Favourite Short Stories 2025

Here we go: every year, I read a ton of great short stories, and 2025 wasn't an exception. Here's the best of the best. Same 'rules' as for previous years —and you can find links to lists from previous years here. For each story, I've linked to where I read the story, which isn't always where they were first published.

Joanne Anderton: He Dances Alone (The Best Weird Fiction Of The Year #1, Undertow Publications)

Joanne Anderton: Street Blessings (White Enso #7)

Anon: The Track Down (Maps of The Lost)

Chris Baker: Unfinished Conversations Package (Flash Fiction Online #146) 

James Bennett: Husk (The Dark #123)

JL Borganschneider: The Classical Arrangement (The Unspoken, Dinesh Allirajah Prize For Short Fiction)

Angelica Cabral: Quiet Men (Cotton Xenomorph)

Ramsey Campbell: The Dreamed (Fearful Implications, PS Publishing)
Ramsey Campbell: Wherever You Look (Fearful Implications, PS Publishing)

Ramsey Campbell: Fully Boarded (Fearful Implications, PS Publishing)

Ramsey Campbell: The Run Of The Town (Fearful Implications, PS Publishing)

Eliza Chan: Lustre Mining (The Dark #127)

Kay Chronister: Ruminants (The Best Weird Fiction Of The Year #1, Undertow Publications)

Eliza Clark: She's Always Hungry (She's Always Hungry, Faber)

Eliza Clark: Hollow Bones (She's Always Hungry, Faber)

Eliza Clark: The Shadow Over Little Chitaly (She's Always Hungry, Faber)

Chloe N. Clarke: You Could Be Anyone (Supernatural Tales #60)

Joanna Corrnace: A Pinch Of Salt (Blood In The Bricks, NewCon Press)

Dan Coxon: Our Sister Of Blackthorn (Blood In The Bricks, NewCon Press)

Lyndsey Croal: The Constellations Of Daughter Death (Flash Fiction Online)

Lyndsey Croal: When The Blood Runs Dry (Blood In The Bricks, NewCon Press)

Kayleigh Dobbs: That Time Of The Month (Strange New Moons, French Press)

Elle Zi Dong: They Must Be Angels (The Dark 123)

Tracy Fahey: The Woman In The Moon (Uncertainties III, Swan River Press)

Ivy Grimes: Old Woman & The Girls (Rejection Letters)

Elliot Gish: Tour (The Best Weird Fiction Of The Year #1, Undertow Publications)

Edward Hogan: The Visitor (The Unspoken, Dinesh Allirajah Prize For Short Fiction)

Andrew Hook: Mont Blanc (Salt House Magazine)

Jennifer Hudak: The Witch Trap (The Dark #124)

Timothy J. Jarvis: A Tiding (Blood In The Bricks, NewCon Press)

Gurnaik Johal: Arrival (Gallery Beggar Press)

D.H. Lawrence: Love Among The Haystacks (Selected Short Stories, Penguin) 

D.H. Lawrence: Tickets Please (Selected Short Stories, Penguin) 

D.H. Lawrence: The White Stocking (Selected Short Stories, Penguin) 

D.H. Lawrence: The Border Line (Selected Short Stories, Penguin) 

Oliviah Lawrence: The Live Flowers (The Literary Underdog)

Tim Major: Escape Notice (Blood In The Bricks, NewCon Press)

Shreejita Majumder: A Recipe For Immortality (Serves 2) (Tales & Feathers #3)
C.S. Mee: Brothers (Gallery Beggar Press)

S.P. Miskowski: Warner's Errand (Uncertainties III, Swan River Press)

Ralph Robert Moore: It Could Be Cancer (Uncertainties III, Swan River Press)

Ellis Nye: Tuesday (Small Wonders #30)

Joyce Carol Oates: Thanksgiving (Celestial Timepiece) 

Joyce Carol Oates: The Ruins Of Contracoeur (The Ruins Of Contracoeur & Other Presences, Swan River Press)

Joyce Carol Oates: The Redwoods (The Ruins Of Contracoeur & Other Presences, Swan River Press)

Mike O'Driscoll: And Zero At The Bone (The Dream Operator, Undertow Publications)

Mike O'Driscoll: The Entire City (The Dream Operator, Undertow Publications)

Sanni Omodolapo: What He Wanted, What I Wanted (The Temz Review)

Spencer Orey: A Self-Guided Manual For The Despondent Necromancer (Sans.Press)

qntm: We Need To Talk About Fifty-Five (SCP)

Keith Ridgway: Marching Songs (Granta #120)

Iain Rowan: The Stranger (The Unspoken, Dinesh Allirajah Prize For Short Fiction)

Nicholas Royle: British Wildlife (The Best Weird Fiction Of The Year #1, Undertow Publications)

Lynda E. Rucker: The Further Tide (Supernatural Tales #60)

Julia Rust & David Surface: TallDarkAnd (Uncertainties III, Swan River Press)

Saba Sams: Blue 4eva (The Guardian)

Robert Shearman: Unfinished (We All Hear Stories In The Dark, PS Publishing)

Robert Shearman: A View From The Cliff Top (We All Hear Stories In The Dark, PS Publishing)

Robert Shearman: Custard Cream (We All Hear Stories In The Dark, PS Publishing)

EJ Sidle: Agonies Of The New Flesh (Strange New Moons, French Press)

Phil Sloman: Larking (Blood In The Bricks, NewCon Press)

Richard Smyth: Empty Air (author's website)

Richard Smyth: A Good Breakfast (author's website)

Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece: St. Dymphnas School For Borderland Girls (Weird Horror #10, Undertow Publications)

Gretchen Tessmer: Cliff's Notes For Surviving A Blockbuster Disaster Film (Bourbon Penn #35)

Steve Toase: Géradert Fühlen (Blood In The Bricks, NewCon Press)

Dylan Thomas: The Vistor (The Dylan Thomas Omnibus, W&N)

Dylan Thomas: Patricia, Edith, And Arnold  (The Dylan Thomas Omnibus, W&N)

Mary Thornson: Nesting (Burningword)

Charlotte Tierney: A Woman's Place Is In The Haunted House (The Best Weird Fiction Of The Year #1, Undertow Publications)

Benjamin Kurt Unsworth: The All Embracing Nature Of A Plastic Bag (Into Wrack And Ruin, Phantasmagoria Books)

Michael Wehunt: Vampire Fiction (The Inconsolables, Bad Hand Books)

Michael Wehunt: The Teeth Of America (The Inconsolables, Bad Hand Books)

Michael Wehunt: Caring For A Stray Dog (Metaphors)  (The Inconsolables, Bad Hand Books)

Bree Wernicke: Doctors HATE Her!! Local Woman Is NOT Cursed (Bourbon Penn #137)

Shaoni C White: Your Thoughts Are Glass (The Best Weird Fiction Of The Year #1, Undertow Publications)

A.C. Wise: Most Likely To... (Class Of 1997) (The Dark #127)
Eva Wyles: Mother And (Delivery Women, Influx Press)

A new review for 'The Quarantined City'

Always nice when you see proof something you wrote years ago is still finding new readers... a friend on Facebook recently shared this review of The Quarantined City (among others) on a substack called The Upstairs Window. I'd never come across the site before, but it seems to be a real gold-mine of bookish recommendations. And, it's a really lovely review that made my day:

"When I was about a quarter of the way into this book, I went back to the beginning and started again. I had a burgeoning feeling it was something special..."

Do check out the rest of the site, it's obviously written by someone with a real passion for books and literature and all the right things in life. 

And if you'd like to check out The Quarantined City yourself, there's links here and here.

UK Ghost Story Festival 2026

Very pleased to say I'll be taking part in the UK Ghost Story Festival next year at the Quad in Derby, organised as ever by the indefatigable Alex Davis.

There's a whole host of talented writers there, including a few good writing chums of mine I'm looking forward to catching up with. I will be doing a panel and running a writing workshop on Ghost Stories & Ambiguity which you can sign up for here - but do check out the full lineup of events!

World Fantasy Con

World Fantasy Con, in Brighton, was an absolute blast. I bought a load of books, chatted with a load of talented people, took part in the NewCon Press launch for Blood In The Bricks (featuring my story 'The Call'), drank some v. expensive beers in the hotel bar, and had some of the best Chinese food I've ever had.

More importantly, as ever with these events I came back tired, but exhilarated that I'm part, in whatever small a way, of a community of such creative and friendly writers. There's always an afterglow from Fantasy Con and similar events where that positivity and enthusiasm for writing persists for a bit back into my real life and I'm spurred on to write and submit more than normal. I'm hoping to make that feeling last as long as possible this year. So here's some photos, to try and trick my brain that I'm still there...

View from the stage at NewCon Press launch.

The best Chinese food.

Brighton looking photogenic & creepy.

NewCon launch.

Did I mention the Chinese food?

Ending an evening with sophisticated literary chat drunken garbage.