Ellen Datlow writes with news of her newest anthology, After, Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia, co-edited with Terri Windling. Hyperion’s official publication date for the anthology is October 9th.

The current installment of the podcast Last Short Story (a montly podcast reviewing short sf) focuses on the anthology. Co-hosts Jonathan Strahan, Ian Mond, and Tansy Rayner Roberts decided they were unable to “get through nineteen stories, however fine they may be, in an hour podcast, so we restrict ourselves to discussing these six stories, all of which rank amongst the year’s better stories, and several of which are clearly amongst the best:
1. “The Segment,” Genevieve Valentine
2. “Valedictorian,” N.K. Jemisin
3. “Blood Drive,” Jeffrey Ford
4. “The Easthound,” Nalo Hopkinson
5. “Fake Plastic Trees,”  Caitlin R. Kiernan
6. “The Marker,” Cecil Castellucci

She also tells us there are twenty free copies available via a giveaway on Goodreads. See this page to register for a chance to win one of them (winners are expected, but not required, to review the book).

Contributors to the anthology include: Richard Bowes, Sarah Rees Brennan, Cecil Castellucci, Carolyn Dunn, Carol Emshwiller, Jeffrey Ford, Steven Gould, Nalo Hopkinson, N.K. Jemisin, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Matthew Kressel, Katherine Langrish, Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Beth Revis, Carrie Ryan, Genevieve Valentine, and Jane Yolen.