Year's Best Weird Fiction: Volume Four

Edited by Helen Marshall and Michael Kelly.

Showcasing the finest weird fiction published 2016, volume 4 of the Year's Best Weird Fiction is our biggest and most ambitious volume to date.

Acclaimed editors Helen Marshall and Michael Kelly bring their editorial acumen to the fourth volume of the Year's Best Weird Fiction. The best weird stories of 2016 features work from Dale Bailey, Gary Budden, Octavia Cade, Indrapramit Das, Malcolm Devlin, Jeffrey Ford, Camilla Grudova, Daisy Johnson, Katie Knoll, Usman T. Malik, Sam J. Miller, Irenosen Okojie, Aki Schilz, Johanna Sinisalo, and Sarah Tolmie.

No longer the purview of esoteric readers, weird fiction is enjoying wide popularity. Chiefly derived from early 20th-century pulp fiction, its remit includes ghost stories, the strange and macabre, the supernatural, fantasy, myth, philosophical ontology, ambiguity, and a healthy helping of the outre. At its best, weird fiction is an intersecting of themes and ideas that explore and subvert the Laws of Nature. It is not confined to one genre, but is the most diverse and welcoming of all genres.

Contents:

“I Was A Teenage Werewolf,” by Dale Bailey. First published in Nightmare Magazine #51.

“Breakdown,” by Gary Budden. First published in ‘The Short Anthology: The Second Issue’.

“The Signal Birds,” by Octavia Cade.  First published in Liminal Stories #2.

“Breaking Water,” by Indrapramit Das. First published at Tor.com.

“The End Of Hope Street,” by Malcolm Devlin. First published in Interzone #266.

“The Blameless,” by Jeffrey Ford. First published in ‘A Natural History of Hell’.

“Waxy,” by Camilla Grudova. First published at Granta Online.

“A Heavy Devotion,” by Daisy Johnson. First publishd in ‘Fen’.

“Red,” by Katie Knoll. First published at The Masters Review Online.

“In The Ruins Of Mohenjo-Daro,” by Usman T. Malik. First published in ‘The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu’.

“Angel, Monster, Man,” by Sam J. Miller. First published in Nightmare Magazine #40.

“Outtakes,” by Irenosen Okojie. First published in ‘Speak, Gigantular’.

“Beating The Bounds,” by Aki Schilz. First published in ‘The Unreliable Guide To London’.

“The Kings With No Hands,” by Johanna Sinisalo. Translated by J. Robert Tupasela. First published in ‘Finnish Weird 3’.

“The Dancer On The Stairs,” by Sarah Tolmie. First published in ‘Two Travelers’.