The Return of Whimsy

The Ministry of Whimsy, that is. I might as well just copy & paste in Jeff VanderMeer's awesome announcement wholesale, because otherwise I'm sure to confuse the issue as I try to paraphrase:

Effective January 1, 2008, Jeff VanderMeer’s Ministry of Whimsy Press will come out of hibernation as an imprint of Wyrm Publishing. VanderMeer will work as a creative consultant and publicist for the Ministry’s books.

In its previous incarnations, the Ministry published the Philip K. Dick Award-winning Troika by Stepan Chapman, as well as the landmark Leviathan fiction anthologies. The Ministry was a World Fantasy Award finalist in 1998 and VanderMeer won a World Fantasy Award in 2003 for co-editing Leviathan 3, also a Philip K. Dick Award finalist.

Future projects for the Ministry will include Last Drink Bird Head, an anthology of flash fiction in support of literacy projects that features contributions from Gene Wolfe, Peter Straub, Tanith Lee, Stephen R. Donaldson, Rikki Ducornet, Caitlin Kiernan, Michael Swanwick, and many more. Through Wyrm Publishing, the Ministry will release two to three books a year, with the Leviathan series set to return in 2009. The Ministry is not currently soliciting book projects.

Wyrm Publishing was established by Neil Clarke earlier this year, and will soon publish books by Charles Stross, Gene Wolfe, and Tobias Buckell, in addition to the ongoing publication of Clarkesworld Magazine and its annual Realms anthology. For more information on Wyrm Publishing, visit their web site.