Anthology

The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms , By the Paris Review, Picador, 400 pp., $15 I road-tested the new themed anthology of work that had appeared in The Paris Review. With a book titled "The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms," it seemed the only thing to do. The anthology's unique organizing premise divides its contents into reads that are appropriately timed for plane, train, or elevator rides and waiting-room sits.

You and your co-editor, Carrie Jones, organized a group of authors to write essays about bullying in your new book, Dear Bully. Why? I was so angry about what happened to Phoebe Prince [the Massachusetts teen who took her life after a spate of bullying]. I was ready to post the accused bullies' pictures and names, and my sister said, "Maybe you should channel this into something more positive. " So [Carrie and I] created the Young Adult Authors Against Bullying [Facebook page]

American Earth: EnvironmentalWriting Since Thoreau Edited by Bill McKibben;Foreword by Al Gore Library of America, 997 pp., with illustrations, $40 Author Bill McKibben, a leading voice in the fight against global warming, has collected pieces from more than 100 writers in an eclectic anthology of the best environmental writing from the early 19th century to the present. He begins at Concord's Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau lived in a cabin observing nature and learning the lessons it had to offer: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front...

A few months back, the editors at The New Yorker magazine published a list of 20 writers under the age of 40 whom they felt represented the future of fiction. Within the small but ardent subculture of fiction writers and readers, this list was immediately parsed, second-guessed, lamented, and vilified. There are valid reasons for complaint, including (but not limited to) the dubious American compulsion for list making, the issue of age discrimination, and the tendency of such lists to foster a culture of celebrity.

A few months back, the editors at The New Yorker magazine published a list of 20 writers under the age of 40 whom they felt represented the future of fiction. Within the small but ardent subculture of fiction writers and readers, this list was immediately parsed, second-guessed, lamented, and vilified. There are valid reasons for complaint, including (but not limited to) the dubious American compulsion for list making, the issue of age discrimination, and the tendency of such lists to foster a culture of celebrity.

The Best American Travel Writing 2005 , Edited by Jamaica Kincaid, Houghton Mifflin, 374 pp., $14 Contemporary travel writing is often the literary equivalent of a satisfied shopper's report: Here's what I got for the $3,000 I paid for my eco-tour of Costa Rica or my off-season trip to Paris; this is the best bed-and-breakfast in Jackson Hole or the best skiing around Telluride. Yet one of the treats of the publishing year is the appearance of Houghton Mifflin's annual "The Best American Travel Writing.

MOUNTAIN CITY, Ga. -- "Foxfire" started 40 years ago as a collection of local oral histories for a magazine project by a high school English class in rural Georgia. Today, that project has spawned a series of books, a nonprofit organization, an educational program, and a museum. The most recent anthology is "Foxfire 12," published in 2004, and out this month is "The Foxfire 40th Anniversary Edition: Faith, Family, and the Land" (Knopf ). While the articles about Appalachian traditions that fill the anthologies are written at Rabun County High School in...

There are several reasons to buy "The Book of Other People," an anthology of character-driven stories assembled by novelist Zadie Smith, and they aren't all literary. First, its table of contents is close to a Who's Who of who's hip in literary circles - heavy on the darlings of The Believer and Granta. Shelve the volume, and in 20 years you'll have a fascinating time capsule of writers who were hot in 2008. Second, this is a charity effort, akin to the 2000 anthology of first-person stories "Speaking With the Angel," edited by Nick Hornby.

What happens when globalization is eclipsed by magical realism? That's one question Edmundo Paz Soldn wrestles with constantly. It's not that he doesn't care about the levitating grandmothers, clouds of butterflies, or velvet curtains of prose that mark the work of Latin American writers from Gabriel Garca Mrquez to Isabel Allende. Rather, having grown up in the shadow of the region's popular literary tradition, the Bolivian novelist, along with other Central and South American writers of his generation, is hoping to forge a new cultural identity.

Ilan Stavans’s comprehensive anthology of immigrant writing reaches back to Jamestown in 1623 and continues into the 21st century. The 84 writers (an 85th entry is composed of poetry by Chinese immigrants waylaid in San Francisco’s Angel Station) included in “Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing’’ arrived on America’s shores from 45 countries. They represent waves of migration that have distinguished America not only as a nation of immigrants, but also as a nation thriving on its diversity.

Rap’s indelible impact on music culture is no secret, but what of its literary merits? “The Anthology of Rap’’ sets out to “tell the story of rap as lyric poetry.’’ In doing so, the authors have built a poignant collection of rhythm and rhyme, a sociological study of the complex yearnings of a marginalized, criminalized North America. At nearly 900 pages, this tome contains more couplets than your average Norton Anthology. Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois transpose iconic raps from the nation’s finest lyricists into a sweeping, browsable index, equipping progressive...

Ilan Stavans’s comprehensive anthology of immigrant writing reaches back to Jamestown in 1623 and continues into the 21st century. The 84 writers (an 85th entry is composed of poetry by Chinese immigrants waylaid in San Francisco’s Angel Station) included in “Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing’’ arrived on America’s shores from 45 countries. They represent waves of migration that have distinguished America not only as a nation of immigrants, but also as a nation thriving on its diversity.

American Earth: EnvironmentalWriting Since Thoreau Edited by Bill McKibben;Foreword by Al Gore Library of America, 997 pp., with illustrations, $40 Author Bill McKibben, a leading voice in the fight against global warming, has collected pieces from more than 100 writers in an eclectic anthology of the best environmental writing from the early 19th century to the present. He begins at Concord's Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau lived in a cabin observing nature and learning the lessons it had to offer: "I went to the woods because I...

There are several reasons to buy "The Book of Other People," an anthology of character-driven stories assembled by novelist Zadie Smith, and they aren't all literary. First, its table of contents is close to a Who's Who of who's hip in literary circles - heavy on the darlings of The Believer and Granta. Shelve the volume, and in 20 years you'll have a fascinating time capsule of writers who were hot in 2008. Second, this is a charity effort, akin to the 2000 anthology of first-person stories "Speaking With the Angel," edited by Nick Hornby.

MOUNTAIN CITY, Ga. -- "Foxfire" started 40 years ago as a collection of local oral histories for a magazine project by a high school English class in rural Georgia. Today, that project has spawned a series of books, a nonprofit organization, an educational program, and a museum. The most recent anthology is "Foxfire 12," published in 2004, and out this month is "The Foxfire 40th Anniversary Edition: Faith, Family, and the Land" (Knopf ). While the articles about Appalachian traditions that fill the anthologies are written at Rabun County High School in...

The Best American Travel Writing 2005 , Edited by Jamaica Kincaid, Houghton Mifflin, 374 pp., $14 Contemporary travel writing is often the literary equivalent of a satisfied shopper's report: Here's what I got for the $3,000 I paid for my eco-tour of Costa Rica or my off-season trip to Paris; this is the best bed-and-breakfast in Jackson Hole or the best skiing around Telluride. Yet one of the treats of the publishing year is the appearance of Houghton Mifflin's annual "The Best American Travel Writing.

Rap’s indelible impact on music culture is no secret, but what of its literary merits? “The Anthology of Rap’’ sets out to “tell the story of rap as lyric poetry.’’ In doing so, the authors have built a poignant collection of rhythm and rhyme, a sociological study of the complex yearnings of a marginalized, criminalized North America. At nearly 900 pages, this tome contains more couplets than your average Norton Anthology. Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois transpose iconic raps from the nation’s finest lyricists into a sweeping, browsable index, equipping progressive...

You and your co-editor, Carrie Jones, organized a group of authors to write essays about bullying in your new book, Dear Bully. Why? I was so angry about what happened to Phoebe Prince [the Massachusetts teen who took her life after a spate of bullying]. I was ready to post the accused bullies' pictures and names, and my sister said, "Maybe you should channel this into something more positive. " So [Carrie and I] created the Young Adult Authors Against Bullying [Facebook page]

The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms , By the Paris Review, Picador, 400 pp., $15 I road-tested the new themed anthology of work that had appeared in The Paris Review. With a book titled "The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms," it seemed the only thing to do. The anthology's unique organizing premise divides its contents into reads that are appropriately timed for plane, train, or elevator rides and waiting-room sits.

What happens when globalization is eclipsed by magical realism? That's one question Edmundo Paz Soldn wrestles with constantly. It's not that he doesn't care about the levitating grandmothers, clouds of butterflies, or velvet curtains of prose that mark the work of Latin American writers from Gabriel Garca Mrquez to Isabel Allende. Rather, having grown up in the shadow of the region's popular literary tradition, the Bolivian novelist, along with other Central and South American writers of his generation, is hoping to forge a new cultural identity.