On our 270th episode, we immediately distracted ourselves from our planned topic of catching up on news, awards nominations, etc., and instead rambled on about various matters of literary influence, of writing sequels or revisionist fictions based on the works of writers ranging from Arthur C. Clarke to H.P. Lovecraft, and other topics neither of us clearly remember.

Last year, at the World Fantasy Convention held in Saratoga Springs, a panel was presented on ‘Creating the Fantasy Canon’.  The panel description was:

There are some books we all agree on as fundamental to the genre, but can we agree on a canon of twenty stories? Our panelists will discuss which twenty books are essential reading for understanding the genre and how this list has changed over time.

Jonathan from the Coode Street Podcast was cast in the role of moderator, and the panelists for the discussion were John Clute, Michael Dirda, Yanni Kuznia, Gary Wolfe, and Ron Yaniv.

The conversation that unfolded was energetic, thoughtful and entertaining, and even if it didn’t resolve the question, it nonetheless was something we at Coode St thought you might enjoy.

The Coode Street Podcast team would like to thank the administrators of the World Fantasy convention for permission to present the panel here, and would specially like to thank sound expert Paul Kraus for his hard work on making sure the recording was as good as it is.

As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!

This week we are joined by World Fantasy Award Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and long-time friend of the podcast Peter Straub, to discuss his brand new short story collection Interior Darkness, writing, genre, music, and much, much more.

This week we are joined by multiple award-winning editor and publisher Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld magazine, discussing his provocative October 2015 editorial concerning the state of short fiction venues in SF, the question of whether so many venues dilutes the quality of fiction in the field or simply broadens its base, and how conditions today compare with the SF world of the 1980s as described by Mike Ashley in his magisterial history Science Fiction Rebels: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1981 to 1990, which both Jonathan and Gary are currently reading.

Tonight we discuss, as we do all too often, the beginning of the awards season, as well as the sometimes problematical Hugo category of Best Related Work, the question of authors who are so prolific that new readers may feel intimidated, and some of the parameters of who and who should not be covered in the Modern Masters of Science Fiction series of books, of which Gary has recently assumed editorship.