As the editor of the anthology series The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror (Prime Books) I am reading for the 2017 edition, which will cover material published in 2016. (The 2016 edition—seventh in the series—will be published this July.)

We define “dark fantasy” and “horror” broadly; it can also include dark science fiction. Try reading the previous previous volumes or read: www.prime-books.com/intro-ybdfh2010/

Guidelines: The work must be published during the calendar year of 2016. Publishers and Editors: You need not send a physical book/issue; a PDF emailed to me will be fine. (Ebook if there’s no other alternative.) Authors: Direct submissions to the editor can be made, but try to get your publisher to send the entire volume if possible. (PDF, Word doc, or RTF are preferred.) Readers: Sincere suggestions are always appreciated, just email me. Send submissions to: paula@prime-books.com, subject: YBDF&H. If a physical copy is submitted please email me for mailing address.

Deadline: December 1, 2016. If your work/publication is being published in December, please try to get it to me in some form by that date. Overall: The earlier I get the material the better.

Please post and/or pass this on to others.

Although there is always the possibility of changes, we are scheduled for this year and next! Check out any of 2016’s books by clicking the titles links for more information.

2016

Apr: Street Magicks, ed. Paula Guran
May: Cthulhu’s Daughters: Stories of Lovecraftian Horror, eds. Paula R. Stiles & Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Jun: The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2016 Edition, ed. Rich Horton
Jul The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2016 Edition, ed. Paula Guran
Aug: The Year’s Best Science & Fantasy Novellas: 2016 Edition, ed. Paula Guran
Sep: Yamada Monogatori: The Emperor in Shadow by Richard Parks (novel)
Oct: A Feast of Sorrows: Stories by Angela Slatter (collection)
Oct: The Mammoth Book of Kaiju, ed. Sean Wallace

2017

Feb: The Mammoth Book of the Mummy, ed. Paula Guran
Mar: Swords Against Darkness, ed. Guran
Apr: Clarkesworld Magazine: Ten Years of Science Fiction & Fantasy & Horror, eds. Neil Clarke & Sean Wallace
May: Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries, and Lore, ed. Paula Guran
Jun: The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2017 Edition, ed.Rich Horton
Jul: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2017 Edition, ed. Paula Guran
Aug: War Machines, ed. Neil Clarke
Sep: Witch’s Brew: Stories for the Season, ed. Paula Guran
Oct: The Promise of Space and Other Stories by James Patrick Kelly (collection)

Streets are more than thoroughfares: they are sources of knowledge, points of connection, routes to hidden levels. In worlds where magic is real, streets can be full of dangerous shadows or paths to salvation. Wizards walk them, transformations abound, boulevards might seethe with sorcery, roads can lead to delightful enchantment . . . and, often, dead ends. Cobblestone or concrete, state of mind or situation, with magic in the equation these street stories from the minds of some of fantasy’s finest writers and myriad sources will take you for a walk through wild realms of imagination.

Read the introduction here!

Trade Paperback
384 Pages
Size: 6″ x 9″
Publication Date: April 19, 2016
Price: $15.95

Contents:

Introduction: “Practices and Paved Paths” by Paula Guran
“Freewheeling” by Charles de Lint
“A Year and a Day in Old Theradane” by Scott Lynch
“Caligo Lane” by Ellen Klages
“Socks” by Delia Sherman
“Painted Birds and Shivered Bones” by Kat Howard
“The Goldfish Pond and Other Stories” by Neil Gaiman
“One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King” by Elizabeth Bear
“Street Worm” by Nisi Shawl
“A Water Matter” by Jay Lake
“Last Call” by Jim Butcher
“Bridle” by Caitlín R. Kiernan
“The Last Triangle” by Jeffrey Ford
“Working for the God of the Love of Money” by Kaaron Warren
“Hello, Moto” by Nnedi Okorafor
“The Spirit of the Thing: A Nightside Story” by Simon R. Green
“A Night in Electric Squidland” by Sarah Monette
“Speechless in Seattle” by Lisa Silverthorne
“Palimpsest” by Catherynne M. Valente
“Ash” by John Shirley
“In Our Block” by R. A. Lafferty

The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novellas: 2016
Edited by Paula Guran

The second volume of Prime Books’ annual anthology series collecting some of the year’s best novella-length science fiction and fantasy. Novellas, longer than short stories but shorter than novels, are a rich rewarding literary form that can fully explore tomorrow’s technology, the far reaches of the future, thought-provoking imaginings, fantastic worlds, and entertaining concepts with all the impact of a short story as well as the detailed depth of a novel. Gathering a wide variety of excellent science fiction and fantasy, this anthology of “short novels” showcases the talents of both established masters and new writers.

Contents:
“The Citadel of Weeping Pearls” by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s, Oct/Nov 2015)
“The Bone Swans of Amandale” by C.S.E. Cooney (Bone Swans, Mythic Delirium Books)
“Binti” by Nnedi Okorafor (Binti, Tor.com)
“The Last Witness” by K. J. Parker (The Last Witness, Tor.com)
“Johnny Rev” by Rachel Pollack (F&SF, Jul/Aug 2015)
“Inhuman Garbage,” Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Asimov’s March 2015)
“Gypsy,” Carter Scholz (F&SF, Nov/Dec 2015)
“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn,” Usman Malik (The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn, Tor.com)
“What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear” by Bao Shu, translated by Ken Liu (F&SF, Mar/Apr 2015)

The cover of this year’s edition features original art by Julie Dillon.

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: 2016
Edited By Paula Guran

Macabre meetings, sinister excursions, and deadly relationships; uncanny encounters; a classic ghost story featuring an American god; a historical murderer revived in a frightening new iteration; innovative Lovecraftian turns; shadowy fairy tales and weird myths; strange children, the unexpected, the supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real . . . tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows. This volume of 2015’s best dark fantasy and horror offers more than 500 pages of tales from some of today’s finest writers of the fantastique—sure to delight as well as disturb.

Alphabetical by Author Last Name:

• “The Door” by Kelley Armstrong (Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong, Tachyon)
• “Snow” by Dale Bailey (Nightmare, June 2015)
• “1Up” by Holly Black (Press Start to Play, ed. Adams, Vintage)
• “Seven Minutes in Heaven” by Nadia Bulkin (Aickman’s Heirs, ed. Strantzas, Undertow)
• “The Glad Hosts” by Rebecca Campbell (Lackington’s #7)
• “Hairwork” by Gemma Files (She Walks in Shadows, eds. Moreno-Garcia & Stiles, Innsmouth Free Press)
• “Black Dog” by Neil Gaiman (Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances, William Morrow)
• “A Shot of Salt Water” by Lisa L. Hannett (The Dark #8)
• “The Scavenger’s Nursery” by Maria Dahvana Headley (Shimmer # 24)
• “Daniel’s Theory About Dolls” by Stephen Graham Jones (The Doll Collection, ed. Datlow, Tor)
• “The Cripple and Starfish” by Caítlin R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest #108)
• “The Absence of Words” by Swapna Kishore (Mythic Delirium #1.3)
• “Corpsemouth” by John Langan (The Monstrous, ed. Datlow, Tachyon)
• “Cassandra” by Ken Liu (Clarkesworld # 102)
• “Street of the Dead House” by Robert Lopresti (nEvermore, eds. Kilpatrick & soles, EDGE)
• “Mary, Mary” by Kirstyn McDermott (Cranky Ladies of History, eds. Roberts & Wessely, Fablecroft)
• “There is No Place for Sorrow in the Kingdom of the Cold” by Seanan McGuire, The Doll Collection, ed. Datlow, Tor)
• “Below the Falls” by Daniel Mills (Nightscript 1, ed. Muller, Chthonic Matter)
• “The Deepwater Bride” by Tamsyn Muir (F&SF Jul-Aug)
• “The Greyness” by Kathryn Ptacek (Expiration Date, ed. Kilpatrick, EDGE)
• “The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill” by Kelly Robson (Clarkesworld # 101)
• “Those” by Sofia Samatar (Uncanny #3)
• “Fabulous Beasts” by Priya Sharma (Tor.com)
• “Windows Underwater” by John Shirley (Innsmouth Nightmares, ed. Gresh, PS Publishing)
• “Ripper” by Angela Slatter (Horrorology, ed. Jones, Quercus)
• “The Lily and the Horn” by Catherynne M. Valente (Fantasy #59)
• “Sing Me Your Scars” by Damien Angelica Walters (Sing Me Your Scars, Apex)
• “The Body Finder” by Kaaron Warren (Blurring the Line, ed. Young, Cohesion)
• “The Devil Under the Maison Blue” by Michael Wehunt (The Dark #10)
• “Kaiju maximus®: “So various, So Beautiful, So New” by Kai Ashante Wilson (Fantasy #59)