By Jeff Baker

I read (and buy) tons of “Best Of The Year” anthologies. We are living in a golden age for Best-Ofs. Here are a few I love:

Lethe Press’ fine “Wilde Stories” (Best Gay Speculative Fiction,) “Heiresses of Russ” (Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction) and “Transcendent,” (Best Transgender Speculative Fiction.) All but the last are defunct, but these products of Steve Berman’s Lethe Press are well worth it. (I know, I know, these posts are starting to sound like the Steve Berman Appreciation Society!) ‘Nathan Burgoine has said a good deal about these in his post for Day # 21, so I’ll just agree.https://apostrophen.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/shortstorymonth-day-twenty-one-the-wilde-stories-transcendent-and-heiresses-of-russ-series/?fbclid=IwAR1HEfd4tSbNRt28ypBcPDp-LIFP1ILm0Da7DPePiJ5f5f2YHtbmn3Wc184

Among the other Best-Of collections on my shelves is DAW Books’ “Year’s Best Fantasy Stories,” which ran for 14 volumes starting in 1975. First edited by Lin Carter, then by Arthur W. Saha. Masters like L. Sprague DeCamp and Fritz Leiber (who were still around and writing!) and discoveries by Robert E. Howard and  Clark Ashton Smith were featured, as well as stories by then-unknowns. I’ve wandered over to that shelf late at night and browsed my way through the stories. Wonderful!