I should note that I'm only the series editor and not the guest editors for each volume that selects the final contents. My job is to read through hundreds of magazines and journals, both SF and literary, and select a few dozen works to be sent to the guest editor (this year it's Kenyan-Canadian author Minister Faust) in mid-June, from which he'll select about 20-25 stories that then will published. Each guest editor's tastes are different, just as mine differ in some aspects from those of Matt Cheney, who was the previous series editor (I should note that Cheney has awesome taste in literature of all sorts and was the person who inspired me to start the OF Blog in 2004).

It is somewhat like a "year's best" anthology, but we're a bit more flexible with the story selections. For example, the criteria for BAF 4 is as follows:

1. Authors are to be residents of or citizens of a Western Hemisphere nation.

2. Works are to be available in English (in the near future, there will translations from the Spanish and Portuguese. I didn't have time this year to do much myself and paying for it can be expensive).

3. Works must be published in the Western Hemisphere and have to be published between May 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010.

4. Online stories are acceptable, as long as they were originally posted between those dates.


And since definitions of "Best," "American," and "Fantasy" are always debatable (it is a recurring topic in the introductions and will likely be for BAF 4), there is something different each time. BAF (1) was published in August 2007 and contained only 2006 stories and most of those were from lit journals. It was over 400 pages. BAF 2 (originally BAF 200 was published in early 2009 and contained only 2007 stories (publication delay was the culprit). It contained about 1/3 fewer stories and more genre mag stories. BAF 3 switched publishers and was published about two months ago. It too was around 300 pages and was divided between lit and genre publications.

None of them feel exactly alike in reading them. BAF 4 certainly will be different in some aspects, especially since the focus is discovering talented writers from outside the US and Canada. And I have high hopes that one story that I really liked, the author's first published short story, will be one that's selected. It's quite moving. Another story I have as a personal favorite (again, no guarantees it'll be selected) is by a veteran author who appears in a certain big-name fantasy anthology that was released earlier this year. The eclectic nature of this I believe makes for an interesting anthology, even if no squirrel stories are likely to appear this year