(from inside front cover):
    Orbit 16, the latest addition to Damon Knight's semi-annual series of new writings in science fiction, is one of the meatiest and most interesting to date.  What makes this volume so intriguing is that of the thirteen stories only one is by a true old-timer, while all the rest are by relative newcomers.
    The old-timer here is the inimitable and irrepressible R.A. Lafferty with something of a moral tale, "The Skinny People of Leptophlebo Street."  Leading off the collection is a beautiful novella by Joan D. Vinge, "Mother and Child."  It is a story that gathers one up and holds one suspended until the final word.  Doris Piserchia and Eleanor Arnason, contributors to Orbit 15, are here again with stories ("A Brilliant Curiosity" and "The House by the Sea") that place them firmly in the ranks of the best new writers.  Other contributors are Henry-Luc Planchat and Moshe Feder, both with their first published stories, Jesse Miller, Robert Thurston, Gustav Hasford, C.L. Grant, Dave Skal, Richard Birely, and William F. Orr.  All together, it is a marvelously diverse collection of stories that touch on just about everything:  the laws of nature, philosophy, love--both human and alien, mankind's need, strengths, and shortcomings.
    In addition to the stories themselves, Damon Knight again has treated the reader to three sections of his own impish perceptions:  "They Say," "The Memory Machine," and "Arcs & Secants."  There are also line drawings by Richard Wilhelm.
 

(from "Arcs & Secants"):
    GUSTAV HASFORD ("Heartland") is a young Southern writer who is working and starving on the West Coast.  Pray for him.