An anthology, literally a "garland" or "collection of flowers", is a collection of literary works, originally of poems. In genre fiction and especially science fiction, anthology is used to categorize collections of shorter works such as short stories and short novels, usually collected into a single volume for publication.
The term is also applied to radio or TV programs, movies, comic books and other such media featuring a variety of different stories. Examples of radio anthologies are Suspense and Escape. Examples of TV anthologies are Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Tales from the Darkside, Producers' Showcase, the Disney anthology television series, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Ford Star Jubilee, The Alcoa Hour, Playhouse 90, and Tales from the Crypt, which was not only an HBO series but also a movie anthology, both based on the EC horror-comic anthology. Other examples of anthology films are Four Rooms, Tales of Manhattan, Flesh and Fantasy, and The Cat o' Nine Tails.
In East Asian tradition, an anthology was a recognised form of compilation of a given poetic form. It was assumed that there was a cyclic development: any particular form, say the tanka in Japan, would be introduced at one point in history, be explored by masters during a subsequent time, and finally be subject to popularisation (and a certain dilution) when it achieved widespread recognition. In this model, which derives from Chinese tradition, the object of compiling an anthology was to preserve the best of a form, and cull the rest.
The Anthologist
Anthology of Twentieth-Century British & Irish Poetry
An Anthology of Twentieth Century Phillipine Literature
Anthology Guidelines
The Act of Reading an Anthology