The New Weird (anthology)

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The New Weird
The New Weird (anthology) (Book Cover).jpeg
Editor Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
LanguageEnglish
Genre New weird, Anthology
Publisher Tachyon Publications
Publication date
2008
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages432
ISBN 978-1892391551

The New Weird is a 2008 anthology edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer and published by Tachyon Publications. It serves as a definitive collection and critical overview of the "New Weird" literary movement, which emerged in the 1990s and early 2000s at the intersection of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Contents

The anthology is considered a thematic predecessor to the VanderMeers' later, more expansive collection, The Weird (2011); while The New Weird focused on codifying a contemporary 21st-century movement, the latter volume provided a comprehensive century-long retrospective of the genre's history.

Content

The anthology is divided into four sections designed to trace the history and impact of the subgenre:

Reception

The New Weird received critical acclaim for its comprehensive approach to the genre. Publishers Weekly , in a starred review, described it as an essential demonstration of the "sheer breadth" of the subgenre, comparing its significance to the Cyberpunk defining-anthology Mirrorshades . [1] Library Journal also gave the collection a starred review, recommending it as the "first comprehensive anthology of the movement." [2]

The Guardian highlighted the anthology as a "rough guide" to a pivotal literary moment, noting the value of its critical commentary alongside its fiction. [3] Writing for Strange Horizons , critic Paul Kincaid praised the work for engaging in a meaningful debate about the "nascent sub-genre." [4]

Legacy and analysis

The anthology is frequently cited in academic discourse regarding genre theory and the evolution of speculative fiction. Scholar Paweł Frelik, writing for Science Fiction Studies , referenced the work in his analysis of the "New Weird" as a distinct aesthetic and political movement. [5] The Los Angeles Review of Books has described the VanderMeers' editorial work on this volume and its successors as "monumental" and "historical," noting that it helped reframe the history of science fiction by codifying the boundaries of "The Weird." [6] In her study of the Anthropocene and genre, scholar Erin James notes that the anthology's "Laboratory" section serves as a crucial primary source for understanding how authors self-consciously negotiate the "unsettling" and "messy" boundaries of the real. [7] Furthermore, critics writing for Bloomsbury have argued that the collection functioned as a critical intervention that successfully moved "weird" fiction away from its 20th-century roots in horror and toward a more hybridized, "new" form of literary surrealism. [8]

References

  1. ↑ "The New Weird". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  2. ↑ Cassada, Jackie (February 1, 2008). "The New Weird". Library Journal. 133 (2): 62.
  3. ↑ Walter, Damien (22 January 2008). "The new world of New Weird". The Guardian.
  4. ↑ Kincaid, Paul (25 July 2008). "The New Weird edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer". Strange Horizons.
  5. ↑ Frelik, Paweł (2011). "The Speculative Self: Financial Futures and Contemporary Science Fiction". Science Fiction Studies. 38 (3). DePauw University: 553.
  6. ↑ Solis, Gabriel (13 May 2017). "The Weird, the Eerie, and the Monstrous". Los Angeles Review of Books.
  7. ↑ James, Erin (2015). The Storyworld Accord: Econarratology and Postcolonial Narratives. University of Virginia Press. ISBN   978-0813937588.
  8. ↑ Heise, Ursula K. (2017). The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1107451452.
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