We chat with Jonathan Strahan about editing The Book of Witches, which is a new anthology featuring stories from Linda Addison, C.L. Clark, P Djeli Clark, Indrapramit Das, Amal El Mohtar, Andrea Hairston, Millie Ho, Saad Hossain, Kathleen Jennings, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Khaw, Fonda Lee, Darcie Little Badger, Ken Liu, Usman T. Malik, Maureen F. McHugh, Premee Mohamed, Garth Nix, Tobi Ogundiran, Tochi Onyebuchi, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Kelly Robson, Angela Slatter, Andrea Stewart, Emily Teng, Sheree Renée Thomas, Tade Thompson, and E. Lily Yu—and contains illustrations from three-time Hugo award-nominated artist Alyssa Winans throughout.
Hi, Jonathan! Welcome back! What have you been up to the last few years since you spoke with us?
I’ve been getting a little witchy! When we last spoke The Book of Dragons was just out in the world, and I was starting to look to what would come next. I worked on book of time travel romance stories, Someone in Time, and just finished editing a book of space opera stories. In between it was all about witches. It’s been a wonderful time.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I discovered stories as an editor when I was six or seven. I’d read children’s books when I was younger and my parents would read to me, but I came across a copy of Robert Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy around then. It was a year or two after the Apollo 11 landing and my head was buzzing with stories of space travel, astronauts, and the worlds of tomorrow, and that book completely enchanted me. It lead me on to so many, many more books, but that’s where my love of finding stories myself started.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Well the first book I remember reading was Citizen of the Galaxy, the book that made me want to become an editor was Gardner Dozois’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Volume 1, and I can’t stop thinking about Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora, which changed how I thought about science fiction and the world.
The Book of Witches is an anthology of 29 stories and poems from the likes of P. Djèlí Clark, Amal El-Mohtar, Fonda Lee, Garth Nix, and Darcie Little Badger (plus many more!) and edited by you! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
All the witchy goodness!
What can readers expect?
Brilliant writers creating fantastic stories featuring some of the best and most engaging witches that you could hope to find, all told from a wide range of different perspectives. There is one or two cauldrons and black hats to be seen, but there’s so much more!
Can you tell us a bit about how an anthology comes together?
The basic process is always the same. Come up with an idea – one that’s strong enough that you can get a whole range of different stories that can fit within its remit. Find a publisher for it – with The Book of Dragons and The Book of Witches that means David Pomerico and Harper Voyager. Get a whole bunch of wonderful writers involved. Edit their work and then make it into a book. It comes together very quickly at the start, nothing much happens for chunk of time, then there’s a furious race to get it all together. The final book is always exciting and a little different from what you expect, and that happened here too.
Do you ever find the editing process daunting at all since there’s many stories on the same subject from multiple authors?
I’d not really thought about this, but no. The editing process is fun. Writers are creative and surprising so I’m always having a great time when I’m in the middle of editing a big project like The Book of Witches. Sometimes there is some juggling to be done, and that can be an issue – every book has some surprises – but even that is sort of enjoyable. I’m lucky to get to do this.
What’s next for you?
The very next thing is a new anthology from Tachyon, New Adventures in Space Opera, which is due out next year. It’s a reprint anthology collecting some of the best space opera stories of the past decade and I’m really in love with it right now. After that, things are just shaping up.
Lastly, what are some of your favourite witchy book recommendations?
I love and adore Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books. You have to read them in order, but I Shall Wear Midnight is an amazing book. I also am besotted with Alix E Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches which everyone should read. Oh, and I guess, although it’s more wizards than witches, I end up with Ursula Le Guin and Earthsea too. There are so many great witchy books out there and I hope The Book of Witches is a worthy addition to their number.
