Another year, another favourite short story post. And there's some truly excellent ones below, representing a small fraction of those I read in 2016. These are all recent short stories, although in a few instances I've bent the the definition of 'recent' to sneak a favourite in. As I have with the definition of 'short' as well. And in a couple of cases, even 'story'. But all of them are brilliant, without equivocation.
I hope readers of this blog will sample at least a few of the stories below. Enjoy!
(You can find my lists for previous years linked here.)
Nina Allan: The Art Of Space Travel (TOR)
G.V. Anderson: Four Stops (Syntax & Salt)
G.V. Anderson: Das Steingeschöpf (Strange Horizons December 2016)
Anonymous: The Role of Music In Your Life (A Five Dials Experience)
Dale Bailey: Mr Splitfoot (The Best Horror Of The Year #6, Night Shade Books)
Nathan Ballingud: The Good Husband (The Best Horror Of The Year #6, Night Shade Books)
Matthew M. Bartlett: The Investigator (Gateways To Abomination)
Matthew M. Bartlett: Rangel (The Year's Best Weird Fiction #3, Undertow)
Steve Berman: The Haferbräutigam (The Dark #12)
Keith Brooke & Eric Brown: In Transit (Parallax View, Infinity Plus)
Molly Brown: Living With The Dead (Obsidian, NewCon Press)
Georgina Bruce: White Rabbit (Black Static #50)
Nadia Bulkin: The House That Jessica Built (The Dark #18)
Nadia Bulkin: Pro Patria (Cassilda's Song, Chaosium)
Ramsey Campbell: Fear My Name (Fearie Tales, Jo Fletcher Books)
Ramsey Campbell: At Lorne Hall (Nightmare #2)
Ted Chiang: The Great Silence (Electric Lit)
Chloe N. Clark: Where Is Your Destination, What Is Your Plan (Menacing Hedge Spring 2016)
Chloe N. Clark: Stricken (Cheap Pop)
Ray Cluley: A Tale Before Supper (This Is Horror)
Ray Cluley: The Castellmarch Man (Great British Horror #1: Green & Pleasant Land, Black Shuck Books)
Brian Conn: The Guest (The Year's Best Weird Fiction #3, Undertow)
Julio Cortazar: Headache (The Year's Best Weird Fiction #2, Undertow)
Elaine Cuyegkeng: The House That Creaks (The Dark #17)
Kristi DeMeester: All The World When It Is Thin (The Dark #11)
Kristi DeMeester: Everything That's Underneath (Nightscript #1)
Seth Dickinson: Anna Scares Them All (Shimmer #21)
Steve Duffy: The Marginals (The Dark #14)
Brian Evenson: Click (Granta)
Brian Evenson: No Matter Which Way We Turned (People Holding Spring 2016)
Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer: Everything I Show You Is A Piece Of My Death (Apex)
Cate Gardner: Blood Moth Kiss (Shadow Moths, Frightful Horrors)
Brian Hodge: The Same Deep Waters As You (The Best Horror Of The Year #6, Night Shade Books)
Ashley Hutson: Houseplants In Winter (Spelk)
Timothy J. Jarvis: Under The Sign Of The Black Raven (Treatises On Dust)
Carole Johnstone: Wetwork (Black Static #52)
Benedict J. Jones: The Listening (Skewered & Other London Cruelties, Crime Wave Press)
Tyler Keevil: Foul Is Fair (Black Static #50)
Claude Lalumiere: Dead (Nocturnes & Other Nocturnes, Infinity Plus)
John Langan: Inundation (Lovecraft Ezine #37)
Rich Larson: The Air We Breath Is Stormy, Stormy (The Year's Best Weird Fiction #2, Undertow)
V.H. Leslie: Man Of The House (Black Static #50)
V.H. Leslie: Hermaness (Great British Horror #1: Green & Pleasant Land, Black Shuck Books)
Patricia Lillie: The Cuckoo Girls (Nightscript #1)
John Ajvide Lindqvist: Come Unto Me (Fearie Tales, Jo Fletcher Books)
Alison Littlewood: The Eyes Of Water (Spectral Press chapbook)
Livia Llewellyn: The Low, Dark Edge Of Life (Nightmare #51)
Kevin Lucia: Yellow Cab (Through A Mirror, Darkly, Crystal Lake)
Sophie Mackintosh: The Weak Spot (Granta)
Carman Maria Machado: The Husband Stitch (The Year's Best Weird Fiction #2, Undertow)
Usman T. Malik: Resurrection Points (The Year's Best Weird Fiction #2, Undertow)
Tim Major: Lines Of Fire (Game Over, Snow Books)
Helen Marshall: Exposure (Cassilda's Song, Chaosium)
Laura Mauro: Obsidian (Obsidian, NewCon Press)
Gary McMahon: What We Talk About When We Talk About The Dead (Shadows & Tall Trees #4, Undertow)
Ian McEwan: My Purple Scented Novel (The New Yorker)
S.P. Miskowski: Stag In Flight (Dim Shores Chapbook)
Alison Moore: It Has Happened Before (Shadows & Tall Trees #4, Undertow)
Sunny Moraine: Dispatches From A Hole In The World (Singing With All My Skin & Bone, Undertow)
Sunny Moraine: Cold As The Moon (Singing With All My Skin & Bone, Undertow)
Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Stories With Happy Endings (This Strange Way Of Dying, Exile Editions)
Mark Morris: Full Up (Black Static #51)
David Nickle: The Caretakers (TOR.COM)
Scott Nicolay: Do You Like To Look At Monsters? (Word Horde)
Scott Nicolay: Noctuidae (King Shot Press chapbook)
Sarah Pinborough: Do You See? (Obsidian, NewCon Press)
Leone Ross: The Woman Who Lived In A Restaurant (Nightjar Press chapbook)
Lynda E. Rucker: The House On Cobb Street (You'll Know When You Get There, Swan River Press)
Lynda E. Rucker: Who Is This Who Is Coming? (You'll Know When You Get There, Swan River Press)
Erica L. Satifka: Bucket List Found In The Locker Of Maddie Price, Age 14, Written Two Weeks Before The Great Uplifting Of All Mankind (Lightspeed #61)
Jeremy Schleiwe: A Little Lost Thing (Supernatural Tales #32)
Priya Sharma: The Absent Shade (Black Static #44)
Robert Shearman: Bedtime Stories For Yasmin (Shadows & Tall Trees #4, Undertow)
Robert Shearman: Times Table (Everyone's Just So So Special, Big Finish)
Robert Shearman: A History Of Broken Things (Everyone's Just So So Special, Big Finish)
Laurel Sills: The Animals Inside (Game Over, Snow Books)
Maggie Slater: The Behemoth Beaches (Apex)
Christopher Slatsky: Loveliness Like A Shadow (The Year's Best Weird Fiction #3, Undertow)
David Surface: Terrible Things (Shadows & Tall Trees #4, Undertow)
Karen Tidbeck: Migration (The Year's Best Weird Fiction #2, Undertow)
Lavie Tidhar: Selfies (TOR.COM)
Paul Tremblay: A Haunted House Is A Wheel On Which Some Are Broken (Gutted, Crystal Lake)
Lisa Tuttle: Paul's Mother (Obsidian, NewCon Press)
Simon Kurt Unsworth: Mr Denning Sings (Great British Horror #1: Green & Pleasant Land, Black Shuck Books)
Valerie Valdes: A Diet Of Worms (Nightmare #49)
Damien Angelica Walters: The Hands That Hold, The Lies That Bind (Cemetery Dance)
D.P. Watt: Shallabalah (Almost Insentient, Almost Divine, Undertow)
D.P. Watt: The Usher (Almost Insentient, Almost Divine, Undertow)
Michael Wehunt: Birds Of Lancaster, Lairamore, Lovejoy (The Dark #11)
Michael Wehunt: The Death of Socrates (Nightscript #1)
Mark West: Photograph Of You (Tales From The Lake #2, Crystal Lake)
Aliya Whiteley: Bird Charming For Beginners (Horizons #3, British Fantasy Society)
Conrad Williams: The Pike (Born With Teeth, PS Publishing)
Neil Williamson: The Death Of Abigail Goudy (Secret Language, NewCon Press)
A.C. Wise: The Men From Narrow Houses (Liminal Stories #1)
A.C. Wise: The Last Sailing Of The Henry Charles Morgan In Six Pieces Of Scrimshaw (The Dark #14)
Alyssa Wong: Scarecrow (TOR.COM)
Alyssa Wong: Rabbit Heart (Fireside Fiction #37)
Jason A. Wyckoff: On Balance (Nightscript #1)
Stephanie M. Wytovich: The Morning After Was Filled With Bone (Gutted, Crystal Lake)
Mercedes M. Yardley: Water Thy Bones (Gutted, Crystal Lake)
