Name your favorite first contact story for Marty Halpern's new anthology

Editor Marty Halpern is running a contest to help him flesh out a reprint anthology. He's asking readers to tell him "their favorite/the best 'first contact' story. The story must have been published since 1980 (no older stories will be considered) and it must be no longer than novella-length (40,000 words or less)." He continues "I'm being fairly liberal in my interpretation of 'first contact'; possibly 'first meeting' would be a more appropriate term (one such story example would be Neil Gaiman's 'How to Talk to Girls at Parties')."

Halpern asks that readers email him at firstcontactstory at gmail dot com, using "First Contact Story" as the subject line. Please include the story title and the author's name, as well as the publication source (if you know it). A sentence or two explaining why it's your favorite would be nice, but is not required. He'll take only one suggestion per person, and the deadline is 28 September 2008. After that date, Halpern "will select three responses at random from all the submissions, and these 'winners' will receive a gift to be determined by the editor himself."

Halpern told SFScope that he sees a difference in this "first contact" anthology, because most of those that have come before have focused on Golden Age stories (he cited Stanley G. Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey"). He also sees a demand for reprint anthologies that "pay tribute to contemporary fiction."

Halpern freelances as an editor for Golden Gryphon Press, Night Shade Books, and Tachyon Publications, to name a few. He is a two-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award—Professional.