# Xo Orpheus

xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths is a 2013 anthology edited by Kate Bernheimer. It is a collection of stories based on older myths and fairy tales, billed as a "new way of mythmaking." The book was nominated for the 2014 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.

## Contents

| Title | Author | Original Myth |
| Anthropogenesis Or: How to Make a Family | Laura van den Berg | Norse Creation myth |
| Argos | Joy Williams | Argos |
| The Sisters | Sabina Murray | Bacchantes |
| Sawdust | Edward Carey | Baucis and Philemon |
| Friend Robin | Maile Chapman | Brownies |
| The Veiled Prophet | David B. | The Caliph of One Thousand and One Nights |
| Henry and Booboo | Elanor Dymott | Candaules and Gyges |
| Modern Coyote | Shane Jones | Coyote myths |
| Devourings | Aimee Bender | Cronos |
| Labyrinth | Ron Currie Jr. | Daedalus |
| The Last Flight of Daedalus | Anthony Marra | Daedalus |
| Daphne | Dawn Raffel | Daphne |
| Demeter | Maile Meloy | Demeter |
| Kid Collins | Willy Vlautin | Demeter and Persephone |
| Sleeping Beauty | Gina Ochsner | Eris |
| Galatea | Madeline Miller | Galatea and Pygmalion |
| The Hand | Manuel Muñoz | God and Satan |
| The Dummy | Benjamin Percy | Golem and Pygmalion |
| The Girl with the Talking Shadow | Kate Bernheimer | Hades |
| Wait and See | Edith Pearlman | Human Pentachromats |
| An Occasional Icarus | Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud | Icarus |
| Killcrop | Victor LaValle | Killcrop |
| The Squid Who Fell in Love with the Sun | Ben Loory | Kraken |
| Birdsong from the Radio | Elizabeth McCracken | Lamia |
| The Lotus Eaters | Aurelie Sheehan | Lotus-eaters |
| Slaves | Elizabeth Evans | Maenads and Sinbad the Sailor |
| Drona's Death | Max Gladstone | Mahabharata |
| So Many-Headed Gates | Sheila Heti | Monsters |
| The Status of Myth | Kelly Braffet and Owen King | Edith Wharton's Mythology |
| Narcissus | Zachary Mason | Narcissus |
| Back to Blandon | Michael Jeffrey Lee | Odysseus |
| The Story I Am Speaking to You Now | Davis Schneiderman | Odysseus |
| The Brigadier-General Takes His Final Stand, by James Butt | Imad Rahman | Oedipus |
| Dark Resort | Heidi Julavits | Orpheus and Eurydice |
| Mystery Spot: 95065 | Karen Tei Yamashita | Paradise |
| Lost Lake | Emma Straub and Peter Straub | Persephone |
| What Wants My Son | Kevin Wilson | Phaeton |
| Thousand | Laird Hunt | Poseidon |
| Belle-Medusa | Manuela Draeger | Post-apocalypse |
| The Swan's Wife | Aamer Hussein | Raja Rasalu |
| Sanna | Kathryn Davis | Sedna |
| Madame Liang | Lutz Bassmann | Sirin |
| Sissy | Kit Reed | Sisyphus |
| In a Structure Simulating an Owl | Ander Monson | Strix |
| Cat's Eye | Donají Olmedo | Tezcatlipoca |
| Betrayal | Sigrid Nunez | Transformation |
| A Horse, a Vine | Johanna Skibsrud | Trojan Horse |
| The Hungers of an Old Language | Brian Aldiss | The Unconscious |
| The White Horse | Sarah Blackman | Zeus and Europa |

## Reception

Publishers Weekly called the book an "ingenious new anthology of boundless imagination". The review concluded that these "enthralling contemporary myths are bold stories of love, loss, friendship, disaster and everything in between."
A review in Time Out praised Bernheimer's wide selection of stories, writing that the collection "[ranges] from archaic and straightforward to contemporary and experimental—without repeating tone or genre."
The book was nominated for the 2014 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.