Borderland: Where Magic Meets Rock & Roll

". . . The dusty road will smell so sweet . . . paved with gold beneath my feet . . . and I'll be dancing down the street when I get to the Border . . . ."

— Richard Thompson

In the early 1980s Terri Windling was asked to create a "shared world" anthology for teenagers. (A "shared world" book, for those who don't know, is comparable to a television series: the editor/producer creates the setting, premise and initial characters, then writers are invited into the project to write stories set in this "shared" millieu.)

The setting she devised was Bordertown: a modern city at the edge of a mysterious, magical realm—a border city where runaway children gather to create new lives for themselves . . . sometimes successfully, sometimes disastrously (reminiscent of Real Life teen meccas such as Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s).

The publisher approved the concept, and Windling opened the doors of this city to some of the best young writers in the fantasy field, including Ellen Kushner, Midori Snyder, Charles de Lint, Will Shetterly and Emma Bull. Together, they brought life, sparkle, music and magic to the streets of Bordertown.

The initial book (Borderland, edited by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold, NAL 1986) eventually turned into a series of books and developed an underground cult following of young readers—not only in America (the only country where the books are published), but also in England, the Netherlands, Japan and other countries where imported copies of the books are passed from hand to hand among devoted fans.

Following that mid-1980s debut, the Borderland series spawned an underground network of Borderland parties and raves, folk-rock bands and dance groups (based on fictional groups in the books), an Internet chat group, fan fiction, and numerous role-playing game groups. Seven Borderland books have been published to date, including the 1998 anthology, The Essential Bordertown: A Traveller's Guide to the Edge of Faerie, edited by Terri Windling and Delia Sherman.

Why does this series (over 20 years old, and never given any extensive sales push or national advertising) continue to attract a following? This reader's comment is typical of Borderland fan mail:

"To me the Border is real. The characters are real. It's my life they're living. I may never have touched real magic but I know what it's like to be an Outsider, in trouble, lonely—I even ran away from home once (police took me back, parents beat the shit out of me for getting them in trouble)—and just like in Bordertown I know that it's only with the help of my friends (my punky Outsider friends, my Real Family) that I'm going to make it to adulthood. I hate most "teen" books—but these books saved my life, my sanity. Thank you, thank you, thank you for telling stories that may be fantasy but are the truest things I've ever read."

Borderland Trueblood sketches © Iain McCaig

THE BOOKS OF THE BORDERLAND SERIES

Borderland Anthology 1
Bordertown Anthology 2
Life on the Border Anthology 3
The Essential Bordertown: A Traveller's Guide to the Edge of Faerie Anthology 4
Elsewhere and Nevernever, novels by Will Shetterly
Finder, novel by Emma Bull

BORDERLAND LINKS

The Dancing Ferret Concert Homepage We have no idea whether the name chosen by these Philadelphia music promoters had any connection to The Dancing Ferret music club in Bordertown—but the bands on this site would surely fit in at our Dancing Ferret . . . so check out this link and also the Dancing Ferret Discs Homepage.

FURTHER READING

Borderland readers may also be interest in The Fence and the River: Culture and Politics at the US-Mexico Border by Claire F. Fox (University of Minnesota Press). This book looks at representations of US-Mexico border and other borders in contemporary arts, including a look at "border" issues and dynamics in the Borderland fantasy series.

BORDERLAND AUTHOR AND ARTIST PAGES


	"A dreamland of rock 'n' roll glamour, punk elves, and alienation raised to high style."
	— Locus

	"The combination of elf and punk is irresistible: this is what the universe ought to be like."
	— Interzone

	"I'm a 'halfling' myself. Not half-elf, half-human of course—in my case it's half-Chinese, half-white. But when I read the stories of 'halflings' in Bordertown I just want to cry. God, they're telling it the way it is—the way you don't fit in anywhere, always looking for someplace to belong . . . . In Bordertown there's a place where even I can belong. I wish it was real. As long as you keep writing these books, it is. See you on the Border."
	— from Borderland fan mail

The Bordertown world is copyrighted by Terri Windling. The world, its landmarks, and its characters are used with her permission only. All rights to Borderland material are reserved by Ms. Windling and the authors of the Borderland books: Borderland, Bordertown, Life on the Border, The Essential Bordertown, Elsewhere, Nevernever, and Finder.

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