A Collaboration Devoutly to Be Wished

In an online interview, the Mondoville English Program’s newest faculty member mentions a couple of anthologies he’s edited that will be coming out this year. As it happens, I have stories in both of them (and for you collector types, Subterranean has reclaimed a few copies of the limited edition of At Home in the Dark from a distributor. Verb. sat.), but today, I want to share a little information about From Sea to Stormy Sea, which will be coming from Pegasus Press late this year. I’ll let Mr. Block set it up.

As you probably recall, I’ve done two art-based anthologies, both of them with Pegasus. […] All of the stories in From Sea to Stormy Sea are based on paintings by American artists — Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, Andy Warhol, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Henri, Reginald Marsh, Harvey Dunn, Winslow Homer, Warren Moore Jr., Daniel Morper, John Steuart Curry, John Hull, Rockwell Kent, Raphael Soyer, Mark Rothko, George Bellows, and Piet Mondrian.

[The writers, meanwhile, include] John Sandford, Jane Hamilton, Jan Burke, Christa Faust, Scott Frank, Gary Phillips, Patti Abbott, Brendan Dubois, Warren Moore III, Micah Nathan, Sara Paretsky, Tom Franklin, Jerome Charyn, Janice Eidus, Barry Malzberg, and Charles Ardai. [Oh, and Block himself contributes the story inspired on the Raphael Soyer painting.]

Now, you may have noticed a couple of similar names on the contributors’ rosters, but don’t worry — you aren’t seeing double. An interesting confluence of circumstances (which I’ll delve into as we near publication) has meant that From Sea to Stormy Sea will include my story “Silver at Lakeside,” inspired by my father’s Homage to “Les Fauves”, which he painted in 1975, when I was about nine years old.

Dad’s art always meant a great deal to him, and I think he’d be thrilled to have his work included among these artists, many of whom he admired — after all, I know how amazed I am to find my stories in the company they keep in these anthologies. But I’m even more thrilled to have a chance to work with Dad in this manner, and I’m grateful to LB and Pegasus for giving us the opportunity.