One of Aotearoa’s most essential annual fiction anthologies (and an excellent way to spot the rising stars of the genre) is the wonderful, award-winning Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy (now in its fourth volume).
As always, the fourth instalment of the annual treat for science fiction and fantasy fans highlights and draws attention to the good and the great, the established and the newly arrived, and continues to provide a fabulous platform and spotlight for the wide variety of talent and diversity in Aotearoa.
This year’s anthology is a fantastic and phantasmagorical collection of the weirdest, wildest, and most wonderful short fiction to come out of Aotearoa in 2022.
Including contributions from Andi C Buchanan, Anuja Mitra, James Rowland, Juliet Marillier, Kirsteen Ure, M. Darusha Wehm, Melanie Harding-Shaw, Nat Baker, Octavia Cade, Rem Wigmore, Samantha Lane Murphy and Tehnuka.
With all this in mind, we decided to interview the editor of this year’s instalment of the series Emily Brill-Holland and ask her a few questions about the anthology.
We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Emily for taking the time out of her busy schedule and “brave lightning Storms” to answer our questions, and for providing such an illuminating insight into her world and work. For more information about the anthology, check out the Paper Road Press website.
This interview was done in conjunction with Caffeine and Aspirin, the arts and entertainment review show on Radioactive FM. You can hear the full interview below:
Links to borrow the various anthologies from the library can also be found below.
Year’s best Aotearoa New Zealand science fiction & fantasy. VI
“Collected together for the first time, the very best science fiction and fantasy short stories published by New Zealand authors in 2018″–Publisher information.” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.
Year’s best Aotearoa New Zealand science fiction & fantasy. V2
“Ancient myths go high-tech a decade after the New New Zealand Wars. Safe homes and harbours turn to strangeness within and without.Splintered selves come together again – or not. Twelve authors. Thirteen stories. The best short science fiction and fantasy from Aotearoa New Zealand in 2019. With works by: Juliet Marillier, Nic Low, Rem Wigmore, Andi C Buchanan, Octavia Cade, A.J. Fitzwater, Nicole Tan, Melanie Harding-Shaw, Alisha Tyson, James Rowland, Zoë Meager, and Casey Lucas.” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.
Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand science fiction and fantasy, V3
“When borders closed last year, Kiwi science fiction and fantasy took readers on flights of imagination through space and time. This anthology contains a selection of the best short science fiction and fantasy stories published by Aotearoa New Zealand writers in 2020.” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.
Year’s best Aotearoa New Zealand science fiction & fantasy. v. 4
“Contents : Introduction. I will teach you magic by Andi C. Buchanan, A thorn in your side by M. Darusha Wehm, Rabbit by Samantha Lane Murphy , Clutch, stick, shift by Tehnuka, Plague year by Anuja Mitra, Basil and the wild by Rem Wigmore, Data migration by Melanie Harding-Shaw, Domestic goddess by Kirsteen Ure, Below salt-heavy tides by Andi C. Buchanan, The women who didn’t win Nobels, and how world trees are not a substitute by Octavia Cade, Why we make monsters by Rem Wigmore, Interview with the sole refugee from the A303 Incident by James Rowland, Last Bird Island by Nat Baker and Washing the plaid by Juliet Marillier.” ( Adapted from Catalogue)
