolen
* The Renders • short story by Janny Wurts
* The Golden Slipper • (1959) • short story by Antanas Vaiciulaitis
* A Spell for Sleeping • (1958) • poem by Alastair Reid
* The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship • (1972) • short story by Gabriel García Márquez? (trans. of El último viaje del Buque Fantasma)
* Pale Horse • (1969) • poem by Masao Takiguchi
* The Thunder Cat • (1965) • short story by Nicholas Stuart Gray
* Queen Louisa • (1972) • short story by John Gardner
* The Song of the Dragon's Daughter • (1977) • poem by Ursula K. Le Guin
* The Prodigal Daughter • novelette by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
* Little Boy Waiting at the Edge of the Darkwood • short fiction by Andrew J. Offutt
* The Tree's Wife • (1978) • short story by Jane Yolen
* Introduction (An Islandian Tale: The Story of Alwina) • essay by Tappan King (variant of Introduction (Islandian Tale: The Story of Alwina)) [as by Tappan Wright King]
* An Islandian Tale: The Story of Alwina • [Islandia] • (1981) • novelette by Austin Tappan Wright
* The Unicorn Masque • novelette by Ellen Kushner
* The Succubus • (1971) • poem by John Alfred Taylor
* Ku Mei Li: A Chinese Ghost Story • novelette by M. Lucie Chin
* Tatuana's Tale • (1973) • short story by Miguel Ángel Asturias (trans. of Leyenda de la Tatuana 1930)
* Overheard on a Saltmarsh • (1912) • poem by Harold Monro
* Tales of Houdini • short story by Rudy Rucker
* Oh! My Name Is John Wellington Wells • (1877) • poem by W. S. Gilbert
* Elric at the End of Time • [Tales from the End of Time • 5] • novelette by Michael Moorcock
* Song of Amergin • (1948) • poem by Robert Graves
* Viriconium Knights • [Viriconium] • short story by M. John Harrison
* The Magician • (1971) • short story by William Kotzwinkle
* Sea Change • short story by C. J. Cherryh
* Contributors' Notes (Elsewhere) • essay by uncredited

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction, Fiction

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1981

About the author

Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her anthology The Armless Maiden, a fiction collection for adult survivors of child abuse, appeared on the shortlist for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. She was also honored with SFWA's Soltice Award in 2010, a lifetime achievement award for "significant contributions to the speculative fiction field as a writer, editor, artist, educator, and mentor". Windling's work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Lithuanian, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, and Korean.

In the American publishing field, Windling is one of the primary creative forces behind the mythic fiction resurgence that began in the early 1980s—first through her work as an innovative editor for the Ace and Tor Books fantasy lines; secondly as the creator of the Fairy Tales series of novels (featuring reinterpretations of classic fairy tale themes by Jane Yolen, Steven Brust, Pamela Dean, Patricia C. Wrede, Charles de Lint, and others); and thirdly as the editor of over thirty anthologies of magical fiction. She is also recognized as one of the founders of the urban fantasy genre, having published and promoted the first novels of Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, and other pioneers of the form.

With Ellen Datlow, Windling edited 16 volumes of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (1986–2003), an anthology series that reached beyond the boundaries of genre fantasy to incorporate magic realism, surrealism, poetry, and other forms of magical literature. Datlow and Windling also edited the Snow White, Blood Red series of literary fairy tales for adult readers, as well as many anthologies of myth & fairy tale inspired fiction for younger readers (such as The Green Man, The Faery Reel, and The Wolf at the Door). Windling also created and edited the Borderland series for teenage readers.

As an author, Windling's fiction includes The Wood Wife (winner of the Mythopoeic Award for Novel of the Year) and several children's books: The Raven Queen, The Changeling, A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale, The Winter Child, and The Faeries of Spring Cottage. Her essays on myth, folklore, magical literature and art have been widely published in newsstand magazines, academic journals, art books, and anthologies. She was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, edited by Jack Zipes.

As an artist, Windling specializes in work inspired by myth, folklore, and fairy tales. Her art has been exhibited across the US, as well as in the UK and France.

Windling is the founder of the Endicott Studio, an organization dedicated to myth-inspired arts, and co-editor (with Midori Snyder) of The Journal of Mythic Arts. She also sits on the board of the Mythic Imagination Institute. A former New Yorker, Windling spend many years in Tucson, Arizona, and now lives in Devon, England. She is married to dramatist Howard Gayton, co-director of the Ophaboom Theatre Company.

Reviews

[Lyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was full of shockingly bad short stories.

[Dion · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a mostly excellent collection of short fantasy stories that primarily feature women! There was also some diversity in terms of non-Western fables and settings as well as queer pairings, which of course means bonus points!

I skipped the Elric story because it was dragging and Queen Louisa seemed nonsensical, but The Thunder Cat and Ku Mei Li were excellent! I also liked the Viriconium Knights enough that I went searching for other books in the same series. The Prodigal Daughter was another success and when I searched for other works by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, I found the Amazons II anthology which was absolutely fantastic!

C.J. Cherryh's finishing story, Sea Change, was beautiful and made me instantly go look for more of her work. I love this anthology and highly recommend it.

[Ruth Martinez · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit outdated in style, I wasn't into too many of the tales. Love the cover though!

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories describe eerie beauty and tragedy in the tone of whispers, rumour and half-forgotten legend. This series reminds me why I love this genre.