The Beastly Bride

Today is the release day for The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

I haven't seen a copy yet--I just received the email that my copy has shipped--but I try to be mostly timely with the reminders and announcements of new titles.

Here's the publisher's description:

What do werewolves, vampires, and the Little Mermaid have in common? They are all shapechangers. In The Beastly Bride, acclaimed editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling bring together original stories and poems from a stellar lineup of authors including Peter S. Beagle, Ellen Kushner, Jane Yolen, Lucius Shepard, and Tanith Lee, as well as many new, diverse voices. Terri Windling provides a scholarly, yet accessible introduction, and Charles Vess’s decorations open each story. From Finland to India, the Pacific Northwest to the Hamptons, shapechangers are part of our magical landscape—and The Beastly Bride is sure to be one of the most acclaimed anthologies of the year.

A Kirkus Review:

Readers of a Datlow/Windling anthology have certain expectations: that the thick volume will include stories by writers both known and new; that headpieces for each tale will be Vess's sinuously evocative drawings; that a fully formed introduction will lay out the collection's parameters; that notes and a bit of biography will follow each story; and that an excellent bibliography will be included. The 22 writers include Jane Yolen, Ellen Kushner, Midori Snyder, Tanith Lee and Peter S. Beagle, among others. Delia Sherman's "The Selkie Speaks" allows a seal maiden to tell her own tale; Terra L. Gearhart-Serna brings a trickster's sly voice and a little Spanish into her first published writing, "Coyote and Valarosa." Marly Youmans turns to glassmaking and the Blue Ridge Mountains for the intensely romantic "The Salamander's Fire." The three interwoven motifs of these tales, inspired by many cultures, are beings who shape-shift between animal and human of their own will, who are transformed as a curse or enchantment and who are both human and animal yet wholly neither. Rich reading that meets the editors' high standards. (Fantasy/short stories. 12 & up)

Table of Contents:

The Beastly Bride and Other Tales of the Animal People
Preface by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Introduction by Terri Windling

Island Lake by E. Catherine Tobler
The Puma’s Daughter by Tanith Lee
Map of Seventeen by Christopher Barzak
The Selkie Speaks by Delia Sherman
Bear’s Bride by Johanna Sinisalo
The Abominable Child’s Tale by Carol Emshwiller
The Hikikomori by Hiromi Goto
The Comeuppance of Creegus Maxin by Gregory Frost
Ganesha by Jeffrey Ford
The Elephant’s Bride by Jane Yolen
The Children of Cadmus by Ellen Kushner
The White Doe Mourns Her Childhood by Jeanine Hall Gailey
The White Doe’s Love Song by Jeanine Hall Gailey
The White Doe Decides by Jeanine Hall Gailey
Coyote and Valorosa by Terra L. Gearheart
One Thin Dime by Stewart Moore
The Monkey Bride by Midori Snyder
Pishaach by Shweta Narayan
The Salamander Fire by Marly Youmans
The Margay’s Children by Richard Bowes
Thumbleriggery and Fledglings by Steve Berman
The Flock by Lucius Shepard
The Children of the Shark God by Peter Beagle
Rosina by Nan Fry
Further Reading

This is the fourth volume in the Mythic Fiction series by Datlow and Windling, following The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm and The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales.

But these are not all the books they've edited. To see a more complete list, visit Fairy Tale Anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.