Nemonymous 9 published

[Roy1]

Nemonymous is a UK publication which the editor and publisher call a "megazanthus". (Their portmanteau word combining magazine and anthology) It contains original short fiction.

It is edited by British writer D.F. Lewis. Nemonymous is unique in that all stories are published anonymously, and in the early issues, the identities of contributing authors were withheld until the following issue came out. The idea behind this arrangement was to temporarily strip the reader of any preconceptions about the authors (including popularity, gender and place of origin), and thus level the playing field of expectation.

In fact stories were also submitted anonymously for several volumes so that the editor did not know the authors until he had completed his 'long list'.

The ninth issue of Nemonymous, entitled Cern Zoo has now been released and details are available here. It contains 24 short stories including - as a declaration of interest - one by yours truly

Lately authors' names have been included on the back cover but there are no clues to identify the story they contributed to the collection. Authors' names are released on the website after giving readers time to finish the collection, and send in their best guesses as to who wrote what.

Each volume continues to list the previous issue's authors' names alongside their story's title.

 

[Roy1]

Anonymous anthologies are suddenly fashionable. 4th Estate get in on the act.
The Guardian comments, the CERN ZOO authors pitch in and Fictionbitch summarises. 68

 

[Roy1]

And a few copies of Cern Zoo will also be on sale 'in the wild'. This is a very rare event. 142

 

[Roy1]

Mathew Fryer's review:

Cern Zoo is a banquet. A cornucopia of flavour and texture, of many courses and layers. Just beware of the cockroaches lurking in the salad.246

Charles Tan's review:

...the sheer number of stories, formats, and genres does emulate a form of literary zoo...