I love doing this annual short stories post (you can find posts from previous years linked here) and I think this 2018's list once again shows just how many good short story writers there are writing today. So many that one person couldn't possibly keep track of them all, so this post is just a small and biased snapshot of a larger whole. But within this snapshot, I hope readers of this blog find some stories and authors new to them.
As ever, these are all recent-ish stories and I've listed where I read the story, which isn't necessarily the place where it was originally published.
Nina Allan: The Gift Of Angels: An Introduction (Clarkesworld #146)
G.V. Anderson: Waterbirds (Lightspeed #98)
Dale Bailey: I Was A Teenage Werewolf (Year's Best Weird Fiction #4, Undertow)
Jasper Bark: Bed Of Crimson Joy (KnightWatch Gallery, Black Shuck Books)
Laird Barron: Another Me (author's website)
Simon Bestwick: The Bells Of Rainey (Great British Horror 3: For Those In Peril, Black Shuck Books)
Daniel Braum: An American Ghost In Zurich (The Wish Mechanics, Independent Legions Publishing)
Daniel Braum: How To Make Love & Not Turn Into Stone (The Wish Mechanics, Independent Legions Publishing)
Georgina Bruce: The Seas Of The Moon (Great British Horror 3: For Those In Peril, Black Shuck Books)
Eric Brown: The Ice Garden (Improbable Botany, Wayward)
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan: Our Last Guest (Granta #136)
Gary Budden: Spearbird (Hollow Shores, Dead Ink Books)
Gary Budden: The Wrecking Days (Hollow Shores, Dead Ink Books)
Ramsey Campbell: Some Kind Of Laughter (The Alchemy Press Book Of Horrors, Alchemy Press)
Chloe N. Clark: The Intimacy Of Objects (Jellyfish Review)
Tim Clayton: White Knuckle Ride (Sinister Horror Company Annual, The Sinister Horror Company)
Ray Cluley: In The Light Of St. Ives (Best British Horror 2018, NewCon Press)
Ray Cluley: Whispers In The Mist (Shadows & Tall Trees #5, Undertow)
M.R. Cosby: The Other Side Of The Hill (Nightscript #3)
Claire Dean: The Unwish (Best British Horror 2018, NewCon Press)
Kristi DeMeester: My Sister's Omen (The Dark #33)
Malcolm Devlin: Moths (Tales From The Shadow Booth #1)
Malcolm Devlin: Nautilus (author's website)
Malcolm Devlin: What Little Boys Are Made Of (Nightscript #3)
Kayleigh Marie Edwards: The Perfect Day To Be At Sea (Great British Horror 3: For Those In Peril, Black Shuck Books)
Tracy Fahey: The Girl Who Kissed The Dead (Sinister Horror Company Annual, The Sinister Horror Company)
Kurt Fawver: The Convexity Of Our Youth (Looming Low #1, Dim Shores)
Gemma Files: Distant Dark Places (Looming Low #1, Dim Shores)
Gemma Files: Nanny Grey (Nightmare #75)
Jeffery Ford: The Blameless (Year's Best Weird Fiction #4, Undertow)
Gary Fry: Disagreeably Hitched (author's website)
Gary Fry: The House Of The Rising Son (The Death Of Boys, Black Shuck Books)
Cate Gardner: The Fullness Of Her Belly (The Alchemy Press Book Of Horrors, Alchemy Press)
A.T. Greenblatt: And Yet (Uncanny #21)
Adam Golaski: The Beasts Are Sleep (Nightscript #3)
Carly Holmes: Three For A Girl (Figurehead, Tartarus Press)
Carly Holmes: Woodside Close (Figurehead, Tartarus Press)
Timothy J. Jarvis: What The Bones Told Hecate Shrike (Tales From The Shadow Booth #1)
N.K. Jemisin: The City Born Great (TOR)
Daisy Johnson: A Heavy Devotion (Year's Best Weird Fiction #4, Undertow)
Daisy Johnson: She Would Walk Them (Bourbon Penn #16)
Stephen Graham Jones: Moonboys (Lightspeed #102)
Danny King: The Stranger (A Pocket Guide To The Sinister Horror Company, The Sinister Horror Company)
Carrie Laben: The Fledglings of Time (The Dark #32)
Claude Lalumiere: Being Here (Curious Fictions)
Livia Llewellyn: Allochthon (Furnace, Word Horde)
Livia Llewellyn: It Feels Better Biting Down (Furnace, Word Horde)
Rebecca Lloyd: Hagbound (Dark Lane Anthology #2, Dark Lane Books)
Carmen Maria Machado: Horror Story (Granta #132)
Tim Major: The House Lights Dim (Dark Lane Anthology #2, Dark Lane Books)
Claire Massey: Casting Ammonites (Shadows & Tall Trees #5, Undertow)
Laura Mauro: Ningen (Darker Worlds Publishing)
Sam J. Miller: Angel, Man, Monster (Year's Best Weird Fiction #4, Undertow)
Alison Moore: The Stone Dead (Tales From The Shadow Booth #1)
Ralph Robert Moore: Peelers (The Alchemy Press Book Of Horrors, Alchemy Press)
Sunny Moraine: We Grope Together & Avoid Speech (Looming Low #1, Dim Shores)
Mark Morris: We Who Sing Beneath The Ground (Best British Horror 2018, NewCon Press)
Anne Neugebauer: That Which Never Comes (Tales From The Shadow Booth #1)
Adam Nevill: The Angels Of London (The Black Room Manuscripts #3, Sinister Horror Company)
Marie O'Regan: Pretty Things (The Alchemy Press Book Of Horrors, Alchemy Press)
Kit Power: Stepping Out, (Great British Horror 3: For Those In Peril, Black Shuck Books)
Courtney Privett: Lastborn (Holding On By Our Fingertips, Kristell Ink)
Madhvi Ramani: Teufelsberg (The Alchemy Press Book Of Horrors, Alchemy Press)
Eric Schaller: 8)-5.8 (Meet Me In The Middle Of The Air, Undertow)
Eric Schaller: Number One Fan (Meet Me In The Middle Of The Air, Undertow)
Neil Schiller: I Could Have Lied (Slight Return)
Neil Schiller: I Know We Could Be So Happy (If We Wanted To Be) (Slight Return)
Gaie Sebold: The Day It Changed (Holding On By Our Fingertips, Kristell Ink)
Priya Sharma: The Crow Palace (All The Fabulous Beasts, Undertow)
Priya Sharma: Small Town Stories (All The Fabulous Beasts, Undertow)
Christopher Slatsky: SPARAGMOS (Looming Low #1, Dim Shores)
Phil Sloman: Broken On The Inside (Broken On The Inside, Black Shuck Books)
Simon Strantzas: Doused By Night (Looming Low #1, Dim Shores)
Florence Sunnen: The Hook (Nightjar Press chapbook)
Florence Sunnen: The Vampire (author's website)
David Surface: Something You Leave Behind (Nightscript #3)
Sarah Tolmie: The Dancer On The Stairs (Year's Best Weird Fiction #4, Undertow)
Matt Thomas: Living Together (Nightjar Press chapbook)
Eugenia Triantafyllou: Cherry Wood Coffin (Apex #108)
Lisa Tuttle: Vegetable Love (Improbable Botany, Wayward)
Cathy Ulrich: Being The Murdered Homecoming Queen (Wyvern Lit)
Simon Kurt Unsworth: The Smiling Man (The Martledge Variations, Black Shuck Books)
Damien Angelica Walters: All The Windows & All The Doors (author's website)
Damien Angelica Walters: It Never Looks Like Drowning (Great British Horror 3: For Those In Peril, Black Shuck Books)
Ren Warrom: The Art Of Divination By The Migration Of Birds (Holding On By Our Fingertips, Kristell Ink)
Michael Wehunt: The Pine Arch Collection (The Dark #36)
Gordon B. White: Rearranging Ways To Listen (Daily Science Fiction)
Aliya Whiteley: Corwick Grows (The Dark #34)
