Thursday, April 23 The Great Books Foundation has a release party at The Book Cellar for its Short Story Omnibus, a collection of short stories, sudden fiction, novellas and graphic stories. Even though the Omnibus packages the newest trends in publishing, the contributors range from the contemporary, like Lorrie Moore, to, well, Melville (the novella Benito Cereno). Some of the usual anthologized suspects, Poe and Hemingway for instance, are represented with lesser-known stories.
I perused a copy today at the Chicago Publishers Gallery and the range is impressive. There are three graphic stories (from Jaime Hernandez, Joe Sacco, and Alison Bechdel) and a few of the nine authors filed under sudden fiction were publishing well before the internet made sudden fiction a genre in itself (which of course comes with a handful of tedious subgenres--nanofiction, postcard, one-page, micro, flash, ad nauseam.) It's as thick as other anthologies, though comparable anthologies have more than 39 contributors; the difference, other than its omnibusiness, is the print is generously spaced and easy on the eye.
It's $33, which isn't bad for an omnibus (def: n. A volume containing several novels or other items previously published separately.) By comparison, the Heath Intro to Fiction or Norton Fiction are that price used. But those are anthologies. (def: n. a published collection of poems or other pieces of writing). Hmmm...so do the novellas make it an Omnibus or does clever marketing?
Could be a question for editors Daniel Born, Judith McCue, and Donald H. Whitfield, who will be at The Book Cellar (4736 N. Lincoln--in the square) at 7pm. The event is FREE, all ages, and wine is offered.
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