Bewildering Stories’
Second Quarterly Review, 2011

The Editors’ Choices: issues 424-435

“The place to be at Bewildering Stories”

Everything in green is a link.
Pages other than those of the QR open in a new window, so you won’t lose your place.

Bewildering Stories ends the season — spring or fall — with the Review Editors’ selection of favorites from the second quarter of 2011. New readers will have easy access to the recent best of Bewildering Stories, and veteran readers will have a chance to catch up on anything they may have missed.

The Quarterly Reviews are Bewildering Stories’ honor roll. While they’re not a contest or competition in the strict sense of the term, we’ll match them against any contest or poll in terms of fairness. And there are no quotas: everything or nothing in any genre may qualify for a Quarterly Review. The Review Editors vote according to their estimate of each work’s success on its own terms.

The Quarterly Reviews answer a practical question: “If you wanted to recommend to a friend something from this quarter of Bewildering Stories, what would you choose?” These are our recommendations.

As always, the Review Board’s discussions have been extensive and lively. A big Thank You to Bill Bowler, Bertil Falk, Gary Inbinder, Harry Lang, Michael E. Lloyd, Marina J. Neary, Carmen Ruggero and Lewayne L. White.

We also express special gratitude to our Coordinating Editor Bill Bowler and the Associate Editors. Their insightful and detailed critiques of submissions help us set what we like to think is an Internet standard for editorial practice and for service to our contributors and readers.

The Quarterly News

In the past 12 weeks, the Review Editors cast 679 votes on 93 titles, 37 of which have qualified as Editors’ Choices.

The First Quarter of 2011 was, as the saying goes, a very hard act to follow; more than half of the works qualified. Few, if any, other quarters have equalled it in overall quality. In the Second Quarter, the genres of poetry and short poetry held their own. Non-fiction and the Departments also made a respectable showing.

The Order of the Hot Potato is rather long, with 15 titles.

The Order of Merit is continued, for reader interest. It lists the genres represented by more than one title and links to the most highly rated work in each genre. A few other works not listed are nonetheless odds-on favorites to qualify for the 2011 Mariner Awards, at year’s end.

We congratulate the authors represented here. They and their works have well earned the honor. We hope they will inspire all our contributors.

Regular publication resumes with issue 436 on June 27, 2011.

Reminder: everything in green is a link.
The following tables also serve as a linked index to all the genres and sections in the Review.

Titles selected of titles eligible
Novellas Serials Short Stories Flash Fiction	0 of 2 1 of 2 13 of 38 2 of 14	Poetry Short Poetry Essays Memoirs	11 of 20 7 of 14 2 of 2 1 of 1

Special listings

Departments
The Quarter’s Best Issues
The Order of the Hot Potato
The Quarter’s Most Bewildering Issues
The Order of Merit

Selections are listed in alphabetical order by author unless noted otherwise.
Multiple titles are listed in chronological order.
All serialized works must have concluded in or before issue 435 in order to be eligible.

Serials	Ilan Herman, Seven Degrees of Bogus
Essays	Bertil Falk, Best Is in the Eyes of the Readers John Ritchie, It Takes Me Back
Memoirs	Phil Malat, The Great Marble Caper

Departments

All selections are listed in chronological order.
The Art Gallery and Reading Room are excepted from the Quarterly Reviews.

The Critics’ Corner, Discussions, Letters

Challenges	Challenge Responses
Oonah V. Joslin & John Stocks What Is Poetry? Danielle L. Parker, Blog the Best Michael E. Lloyd, Wordier Than Thou	Don Webb The Shape of Light Squared The Best? Says Who? David Redd Choices and Bests Of Time and Readers
Tasting Time Some Say in Ice Keep Your Shirt On Reminiscing on the Run What Is Good? In Medias Mess	Donna Hole, Writing as Discovery Stefan Brenner, Reflections on Fate and Determinism Don Webb, Fate and Tenses Oonah V. Joslin, “Armchair Observatory” Bill Bowler, “The Bee Among the Blossoms” “Song of the Nightingale” (multiple contributors)