xo Orpheus

{{Short description|2013 anthology edited by Kate Bernheimer}}

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| author = Kate Bernheimer et al.

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| genre = Postmodern literature

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| published = 24 Sep 2013

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| preceded_by = My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales

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xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths is a 2013 anthology edited by Kate Bernheimer. It is a collection of stories based on older myths and fairy tales, billed as a "new way of mythmaking." The book was nominated for the 2014 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.

Contents

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!Title

!Author

!Original Myth

Anthropogenesis Or: How to Make a Family

|Laura van den Berg

|Norse Creation myth

Argos

|Joy Williams

|Argos

The Sisters

|Sabina Murray

|Bacchantes

Sawdust

|Edward Carey

|Baucis and Philemon

Friend Robin

|Maile Chapman

|Brownies

The Veiled Prophet

|David B.

|The Caliph of One Thousand and One Nights

Henry and Booboo

|Elanor Dymott

|Candaules and Gyges

Modern Coyote

|Shane Jones

|Coyote myths

Devourings

|Aimee Bender

|Cronos

Labyrinth

|Ron Currie Jr.

|Daedalus

The Last Flight of Daedalus

|Anthony Marra

|Daedalus

Daphne

|Dawn Raffel

|Daphne

Demeter

|Maile Meloy

|Demeter

Kid Collins

|Willy Vlautin

|Demeter and Persephone

Sleeping Beauty

|Gina Ochsner

|Eris

Galatea

|Madeline Miller

|Galatea and Pygmalion

The Hand

|Manuel Muñoz

|God and Satan

The Dummy

|Benjamin Percy

|Golem and Pygmalion

The Girl with the Talking Shadow

|Kate Bernheimer

|Hades

Wait and See

|Edith Pearlman

|Human Pentachromats

An Occasional Icarus

|Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud

|Icarus

Killcrop

|Victor LaValle

|Killcrop

The Squid Who Fell in Love with the Sun

|Ben Loory

|Kraken

Birdsong from the Radio

|Elizabeth McCracken

|Lamia

The Lotus Eaters

|Aurelie Sheehan

|Lotus-eaters

Slaves

|Elizabeth Evans

|Maenads and Sinbad the Sailor

Drona's Death

|Max Gladstone

|Mahabharata

So Many-Headed Gates

|Sheila Heti

|Monsters

The Status of Myth

|Kelly Braffet and Owen King

|Edith Wharton's Mythology

Narcissus

|Zachary Mason

|Narcissus

Back to Blandon

|Michael Jeffrey Lee

|Odysseus

The Story I Am Speaking to You Now

|Davis Schneiderman

|Odysseus

The Brigadier-General Takes His Final Stand, by James Butt

|Imad Rahman

|Oedipus

Dark Resort

|Heidi Julavits

|Orpheus and Eurydice

Mystery Spot: 95065

|Karen Tei Yamashita

|Paradise

Lost Lake

|Emma Straub and Peter Straub

|Persephone

What Wants My Son

|Kevin Wilson

|Phaeton

Thousand

|Laird Hunt

|Poseidon

Belle-Medusa

|Manuela Draeger

|Post-apocalypse

The Swan's Wife

|Aamer Hussein

|Raja Rasalu

Sanna

|Kathryn Davis

|Sedna

Madame Liang

|Lutz Bassmann

|Sirin

Sissy

|Kit Reed

|Sisyphus

In a Structure Simulating an Owl

|Ander Monson

|Strix

Cat's Eye

|Donají Olmedo

|Tezcatlipoca

Betrayal

|Sigrid Nunez

|Transformation

A Horse, a Vine

|Johanna Skibsrud

|Trojan Horse

The Hungers of an Old Language

|Brian Aldiss

|The Unconscious

The White Horse

|Sarah Blackman

|Zeus and Europa

Reception

Publishers Weekly called the book an "ingenious new anthology of boundless imagination". The review concluded that these "enthralling contemporary myths are bold stories of love, loss, friendship, disaster and everything in between."{{cite web |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-14-312242-5 |title=xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths |publisher=Publishers Weekly |date=11 Nov 2013 |accessdate=19 Dec 2024}}

A review in Time Out praised Bernheimer's wide selection of stories, writing that the collection "[ranges] from archaic and straightforward to contemporary and experimental—without repeating tone or genre."{{cite web |url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/books/book-review-xo-orpheus-edited-by-kate-bernheimer |title=Book Review: xo Orpheus edited by Kate Bernheimer |publisher=Time Out |date=17 Sep 2013 |accessdate=19 Dec 2024}}

The book was nominated for the 2014 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.{{cite web |url=http://www.sfadb.com/World_Fantasy_Awards_2014 |title=World Fantasy Awards 2014 |publisher=sfadb |accessdate=19 Dec 2024}}

References