Come to the Salon Fantastique...

Salon Fantastique is the latest anthology from Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. After several years of working on mythic fiction collections grouped around central themes ("forest folklore," "tricksters," "erotic myths," "fairy tales re-told," etc.), they decided to create an anthology that no such restrictions, simply containing new stories demonstrating the wide range of non-realist fiction written today.

For a long time the book had no name, until Terri suggested Salon Fantastique. "I've long been interested in the literary and political salons of 17th century France," she says, "where writers, artists, philosophers, and political figures gathered together in private living rooms (salons), finding creative stimulation in an atmosphere far removed from the strict protocols of the French court. In the salons, men and women could mingle more freely, progressive (even radical) ideas could be aired, and rigid lines of class, rank, and wealth could be crossed in the service of art. Literary salons played an important part in the flowering of French arts and letters from the 17th century onward, just as political salons were instrumental in fomenting the movement that became the French Revolution.

In the history of magical literature the French salons also played an important role, for it was in the Paris salons at the very end of the 17th century that Madame D'Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, and others created a vogue for stories in rooted in the folk tradition, coining the name we still use for this genre today: fairy tales (contes des fees).

"Since the 17th century, salons have provided stimulation, inspiration, and camaraderie for many different groups of writers and artists; not only famous salons such as those hosted by the Bloomsbury group in London, the Dada group in Switzerland, the Algonquin Round Table group in Manhattan, and the Beat writers at Gallery Six in San Francisco, but also the countless lesser-known salons, writers' gatherings, and writers' groups that have met (and continue to meet) in arts enclaves all around the world. The Endicott Studio is one small example, for it had its beginnings many years ago in a series of salon evenings for writers and artists hosted by me and Ellen Kushner in an art studio space on Endicott Street in Boston's North End (where I was living at the time).

"As Ellen Datlow and I worked on our new anthology, we realized that we were attempting to evoke a liberating creative spirit similar to those of the early French salons by inviting a variety of writers to gather together in the book's pages: exchanging tales, exchanging ideas in literary form. When read together, their stories form a conversation between established writers and emerging writers, between historical and contemporary fiction, between the timelessness of folklore themes and the immediacy of political ones, between gravity and whimsy, between traditional linear narratives and other means of storytelling. We're pleased that the book includes new writers alongside those with well-known names, and that 11 of the book's 15 writers have never appeared in one of our anthologies before...since the best salons have always been open to new talent and fresh ideas."

The authors in Salon Fantastique are: Christopher Barzak, Peter Beagle, Jedediah Berry, Richard Bowes, Paul Di Fillipo, Jeffrey Ford, Greer Gilman, Gavin Grant, Gregory Maguire, David Prill, Lavie Tidhar, Lucius Shepard, Delia Sherman, Catherynne M. Valente, and Marly Yourmans.

Nick Gevers, in his Locus Magazine review, has said, "The newest anthology from Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling could well be their best so far...It's late in 2006, and Salon Fantastique looks very much like clinching the title of Anthology of the Year."

For those of you in or near New York on October 18, the KGB Fantastic Fiction series is hosting an evening of readings from Salon Fantastique at the KGB Bar in the East Village. Click here for more information.

Comments

[Charles Vess]

Midori,

You might want to mention who did the cover art?

And your link to a 'bigger image' takes you to a same sized piece of art...

But, as always, I'm astounded by the breadth of what you and Terri are keeping up with and posting. Bravo!!

Charles

[Midori]

Thanks Charles, I should have mentioned that the cover design and illustration is by Jim Zaccaria.

And I have fixed the image link for the little Dulac. It should open up nicely now!