Ellen Datlow has edited more than fifty anthologies in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres, starting with The First Omni Book of Science Fiction in 1983, back when she was fiction editor for Omni, the popular "science fact and fiction" magazine. After the magazine folded in 1998, she went on to edit the webzines Event Horizon and SCIFICTION, the fiction arm of the SCIFI Channel's website, SCIFI.COM. But even though these venues focused primarily on science fiction, Datlow's predilection for horror never waned. Since 1988, she has been editing the horror half of the immensely popular Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series from St. Martin's Press, and recently edited two well received horror anthologies, 2003's The Dark: New Ghost Stories and 2007's Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural (see FearZone's review here). And if there's any doubt about how well regarded she is in the field, just take a look at her crowded awards shelf: an International Horror Guild Award, a Karl Edward Wagner Award, two Bram Stoker Awards, two Hugo Awards, three Locus Awards, and a whopping eight World Fantasy Awards, the most in that award's history. We're very grateful that Datlow took a moment out of her incredibly busy schedule to answer a few questions for FearZone.com.

You became fiction editor for Omni after Robert Sheckley left in 1981. How did you wind up in such a prestigious position for your first fiction-editing gig?

Basically, persistence and luck. After nagging Ben Bova for work (when he was Fiction Editor) he finally had me come in and read the slush while he was away on vacation for three weeks. When he returned, he was promoted to Editor of the whole magazine (replacing the former Editor, who was forced out-- a common occurrence at Omni ) and brought in Robert Sheckley as Fiction Editor.

Bob hadn't had an office job in years (if ever) and really knew as little as I did about actually buying and editing fiction. I didn't realize till much later (when I was Fiction Editor myself) that generally, the assistant reads all the slush, but not the professional submissions. I was lucky enough that I read everything that came in first (unless Bob had lunch or dinner with a writer who handed him a manuscript) so learned on the job very quickly how to discern the best stories. This on the job training was invaluable. During that period, I read several anthology series showcasing newer writers and asked them to submit stories to Omni.

I worked as Associate fiction editor for 1 1/2 years and I was doing everything from reading manuscripts, choosing and editing them, and putting them into production. The only thing I didn't do was sign contracts. Anyway, to make a long story short, Bob got over his long writer's block and asked for the summer off in order to start a new book. During that time, I was put in charge semi-officially and was able to sign contracts. After two months Bob asked for more time off and Ben said no. So I was promoted to Fiction Editor.

At least one person in the sf field was outraged that I -- who did not come out of science fiction (I started in mainstream book publishing) -- was made Fiction Editor. During the same period, several women became active in sf/f publishing and some of the more nutty older male writers were sure that this heralded the end of sf.

Omni focused predominantly on popular science and stories of science fiction. Given your love for horror, were you able to slip any horror stories into the mix the way you did later with Event Horizon and SCIFICTION?

While Ben Bova was Editor there were stories that Bob Sheckley and I wanted to buy: "Down Among the Dead Men" by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann and "The Monkey Treatment" by George R. R. Martin are two good examples. Ben hated them and wouldn't let us buy them.

As an aside, that's how my first two original anthologies came about. Blood is Not Enough (vampirism) and Alien Sex-- I wrote down a list of stories I loved but couldn't buy for Omni and created themes around them. So each of those anthologies were half reprints and half originals that I commissioned.

Ben has always been a hard science guy, and Bob Sheckley was definitely not (nor am I) so Ben became increasingly dismayed by what we bought. He even made Bob turn down one story he'd already accepted towards the end.

So initially, when I was promoted, I had to show everything I wanted to buy to Ben. That was tough, but after a relatively short time I stopped doing so. Once Ben left, the other Editors had no interest in the fiction so I was pretty usually left to do my job.

Over the years I did indeed publish horror -- lots of it. In fact, George R. R. Martin's "The Pear-Shaped Man" won the first Bram Stoker award given in 1988. I also published horror or dark fantasy by Carol Emshwiller, Jack Dann, Jack Cady, Jonathan Carroll, Greg Bear, Pat Cadigan, Stephen King, Lucius Shepard, Edward Bryant, Scott Baker, Simon Ings, Harlan Ellison (his "Mefisto in Onyx" won the Stoker). Oh yeah, and I bought the first story by Clive Barker to be published in a US magazine. I published "The Book of Blood" and "Babel's Children."

Most writers and editors start off as voracious readers, and I'm sure it was no different for you. As a young reader, what did you look for in a story? Was it different from what you looked for when you were first starting out as an editor, and what you look for today? In other words, what changes have you seen in your own tastes over time?

At least one thing is the same: When I was a kid, I wanted to be swept away into another world, whether it be real or unreal. I read all kinds of fiction. Then, as I matured as a reader I began to demand believable, three-dimensional characters and to appreciate style and tone more. Finally, as a working editor/professional reader I've come to demand even more of fiction. I most enjoy those writers whose work is ambitious as well as entertaining. But the thrill of being pulled into a great story still underlies my taste in fiction.

The selection process for The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror must be grueling. I can only imagine how many collections, anthologies, magazines and websites you have to pore over to track down the best. Can you tell us a bit about the process, and how you separate the wheat from the chaff?

I can give you the list of incoming and read material if you like and then you don't have to imagine it! I read short fiction for YBFH throughout the year -- as soon as I'm done with the last volume I'll immediately start reading for the next. My Honorable Mention list includes -- with asterisks -- those stories that I like enough to want to reread towards the end of the process. I ask for word counts of the marked titles to have on-hand.

Usually, I pick a few stories on the first read (they impress me so much immediately that I know they're terrific) - rarely more than three. As soon as I finish a magazine or anthology, I write it up in my summary, mentioning the authors whose stories I liked the best.

Then -- right around now, in fact (early January) -- I start rereading the stories I've put on my short list, while finishing those magazines and books I haven't yet read. From this point on it's mostly an elimination process. I'll read and reread the stories I loved on my first read until I'm left with the wordage I need: 125,000 total, knocking some stories off my short list and choosing some for the book.

You've worked with Terri Windling not just on sixteen volumes of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror but also on numerous original anthologies, many of which focus on modern retellings of fairy tales and mythology, such 1993's Snow White, Blood Red, and the subsequent books in that series, and 2007's The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales. How did you and Terri become such long-standing partners in editing? What attracts you to the idea of modern retellings of the classics?

We were co-editing the YBFH for a few years when Terri asked if I'd be interested in co-editing an anthology of retold fairy tales ala Angela Carter and Tanith Lee. The idea was to take fairy tales back from the world of Disney and encourage writers to explore their darker side, which was truer to the originals. Tom Canty (who suggested the idea to Terri) painted and designed all the covers (except for the disastrous hardcover of Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears). Many of the stories we bought over the six volumes were feminist riffs on traditional tales or were told from the point of view of other than the usual protagonist.

I've been a lover of fairy tales since I was a child. My mother read Oscar Wilde's (totally depressing) tales to me when I was six or seven, and when I discovered Angela Carter's collections The Bloody Chamber and Fireworks I was delighted.

It's exciting to see the reinterpretations that some of my favorite contemporary writers can create.

We've co-edited everything from erotic fantasy ( Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers ) to young adult fantasy fiction with crossover to the adult market (of which The Coyote Road is the third in the series) to a middle grade retold fairy tales series ( A Wolf at the Door and Swan Sister). We find that we work well together. And because we have overlapping but more often different circles of writers from whom we solicit stories our collaborative anthologies have a different flavor from my solo ones.

You tend to use a closed, invitation-only submission process for your original anthologies. I'm sure any writers reading this interview would love to know how to get on your radar. What brings a specific author to your attention and makes you want to work with him or her?

As a result of reading for The Year's Best going on twenty-two years and working with hundreds of sf/f/h (and mainstream) writers at Omni, Event Horizon, and SCIFICTION, I'm constantly discovering new voices whose work I've come to admire. I've got the largest "stable" of writers in the world.

When I regularly edit fiction for magazines, I usually have a slush reader, which allows totally open calls for submissions.

Right now I'm not working for a magazine/webzine that publishes sf/f so I'm not seeing much new science fiction or fantasy.

But I try to read every horror/dark story published in and outside of the field -- which means that all a writer has to do is write brilliant short stories. There are so many pieces of short fiction (this is not only in horror of course) that provide a set up and scene but no real story. Or have no texture -- all surface, no undercurrents. Or use flabby language or over the top language with dialog that you'd never hear in real life. I prefer fiction that works on more than one level (although a short, sharp shock can be fine for a change of pace).

The best writers can take the traditional horror tropes of serial killers, zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, children in danger, "bad" houses or places -- and make something new out of them by their skills at storytelling and use of language.

If I read stories that I love by writers I haven't worked with before, I'll approach those writers for stories for my original anthologies. It's as simple as that.

You're one of the few fiction editors who routinely work in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres instead of focusing on just one. Has this been difficult for you? In your view, how interconnected are these three genres?

On the positive side: I love it because I can switch genres if I get tired of reading one or another. What I enjoy best is to be able to edit a magazine or anthology in which I can mix it up. I think it's made me more "marketable" because everyone in the field knows that I can edit all three.

Of course the downside is that my specialty is the "short story" There aren't all that many jobs these days for short story editors.

I suspect it might be a disadvantage when it comes to award attention from each subgenre. The Hugo Award and the Locus Award are perceived as science fiction awards. The voters totally ignore horror and rarely vote Best Editor Hugos for fantasy editors. As far as the short fiction nominated, the voters ignore venues that publish horror and only bother with fantasy venues that also publish sf.

Conversely, Horror Writer Association members usually ignore fiction that doesn't yell HORROR even if a magazine, collection, or anthology includes horror in its mix of fantasy and sf.

The World Fantasy Award however (with a different set of judges every year) has been much more generous in its mixing of genres, having had sf/f and horror nominees throughout its history. Which is probably the reason I've done so well with that particular award.

I've always felt that fantasy and horror are on a continuum that graduates from fantasy to dark fantasy to horror, which is why I was so excited by the idea (that Jim Frenkel came up with) for a Year's Best Fantasy and Horror -- the only time it's ever been done.

SF is also under the "fantastic fiction" umbrella, but I think I'd say it's a different spoke (to torture a metaphor) -- although...there is now science fantasy -- a kind of sf that feels like fantasy or fantasy that feels like sf. And of course, there has always been sf/horror, like "Who Goes There?" the classic novella by John W. Campbell that was twice made into the movie The Thing.

You've been editing fiction for over twenty-five years now. During that time, have there been any horror authors that really blew your mind and completely revolutionized your ideas about the genre?

Ooh. One of those questions. No particular writer or writers have revolutionized my ideas about the genre -- I always knew the genre was wide enough to encompass many styles and tones and subject matter. There is no writer whose every story I love.

It's always the story or several stories by one person (or occasionally a novel) that smack me in the head and opens my eyes to the endless boundaries of the genre.

Lastly, what new projects can we look forward to reading soon?

In spring 2008 The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy is coming out. Of the sixteen stories, about one third are quite dark. (Del Rey)

In the fall of 2008 The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: Twenty-First Annual Collection (with Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant). (St. Martin's Press)

In the winter of 2009 (tentative title) Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe -- this is in honor of his bicentennial. (Solaris)

In 2009 The Cinderella Game and Other Villainous Tales (with Terri Windling) -- a middle grade (8-12 year olds) anthology of retold fairy tales. (Viking)