"Black Heart, Ivory Bones" Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (published 2000)
In this hilarious, enchanting, and moving collection of twenty fairy-tales, readers will traverse through backwater America, the Italian countryside, the moors of England, and still more places that may - or may not - really exist. Featuring storytellers such as Susanna Clarke, who was still just working on her popular novel Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell , well-known fantasy writers such as Neil Gaiman, and unlikely fairy-tale authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, this book will delight all those interested in the less explainable aspects of humanity with a renewed appreciation for contemporary creative writing, particularly in the realm of the supernatural and, strikingly, traditional genre that we have come to name fairy-tales. While now a more ubiquitous pattern in storytelling, Black Heart, Ivory Bones gives a sense of freshness to the idea of old and new worlds combined; one running rampant with magic and the historical past, and the other filled with the an...