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Table of Contents:

• Introduction: The Bonnie Road - essay by Ellen Kushner
• The Hunt of the Unicorn - novelette by Joan D. Vinge
• The Man Who Sold Magic - (1965) - novelette by Nicholas Stuart Gray
• Peter Kagan and the Wind - (1971) - poem by Gordon Bok
• The Forty-Seventh Island - novelette by R. A. Lafferty
• The Lamia and Lord Cromis - (1971) - novelette by M. John Harrison
• War Wounds - novelette by Lynn Abbey
• Feel Free - (1967) - short story by Alan Garner
• The Word of Unbinding - (1964) - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Grounding Song - poem by Gordon Grant
• The Amulet - poem by Gordon Grant
• The Yukio Mishima Cultural Association of Kudzu Valley, Georgia - short story by Michael Bishop
• Wizard's Domain - novelette by Elizabeth A. Lynn
• Select Bibliography - essay by uncredited

Award-winning author and radio personality Ellen Kushner's inspired retelling of an ancient legend weaves myth and magic into a vivid contemporary novel about the mysteries of the human heart. Brimming with ballads, riddles, and magical transformations, here is the timeless tale of a charismatic bard whose talents earn him a two-edged otherworldly gift.

A minstrel lives by his words, his tunes, and sometimes by his lies. But when the bold and gifted young Thomas the Rhymer awakens the desire of the powerful Queen of Elfland, he finds that words are not enough to keep him from his fate. As the Queen sweeps him far from the people he has known and loved into her realm of magic, opulence - and captivity - he learns at last what it is to be truly human. When he returns to his home with the Queen's parting gift, his great task will be to seek out the girl he loved and wronged, and offer her at last the tongue that cannot lie.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany (2015), edited by Nisi Shawl and Bill Campbell, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, Issue 109, June 2019.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Bordertown: a city on the border between our human world and the elfin realm. Runaway teens come from both sides of the border to find adventure, to find themselves. Elves play in rock bands and race down the street on spell-powered motorbikes. Human kids recreate themselves in the squats and clubs and artists' studios of Soho.

Terri Windling's original Bordertown series was the forerunner of today's urban fantasy, introducing authors that included Charles de Lint, Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, and Ellen Kushner. In this volume of all-new work (including a 15-page graphic story), the original writers are now joined by the generation that grew up dreaming of Bordertown, including acclaimed authors Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Catherynne M. Valente, and many more. They all meet here on the streets of Bordertown in more than twenty new interconnected songs, poems, and stories.

Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Holly Black
• Introduction - essay by Terri Windling
• Welcome to Bordertown - novella by Terri Windling and Ellen Kushner
• Shannon's Law - novelette by Cory Doctorow
• Cruel Sister - poem by Patricia A. McKillip
• A Voice Like a Hole - short story by Catherynne M. Valente
• Stairs in Her Hair - poem by Amal El-Mohtar
• Incunabulum - novelette by Emma Bull
• Run Back Across the Border - poem by Steven Brust
• A Prince of Thirteen Days - novelette by Alaya Dawn Johnson
• The Sages of Elsewhere - short fiction by Will Shetterly
• Soulja Grrrl: A Long Line Rap - poem by Jane Yolen
• Crossings - short fiction by Janni Lee Simner
• Fair Trade (Comic) - short fiction by Sara Ryan and Dylan Meconis
• Night Song for a Halfie - poem by Jane Yolen
• Our Stars, Our Selves - short fiction by Tim Pratt
• Elf Blood - short fiction by Annette Curtis Klause
• Ours is the Prettiest - short fiction by Nalo Hopkinson
• The Wall - poem by Delia Sherman
• We Do Not Come in Peace - short fiction by Christopher Barzak
• A Borderland Jump-Rope Rhyme - poem by Jane Yolen
• The Rowan Gentleman - short fiction by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black
• The Song of the Song - poem by Neil Gaiman
• A Tangle of Green Men - novella by Charles de Lint

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April-May 2009. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Four (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction (2012), edited by Brit Mandelo.

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology Starlight 2 (1998), edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden and was reprinted at Strange Horizons, 30 July 2012. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection (1999), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. It is included in the collection Swordspoint (2003).

Read the full story for free at Strange Horizons.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy (2011), edited by Ellen Datlow, and was reprinted in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 26, January - February 2019. It can also be found in the anthology Wilde Stories 2012: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction (2012), edited by Steve Berman.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Bending the Landscape: Fantasy (1997), edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eleventh Annual Collection (1998), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

This story set in Kushner's World of Riverside originally appeared as a chapbook published by Temporary Culture. It can also be found in the Jonathan Strahan anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Five (2011).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Hailed by critics as "a bravura performance" (Locus) and "witty, sharp-eyed, [and] full of interesting people" (Newsday), this classic melodrama of manners, filled with remarkable plot twists and unexpected humor, takes fantasy to an unprecedented level of elegant writing and scintillating wit. Award-winning author Ellen Kushner has created a world of unforgettable characters whose political ambitions, passionate love affairs, and age-old rivalries collide with deadly results.

On the treacherous streets of Riverside, a man lives and dies by the sword. Even the nobles on the Hill turn to duels to settle their disputes. Within this elite, dangerous world, Richard St. Vier is the undisputed master, as skilled as he is ruthless--until a death by the sword is met with outrage instead of awe, and the city discovers that the line between hero and villain can be altered in the blink of an eye.

This stunning follow-up to Ellen Kushner's cult-classic novel, Swordspoint, is set in the same world of labyrinthine intrigue, where sharp swords and even sharper wits rule. Against a rich tapestry of artists and aristocrats, students, strumpets, and spies, a gentleman and a scholar will find themselves playing out an ancient drama destined to explode their society's smug view of itself–and reveal that sometimes the best price of uncovering history is being forced to repeat it.

Generations ago the last king fell, taking with him the final truths about a race of wizards who ruled at his side. But the blood of the kings runs deep in the land and its people, waiting for the coming together of two unusual men, Theron Campion, a young nobleman of royal lineage, is heir to an ancient house and a modern scandal. Tormented by his twin duties to his family and his own bright spirit, he seeks solace in the University. There he meets Basil St. Cloud, a brilliant and charismatic teacher ruled by a passion for knowledge–and a passion for the ancient kings. Of course, everyone now knows that the wizards were charlatans and the kings their dupes and puppets. Only Basil ins not convinced–nor is he convinced that the city has seen its last king…

Welcome to Riverside, where the aristocratic and the ambitious battle for power in the city's ballroom, brothels and boudoirs. Into this alluring world walks Katherine, a well-bred country girl versed in the rules of conventional society. Her mistake is thinking that they apply. For Katherine's host and uncle, Alec Campion, aka the Mad Duke Tremontaine, is in charge here--and to him, rules are made to be broken.

When Alec decides it would be more amusing for his niece to learn swordplay than to follow the usual path to marriage, her world changes forever. Blade in hand, it's up to Katherine to navigate a maze of secrets and scoundrels--and to gain the self-discovery that comes to those who master....