Ann and Jeff VanderMeer are editing The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, which HarperCollins will publish in 2011. “Plans are for an oversized laminated-boards format.”
Jeff writes that the book will be a “loose sequel to The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases. This new anthology ramps up both the art and the storytelling, with full-page art, the delights of eccentric front and end matter, ‘exhibit’ descriptions, and a core formed of full-on short stories.
“Contributors will include Mike Mignola, Greg Broadmore, China Mieville, Holly Black, Naomi Novik, Minister Faust, Alan Moore, Cherie Priest, Michael Moorcock, Tad Williams, Jake Von Slatt, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Jeffrey Ford, Gio Clairval, Garth Nix, Stepan Chapman, Michael Cisco, Will Hindmarch, Ekaterina Sedia, Reza Negarestani, Lev Grossman, Ted Chiang, Carrie Vaughn, Kelly Barnhill, Helen Oyemi, and several more. John Coulthart will be doing a lot of art for the book, with additional work by Jake von Slatt, Eric Orchard, Yishan Lee, Eric Schaller, and others.
“Unfortunately, the specific nature of the fiction being commissioned doesn’t allow us to have a standard open reading period.
“However, we are having an open reading period, starting today, for a micro-fiction section in the back of the anthology, which will consist of a list, with descriptions, of items from Dr. Lambshead cabinet that are not described in the stories.”
Submissions (of not more than 150 words) must be posted in response to this blog entry not later than 7 September 2010. The VanderMeers will choose which will appear in the book, and respond to the authors, by the 15th. No payment for submissions, but chosen entries will gain their authors a contributor’s copy of the book. Full details for exactly what they want are available in that blog post.