MAPPING THE BEAST

(projected cover art, Liza Phoenix)

Mapping the Beast: The Best of Leviathan & Album Zutique is due out in November of this year from Prime Books. I'm happy to say we've just about finalized the contents, except for a few stragglers. I'll post the full contents shortly, but can't help, being excitable and all, posting what we've got confirmed so far, and additional information.

Jacob McMurray of Payseur & Schmidt will do the cover design and interior layout.

I always thought of AZ as a mini-Leviathan and since it had a limited print run, I thought it wise to include it in the anthology. Leviathan 3 is probably the best-known of the Lev series, but some stories from it just had to be reprinted. Leviathan 4 had so many long stories it was just impossible to include more of them in this selection. But we probably will work out some kind of special offer through this blog, if nothing else, so when you buy Mapping the Beast you can get Lev4 at some kind of discount.

A lot of these stories are more transgressive than I remember. Some of them, like the Evenson, elicited review comments like "close to an abomination." I've included all of the most outrageous stories because I think that reviewer response was predicated more on moral grounds than on anything to do with the success or failure of the story in question. (One of the most notorious stories is still a straggler--hope to add it to the list soon.)

Jeff

Description

Mapping the Beast collects the best fiction from the anthology series Leviathan and its sister publication Album Zutique. From the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, Leviathan provided confrontational, sometimes controversial surreal short stories, and helped chart the limits of fantasy fiction. Contributors to Mapping the Beast include Edgar Award winner Jeffrey Ford, Crawford Award winner K.J. Bishop, NEA Fellow Brian Evenson, Philip K. Dick Award winner Stepan Chapman, World Fantasy Award winner Zoran Zivkovic, and many others. Editor and founder Jeff VanderMeer provides an indepth introduction and story notes to a collection sure to appeal to readers and academics alike.

Contents (minus a few stragglers)

“The Blue Flower Case,” Nels Hanson (Leviathan 1)

“The Face of Days,” Mark Rich (Leviathan 1)

“Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-aged Woman,” L. Timmel Duchamp (Leviathan 2)

“Gatling Gums,” from “The Darktree Wheel,” Rhys Hughes (Leviathan 2)

“Minutes from the Last Meeting,” Stepan Chapman (Leviathan 2)

“State Secrets of Aphasia,” Stepan Chapman (Leviathan 3)

“The Weight of Words,” Jeffrey Ford (Leviathan 3)

“The Progenator,” Brian Evenson (Leviathan 3)

“The Swan of Prudence Street,” Scott Thomas (Leviathan 3)

“My Father's Friends," from "The Genius of Assassins,” Michael Cisco (Leviathan 3)

“Noble Library,” Zoran Zivkovic (Leviathan 3)

“A Season With Dr. Black,” Brendan Connell (from Leviathan 3)

“The Dreaming City,” Ben Peek (Leviathan 4)

"A Hero For the Dark Towns," Jay Lake (from Album Zutique)

“Python,” Ursula Pflug (from Album Zutique)

“Maldoror Abroad,” K.J. Bishop (from Album Zutique)