Introduction / by Peter S. Beagle -- Ancestor money / Maureen F. McHugh -- Scarecrow / Gregory Maguire -- Lady of the skulls / Patricia A. McKillip -- We are Norsemen / T.C. Boyle -- The Barnum Museum / Steven Millhauser -- Mrs. Todd's shortcut / Stephen King -- Bears discover fire / Terry Bisson -- Bones / Francesca Lia Block -- Snow, glass, apples / Neil Gaiman -- Fruit and words / Aimee Bender -- The empire of ice cream / Jeffrey Ford -- The edge of the world / Michael Swanwick -- Super goat man / Jonathan Lethem -- John Uskglass and the cumbrian charcoal burner / Susanna Clarke -- The book of Martha / Octavia E. Butler -- The Vita Æterna Mirror Company / Yann Martel -- Sleight of hand / Peter S. Beagle -- Mythago wood / Robert Holdstock -- 26 monkeys, also the abyss / Kij Johnson - Appendix 1: The critics, the monsters, and the fantasists / Ursula LeGuin -- Appendix 2: The making of the American fantasy genre / David G. Hartwell.