First published 2017
This anthology brings together an extraordinary roster of writers including Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Straub, Kelly Link, and Jeffrey Ford to examine what makes us alien to one another. The collection spans multiple forms: innovative short stories, poetry, interviews, letters, and essays that venture into territories of difference and displacement. Contributors like Samuel R. Delany, John Crowley, Brian Evenson, and James Morrow craft pieces that turn the familiar strange and the strange familiar. When viewed through outsider perspectives, our ordinary lives become foreign landscapes. The word "alien" shifts meaning throughout these pages, encompassing science fiction extraterrestrials, literary strangers, and anyone who exists outside conventional boundaries. Authors including Leena Krohn, Julia Elliott, Lavie Tidhar, Matthew Baker, and James Tiptree Jr. explore how encounters with difference force us to reconsider our assumptions about normalcy and belonging. The anthology maps vast territories of unfamiliarity through diverse voices and experimental approaches, revealing how otherness operates as both barrier and bridge between human experiences.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, literary-fiction, anthologies, aliens, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: experimental-approach, outsider-perspective
496 pages · Kindle Edition · Conjunctions