Call for Submissions: Years Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2013

As the editor of the annual anthology series The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror for Prime Books, I am now reading for the 2013 edition—the fourth in the series—which will include material published in 2012.

I am looking for stories of dark fantasy or horror, but the emphasis is on the former. Dark fantasy can simply unsettling or eerie; revelatory or baffling. Or, in more literary terms (all of which are debatable) it might be any number of things: weird fiction (new or old), supernatural fiction, magical realism, surrealism, the fantastique, or the ever-ambiguous horror fiction (which need not have a supernatural element but can crossover into other genres). I include stories of swords and sorcery as well as dark science fiction.

You can get an idea of what I am looking for from the first three volumes of the series (2010, 2011, the third, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012, will be released in July. You might also read the introduction to the first in the series.

This is a REPRINT anthology so I am only reading material published during the calendar year of 2012.

READERS: I appreciate your recommendations. Email paula@prime-books.com.

PUBLISHERS: I prefer email submissions of Word documents, RTF, PDF, or epub rather than hard copies if available. It saves you the postage and I can keep track of things better this way. If you must send galleys, magazines, or books, email me for snail-mail address. If your publication appears on the Web only, please make me aware of it. Send URLs to paula@prime-books.com.

EDITORS: If you edit a publication that includes material of this type, please make sure I get it. If you’d liked to point out personal favorites—great!

WRITERS: It is best to request your publisher send me your entire collection, the anthology, or periodical in which your story was published. If it has been legitimately published online, please send the URL.

Please post and/or pass this on to others.

DEADLINE for 2012 materials: February 1, 2013 (but the sooner the better!)

Thank you.
Paula Guran
paula@prime-books.com