Fiction Editor
Redwater — Simon Bestwick
Caker’s Man — Matthew Holness
Black Leg — Glen Hirshberg
The Offering — Michael Marshall Smith
Fox Girl — Lee Murray
Shuck — G. V. Anderson
The Hunt at Rotherdam — A. C. Wise
Dancing Sober in the Dust — Steve Toase
The God Bag — Christopher Golden
The Strathantine Imps — Steve Duffy
The Quizmasters — Gerard McKeown
All Those Lost Days — Brian Evenson
“Elephant Subjected to the Predations of a Mentalist” – Dir. B.S. Stockton, 1921
And “Ol’ Will’s Birthday Bash and Dither Family Reunion” – Dir. Various, 1952.
— Jonathan Raab
Three Sisters Bog — Eóin Murphy
The Steering Wheel Club — Kaaron Warren
The King of Stones — Simon Strantzas
Stolen Property — Sarah Lamparelli
Shards — Ian Rogers
Chit Chit — Steve Toase
Poor Butcher-Bird — Gemma Files
Trap — Carly Holmes
I’ll Be Gone By Then — Eric LaRocca
Jack-in-the-Box — Robin Furth
Tiptoe — Laird Barron
Call for Submissions
I edit The Best Horror of the Year for (Night Shade Books) and am currently reading for the fifteenth volume, covering material published in 2022.
I am looking for stories and poetry from all branches of horror: supernatural, uncanny, sf horror, psychological, dark crime, terror tales, or anything else that might qualify. This is an all reprint anthology, so I’ll only consider material published in 2022. Deadline is December 1st 2022. Authors please confirm that your publishers are sending me review copies. If a book or magazine is coming out after my deadline, I’ll look at galleys or manuscripts. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE. The only excuse is if you’re a foreign publisher and shipping everything at one time saves postage. If you want your work to get a fair read, do not do this. I do not have time to carefully read a year’s worth of magazine issues and 10-20 original anthologies in two weeks.
I’ll look at e-versions of anthos and collections only if they’re navigable and have running heads. Otherwise, they won’t be read. I always prefer print, if available.
Authors can query as to whether I have/need your collection or an anthology/magazine in which you have a story at datlow@yahoo.com. My summation of “the year in horror” in the front of every volume includes novels, anthologies, collections, chapbooks, nf, poetry, art books, and “odds and ends”– material that doesn’t fit elsewhere but that might interest horror readers. But I must be aware of this material in order to mention it.
Ellen Datlow
Best Horror of the Year Volume Fifteen
8 Stuyvesant Oval 9G
NY NY 10009
****I regularly cover many magazines/webzines that publish horror (Black Static, Cemetery Dance, F&SF, The Dark, Nightmare, crime digests, and webzines such as Horrorzine, Uncanny, Apex, etc.-when their publishers send me the material).
Please ask your publisher to send the entire magazine or book-unless the venue doesn’t regularly publish horror. In that case, you can send me a word file of your story. For online publications, email individual word doc files—not pdf files– including on the ms where the story has been published.
If I choose a story you will be informed. Otherwise, you will not hear back.
thank you
Ellen Datlow
www.datlow.com
And here we go-my next original anthology Screams From the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous will be out from Nightfire June 7th.
On sale 6.7.22, pre-order now: https://tornightfire.com/catalog/screams-from-the-dark-tales-of-monsters-and-the-monstrous-ellen-datlow/… Design: Esther Kim
Art: GettyImages
Although I hate doing this, everyone seems to expect it these days. Here are the works I acquired/edited in 2021. Obviously all the authors of the original stories/novelettes/novella/collection are also eligible.
For Tor.com (online for free)
Shards by Ian Rogers is a horror novelette 9500 January 27 2021
Across the Dark Water by Richard Kadrey is an sf novelette 13,000 February 3, 2021
The Tyger by Tegan Moore is a horror story 6200 February 24 2021
Now We Paint Worlds by Matthew Kressel is a far future novelette 9200 July 7, 2021
Black Leg by Glen Hirshberg is dark fantasy 5200 July 14, 2021
L’Esprit de L’Escalier by Catherynne M. Valente is a Dark fantasy 9200 August 25 2021
The Wonderful Stag, or The Courtship of Red Elsie by Kathleen Jennings is a dark fairy tale 1900 September 1 2021
A Better Way of Saying by Sarah Pinsker is a fantasy 6000 November 10 2021.
For Tor books:
Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes is a collection of stories and the title award-winning novella on Jewish/feminist/political themes by one of the brightest fantasists writing today. March 9, 2021
For Nightfire
Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw is a horror novella 21,500 October 19 2021 Nightfire
Anthologies:
Tool Tales: Microfiction Inspired By Antique Tools Paperback (IFW International(– April 8, 2021 Multi-award winning creators Ellen Datlow and Kaaron Warren teamed up on Facebook a few years ago
when Ellen posted photos of antique tools and Kaaron wrote microfiction pieces to accompany them, without either of them knowing what the tools were for.
This chapbook collects and preserves their playful interaction for readers to enjoy.
When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson (Titan) September 28
A collection of all new short stories inspired by, and in tribute to, Shirley Jackson.
Shirley Jackson is a seminal writer of horror and mystery fiction, whose legacy resonates globally today. Chilling, human, poignant and strange, her stories have inspired a generation of writers and readers.
This anthology, edited by legendary horror editor Ellen Datlow, will bring together today’s leading horror writers to offer their own personal tribute to the work of Shirley Jackson.
Featuring Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Carmen Maria Machado, Paul Tremblay, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Hand, Kelly Link, Cassandra Khaw, Karen Heuler, Benjamin Percy, John Langan, Laird Barron, Jeffrey Ford, M. Rickert, Seanan McGuire, Gemma Files, and Genevieve Valentine.
Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror (Tachyon) all reprints (October 19)
Twenty-nine intricate, twisted tales of the human body, soul, and psyche, as told by storytelling legends including
Carmen Maria Machado, Richard Kadrey, Seanan McGuire, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Nathan Ballingrud, Tananarive Due, Cassandra Khaw, Christopher Fowler, and many more.
The Best Horror of the Year Volume Thirteen (Best Horror of the Year, 13) (Night Shade) November 16