“There are allegedly two stories to tell: a stranger comes to town, or a person goes on a trip…This was an idea I paid to hear.” – Ben Marcus, The Anchor Book Of New American Short Stories
Anthology booklist! Anthologies are great for skipping around and sampling authors. Since starting this blog, though, I’ve been trying to rip through them cover-to-cover. I haven’t done that with all of these, but uhhhhh…you should.
The idea for this list came to me a number of months ago, before I was published in Hollowpoint Press’s First Strike anthology. So it’s not inspired by an anthology I’m in, but it is a reason to talk about the anthology I’m in.
If you can believe it, I’ve got enough anthologies on the shelf for a volume II of this booklist. I gotta read them, though.
POEMS FOR THE MILLENNIUM VOL.1
& I’m only listing volume one because it’s the only one I’ve read. Certainly not cover to cover. This is a massive book, recommended to me in undergrad by Joshua Marie Wilkinson because I was interested in surrealism. He was like, “well you need to read some Aimé Césaire before you continue down this path.” Talk about a foundational book. Tons of Paul Celan.
THE BREAKBEAT POETS SERIES
I know of four volumes: The BreakBeat Poets, Black Girl Magic, Halal If You Hear Me, and LatiNext. Have I gone cover-to-cover on all of these? Not yet. They did introduce me to a lot of poets I still love, though—Eve L. Ewing, Nate Marshall, José Olivarez, Melissa Lozada-Oliva, Mahogany L. Browne, Safia Elhillo, and hey, even my former bookstore comrade beyza ozer is in here!
12×12: CONVERSATIONS IN 21ST-CENTURY POETRY AND POETICS
Admittedly one for the real poetry sickos, but this book rules. Yes, my friend JMW put it together, and maybe that makes me biased, but this book rules. Sort of a proto-The Line Break format, as both poets share a poem of their own, the poems ghosting over the conversation. Jon Woodward talks to Rae Armantrout, Sabrina Orah Mark talks to Claudia Rankine, Christian Hawkey talks to Tomaž Šalamun, Srikanth Reddy talks to Mark Levine. That’s not even half of the conversations.
THE BELIEVER BOOK OF WRITERS TALKING TO WRITERS
Would you like to read 12×12, but for fiction writers? George Saunders is in this.
MCSWEENEY’S MAMMOTH EDITION OF THRILLING TALES
Sure, it’s probably more “an issue of McSweeney’s” than it is “an anthology,” but it’s bound more like a book than a journal, okay? This is a foundational document in the genre-ification of literature—for more on this topic, read Lincoln Michel’s Counter Craft blog—and was a big deal for me when I first of it around six or seven years after it came out in 2003. Very worth reading, with tons of great authors, like Aimee Bender, Stephen King, and some others that aren’t even listed on the cover.
TINY CRIMES
Flash fiction crime fiction. Some really great stuff in here—I’ve talked about this one and its twin at length on this blog, so I won’t go on too long here. These two books are so worth getting, and I really need to get my hands on Gigantic Worlds.
TINY NIGHTMARES
Tiny Crimes, but for horror. Monique Laban’s story in here is one of my favorite stories ever.
NEVER WHISTLE AT NIGHT
Absolutely read this one cover to cover. Indigenous horror fiction—what more can I say? Super grateful to this book for introducing me to my friend Ted “Theodore” C. Van Alst, Jr., the amazing Tiffany Morris, and so many more. There’s a part two coming this month on August 18th, getchyr preorders in.
OUT THERE SCREAMING
Jordan Peele knows how to pick them. I need to read this one all the way through, but the stories I’ve read are fantastic. Horror is better when it’s diverse, and Out There Screaming and Never Whistle At Night are treasure troves.
THE ANCHOR BOOK OF NEW AMERICAN SHORT STORIES
Once my favorite anthology of short stories. It can’t really hold that title in good conscience because every single writer in here might be white? Nope, Jhumpa Lahiri is here! Yikes. 2004, this anthology came out. Pretty sure we had Black writers and Latine writers and East Asian writers in the U.S. back then, Ben Marcus. Still, hugely influential to me. Introduced me to Aimee Bender, George Saunders, Lydia Davis, Diane Williams, Joe Wenderoth, Anthony Doerr, Mary Gaitskill, Padgett Powell, and Wells Tower (before we realized he was a one-book hack and possible racist troll). This anthology even has some of Anne Carson’s Short Talks in it—the whole thing really pushes the boundaries of what counts as a short story. It set me on a multi-modal path, or more accurately, taught me that multi-modality was worth pursuing in all writing.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris