ParaSpheres

Exploring the porous boundary between mainstream literary fiction and the genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, this collection of short stories juxtaposes the conventional and the fabulist—with dazzling results. In Rikki Ducornet’s �Lettuce,” a petitioner in a futuristic totalitarian state pays with his life when he requests permission to grow lettuce; �Birthday of the World,” by Ursula K. Le Guin, is narrated by a woman whose brother destroys their culture when he decides he wants to be God; and the disillusioned wife in Carol Schwalberg’s �The Midnight Lover” finds the perfect marriage partner in her dreams, only to be divorced by the dream lover. Containing 50 works by genre writers Kim Stanley Robinson and Michael Moorcock and noted literary authors Laird Hunt and Brian Evenson, this compilation expands the fiction subgenre that has been called �speculative” and �slipstream.”

ntroduction / Rikki Ducornet --Lionflower hedge / Ira Sher --
Son of Chimera / Leena Krohn --
Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe / Angela Carter --
Ever and anon / Kate Kasten --
Lithia Park / William Luvaas --
Third Jungle Book : A Mowgli story / Michael Moorcock --
White girl / Maureen N. McLane --
Lucky strike / Kim Stanley Robinson --
Third initiation: A gift from the land of dreams / Mary Mackey --
Side effects / Janice Law --
Concert pianist's flight / Carole Rosenthal --
Making faces / Stephen Shugart --
Town news / Justin Courter --
Midnight lover / Carol Schwalberg --
Night reconnaissance / Tom La Farge --
Short-term Memorial Park / Shelley Jackson --
Magnificent carp of Hichi Street / Paul Pekin --
Tears of Niobe / L. Timmel Duchamp --
Lettuce / Rikki Ducornet --
Night of love's last dance / Randall Silvis --
Five letters from an Eastern Empire / Alasdair Gray --
Beginnings, endings, and middles ball / Anna Tambour --
Jack Kerouac disembodied school of poetics / Rudy Rucker --
Nobody's home / Ira Sher --
Ice cream vendor / Leena Krohn --
Jubilee dreams / Karen Heuler --
An accounting / Brian Evenson --
Armegedn, or The end of the word / K. Bannerman --
Gardener of heart / Bradford Morrow --
Maryolatry / Laura Moriarty --
Cloud room / Kevin W. Reardon --
Tree / Noelle Sickels --
Nobody walks in London / Terry Gates-Grimwood --
Tiger's eye / Gladys Swan --
Skunk / Justin Courter --
Old flames in new bottles / Michael Andre-Driussi --
Power couple, or love never sleeps / Charlie Anders --
Who's there? / Rikki Ducornet --
Secret paths of Rajan Khanna / Jeff VanderMeer --
Dream catcher / Mercedes Sanchez --
B, Longing / Robin Caton --
Three tales / Laird Hunt --
About the Henbane City / Leena Krohn --
Losing the war / Stepan Chapman --
Flowers / Mark Wallace --
White man / Jeffrey Ford --
Finding the words / Michael Constance --
English/History / Laura Mullen --
Birthday of the world / Ursula K. Le Guin --
Cake / Michael Moorcock.