xo Orpheus
{{Short description|2013 anthology edited by Kate Bernheimer}}
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| name = xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths
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| author = Kate Bernheimer et al.
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| genre = Postmodern literature
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| publisher = Penguin Books
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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
class="wikitable"
|+ !Title !Author !Original Myth |
Anthropogenesis Or: How to Make a Family |
Argos |
The Sisters |
Sawdust |
Friend Robin |
The Veiled Prophet
|The Caliph of One Thousand and One Nights |
Henry and Booboo
|Elanor Dymott |
Modern Coyote |
Devourings |
Labyrinth |
The Last Flight of Daedalus |
Daphne |
Demeter |
Kid Collins
|Demeter and Persephone |
Sleeping Beauty
|Eris |
Galatea |
The Hand |
The Dummy |
The Girl with the Talking Shadow |
Wait and See
|Human Pentachromats |
An Occasional Icarus |
Killcrop |
The Squid Who Fell in Love with the Sun |
Birdsong from the Radio |
The Lotus Eaters |
Slaves
|Elizabeth Evans |Maenads and Sinbad the Sailor |
Drona's Death |
So Many-Headed Gates |
The Status of Myth
|Kelly Braffet and Owen King |Edith Wharton's Mythology |
Narcissus |
Back to Blandon
|Michael Jeffrey Lee |
The Story I Am Speaking to You Now |
The Brigadier-General Takes His Final Stand, by James Butt |
Dark Resort |
Mystery Spot: 95065 |
Lost Lake
|Emma Straub and Peter Straub |
What Wants My Son |
Thousand |
Belle-Medusa
|Manuela Draeger |
The Swan's Wife |
Sanna |
Madame Liang
|Lutz Bassmann |
Sissy |
In a Structure Simulating an Owl |
Cat's Eye
|Donají Olmedo |
Betrayal
|Transformation |
A Horse, a Vine |
The Hungers of an Old Language |
The White Horse
|Sarah Blackman |
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}}