The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 4

SUMMATION 2011

The eighteen stories and novelettes chosen this year were published in anthologies, magazines, a webzine, single author collections, and a literary journal. The writers live in the United States, Australia, England, The Netherlands, and Canada. Six stories are by writers I’ve never published before, and coincidentally those writers are all female.

Some of the best short horror fiction I read during 2011 was between 9,500 and 16,000 words. Unfortunately, because of space considerations I was only able to take six lengthy stories. But I’d like to make special note of those that I couldn’t take and suggest that readers get hold of them: “The Men from Porlock” and “The Siphon” by Laird Barron, “Ghosts with Teeth” by Peter Crowther, “A Child’s Problem” by Reggie Oliver, and “Near Zennor” by Elizabeth Hand.

The Bram Stoker Awards for Achievement in Horror are given by the Horror Writers Association. The awards for material appearing during 2010 were presented at the organization’s annual banquet held Saturday evening, June 18, 2011 in Uniondale, New York.

2010 Winners for Superior Achievement:

Novel: A Dark Matter by Peter Straub (Doubleday/Orion Books); First Novel (Tie): Black and Orange by Benjamin Kane Ethridge (Bad Moon Books) and The Castle of Los Angeles by Lisa Morton (Gray Friar Press); Long Fiction: Invisible Fences by Norman Prentiss (Cemetery Dance Publications); Short Fiction: “The Folding Man” by Joe R. Lansdale (from Haunted Legends); Anthology: Haunted Legends edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas (Tor); Fiction Collection: Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster); Non-Fiction: To Each Their Darkness by Gary A. Braunbeck (Apex Publications); Poetry Collection: Dark Matters by Bruce Boston (Bad Moon Books).

HWA also presented its annual Lifetime Achievement Awards and its Specialty Press Award. I was on hand to accept my Lifetime Achievement Award, which I shared this year with Al Feldstein. The Specialty Press Award went to Joe Morey of Dark Regions Press.

The Silver Hammer Award, for outstanding service to HWA, was voted by the organization’s board of trustees to Angel Leigh McCoy. The President’s Richard Laymon Service Award was given to Michael Colangelo.

The Shirley Jackson Award, recognizing the legacy of Jackson’s writing, and with permission of her estate, was established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. The awards were announced at Readercon 22, July 17, 2011 held in Burlington, Massachusetts.

The winners for the best work in 2010: Novel: Mr. Shivers, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit); Novella: “Mysterium Tremendum,” Laird Barron (Occultation, Night Shade Books); Novelette: “Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains,” Neil Gaiman (Stories: All New Tales, William Morrow); Short Story: “The Things,” Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, Issue 40); Single-Author Collection: Occultation, Laird Barron (Night Shade Books); Edited Anthology: Stories: All New Tales, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio (William Morrow).

The World Fantasy Awards were announced October 30, 2011 at the World Fantasy Convention in San Diego, California. Lifetime Achievement recipients Peter S. Beagle and Angélica Gorodischer were previously announced.

Winners for the best work in 2010: Novel: Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death (DAW); Novella: Elizabeth Hand, “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” (Stories: All-New Tales); Short Story: Joyce Carol Oates, “Fossil-Figures” (Stories: All-New Tales); Anthology: Kate Bernheimer, ed., My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (Penguin); Collection: Karen Joy Fowler, What I Didn’t See and Other Stories (Small Beer Press); Artist: Kinuko Y. Craft; Special Award — Professional: Marc Gascoigne, for Angry Robot; Special Award — Non-professional: Alisa Krasnostein, for Twelfth Planet Press.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver (Orion Books) is a suspenseful ghost story about a 1937 British arctic scientific expedition to Gruhuken, an isolated Norwegian bay. There are rumors that Gruhuken is haunted. The story is told mostly in the form of a diary written by Jack Miller, a twenty-eight year old desperate to escape London where he feels he’s a failure. Reminiscent of Dan Simmons’ brilliant epic novel The Terror in its depiction of the cold and bleakness of the Arctic winter, Dark Matter is a smaller, more intimate story, told in one voice. But the increasing claustrophobia, the sense of entrapment, and the haunting itself are all extraordinarily effective.

The Diviner’s Tale by Bradford Morrow (HMH/An Otto Penzler Book) is an excellent slow boil of a novel about Cassandra Brooks, a struggling single mother who is a diviner by trade, hired to dowse for water in upstate New York. While dowsing in the forest, she has a vision of a girl hanging from a tree, but when she reports it to the sheriff, the girl has vanished. Morrow captures Cassandra’s voice brilliantly and builds up a lovely little frisson as secrets unfold.

The German by Lee Thomas (Lethe Press) is a chilling novel about a mysterious German ex-soldier living in a small U.S. town during the height of World War II, when tensions and suspicions are at a peak against German refugees, and even citizens of German ancestry. Who better to scapegoat for the brutal murder of a young man than a foreigner, who is also considered a sexual deviant?

Napier’s Bones by Derryl Murphy (ChiZine Publications) is an enjoyably dark novel about a world much like ours but in which some people, known as numerates, can manipulate numbers to their advantage. One such numerate Dom, is searching for a mathematical treasure in the desert when he’s attacked. After regaining consciousness he discovers another being inside him and the story becomes a road trip with Dom, his “passenger,” and a young woman traveling across Canada to prevent a very powerful, very nasty numerate from dominating the world.

The Enterprise of Death by Jesse Bullington (Orbit) is an engaging dark fantasy about a young African slave’s journey toward becoming a necromancer in Renaissance Europe as the Spanish Inquisition is in full swing. So much of this book is about death, dying horribly, being brought back to life to do dastardly things, and ultimately cheating death, that although it loses its punch as a horror novel it evolves into a totally demented variation of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

The Silent Land by Graham Joyce (Gollancz/Doubleday) is another dark fantasy about death but it’s a contemporary, lush, joyous celebration of life, love, and trust in the face of mystery and fear. A married couple skiing in the Pyrenees are engulfed by an avalanche. Jake digs Zoe out and they make their way back to their hotel, which is deserted. From there, things take a strange turn as food left out by the missing hotel staff remains fresh over a period of days, people appear and disappear, and the couple believe that they must be dead — or in some kind of weird stasis. Just as you think you know where the plot is heading, the reader (and the characters) come across another little twist and turn. I, for one, was delighted to have followed the road.

The Taker by Alma Katsu (Gallery Books) is an effective debut that opens with a young woman covered in blood being brought in handcuffs to the emergency room of a small town in Maine. The doctor who examines her becomes enmeshed in a story that, according to the woman, encompasses several hundred years.

The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead by Paul Elwork (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam) is another impressive debut, this one about thirteen-year-old Emily, who discovers that she has a talent for causing her ankle to “knock.” How this revelation snowballs into her and her twin Michael’s entry into spiritualism, a fad popular in the 1920s is what the rest of the book is about. Reaching back into the family’s past, the novel becomes a ghost story without ghosts, but with enough secrets, mysteries, and hints of the supernatural to engage readers interested in dark fiction.

Aloha From Hell by Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager) is the third novel about Sandman Slim, the last Nephilim (an “abomination” born of human and angel), who’s got a really bad attitude — maybe because he’s the only live soul sent down to Hell and brought back. After doing some jobs for Lucifer in L.A. (volume 2, Kill the Dead)—he’s got even worse stuff to deal with. Also, he really wants to get the guy who sent him down to Hell in the first place. Witty, nasty, profane, and thoroughly enjoyable.

The White Devil by Justin Evans (HarperCollins) takes a little while to get past what seems to be a typical “coming of age” story, as a badly behaved American teen is exiled to the prestigious British Harrow School for a year. But the book quickly turns into an adventurous and horrifying modern ghost story delving into a fascinating hundred year old mystery for its vicious, deadly haunting.

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan (Alfred A. Knopf) is, believe it or not, a fresh take on the werewolf novel. The titular last werewolf, Jacob Marlow, is smart, has a literary bent (he quotes from Nabokov’s Lolita), and is ready to die. His nemesis is a werewolf hunter who can hardly wait until the next full moon to finish off Marlow. But vampires who for their own reasons don’t want him dead complicate matters interestingly.

Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Quercus) is a long, complex novel by the author of Let the Right One In and Handling the Undead that begins with the inexplicable disappearance of a child from an isolated Swedish island community. Two years later the parents have broken up and the father, native to the island but who moved away to marry, returns — because he’s got nowhere else to go. There is no real protagonist and that, plus the fact that the story rambles a bit, mar what could have been brilliant. But with patience, the eerie happenings (returning dead), hints of monsters, and unholy deals will keep readers reading.

The Devil all the Time by Donald Ray Pollock (Doubleday) is horrific at times but would be difficult to classify as horror — which shouldn’t put off those who enjoy a good dark mainstream novel about rural southern Ohio and West Virginia and the people who live there. The story has the rawness and unpredictability of the movie Winter’s Bone (I haven’t yet read the Daniel Woodrell novel). Among the characters are a man who believes that only by making more and more elaborate animal sacrifices can he save his dying wife, a murderous couple who pick up and torture young men, and a pair of scam artists posing as a preacher and his acolyte. Highly recommended.

Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson (HarperCollins) is about a woman who wakes up one day, doesn’t know where she is, who she is, or who the man in bed with her is. This is the kind of book that at the three-quarter point, this reader worried that the writer wouldn’t be able to pull off the delicate balancing act of ending the story properly. Although there are a few loose ends, Watson does so brilliantly.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books) is a fine first novel marketed to young adults about a suburban teenager who’s been raised on his grandfather’s fanciful tales of an island off England where he and other child refugees from Nazi Germany were given asylum in an orphanage. The boy doesn’t really believe the stories until his grandfather is brutally attacked and with his dying words directs his grandson to clues proving the existence of both the home and its unusual inhabitants. The book is charming and magical but also horrifying. It’s liberally illustrated with photographs of “peculiar” children and adults resulting in a nice looking and totally readable package.

Regicide by Nicholas Royle (Solaris Books) is an unsettling novel about a disaffected young man who enters a Kafkaesque parallel world inspired by the Robbe-Grillet novel he’s reading titled Regicide.

Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster) — although I enjoy the Dave Robicheaux novels a lot, I — like his creator, sometimes need a break from them. So Burke’s newest novel, featuring Sheriff Hackberry Holland, a man haunted by his experiences as a POW in the Korean War, is welcome. Holland has been central to two of Burke’s previous novels, including the early Lay Down My Sword and Shield with Holland having recently returned from the war. Feast Day of Fools is not supernatural but it’s a dark, complex riveting story about evil doings and good deeds taking place along the Texan-Mexico border. An alcoholic ex-boxer witnesses the torture and death of a man in the desert and reports it to the Sheriff, setting in motion events that spotlight some of the flashpoints of contemporary U.S. society: illegal immigration, drug running, the exploitation of children, psycho killers, corrupt politicians, and religious extremists.

The Edinburgh Dead by Brian Ruckley (Orbit) is an atmospheric police procedural (kind of) about a nineteenth-century mad scientist and the body snatchers who enable his experimentation in raising the dead. Ruckley deftly blends historical figures and events into the plot (Burke & Hare and their murderous ways of supplying anatomical schools with bodies).

The Cypress House by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown and Company) is a fine supernatural suspense novel about a WWI veteran who sees death in the eyes of the living. This curse and gift provides the impetus for a detour he takes with a young companion en route to a job down in the Florida Keys. Instead, they end up at a boarding house in western Florida and become trapped by circumstance and evil doings of the county bossman.

A Killer’s Essence by Dave Zeltserman (Overlook Press) is a fast-moving crime novel about a disaffected New York City detective trying to solve an uncommonly brutal murder witnessed by a man who sees monsters rather than human faces.

Eutopia by David Nickle (ChiZine Press) is an excellent novel about a 1911 scheme by a naïve philanthropist and a mad doctor to build a utopian community in Idaho by means of eugenics. A boy who has been orphaned by a mysterious and deadly plague is brought to the community and with another outsider might be the only hope for the future. And there are monsters.

Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory (Del Rey) is a wonderful novel about a new-born discovered in a snowstorm after his mother has died. He’s dead. And then he opens his eyes — he’s a zombie. He’s named Stony by the family that takes him in and is hidden from the authorities, who will exterminate him. Despite all scientific reason, Stony grows up. And that’s where it gets even more interesting. This is a terrific new take on the zombie trope.

This is not meant to be all inclusive but merely a sampling of dark fiction available in 2011.

11/22/63 by Stephen King (Scribner) is a time travel novel about a man who tries to prevent the Kennedy assassination. Ghosts Know by Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing) is a darkly humorous novel about a radio show host suspected of knowing more than he should about a missing girl. Gemma Files follows up her lauded A Book of Tongues with A Rope of the Thorns (ChiZine Publications), the second book in her Hexlinger series. Conrad Williams’ novel Loss of Separation (Solaris) hinges on the secrets of a small coastal village in England where the pilot protagonist and his girlfriend go to escape from the stress of a near-miss air crash that leaves him with nightmares. Alan M. Clark’s Of Thimble and Threat: The Life of a Ripper Victim (Lazy Fascist Press) is told from the point of view of the fourth victim of Jack the Ripper, Catherine Eddowes. The Burning Soul by John Connolly (Simon & Schuster) is his tenth Charlie Parker novel, a series that usually adds a dash of the supernatural to its mystery/suspense plots. My Soul to Take by Tananarive Due (Simon & Schuster/Washington Square Press) continues the author’s Immortal series. Vacation by Matthew Costello (St. Martin’s Press) is a post-apocalyptic horror novel in which some survivors become cannibals. Rotters by Daniel Kraus (Random House) is about a young boy who discovers that his father is a grave robber. Deadfall Hotel by Steve Rasnic Tem (Centipede Press) is where monsters of all kinds go on vacation.

Zombies: Diana Rowland’s My Life as a White Trash Zombie (DAW) is about a high school dropout who has to deal with her new life as a zombie. The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse by Steven C. Schlozman, MD (Grand Central) is a first novel about a neuroscientist investigating the medical causes of zombieism. The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan (Delacorte Books for Young Readers) is the third in her series of post-apocalypse novels begun with The Forest of Hands and Teeth. A Zombie’s History of the United States by Dr. Worm Miller (Ulysses Press) exposes the three hundred year cover-up that has expunged zombie participation in U. S. history. Zone One by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday) is a post apocalyptic zombie novel during which a member of a civilian “sweeper” unit is sent to clean up some “stragglers” and while doing so recalls the horrors of the outbreak. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim by Mark Twain & Bill Czolgosz (Gallery) — subject matter self-evident. Aftertime by Sophie Littlefield (Luna) is about a young woman who wakes up in a field and realizes that she’s a zombie. Deadline by Mira Grant (Orbit US) is the second in her sf/horror Newflesh series.

Vampires: Blood Society by Jeffrey Thomas (Necro Publications) is about an undying Mafioso. An Embarrassment of Riches by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (Tor) is the twenty-third volume in her popular Count Saint-Germain series set in seventeenth-century Bohemia. Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is the eleventh Sookie Stackhouse novel. The Fly-By-Nights by Brian Lumley (Subterranean) takes place 150 years after the world ends, with the survivors hiding by day to escape the vampire “fly-by-nights.”

Lovecraftian horror: The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham by Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas (Dark Horse) is an homage to/parody of Hunter Thompson. No Hero by Jonathan Wood (Night Shade Books) is a first novel about a British police detective faced with tentacular horrors. Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs (Night Shade Books) is a first novel about a WWII veteran hired to track down a mysterious bluesman whose music is rumored to drive live men insane and to raise the dead.

Demons: Demon by Erik Williams (Bad Moon Books) is about a CIA assassin hunting a demon that wants to destroy humanity. In I Don’t Want to Kill You, Dan Wells’ (Tor) third novel in the trilogy begun with I Am Not a Serial Killer, John Wayne Cleaver phones a demon and challenges it to a fight.

Weird Fiction: The Great Lover by Michael Cisco (Chomu) in about a strange dead guy who lives in sewers. The Orphan Palace by Joe S. Pulver, Sr. (Chomu) is about one man’s strange odyssey into his past.

Ghosts: The Ridge by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown) is a supernatural thriller about mysterious killings at an inland lighthouse.

Other Monsters: Fangtooth by Shaun Jeffrey (Dark Regions Press) about monsters from the deep terrorizing a small beach town. Dark Surge by Gina Ranalli (Dark Regions) is about a divorced mom and the terrible secret of the “other” woman who is now with her ex-husband. The Countess by Rebecca Johns (Crown) about the real life monster Elizabeth Bathory. Midnight’s Angels by Tony Richards (Dark Regions Press) about a curse and monsters who invade a Massachusetts town. Blood Born by Matthew Warner (HW Press) is about a rapist who impregnates all his victims and what happens when his progeny are born. Frankenstein: The Dead Town by Dean Koontz (Bantam) is the fifth and final book in the sf/horror series. The Raising by Laura Kasischke (Harper Perennial) is about a college student’s accidental death and the rumors that she may not really be dead. Frankenstein’s Prescription by Tim Lees (Tartarus Press) is about a group of men attempting to piece together a prescription for eternal life. Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick (Egmont) is a young adult novel about an electromagnetic pulse that causes world-wide cataclysm, including giving teenagers a taste for human flesh.

The Janus Tree and Other Stories (Subterranean Press) is Glen Hirshberg’s third collection of short fiction and it’s as good, if not better than his first two: The Two Sams and American Morons. Included are his eleven most recent stories. The title story won the Shirley Jackson award and several others were chosen for best of the year volumes. The two originals are both chilling and one “You Become the Neighborhood” is published herein. One of best collections of the year.

Engines of Desire: Tales of Love and Other Horrors by Livia Llewellyn (Lethe Press) is a powerful debut collection of ten stories published between 2005 and 2010, with one knockout original novelette, “Omphalos,” reprinted herein. Llewellyn is unflinching in creating flawed characters facing the dark in the world outside and within themselves.

Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke (Apex) is another impressive debut, with eleven dark stories delving into the African American experience, the earliest published in 2004 and five published for the first time, including a powerful novella.

Grease Monkey and Other Tales of Erotic Horror by Graham Masterton (Hard Gore Press) collects fifteen (120,000 words) of Masterton’s nastiest stories, including one selected for the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror several years ago.

Bone Marrow Stew by Tim Curran: Collected Works Volume One (Tasmaniac Publications-The Asylum Projects) is a good introduction to the author’s short fiction. The book includes seventeen stories and novellas, two published for the first time. The art throughout is by Keith Minnion. Simon Clark provides an introduction and the author includes notes for each story.

Eldritch Evolutions by Lois Gresh (Chaosium, Inc.) is the author’s first collection and it brings together twenty-six stories published between 1993 and 2011, nine of which appear for the first time. Although best known for writing Lovecraftian pastiches, Gresh also writes science fiction and weird westerns and her best work is very good indeed, particularly the dark fairy tale “Wee Sweet Girls.”

The Tangled Muse by Wilum Pugmire (Centipede Press) is a beautiful work of art, as well as a fine (albeit expensive) introduction to this author of weird dream-like, decadent fictions. The book, intended as a retrospective of Pugmire’s work over the past two decades, includes over forty stories and prose poems, five of them published for the first time. A second collection by the author, Gathered Dust and Others (Dark Regions Press) includes eighteen stories, four new — at a more affordable price.

Mrs Midnight and Other Stories by Reggie Oliver (Tartarus Press) is an excellent fifth collection of horror and weird stories, with four of the thirteen stories published for the first time. Featuring spot illustrations by the author. One of the best of the year. In addition, Centipede Press brought out Dramas from the Depths, a 900 page retrospective of Oliver’s short fiction containing the table of contents of his first three collections and a number of drawings by the author.

Five Degrees of Latitude by Michael Reynier (Tartarus Press) is an impressive debut — the book contains five new, unsettling novellas in the realm of the uncanny.

Tartarus Press published several other collections: Kicking off their Robert Aickman series is We Are For The Dark by Robert Aickman and Elizabeth Jane Howard, originally published in 1951, with three stories by each writer, none identified as by which one at the time. Included in the book is an introduction by R. B. Russell based on a recent interview he conducted with Howard; Dark Entries by Robert Aickman, which contains the six stories from his early, first solo collection, originally published in 1964. The volume is introduced by Glen Cavaliero; Powers of Darkness by Robert Aickman contains another six stories and features an introduction by Mark Valentine; Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman has eight stories and an introduction by Phil Baker; Ringstones and Other Curious Tales by Sarban was, in 1951, the author’s first published work. The new edition of five stories is accompanied by a second volume Time, a Falconer: A Study of Sarban by Mark Valentine, a biographical work that by using Sarban’s archives, traces the author’s history from his working-class roots to a distinguished diplomatic career. In addition, there’s Discovery of Heretics: Unseen Writings by Sarban, containing previously unpublished fragments and unfinished stories and poetry.

Red Gloves by Christopher Fowler (PS Publishing) is an excellent double volume of twenty-five stories celebrating the author’s 25^th anniversary writing horror. Fowler is both prolific and versatile, a winning combination. The first volume contains London stories, the second is made up of world stories. Several are original to the volume and one of them is a new Bryant and May story.

Rumours of the Marvellous by Peter Atkins (The Alchemy Press and Airgedlámh Productions) features fourteen stories by this consistently entertaining author, including one bracing original. The introduction is by Glen Hirshberg.

Scream Quietly by Charles L. Grant (PS Publishing) is a tribute to the late great master of “quiet” horror edited by Stephen Jones. Jones provides an introduction and Stephen King provides a foreword, along with essays by Nancy Holder, Kim Newman, Thomas F. Monteleone, and Peter Straub. Plus an interview of Grant by Nancy Kilpatrick. This in addition to the generous helping of over thirty of his stories.

The Saints Are Dead by Aaron Polson (Aqueous Books) is a debut collection of eighteen stories, four published for the first time.

The Call of Distant Shores: Tales of Elder Gods and Lovecraftian Horror by David Niall Wilson (Macabre Ink) contains thirteen tales, one original to this ebook collection.

The Undying Thing and Others by Barry Pain (Hippocampus Press) contains for the first time, all of the author’s weird writing and a rare novel in collaboration with James Blyth. Introduction by S. T. Joshi.

The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits by Stephen Mark Rainey (Dark Regions Press) features seventeen stories, six never before published.

A Bracelet of Bright Hair by Jane Jakeman (Sarob Press) showcases eight very effective ghost stories, one new, with an afterword by the author.

It Knows Where You Live by Gary McMahon (Gray Friar Press) nicely captures the unease and alienation of contemporary life in these fifteen horror stories, all but two original to the collection.

Tales of Sin and Madness by Brett McBean (LegumeMan Books) has twenty stories and short-shorts, some reprints, some original, with the hardest-to-read typeface for everything but the actual stories that I’ve ever tried to decipher. Fie on book designers who have no clue about readability.

Looking at the World with Glass in My Eye by Mark Justice (Graveside Books) has eighteen stories, half original. With an introduction by Ronald Kelly.

Cold Mirrors by C. J. Lines (Adramelech Books) is a debut collection of fourteen stories, nine published for the first time.

Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings by Sam Stone (Telos) contains thirteen stories and six poems, most published for the first time.

Nightingale Songs by Simon Strantzas (Dark Regions Press) is the author’s third collection, containing twelve stories, three new. Strantzas writes stylishly about disturbing subjects and his work is always worth reading.

Multiplex Fandango: A Weston Ochse Reader (Dark Regions Press) is a collection of sixteen stories, six published for the first time. All are well-worth reading.

The Exorcist’s Travelogue by George Berguño (Passport Levant) has seven stories, five published for the first time.

I Smell Blood by Ralph Robert Moore (Sentence Publishing) is the author’s second collection, this one self-published. It contains eight stories, two published for the first time, and a short novel.

In Extremis by John Shirley (Underland Press) features twenty-two stories published between 1991 and 2010, with two originals.

Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth (Dark Continents Publishing) is a collection of haunted house stories, each case investigated by paranormal researcher Richard Nakata. All but two of the seven stories are new.

Our Lady of the Shadows by Tony Richards (Dark Regions Press) has twelve dark stories, published over the past twenty years, including four new ones.

Monsters of L.A. by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books) covers the array of horror tropes from vampires to the urban legend in twenty, new, mostly brief stories. In addition, Morton writes about each story in an afterword.

The Odd Ghosts by Maynard Sims (Enigmatic Press) is a collection of eight brief original tales by the writing duo M.P.N Sims & L.H Maynard heralding another collection coming out in 2012. All the stories are well-worth reading.

The Butterfly Man and Other Stories by Paul Kane (PS Publishing) has eighteen stories, most published within the past three years, with four original to the collection. With an introduction by Christopher Golden.

Ex Occident Press brought out several collections including The Peacock Escritoire by Mark Valentine, which collects thirteen stories (six published for the first time); Allurements of Cabochon by John Gale with seventeen stories and prose poems; The Bestiary of Communion by Stephen J. Clark with three novellas; The Mauve Embellishments by Charles Schneider (Passport Levant) is a fascinating collection of twenty-three weird, surreal, and occasionally dark and gruesome vignettes, stories, and poems, each illustrated by the author (this last is the only one seen).

Long Shadows, Nightmare Light by Mark Morris (PS Publishing) is the author’s third collection and includes fifteen stories published over the past eighteen years, with two very good originals. Introduction by Christopher Golden.

The Uncanny Valley: Tales from a Lost Town by Gregory Miller (Stone-Garden.net publishing) has thirty-three short tales told by the inhabitants of the small Pennsylvania town of the title. Most of the stories have been published previously and they lovingly depict the weird happenings that occur until the town’s demise.

Picking the Bones is by Brian Hodge (Cemetery Dance Publications) who is an excellent short story writer and this is his fourth collection. Three of the seventeen stories appear for the first time, one is from a sort-of-a-shared world anthology that was never published.

The Last Days of Kali Yuga by Paul Haines (Brimstone Press) is the third collection of raw, unflinching dark fiction by the multi-award winning Australian writer. All but one of the twenty stories and novellas are reprints. Included is his acclaimed, harrowing novella “Wives.”

Two Worlds and In Between The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan (Volume One) (Subterranean Press) is, at 600 pages, a very generous helping of this excellent writer’s short fiction output between 1993 and 2004. A must-have for fans of Kiernan’s dark fictions. Her background in geology and vertebrate paleontology infuse her science fiction work as well as her Lovecraftian influenced stories.

Stories from the Plague Years by Michael Marano (Cemetery Dance Publications) is the author’s debut collection and brings together nine stories and novellas (two original to the collection) published in a variety of venues in print and online, beginning in 1995. John Shirley provides the introduction and the author provides individual story notes.

We Live Inside You by Jeremy Robert Johnson (Swallowdown Press) contains eighteen very readable stories and short-shorts of crime, horror, and sf/horror, all but one reprints.

The Devil’s Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs by Ambrose Bierce (Library of America) collects four books and an additional eight stories. Edited and with notes and chronology by S. T. Joshi.

The Engines of Sacrifice by James Chambers (Dark Regions Press) is a well-written interconnected collection of four Lovecraftian novellas.

Campfire Chillers by Dave Jeffery (Dark Continents Publishing) contains thirteen brief tales of nasty things that happen to those who go camping.

Voices: Tales of Horror by Lawrence C. Connolly (Fantastist Enterprises) is a collection of thirteen stories published between 1982 and 2010, with two new ones. Each comes with commentary by the author.

Talespinning by David J. Howe (Telos Publishing)) has seventeen new and previously published short stories and movie scripts by a writer who is better known as the publisher of Telos.

Richard Matheson’s Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (Gauntlet Press) edited by Tony Albarella includes the short story, Matheson’s original script for the Twilight Zone episode, the George Miller/Matheson script for The Twilight Zone movie and storyboards from the TZ movie. There’s also an interview with Matheson by the editor for the book.

Ewerton Death Trip by A. R. Morlan (Borgo Press) is a collection of dark stories about one fictional town and is inspired by the classic photography book: Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy. It contains twenty-five stories, four new.

Published by Centipede Press, Masters of the Weird Tale: Karl Edward Wagner, is a 700+ page limited edition of Wagner’s short stories, with introductions by Stephen Jones and Peter Straub, an afterword by Laird Barron, and new color illustrations by J. K. Potter.

The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares by Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press) contains seven dark stories by the prolific author. One was published in my cat horror anthology back in 1996, one recently won the World Fantasy Award, one was published in 2011, first in the literary journal Boulevard, and now in this collection.

Ash-tree Press has not published any books for the past couple of years but in November, publisher Christopher Roden launched a new series of e-books. Included in the series are collections of stories by Frederick Cowles, H. R. Wakefield, Matt Cardin, Reggie Oliver, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Steve Duffy, Barbara Roden, and others.

Kitty’s Greatest Hits by Carrie Vaughn (Tor) collects twelve reprints, an original story, and an original novella about werewolf and radio personality Kitty Norville. Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin, Australia) is the fourth collection of short stories by the acclaimed Australian writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Nine of the ten stories were originally published between 2006 and 2009, several in anthologies for young adults. The Winter Triptych by Nicole Kornher-Staci (Papavaria Press) is a beautiful little book of elegant, puzzle-like interconnected dark fairy tales. The Monkey’s Wedding and Other Stories by Joan Aiken (Small Beer Press) contains nineteen stories, and what may be the last unpublished stories by Aiken (who died in 2004). Only a few in this collection are dark but the darkest and one of the best of the new ones is “Hair” (published earlier in the year by The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction). Strange Tales by D. M. Youngquist (Dark Continents Publishing) contains fifteen stories, all but three originals, a couple mainstream. After the Apocalypse by Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer Press) has nine science fiction, fantasy, and sf/horror stories, three original to the collection. Diversifications by James Lovegrove (PS Publishing) is the author’s second collection and contains sixteen mostly science fiction reprints, with a couple of horror stories. Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti (Twelfth Planet Press) is a well-written and absorbing dark fantasy suite of five interconnected stories about a detective who handles unusual cases in an alternate world in which some people have special powers. What Wolves Know by Kit Reed (PS Publishing) is a mixture of thirteen science fiction, fantasy, and dark fantasy stories by a deft satirist who keeps her knives sharp. One story, published for the first time, was intended for Harlan Ellison’s Last Dangerous Visions. Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa L. Hannett (Ticonderoga Publications) is a fine introduction to an up and coming Australian writer of dark fantasy and horror, with twelve stories, all but one original to the collection. Hannett is skillful at creating seemingly authentic voices and settings in these stories of the American South. Do Not Pass Go by Joel Lane (Nine Arches Press) is a collection of five dark crime stories, some original. I haven’t seen the book but from the description, it might appeal to Lane fans, whatever the genre. Everyone’s Just So So Special by Robert Shearman (Big Finish Productions) is the third weird collection by the author and this batch is as strange as his earlier two with some extremely dark stories. Of the twenty-one in the book, most appear for the first time and “The Big Boy’s Big Box of Tricks” is a knockout. It’s For You by Keith Minnion (White Noise Press) is by a writer better known as an illustrator. It contains nineteen science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories published between 1979 and 2009, plus five originals. Lore and Dysorder by Patrick Thomas (Padwolf Publishing) is a collection of six stories (two new) about a Sumerian deity who becomes the chief of Hell’s secret police. The stories are dark fantasy and charming rather than horrific but fans of Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim novels might get a kick out of them — although they’re not as edgy as Kadrey’s work. This New and Poisonous Air by Adam McOmber (BOA Editions) is an interesting collection of ten stories, some of them weird, a few dark. Two stories appear for the first time. Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex (Twelve Planets) is a brief, entertaining introduction to this Australian writer’s range, featuring four very different short stories. Karen Joy Fowler provides an introduction. Lucy Sussex had a second, more substantial collection out in 2011: Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies (Ticonderoga Publications) with twenty-five stories of sf/f/h, including one fine original. In the Time of War and Other Stories of Conflict and Master of the Road to Nowhere and Other Tales of the Fantastic by Carol Emshwiller (PS Publishing) is a double volume of twenty tales of science fiction and fantasy, with touches of darkness. The first half is introduced by Ursula K. LeGuin and the second half by Phyllis Eisenstein. Forever Azathoth: Parodies and Pastiches by Peter Cannon (Subterranean Press) collects seventeen amusing parodies and pastiches of Lovecraftian tales including the six-part sequel to Lovecraft’s “The Thing on the Doorstep” plus mash-ups of F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and P.G. Wodehouse. Clarimonde and Other Stories by Théophile Gautier (Tartarus Press) collects twelve supernatural and science fiction tales by this nineteenth-century French contemporary of Baudelaire. Most of the translations are by Lafcadio Hearn. Introduction by Brian Stableford. The Door to Lost Pages by Claude Lalumière (ChiZine Publications) is organized like a novel but actually consists of five stories.

Somewhere Beneath Those Waves by Sarah Monette (Prime Books) collects twenty-five tales of fantasy and dark fantasy by this excellent short story writer.

There has been an explosion of original anthologies in the micro-publishing market. Whether this is good or bad I’ll leave for readers to decide. But much of my job as editor of a Best of the Year is to make judgments. I will not be mentioning every original anthology I’ve received during 2011. I will try to provide descriptions of the best of those containing what I deem good horror or very dark fiction.

Ghosts by Gaslight edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (Harper Voyager) is a solid, varied anthology of seventeen original ghost stories set in Victorian and Edwardian times. The best of the darker ones are by Laird Barron, Peter S. Beagle, Terry Dowling, Richard Harland, John Harwood, Margo Lanagan, John Langan, James Morrow, Garth Nix, Robert Silverberg, and Marly Youmans. The Barron is reprinted herein.

Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes edited by J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec (Edge) is another entry in the Holmsian subgenre of mystery that attempts to subvert the ultimate rationalist. While the great detective’s ratiocination sometimes gets boring, stories that eat away at the bedrock of his personality somehow seem wrong. This doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy them on an individual basis, just that I pity poor Sherlock for these attacks. That said, there are twelve stories, the strongest horror tales by Christopher Fowler, Tom English, William Meikle, Lawrence Connelly, Simon Kurt Unsworth, and a fine novella by Kim Newman.

A Book of Horrors edited by Stephen Jones (Jo Fletcher Books) is the first in what will hopefully be a new series of original, non-theme horror anthologies edited by veteran editor Jones. There’s a good variety of work with the strongest stories and novellas by Reggie Oliver, Robert Shearman, Angela Slatter, Michael Marshall Smith, Peter Crowther, Elizabeth Hand, Brian Hodge, and Stephen King. The King and the Hodge are reprinted herein.

Portents edited by Al Sarrantonio (Flying Fox Publishers) is a non-themed anthology of nineteen quiet horror stories, all but one (the story by Christopher Fowler) original to the book. Overall this is a very readable volume. The stories that most impressed me are those by Jeffrey Ford, Brian Keene, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth Massie, Kim Newman, Steve Rasnic Tem, Tom Piccirilli, Kit Reed, Melanie Tem, and Tia V. Travis.

Dead But Dreaming 2 edited by Kevin Ross (Miskatonic River Press) is an entertaining follow-up to Dead But Dreaming, a Lovecraftian anthology published in 2002. The strongest of the twenty-two stories are by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Cody Goodfellow, Darrell Schweitzer, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., W. H. Pugmire, William Meikle, and Michael Tice.

Chilling Tales: Evil Did I Dwell; Lewd I Did Live edited by Michael Kelly (Edge) is a fine, all original Canadian anthology with strong entries by Leah Bobet, Suzanne Church, Michael R. Colangelo, Sandra Kasturi, Christopher K. Miller, David Nickle, Simon Strantzas, Claude Lalumière, Ian Rogers, Gemma Files, Robert J. Wiersema, and Tia V. Travis (although not horror). The Leah Bobet and David Nickle are reprinted herein.

Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead edited by Stephen Jones (Ulysses Press) is a good anthology of twenty-five original and reprinted ghost stories. The strongest of the new tales are by Reggie Oliver, Christopher Fowler, Sarah Pinborough, R. B. Russell, Lisa Tuttle, and Simon Kurt Unsworth.

Bites and Bones edited by Lois Metzger (Scholastic) are both for very young readers — not too dark, not too scary. With stories by authors such as R. L. Stine, Neal Shusterman, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman.

Fear of the Dark: An Anthology of Dark Fiction edited by Maria Grazia Cavicchioli and Jason Rolfe (Horror Bound Magazine Publications) is a non-theme horror anthology with twenty stories. There are notable pieces by Angel Leigh McCoy and Martin Rose.

Bite Sized Horror edited by Johnny Mains (Obverse Books) is a mini-anthology of six stories, the best of which by Reggie Oliver, was in the author’s collection Mrs Midnight, which came out a few months earlier than the anthology.

Box of Delights edited by John Kenny (Aeon Press Books) is Kenny’s first anthology, although he’s been a longtime co-editor of the Irish mixed-genre magazine Albedo One. The sixteen stories in the volume are all original. The strongest are by Priya Sharma, Sean MacRoibin, Eleanor Marney, and N. A. Sulway. Sharma’s is reprinted herein.

Vintage Vampire Stories edited by Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Richard Dalby (Skyhorse) contains thirteen stories and two novel excerpts written in the nineteenth century.

Vampires: Classic Tales edited by Mike Ashley (Dover) is an anthology of twelve stories including early ones by Lord Byron and Alexander Dumas and contemporary ones by Tanith Lee, Nancy Holder, and Brian Stableford.

Halloween edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books) is a reprint anthology of thirty stories and three poems by Ray Bradbury, F. Paul Wilson, Nancy Holder, K. W. Jeter, Peter Straub, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Stewart O’Nan, and many others.

Bewere the Night edited by Ekaterina Sedia (Prime Books) has twenty-nine original and reprint tales of shapeshifters, with contributions by Kaaron Warren, Elizabeth Hand, Nick Mamatas, Richard Bowes, Holly Black, and others.

New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books) is a big reprint anthology of almost thirty stories of Lovecraftian horror by Neil Gaiman, Laird Barron, Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Bear, Paul McAuley, Michael Marshall Smith, John Shirley, and many more.

Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters edited by John Langan and Paul Tremblay (Prime Books) has twenty-six reprints by Clive Barker, David J. Schow, Joe R. Lansdale, Sarah Langan, Gemma Files, Lisa Tuttle, Norman Partridge, and others.

Shivers VI edited by Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance Publications) is a non-theme anthology of original and reprinted stories. Fourteen of the twenty stories appear for the first time. There are notable originals by Jay Bonansinga, Brian Hodge, Alan Peter Ryan, Al Sarrantonio, and David B. Silva.

Fell Beasts edited by Ty Schwamberger (Dark Quest Books) features eleven stories about things that go bump in the night.

Delicate Toxins is a very good original anthology of strange tales inspired by Hanns Heinz Ewers and edited by John Hirschhorn-Smith (Side Real Press) — it has notable stories by rj krijnen-kemp, Mark Howard Jones, Colin Insole, Daniel Mills, Reggie Oliver, Peter Bell, Michael Chislett, and Adam S. Cantwell.

Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed edited by John Skipp (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers) contains thirty-seven stories and excerpts, mixing reprints and originals. The strongest of the originals are by Zak Jarvis, Alethea Kontis, Brian Hodge, Livia Llewellyn, John Skipp, and Adam-Troy Castro.

Swallowed by the Cracks: Sixteen Stories of the Space in Between by Lee Thomas, Gary McMahon, S.G. Browne, and Michael Marshall Smith (Dark Arts Books) features four stories from each writer — several published for the first time. The book is edited and introduced by Bill Breedlove and John Everson.

Vampires: The Recent Undead edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books) is a big book of twenty-five vampire stories first published between 2000 and 2010. Included are stories by Holly Black, Kim Newman, Charlaine Harris, Karen Russell, John Langan, Michael Marshall Smith, and others.

Zombiesque edited by Stephen L. Antczak, James C. Bassett, and Martin H. Greenberg (DAW) presents all new stories, most from the zombie point of view. The best are by Nancy Holder, Jim C. Hines, Charles Pinion, Xalieri Laszlo, and Wendy Webb.

Rock ‘N’ Roll is Dead: Dark Tales Inspired by Music edited by Marc Ciccarone (Blood Bound Books) would have been more coherent as a “theme” anthology if each contributor had supplied a paragraph explaining how the piece of music picked inspired the story. Readers unfamiliar with the songs will find it difficult to get a handle on the specific inspiration. Unfortunately, even for familiar songs the connection to the stories is pretty thin. Despite this, there’s good work by Rex McGuire, G. Winston Hyatt, Belen Lopez, and Natalie L. Sin.

The Book of Cthulhu edited by Ross E. Lockhart (Night Shade Books) is a 500+ page reprint anthology of twenty-seven stories and novellas about H. P. Lovecraft’s greatest creation that were published between 1976 and 2011—with two very good originals by John Hornor Jacobs and Laird Barron.

Comes the Night edited by Dorothy Davies (Static Movement) has twenty-seven brief horror stories about night time, with one notable story by Jeremy Bush.

The Eighth Black Book of Horror selected by Charles Black (Mortbury Press) has thirteen stories, the best of which are by Anna Taborska, Paul Finch, Stephen Bacon, Tony and Tina Rath, and Thana Niveau. There are no author biographies and there’s no introduction. The Taborska is reprinted herein.

Cover of Darkness edited by Tyree Campbell (Sam’s Dot) is a twice yearly non-themed dark fantasy and horror anthology of short stories, novelettes, and poems. The strongest work in 2011 was by Marc Colten, Richard H. Fay, Jason Andrews, and Dick Bowler.

Haunted: Eleven Tales of Ghostly Horror edited by Monica Valentinelli (Flames Rising Press) is about ghosts and ghost hunters. The best stories are by Alana Joli Abbott and Preston B. DuBose.

Death Rattles edited by Gary Fry (Gray Friar Press) contains six stories inspired by a BBC anthology horror program called Death Rattles that ran for only five or six episodes. According to the contributors, the show was controversial, graphic, and very disturbing. I’m honestly not sure whether this supposed “lost” series is a hoax or was for real, but the anthology is suitably creepy with stories by Stephen Volk, Simon Bestwick, Paul Finch, John Llewellyn Probert, Thana Niveau, and Gary McMahon.

In Laymon’s Terms edited by Kelly Laymon, Steve Gerlach and Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance Publications) is the long-awaited tribute volume to the late Richard Laymon. The 600+ page volume includes personal reminiscences by friends and acquaintances, an interview from Mystery Scene Magazine, photographs, and reprints and original stories by writers who admired his work, plus several of his own short stories and poems. The best original stories are by Rain Graves and Bentley Little.

Supernatural Noir edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse Books) is exactly what the title says, with sixteen originals stories by writers including Paul G. Tremblay, Richard Bowes, Melanie Tem, John Langan, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Lucius Shepard, Nick Mamatas, Brian Evenson, Laird Barron, and nine other writers. The Langan is reprinted herein.

Blood and Other Cravings edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor) is a kind of follow-up to my first two anthologies of vampirism: Blood is Not Enough and A Whisper of Blood, which while including vampires and blood, attempts to broaden the idea of vampirism to include various types of preying on other beings. The seventeen stories include two reprints and fifteen new stories by Elizabeth Bear, Barbara Roden, John Langan, Margo Lanagan, Michael Cisco, Steve Duffy, and eleven others. The Lanagan is reprinted herein.

Teeth edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (HarperCollins) is a non-sparkly vampire anthology for young adults, with a wide range of different types of vampires. Included are stories and poems by Nathan Ballingrud, Neil Gaiman, Garth Nix, Jeffrey Ford, Tanith Lee, Melissa Marr, Suzy McKee Charnas, Lucius Shepard, Kaaron Warren, and other adult and young adult authors.

Evolve Two edited by Nancy Kilpatrick (Edge) has twenty-two stories about how future vampires might interact with humans, might dominate the planet, and even travel into space. There are notable stories by Ivan Dorin, Silva Moreno-Garcia, Peter Sellers, David Beynon, Heather Clitheroe, Jason S. Ridler, John Shirley, and Anne Mok.

Dead Red Heart edited by Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Publications) is a big trade paperback with thirty-three stories about vampires in Australia. There are some wonderfully vicious ones including those by Alan Baxter, Simon Brown, Damon Cavalchini, Joanna Fay, Patty Jensen, Chris Lawson, Angelela Slatter, Jen White, Joanne Anderton, Pete Kempshall, George Ivanoff, Raymond Gates, Donna Marie Hanson, Jacob Edwards, Anne Mok, and Lisa L. Hannett. There are others than are intriguing and/or charming. In all, a very nicely rounded variety of vampires in all their forms.

House of Fear edited by Jonathan Oliver (Solaris) has nineteen original haunted house stories, all of them good but the very best are by Lisa Tuttle, Terry Lamsley, and Christopher Fowler. The Lamsley is reprinted herein.

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! edited by Otto Penzler (Vintage) is yet another reprint anthology of the living dead using an unusually broad definition of “zombie” with stories by Chet Williamson, Stephen King, Lisa Tuttle, Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Anthony Boucher, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft (three stories), and over fifty other writers.

Terror Tales of the Lake District edited by Paul Finch (Gray Friar Press) is an entertaining anthology of thirteen stories plus brief interstitial “true ghost stories” written by the editor. Three stories are reprints. The strongest of the originals are by Carole Johnstone, Reggie Oliver, Steve Savile, and Simon Bestwick. The Bestwick is reprinted herein.

The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies edited by D.F. Lewis (Megazanthus Press) has some very good stories in it, despite its somewhat limited theme. There were notable stories by Reggie Oliver, E. Michael Lewis, Colin Insole, Rachel Kendall, Joel Lane, and David Mathew.

Dark Minds edited by Ross Warren (Dark Minds Press) is another design disaster, with the double-faced type looking like manuscript pages rather than book type. The best story in the book is by the best-known writer, Gary McMahon.

Tattered Souls 2 edited by Frank J. Hutton (Cutting Block Press) is a non-theme anthology of eight original stories and novellas by relatively new writers (none of whom I’d previously heard of except for Forrest Aguirre, better known as an editor than a writer), with the strongest by Stephanie Shaw and Anne Michaud.

Historical Lovecraft is one of two Lovecraftian anthologies published in 2011 by Innsmouth Free Press and edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles. There are twenty-six stories, all new. The strongest are by Orrin Grey, Bryant Thao Worra, William Meikle, and Aaron Polson. The second is Future Lovecraft, featuring thirty-eight new and reprinted Lovecraftian stories and poems based in the future. The best originals are by Nick Mamatas, Helen Marshall, and A. C. Wise.

Necrotic Tissue: Best of Anthology edited by R. Scott McCoy (Stygian Publications) celebrates the quarterly magazine published between 2007–2011 with the mission of encouraging new writers. The book features thirty-one mostly very short stories chosen from those published.

Candle in the Attic edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles (Innsmouth Free Press) has twenty-seven reprinted and original stories and poems of gothic fiction. The best of the originals are by Berit Ellingsen and Orrin Grey.

What Fears Become edited by Jeani Rector (Imajin Books) combines original and reprinted stories from the webzine The Horror Zine. The book includes stories, poetry, and art. The best of the original fiction is by Stephen M. Dare and David K. Ginn.

Lore: A Quaint and Curious Volume of Selected Stories edited by Rod Heather and Sean O’Leary (The Lore-Firm). Lore was a magazine that published nine issues between 1995 and 1998 and this anthology reprints fourteen stories and a round-robin from the magazine, by writers including Harlan Ellison, Brian McNaughton, Brian Lumley, Elizabeth Massie, and others.

Full Fathom Forty edited by David J. Howe (The British Fantasy Society) is a hefty anthology of forty stories published in honor of the Society’s fortieth anniversary. It consists of reprints and originals, with notable originals by Suzanne Barbieri, Paul Finch, and Robert Shearman (published also in his 2011 collection).

The Mothman Files edited by Michael Knost (Woodland Press) has thirteen original stories about the mythical creature that portends disaster.

Epitaphs: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers edited by Tracy L. Carbone (Shroud Publishing) has twenty-six stories, most published for the first time.

Devil Dolls and Duplicates in Australian Horror edited by Anthony Ferguson (Equilibrium Books) is a reprint anthology with twenty-one stories by Kaaron Warren, Lucy Sussex, Rick Kennett, Stephen Dedman, Robert Hood, and sixteen other Australian writers.

The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010: The First Annual Collection edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene (Ticonderoga Publications) features over 150,000 words of fiction (thirty-three stories and poems) by Australian and New Zealand writers, plus an overview of the year in Australian fantasy and horror.

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three edited by Ellen Datlow (Night Shade Books) had twenty stories and novelettes and one poem.

The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror volume 22 (Robinson/Running Press) contained twenty-three stories, six overlapping with my own volume.

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2011 edition edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books) has thirty-one stories, including one overlap with my anthology and two with the Jones.

Crucified Dreams edited by Joe R. Lansdale (Tachyon) is a reprint anthology of dark fiction with no really fixed theme as it ranges from sf by Octavia E. Butler, psychological horror by Harlan Ellison and Lewis Shiner to Lovecraftian fiction by Michael Shea, and a mainstream story about boxing by Lucius Shepard. Happily Ever After edited by John Klima (Night Shade Books) reprints thirty-two retold fairy tales and presents one original (by Robert J. Howe), some of them dark. Akashic’s noir series continues to publish a good mix of stories. Cape Cod Noir edited by David J. Ulin featured notable dark stories by Elyssa East, Paul Tremblay, and Jedediah Berry and Indian Country Noir edited by Sarah Cortez and Liz Martínez had more than its fair share of depressing tales about alcoholism and other addictions but did contain a few notable dark stories by Joseph Bruchac and Gerard Houarner. Haiti Noir edited by Edwidge Danticat has notable stories by Patrick Silvain, Ibi Aanu Zoboi, and Edwidge Danticat. New Jersey Noir edited by Joyce Carol Oates has strong dark stories by Jeffrey Ford, Bradford Morrow, Sheila Kohler, Joyce Carol Oates, and a collaboration by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini. The Urban Fantasy Anthology edited by Peter S. Beagle and Joe R. Lansdale (Tachyon Publications) is a reprint anthology divided into three sections entitled Mythic Fiction, Paranormal Romance, and Urban Noir with an overall introduction by Beagle, and introductions to each section by Charles de Lint, Paula Guran, and Joe R. Lansdale. Although it features an interesting mix of twenty stories, a few seem out of place in an “urban” fantasy anthology as they take place far from urban areas. When editors do this they have a responsibility to the reader to at least try to justify those choices. One original by Steven R. Boyett. The Monster’s Corner edited by Christopher Golden (St. Martin’s Press) is mixture of original horror, dark fantasy, and crime stories. Although there are non-human monsters populating the anthology, as many of the monsters are human. It’s an interesting, not always successful mix but there are some very good stories by Sarah Pinborough, Jonathan Maberry, Tom Piccirilli, Tananarive Due, and Gary A. Braunbeck, Ghost Writers: Us Haunting Them edited by Keith Taylor and Laura Kasischke (Wayne State University Press) is an all original anthology of twelve ghost stories (mostly fictional, a few true encounters) by Michigan writers such as James Hynes, Nicholas Delbanco, Elizabeth Kostova (author of The Historian), and others. The stories are all readable but only a few are very dark and the best of those are by Steve Amick, James Hynes, and Anne-Marie Oomen. Subterranean Tales of Dark Fantasy 2 edited by William Schaefer (Subterranean Press) has eleven original stories, most of the stories only somewhat dark — the darkest are by Joe Hill, William Browning Spencer, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Norman Partridge. Gutshot: Weird West Stories edited by Conrad Williams (PS Publishing) is an excellent all original anthology of twenty stories, with more than its share of horror. All the stories are good and well worth reading. Murmurations: An Anthology of Uncanny Stories About Birds edited by Nicholas Royle (Two Ravens Press), an anthology of thirty stories published to benefit the United Kingdom’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, is an excellent mix of new and reprinted fiction. Only some are dark enough to be considered horror but they’re all entertaining. The book includes Daphne du Maurier’s classic “The Birds” plus excellent originals by Joel Lane, Tom Fletcher, Alison Moore, and others. Surreal South ’11 edited by Laura Benedict and Pinkney Benedict (Press 53) is the third volume in the series and features thirty surreal, weird, and sometimes very dark stories (including one with zombies). All but eight are new and the notable darker ones are by Jim Walke, James O’Brien, John Hornor Jacobs, and Josh Woods. Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives edited by Justin Gustainis (Edge) has only a few really dark stories in it, despite the title. The Master in Café Morphine: A Homage to Mikhail Bulgakov edited by D.T. Ghetu (Ex Occidente Press) has twenty-one stories, some dark enough to be considered horror. Philippine Speculative Fiction 6 edited by Nikki Alfar and Kate Osias (no publisher named) presents twenty-two science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories by Filipino writers. The notable dark ones are by Kenneth Yu and Victor Fernando R. Ocampo. 2011 Wilde Stories: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction edited by Steve Berman (Lethe Press) features dark fiction by Laird Barron, Chaz Brenchley, Joel Lane, and others. Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow (St. Martin’s Press) contained dark stories by Holly Black, Peter Beagle, Nathan Ballingrud, Matthew Kressel, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and others.

It’s important to recognize the work of the talented artists working in the field of fantastic fiction, both dark and light. The following artists created art that I thought especially noteworthy during 2011: Richard Wagner, Mark Pexton, Lee Moyer, Mikio Murakami, Daniele Serra, Lori Koefoed, Olivia Kernott, Brad Foster, Ben Baldwin, Paul Milne, Thomas Canty, Rik Rawling, Tim Mullins, Daniel Trout, Paula Friedlander, Caniglia, Stephen J. Clark, Chris Roberts, Brom, David Gentry, Carrie Ann Baade, Linda Saboe, Stephen James Kiniry, Nico Photos, Gabrielle Faust, Stephen Stanley, Chihiro Aldrich, John Kaaine, Dave McKean, Jason Van Hollander, Steve Hambidge, James Ng, Alia Yusuf, John Stanton, Randy Broecker, and Dan Henk.

Because of the annual turnover in small-press magazines — most rarely last more than a year or two — it’s difficult to recommend buying a subscription to those that haven’t proven their longevity. But I urge readers to at least buy single issues of those that sound interesting. Most magazines have web sites with subscription information, eliminating the need to include it here.

Some of the most important magazines/webzines are those specializing in news of the field, market reports, and reviews. The Gila Queen’s Guide to Markets, edited by Kathryn Ptacek, emailed to subscribers on a regular basis, is an excellent fount of information for markets in and outside the horror field. Market Maven, edited by Cynthia Ward is a monthly email newsletter specializing in professional and semi-professional speculative fiction market news. Ralan.com and Duotrope.com are the web sites for up-to-date market information. Locus, edited by Liza Groen Trombi and Locus Online, edited by Mark Kelly specialize in news about the science fiction and fantasy fields, but include horror coverage as well.

The only major venues specializing in reviewing short genre fiction are Tangent Online, Locus Magazine, and Locus Online, but none of them specialize in horror.

The British Fantasy Society has combined Prism edited by David A. Riley, New Horizons edited by Andrew Hook and Dark Horizons edited by Peter Coleborn, poetry edited by Ian Hunter its news, fantasy, and horror journals into one large BFS journal. The publication is provided free for members of the organization. Four issues were published in 2011. The new journal contains a news column, lots of fiction, book and film reviews, and interviews. There were notable stories and poetry by Stephen Bacon, Terry Grimwood, Jim Steel, Joel Lane, John Forth, Christopher M. Geeson, Marc-Anthony Taylor, Robert Mammone, James Brogden, and Sam Verrall. In the Autumn issue it was announced that New Horizons would be no more and that Prism and Dark Horizons would continue to be combined, with Lou Morgan taking over the editorship of Prism from David A. Riley. Peter Coleborn continues as editor of Dark Horizons.

The Ghosts & Scholars M. R. James Newsletter is edited by Rosemary Pardoe and continues to be published periodically. There were two issues out in 2011, and each included pieces of fiction in addition to scholarly essays and discussions of Jamesian work.

The Weird Review edited by S. T. Joshi and published by Centipede Press put out its second issue in the fall. It included eight pieces of fiction (two of them reprints), several pieces of poetry, a gallery of art by Alexander Binder, and five essays about horror and the weird tale.

Fangoria edited by Chris Alexander is the daddy of the existing magazines that cover horror movies of all types, and overall, it’s superficial but entertaining, covering big budget and independent horror productions, the grislier the better. The magazine also features regular columns on news, DVD releases, video games, horror music, comics, and books. And lots of gore. Fangoria celebrated its 300^th issue in February with capsule descriptions of dozens of horror movies from A-Z beginning with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and ending with Lucio Fulci’s Zombie.

Rue Morgue, edited by Jovanka Vuckovic, is another monthly media magazine covering horror in all its bloody glory (with the still photos to prove it) but unlike Fangoria, in between the gore there are often thoughtful articles and columns. One of the best things about Rue Morgue is their regular “Classic Cut” column on the last page of the magazine, which covers excellent, often obscure horror sources.

Video Watchdog is a bi-monthly magazine edited by Tim Lucas that specializes in analyzing the minute details of all kinds of movies, and is erudite yet entertaining. In addition to reviewing movies, there is a regular audio column by Douglas E. Winter, a book review column, and a regular column by Ramsey Campbell.

Black Static edited by Andy Cox is the consistently best magazine of dark fiction. A bi-monthly with several columns about movies and television, it has loads of reviews in addition to the fiction. The strongest stories in 2011 were by V.H. Leslie, Ray Cluley, James Cooper, Tim Lees, Carole Johnstone, Christopher Fowler, Daniel Kaysen, Barbara A. Barnett, Steven Pirie, Simon Bestwick, Alan Wall, Andrew Hook, and Alison Littlewood. Stories by Bestwick and Littlewood are reprinted herein.

Shock Totem: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted edited by K. Allen Wood is a bi-annual dark fantasy and horror magazine with fiction and a little bit of nonfiction. The two issues in 2011 had strong stories by Aaron Polson, John Haggerty, Amanda C. Davis, Steven Pirie, Meckenzie Larsen, Lee Thompson, and Jeremy Kelly.

Dark Discoveries edited by James Beach had two issues out in 2011. Over the year it featured several good interviews with writers and artists, an essay about the emergence of splatterpunk and extreme horror in fiction plus a strong story by Nick Mamatas.

Supernatural Tales edited by David Longhorn comes out twice a year and is generally jam packed with excellent dark fiction, plus a handful of book reviews. In 2011 the strongest stories were by Stephen Cashmore, Andrew Alford, Katherine Haynes, and Louis Marvick.

Shadows & Tall Trees edited by Michael Kelly published its second issue in autumn 2011 and continues to fulfill its promise with an attractive, readable design and strong dark fiction plus movie and book reviews. The stories I liked best were by Louis Marvick, Alison Littlewood, Eric Schaller, and Ian Rogers.

Inhuman edited by Allen Koszowski specializes in updates of the classic pulp monster story, and features a generous number of illustrations by Koszowski throughout. The one issue out in 2011 mixed reprints with originals. Among the originals, there’s a notable story by Darrell Schweitzer.

Unspoken Water: Poetry and Short Fiction of the Strange edited by Ian Hunter (Red Raw Press) had two issues. The creepiest stories (and one poem) were by Steve Rasnic Tem, Gary McMahon, Kristine Ong Muslim, Steve Lockley, and Andrew Hook.

Dark Tales edited by Sean Jeffery is a UK magazine that’s up to its fifteenth issue but as far as I can recall, is new to me. It includes thirteen stories in seventy-five pages, with impressive dark fiction by Sally Quilford, Richard Smith, Bruce Currie, Kate Measom, Georgina Bruce, and Benjamin Mitchell. I’m looking forward to the next issue.

Phantasmagorium edited by Laird Barron is a new literary fiction quarterly that debuted in October in an electronic edition and a few months later in a print edition. There were six stories in this first issue, and I especially enjoyed those by Genevieve Valentine, Simon Strantzas, and Stephen Graham Jones. The Anna Tambour tale about dragons who have forgotten how to behave like dragons is not horrific, but it’s charming and would make a wonderful children’s picture book.

The Sirenia Digest is a long-running email newsletter by Caitlín R. Kiernan. For $10 a month, the reader might read a preview of a new work, a fragment of an old rare one or a brand new story or poem, usually by Kiernan, occasionally by one of her friends.

Bull Spec edited by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn is a quarterly magazine that takes its North Carolina roots seriously as it enters the second year of publication. It features science fiction, fantasy, and some horror fiction and poetry plus interviews and book reviews. It had one notable dark story by David Tallerman. Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine edited by the ASIM Hivemind, began publishing quarterly with issue 51. The notable darker fiction in 2011 was by Mark Lee Pearson, Ian McHugh, Thoraiya Dyer, Chris Miles, Nicole R. Murphy, and a collaboration by David Conyers and John Goodrich. Realms of Fantasy edited by Shawna McCarthy shut down again, this time for good but before it did the magazine published notable dark stories by Scott William Carter, Mark Rigney, Lisa Goldstein, Euan Harvey, and a collaboration by Josh Roun-tree and Samantha Henderson. Tin House #47: The Mysterious is most notable for Benjamin Percy’s marvelous interview with Peter Straub and John Crowley’s thoughtful nonfiction piece on the contemporary ghost story. There is some good fiction with slightly mysterious ramifications, but nothing dark enough to be considered horror. The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories: Crime Issue edited by F. H. Batacan provides five fascinating takes on life in the Philippines. The darkest are by Xin Mei and Maryanne Moll. There was also a dark story by Marianne Villanueva on the website. Asimov’s Science Fiction edited by Sheila Williams isn’t known for publishing horror but occasionally it does. In 2011 there were notable dark stories by Christopher Barzak, Melanie Tem, Zachery Jernigan, Esther M. Friesner, Steve Rasnic Tem, Robert Reed, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer published two issues in 2011, #358 the penultimate issue under VanderMeer’s auspices. An announcement was made in mid-August that Marvin Kaye was buying the magazine from John Betancourt and would be editing it himself, discharging VanderMeer and her staff. The last issue #359 edited by VanderMeer, would be out in February 2012. One of the two issues from 2011 was a steampunk themed issue. That and the second had notable dark stories by Karen Heuler, Peter Ball, Ramsey Shehadah, Brant Danay, and Nik Houser. On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic edited by The Copper Pig Writers’ Society, is a mixed-genre quarterly that’s been publishing regularly since 1989. During 2011 there were strong horror stories by Steve Vernon, Priya Sharma, Chadwick Ginther, Angela Dorsey, and Kate Riedel. A couple of periodicals not known for publishing horror ran special issues in the fall: Zoetrope: All Story, the horror issue published four new stories and a reprint by Poe, with notable dark work by Andrea Kleeman, Ryu Murakami, and Karen Russell. Granta’s “horror” issue (#117) was a big disappointment. Although the first two stories are about dying and death (true or not, I’ve no idea), and many others are about deadly or threatening incidences around the world, few of the stories deal with those darkest of all human endings with any kind of storytelling. They’re mere recountings of incidents. The only two supernatural pieces of the entire fourteen are those by the late Roberto Bolaño — a straightforward description of a zombie movie that might be real or might be made up (it’s irrelevant as there’s nothing very interesting about it) and a new story by Stephen King, which is pretty good, but not among his best. Shimmer is a very attractive magazine edited by Beth Wodzinski. It’s meant to be a quarterly but only had one issue out in 2011. That issue had some fine darker fiction by K. M. Ferebee, L. L. Hannett, E. C. Myers, and J. J. Irwin. Albedo One edited by John Kenny, Frank Ludlow, David Murphy, Peter Loftus, and Robert Neilson is an always excellent mixed-genre magazine. There were two issues published in 2011. The strongest dark stories were by Robin Maginn (one in each issue), Peadar Ó Guilín, and Judith Brown. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet edited by Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link came out with one issue in 2011—there was one notable dark story by A.D. Jameson. ChiZine edited by Brett Alexander Savory has been running consistently good fiction and poetry on its site since 1997. The strongest during 2011 was by Joel R. Murr, Grant Palmquist, Sunil Sadanand, Lee Thomas, Leslie Claire Walker, A. C. Wise, Nadia Bulkin, Rain Graves, Livia Llewellyn, Gemma Files, and Simon Logan. The story by A.C. Wise is reprinted herein. Not One of Us edited by John Benson is an important biannual staple of the small press, publishing prose and poetry on the loose theme of “otherness.” The notable stories and poems published in 2011 were by Patricia Russo, Sonya Taaffe, K. M. Ferebee, Mike Allen, and Erik Amundsen. Murky Depths edited by Terry Martin finished its five year run with issue #18. It was a good looking package of prose/poetry and graphic novels. The art was inspired by the horror pulps like Uncanny Tales. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Gordon Van Gelder publishes a lot of dark fantasy and horror. During 2011 there were notable horror stories by Kate Wilhelm, Joan Aiken, Albert E. Cowdrey, Peter David, Donald Mead, M. Rickert, Deborah J. Ross, Evangeline Walton, and Chet Williamson. The Williamson is reprinted herein. Fantastic Women edited by Rob Spillman (Tin House Books) contains eighteen reprints originally published in the literary magazine Tin House between 2003 and 2010 and includes stories by Kelly Link, Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, Kate Bernheimer, and others.

Mythic Delirium edited by Mike Allen published two issues in 2011, with one notable dark poem by Elissa Malcohn.

Dreams & Nightmares edited David C. Kopaska-Merkel has been published continuously since the beginning of 1986—in 2011 there were notable dark poems by Brock Moore, Robert Borski, and Marge Simon.

Star*Line edited by Marge Simon, the bi-monthly journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association runs science fiction, fantasy and horror poetry. During 2011 the strongest dark poems were by Marcie Lynch Tentchoff, Robert E. Stutts, and F.J. Bergmann. Unfortunately, the fall issue arrived too late to review.

Stone Telling edited by Rose Lemberg and Shweta Narayan is an excellent new mixed-genre poetry webzine. There were notable dark poems by Lynn Coffin, Amal El-Mohtar, Alec Austin, and Sonya Taaffe.

The 2011 Rhysling Anthology edited by David Lunde (Science Fiction Poetry Association) contains all the sf/f/h poetry nominated for the Rhysling Award, as the best published in 2010 by the Science Fiction Poetry Association.

Paper Crow edited by Angela Charmaine Craig is a bi-annual magazine that in 2011 had notable dark poetry by Donna Burgess, F. J. Bergmann, Martin Willitts, Jr., Kristine Ong Muslim, Jennifer Clark, and Stephen M. Wilson.

Goblin Fruit edited by Amal El-Mohtar, Jessica P. Wick, and Oliver Hunter continued to publish excellent dark poetry. My favorites of 2011 were by Ruth Stacey, Nancy Sheng, S. Brackett Robertson, and Sarah Colona.

How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend by Linda D. Addison (Necon E-Books) is an enjoyable mix of thirty-five pieces of poetry and prose, some of it new, most of it horror.

Fairy Tales in Electri-City by Francesca Lia Block (A Midsummer’s Night Press) is a lovely little chapbook of dark fantasy poetry inspired by myth and fairy tales with an erotic, dark edge.

Surrealities by Bruce Boston (Dark Regions Press) is a new collection of twenty-nine surrealistic dark and light pieces showcasing some of the best of Boston’s recent poetry.

The Land of Bad Dreams by Kyla Lee Ward (P’rea Press) is a very good collection of twenty-eight dark poems, most of them new, with illustrations by the poet

At Louche Ends: Poetry for the Decadent, the Damned and the Absinthe-Minded by Maria Alexander (Burning Effigy Press) features over thirty-five poems, reprints and new ones.

Skeleton Leaves by Helen Marshall (Kelp Queen Press) is a charming dark suite of poems inspired by Peter Pan.

Unearthly Delights by Marge Simon (Sam’s Dot) collects forty-four new and reprinted poems of sf/f/h. With excellent illustrations by the poet.

Blood Wallah and other poems by Robert Borski (Dark Regions Press) has forty-three poems, mostly horror, fifteen published for the first time.

The Vampire Bridegroom by Chad Helder (Dark Scribe) has fifty poems, mostly new about vampires and other monsters, including a few human ones.

Vamps (A Retrospective) by James S. Dorr (Sam’s Dot) has more than eighty brief poems, most reprints.

Horror Noir: Where Cinema’s Dark Sisters Meet by Paul Meehan (McFarland & Company) examines the historical and thematic relationships between two of the cinema’s most popular genres: horror and film noir and ranges from the 1930s to Shutter Island. The Voices of Serial Killers by Christopher Berry-Dee (Ulysses Press) features profiles and interviews with some of the world’s “most maniacal murderers,” conducted by an investigative criminologist. Making an Exit: From the Magnificent to the Macabre — How We Dignify the Dead by Sarah Murray (St. Martin’s Press) is a personal exploration of the many ways around the world that we send off the dead. Shadow Play: Philosophy and Psychology of the Modern Horror Film by Willy Greer (Midnight Marquee) is a horror survey that according to its publisher “delves into the dark psychology of the modern horror film to scare up those terrifying images that still manage to make us afraid of things that go bump in the night.” Wes Craven: The Man and His Nightmares by John Wooley (Wiley) is a portrait of the American director. Stephen King: A Literary Companion by Rocky Wood (McFarland & Company) is an encyclopedic guide to King’s work, including a bibliography of the author’s fiction and poetry. Deformed and Destructive Beings: the Purpose of Horror Films by George Ochoa (McFarland & Company) offers the theory that the primary reason movie audiences like horror films is that “monsters satisfy the audience’s desire to know the extremities of being, in particular those beings too fantastic and dangerous to know in real life,” (which seems to me, awfully limiting). The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death by John Gray (Penguin). The first section probes the founding of the Society of Psychical Research in 1882 by a small group of scientists, scholars, and politicians. The second examines the beliefs of a band of Bolshevik intelligentsia that lead to the formation of The Immortalization Commission, intended to preserve Lenin’s corpse until his ultimate resurrection. The third section is devoted to exploring contemporary attempts to impose immortality on humankind. Tracking the Chupacabra by Benjamin Radford (University of New Mexico) is an objective investigation in the existence of this recent addition to cryptozoology. Encyclopedia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture edited by S. T. Joshi (Greenwood) covers books, movies, television, folklore, and world mythology and is aimed at the library rather than the trade market.

A Weird Writer in our Midst: Early Criticism of H. P. Lovecraft edited by S. T. Joshi (Hippocampus Press) includes obituaries by his friends; analyses and discussion of his work in the letter columns of Weird Tales and Astounding Stories; criticism from the fan world of the 1930s and 1940s; and more. The Writing Family of Stephen King: A Critical Study of the Fiction of Tabitha King, Joe Hill and Owen King by Patrick McAleer (McFarland & Company) includes a bibliography and index. H. P. Lovecraft: Letters to James F. Morton edited by David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi (Hippocampus Press) contains a series of letters between Morton and Lovecraft written over a period of ten years, despite an inauspicious beginning. Morton wrote a critical article responding to a Lovecraft rant about race. The book includes correspondence, samples of Morton’s essays, plus memoirs about Morton by his friends and colleagues. Dim-Remembered Stories: A Critical Study of R. H. Barlow by Massimo Berruti (Hippocampus Press) is about an acolyte of Lovecraft’s who wrote dozens of fantasy and horror short stories and volumes of poetry. Berruti analyzes Barlow’s themes of cosmicism, time, and irony. An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial of Essays in Honor of H. P. Lovecraft edited by David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi (Hippocampus Press) is an update of the 1991 edition of thirteen essays and a biographical introduction by S. T. Joshi. Citations to Lovecraft’s work have been updated and some of the essays have been slightly revised. A Monster of Voices: Speaking for Lovecraft by Robert H. Waugh (Hippocampus Press) is a collection of essays about the influence of WWI on “The Rats in the Wall,” Lovecraft’s relationship to Robert Bloch and Fritz Leiber, the influence of Roman literature and history on Lovecraft, and other subjects. The volume contains several essays never before published.

Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting by W. Scott Poole (Baylor University Press) is a cultural and historical survey of the changing “monsters” that Americans have feared from colonial times to the present. Vader, Voldemort and Other Villains: Essays on Evil in Popular Culture edited by James Heit (McFarland & Company) has thirteen critical essays exploring the ways evil is depicted in popular culture, including subjects ranging female archetypes in Disney films to the villains in Harry Potter and Star Wars, and serial killers. Ten Years of Hippocampus Press: 2000–2010 by Derrick Hussey, S. T. Joshi, and David E. Schultz (Hippocampus Press) is an annotated bibliography of this important small press, which specializes in publishing material by or about H. P. Lovecraft and his colleagues. Horror After 9/11: World of Fear, Cinema of Terror edited by Aviva Briefel and Sam J. Miller (University of Texas Press) is the first major exploration of the horror movies made since the Twin Towers fell. At that time a number of cultural pundits asserted that horror as a genre was dead. Of course this was completely wrong-headed, as the explosion of horror movies continues into the second decades of the twenty-first century. Films covered are the Twilight Saga, the Saw series, remakes of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and big budget remakes of classic horror movies. Carrie: Studies in the Horror Film by Joseph Aisenberg (Centipede Press) traces the history of Carrie, from the novel by Stephen King through its transformation into a great movie by screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen and director Brian De Palma. Aisenberg provides in-depth analysis on a scene-by-scene basis. This is a fascinating and very readable book for fans of Carrie and lovers of film. Shock Value by Jason Zinoman (The Penguin Press) is an exploration of the ’70s revival of horror by John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, and George Romero. A good book, marred only by the occasional authorial intrusion into his subjects’ minds and actions (eg “William Castle was in bed sweating.”). Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film: Essays on Belief, Spectacle, Ritual and Imagery edited by Regina Hansen (McFarland & Company) is a selection of twenty-one critical essays delving into the Catholic elements in The Exorcist, Lord of the Rings, and various vampire films. Monstrous Creatures: Explorations of Fantasy Through Essays, Articles and Reviews by Jeff VanderMeer (Guide Dog Books) includes fiction, book introductions, essays, reviews, and interviews about and with an array of fantasists including Jeffrey Ford, Margo Lanagan, China Miéville, Alasdair Gray, and a host of other writers. Reflections in a Glass Darkly: Essays on J. Sheridan Le Fanu edited by Gary William Crawford, Jim Rockwell, and Brian J. Showers (Hippocampus Press) is about a nineteenth-century writer of the weird who, while he’s been lauded for some of his stories such as “Green Tea” and “Carmilla” has still not received his due, according to the editors. The book includes early essays and criticism and contemporary essays about Le Fanu’s work and influence. Nine essays are printed for the first time. Contributors include M. R. James, V. S. Pritchett, Jack Sullivan, John Langan, and many others. Clive Barker: The Painter, the Creature, and the Father of Lies edited by Phil and Sarah Stokes (Earthling Publications) is the first collection of Barker’s nonfiction work and covers almost thirty years of production notes, introductions to other writers’ works, essays, and other bits and pieces. Dark Stars Rising: Conversations From the Outer Realms by Shade Rupe (Headpress) is a collection of almost thirty interviews with horror personalities, lavishly illustrated with black & white photographs throughout. While the interviews are fascinating, the book seems aimed at readers already familiar with the interviewees as there’s no context informing the reader of the interviewees’ place within the genre. Everything You’ll Ever Need to Know About Zombies by Matt Mogk (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster) who is the founder and head of the Zombie Research Society takes the reader through the usual rigmarole about zombies before it gets into the meaty technical stuff like how the circulation system of a zombie works. This kind of thing gives the book a freshness unlike most zombie “manuals.” The Exorcist edited by Danel Olson (Centipede Press) contains twenty-five essays and interviews about the movie, its sequels, and prequels. Included are essays by Thomas Ligotti, Barbara Creed, Michael A. Arnzen, and many others plus interviews with William Peter Blatty, William Friedkin, Jason Miller, and Dick Smith plus a new one with Paul Schrader. The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is a guide to the True Blood series and includes a new novella. 21^st Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000 edited by Danel Olson (Scarecrow Press) is a guide to fifty works by writers from the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Belgium, Spain, Japan, The Netherlands, and Australia. The books chosen are written about with intelligence by the various contributors and although the reader might very well disagree with some of the choices as “great” or even as “gothic” she will undoubtedly find herself ordering a whole passel of novels she has missed. Butcher Knives & Body Counts: Essays on the Formula, Frights, & Fun of the Slasher Film edited Vince Liaguno (Dark Scribe) explores the slasher film in over seventy breezy and entertaining essays written by Steve Rasnic Tem, Kim Paffenroth, Lisa Morton, Lucien Soulban, Lee Thomas, Stephen Graham Jones, Jack Ketchum, Rachel Kendall, Peter Tennant, Don D’Auria, and many others. The Gothic Imagination: Conversations on Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction in the Media by John C. Tibbetts (Palgrave Macmillan) presents interviews with S. T. Joshi, T. E. D. Klein, Ramsey Campbell, and the late Robert Bloch about the Lovecraft Circle; Jack Sullivan about music’s part in creating terror; interviews with Stephen King, Peter Straub, Suzy McKee Charnas, and other writers on the gothic. Nightmare Movies: Horror on the Screen Since the 1960s by Kim Newman (Bloomsbury) is a welcome update to the classic 1985 volume. It’s informative, covers a lot of territory, and is a great read. Zombies are Us: Essays on the Humanity of the Living Dead edited by Christopher M. Moreman and James Rushton (McFarland & Company) studies the zombie phenomenon as a thematic presence in our culture seeking to discover what the zombie can tell us about ourselves. Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel W. Drezner (Princeton University Press) is a quirky and entertaining look at how well-known theories from international relations might be applied to a war with zombies.

Two new notable chapbook series started up in 2009 and 2011. First, Nicholas Royle began publishing stories under the Nightjar Press imprint. In the first year of publication he brought out an award-winning story by Michael Marshall Smith (taken for my best of the year). During 2010 four chapbooks were published. And in 2011 he published another four: Field by Tom Fletcher is a brief tale about a tight-assed forest warden and his assistant investigating a complaint of trespassing. Lexicon by Christopher Burns is a disappointing tale that’s not saved by the mythic trappings surrounding a somewhat predictable narrative. Sullom Hill by Christopher Kenworthy is a depressing but effective story about three boys: the narrator, his mentally slow friend, and a nasty little tuff. Remains by GA Pickin is about a young man who loses his way on the moor enroute to meeting friends at a holiday cottage. Simon Marshall-Jones started Spectral Press in 2011 with four chapbooks: Abolisher of Roses by Gary Fry, is about an obnoxious businessman who gets his comeuppance during a walk through several art installations in the woods. What They Hear in the Dark by Gary McMahon is a tense and powerful tale about a couple whose child has been murdered by three boys and how each parent deals with the anger, and pain of loss. Nowhere Hall by Cate Gardner is a surreal tale about a despairing man whose impulse to commit suicide is stymied by a detour into a mysterious hotel. King Death by Paul Finch is about a survivor of the Medieval plague who disguised as “death” scavenges among the dead.

As I Embrace My Jagged Edge by Lee Thompson (Sideshow Press) is about a Jewish family constantly on the run from forces of evil that are intent on using a powerful talisman taken from Solomon’s Temple. Old Albert by Brian J. Showers (Passport Levant) is a series of episodes in the life of a house called Larkhill, built by a rich man obsessed with the study of birds. There is much horror here but as the prologue explains there are no solutions. While increasingly disturbing and creepy, the overall story is a bit too muddled to provide a satisfying conclusion. Four Legs in the Morning by Norman Prentiss (Cemetery Dance Publications) is number nine in the signature series of CD chapbooks. It includes three stories, or “curiosities” as they are dubbed — all linked by the presence of Dr. Sibley, distinguished Chair of the English and Classical Literature Department of a small southern University. His specialty is Oedipus Rex and anyone who crosses him should beware. Some wonderfully creepy stuff. Bad Moon Books brought out the following chapbooks: The Cranston Gibberer by Martin Mundt is a clever, over the top little epistolary parody of Lovecraftian literature purportedly written by someone very much like H. P. Lovecraft. Humorous but not very scary. When the Leaves Fall by Paul Melniczek is about sinister happenings in the town of Haverville and the two boys who get caught up in them one Halloween night. Ursa Major by John R. Little is about a camping trip gone very very bad. Heart of Glass by David Winnick is about a married couple who have grown apart. The husband discovers a glass jigsaw puzzle in an antique shop and is certain that with his wife’s help they can reassemble their marriage as they solve the puzzle. The Bone Tree by Christopher Fulbright is about two boys in rural Texas in the late 1960s suddenly faced with supernatural evil. Alice on the Shelf by Bill Gauthier is a dark variation of Alice in Wonderland in which a man searches for a friend who disappeared. This Little Light of Mine by Nate Southard (Burning Effigy Press) is about a man trapped underground after an earthquake and what ensues. Ill at Ease is a chapbook of three dark stories by Stephen Bacon, Mark West and Neil Williams (PenMan Press). A Ghost Story for Christmas by Sam Dawson (Supernatural Tales) is about a divorced man who spends Christmas with his sons in the house he grew up in. Ink in the Veins: Pioneering Writing on Stephen King and Ink in the Veins: Further Writings on Stephen King is a two volume chapbook profiling critics of King’s work by Kevin Quigley (Cemetery Dance Publications). Drawn into Darkness: The Comic-Book Landscapes of Stephen King by Kevin Quigley (Cemetery Dance Publications) is a look at graphic novels made of King’s prose. A Little Gold Book of Ghastly Stuff by Neil Gaiman (Borderlands Press) is the final volume in this adorable hardcover series and contains nineteen poems, essays, memorials, reviews, and other bits and pieces. Blindspot by Michael McBride (Dark Regions Press) is about an experimental process enabling the user to see through the eyes of the dead — the only possible chance to avert nuclear annihilation. Rusting Chickens by Gene O’Neil (Dark Regions Press) is about a veteran of a secret black ops mission in Pakistan who returns home to more horror. Dark Regions Press debuted their “doubles” series with the first book by William Meikle, including a short novel and a novella. The Light is the Darkness by Laird Barron (Infernal House) is a novella about a modern day gladiator whose FBI agent sister goes missing and his search to find her. The Cases of Dana Roberts by Joe R. Lansdale is a chapbook published by Subterranean Press as a bonus to purchasers of the limited edition of Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 2. The two well-told tales are the start of a new series by Lansdale about a skeptical detective of supernormal happenings.

There is a new series from The Burns Archive Press, which over the years has published a number of gorgeously produced books of memorial photography, including Sleeping Beauty volumes I and II. Masterpieces of Medical Photography: Selections from the Burns Archive, and Harm’s Way: Lust & Madness, Mystery & Mayhem among many other volumes.

The new series is designed as pocket-sized, square hardcover volumes as lovingly produced as the usual, larger books. The first in the new format is Sleeping Beauty III, Memorial Photography: The Children. Dr. Burns provides a preface about his own history of collecting memorial photography and in a fascinating introduction explains why the new technology of photography became so popular for memorializing the dead, especially children in the 1900s. The photographs are annotated with information about the kind of technology used. Some of the photographs are of dead children posed with a surviving sibling, held by one of its parents, or perhaps most pitiably, tiny and alone and dressed in finery in a coffin or crib. The practice has begun to take hold once more in the twenty-first century as some contemporary families pose with their stillborn or newly dead children. Disturbing all, but with a quiet beauty.

The second volume is Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography by R. B. Bontecou. Bontecou was a military surgeon who recorded and photographed soldiers with amputated limbs and others with minor bullet wounds. The book itself is as much a mediation on war and suffering (focusing on the Civil War, just two years before Joseph Lister announced his discovery of antiseptic surgical principles and almost twenty years before Robert Koch described the germ theory of disease). Some of the photos are accompanied by detailed case histories of the soldier, and those are perhaps the most interesting.

The Monstrous Book of Monsters by Libby Hamilton illustrated by Jonny Duddle and Aleksei Bitskoff (Templar/Candlewick) is the popup book to enchant or perhaps entice your favorite child into the world of horror. Something has taken a bite out of the cover. Inside is a spread on how to spot monsters (watch out for sunglasses hiding strange eyes or hair hiding an extra eye), another about infestations at home, (watch out for critters in the toilet or the oven). I love popup books and this one is icky and has gooey things and is almost as good as my old favorite Fungus the Bogyman.

Deborah Turbeville, the Fashion Pictures (Rizzoli) is a gorgeous and disturbing coffee table book of photographs by one of the major photographers of the last forty years. She’s best known as a fashion photographer for the American, Italian, and Russian Vogue and other magazines but her work encompasses much more than fashion photography. She was in the fore-front of the idea that what’s important in a fashion shoot, isn’t the clothing per se but the lifestyle hinted at by the photographs. In Turbeville’s eye this lifestyle is sumptuous and decadent — and often very creepy. One of her most famous fashion spreads is a series taken of bathing suit models photographed in an abandoned New York City bathhouse that looks like an insane asylum for abused women. Another spread is of several ruined “Camilles” lethargically lounging among the many rooms of a mansion. A series of photographs taken in the woods of Normandy looks like a vignette on the horrors of war as beautiful dead-eyed women wait — for death? For liberation? Each series of photographs tells an enigmatic story.

Zombies!: An Illustrated History of the Undead by Jovanka Vuckovic (St. Martin’s Press) is a marvelously entertaining overview of the phenomenon, lavishly illustrated with movie stills, movie posters, and book covers. The book starts with the origins of the zombie and mentions zombies in books, graphic novels, and video games, and on film and television and record albums.

V is for Vampire by Adam-Troy Castro, illustrated by Johnny Atomic (HarperCollins) is a sardonic alphabet including X: X Marks the Spot Between the Second and Third Shirt Button (for hitting the vampiric heart). Clever and fun.

The Authentic Animal: Inside the Odd and Obsessive World of Taxidermy by Dave Madden (St. Martin’s Press) begins his breezily entertaining book with the story of how the father of modern taxidermy, Carl Akeley, came to his calling — by stuffing a neighbor’s dead canary in 1876. Akeley’s obsession led to his crowning achievement: The Akeley Hall of African Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History.

Jerad Walters’ Centipede Press has been producing fine, (mostly) expensive limited editions since 2001, with Stigmata: An Anthology of Writing and Art its first book. Oversized and gorgeously produced, the book made a splash in the field and was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. Since then, the press has published books of film criticism on Nosferatu, Carrie, The Exorcist, and Videodrome, reissues of classic novels such as King’s Salem’s Lot, Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Wolfe’s The Shadow of the Torturer, A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft and Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King plus collections by Wilum Pugmire and Reggie Oliver.

Swallow: Foreign Bodies, Their Ingestion, Inspiration, and the Curious Doctor Who Extracted Them by Mary Cappello (The New Press) is a marvelous ode to Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum and particularly Chevalier Jackson’s cabinet housing the “foreign body” collection. The collection was created by Jackson (who died in 1958) and his colleagues who extracted non-surgically more than two thousand foreign objects from people’s airways and stomachs and then preserved them for the edification of the public. The categories are broken down into thirteen categories including hardware, pins and needles, toys, buttons, and surgical objects. The mind boggles. The book is lovingly and beautifully written — it’s about Jackson himself as much as his life’s work. The book is as riveting as any fiction and is for anyone interested in the uncanny.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (HarperCollins) is a charming, sometimes creepy compendium of entries and stories about fictional artifacts and exhibits, with contributions by an array of talented writers and illustrators including Holly Black, Helen Oyeyemi, Alan Moore, Ted Chiang, J. K. Potter, Brian Evenson, John Coulthart, Ted Chiang, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and many others. This delightful book would make the perfect gift at any time of the year.

Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer (Pomegranate) is a memoir of the friendship between Gorey and Neumeyer told through their correspondence between 1968–1971. The two collaborated on a number of children’s books. The book is edited by Neumeyer, who also provides the introduction plus photos and reproductions of Gorey’s illustrated envelopes.

Film Noir: The Encyclopedia edited by Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward, James Ursini, and Robert Porifio (Overlook Duckworth) is an update of a book originally published in the early 1980s. The first two-thirds of the book covers the classic period, the last third the “neo noir period” including such movies as Bladerunner, Chinatown, The Last Seduction, The Silence of the Lambs, and Sin City. Noir fans will enjoy thumbing through the entries.

Peter Pauper Press brought out The Art of War for Zombies: Ancient Secrets of World Domination Apocalypse Edition by Sun-Tzumbie is a cute little pocket guide with illustrations. Also, A Zombie’s Guide to the Holidays by Ruth Cullen, which is even smaller and is a perfect stocking stuffer for the littlest zombie fan in your life.

Spectrum 18: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner (Underwood Books), covers the year 2010 and was juried by six artists and an editor. The book continues to be the showcase for the best in genre art — the sheer variety of style and tone and media and subject matter is impressive. Ralph McQuarrie was honored with the Grand Master Award. Arnie Fenner provides his usual thorough overview of the political and cultural year plus a necrology. A magnificent book to thumb through and enjoy. It’s for anyone interested in art of the fantastic, dark or light.