STORIES (WITHIN)
An Anthology of Stories Within Stories
by Benjamin Gorman, Mark Teppo, Rick M. Cook, Karen Eisenbrey, Barb Lachenbruch, Susan Hammerman, Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito, LM Zaerr, Dr. Bunny McFadden, Ann Ornie, Debby Dodds, and Gabby Gilliam … then Benjamin Gorman, Gabby Gilliam, Debby Dodds, Ann Ornie, Dr. Bunny McFadden, LM Zaerr, Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito, Susan Hammerman, Barb Lachenbruch, Karen Eisenbrey, Rick M. Cook, Mark Teppo, and Benjamin Gorman
The tradition of a story within another traces back before recorded history. The snake has been eating its own tail for 7000 years. This collection is an experiment. These authors contributed pieces in different genres. In each, a character tells a story … but the authors did not know what the story within would be! The question underlying the exercise is straightforward: Are stories so fundamental to our humanity that any story can serve as both a frame around, and an illustration within, any other? Thanks to the talent of these skilled storytellers, the result is a marvelous series of matryoshka dolls which nest inside one another, proof we exist encircled by narrative.
“…a fascinating (and brilliant!) idea. A story by one author folds in upon itself and sprouts stories by other authors. Like a musical fugue, lines tangle and intersect; foreground becomes background becomes deeper background as new characters and settings continuously emerge. How this was achieved is deceptively simple: each author wrote a story in two halves, the first half ending with “…and now I’ll tell you a story.”; the editors then stitched the halves together with halves from other stories, and the result is this mesmerizing Celtic-knot pattern of words.”
-Steven E. Scribner, author of the Tond series
“12 authors explored this format and did so excellently. … Every story is does its role well in the nesting and is well written.”
-Kim Malinowski, author of Death: A Love Story
“…the experimental concept is intriguing and successful, and while the story-within-a-story-within-a-story device can be a bit self-aware at times, it never detracts from the delightful experience and high-caliber writing.”
-S. Kirk Pierzchala, author of the Beyond Cascadia trilogy