| Author |
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ellen
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 05:34 pm: | |
Winter 2004
I co-edit the World Fantasy Award winning anthology series The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin's Press) with Kelly Link & Gavin Grant. The 17th annual collection will be out in August 2004. We are now reading for the 18th volume, which will include all material published in the year 2004.
I am looking for stories from all branches of horror: from the traditional-supernatural to the borderline, including high-tech science fiction horror, psychological horror, or anything else that might qualify. If in doubt, send it. This is a reprint anthology so I am only reading material published in or about to be published during the year 2004. Submission deadline for stories is December 15th 2004. Anything sent after this deadline will reach me too late. If a magazine, anthology, or collection you’re in or you edit is coming out by December 31st 2004 you can send me galleys or manuscripts so that I can judge the stories in time. No email submissions. I strongly suggest that authors check with their publishers that they are sending review copies out to me as I don’t have time or energy to nag publishers to get me material. I request it once (maybe twice) and that’s it.
There are summations of "the year in horror," and "the year in fantasy" in the front of each volume. These include magazine and publishing news concerning the horror and fantasy fields, novels we've read and liked, and in my section, "odds and ends"-- material that doesn't fit anywhere else but that I feel might interest the horror reader (like strange nonfiction titles, art books, etc). But I have to be aware of this material in order to mention it. The deadline for this section is January 30th, 2005.
When sending me material please put YEAR'S BEST HORROR on the envelope.
Ellen Datlow
PMB 391
511 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10011-8436
Kelly Link & Gavin Grant
176 Prospect Avenue
Northampton, MA 01060
Kelly & Gavin cover fantasy and I cover horror. If you consider something both, send a copy to each of us. We do not confer on our choices.
****I do not want to receive manuscripts from authors of stories from venues that it’s likely I already receive regularly (like Interzone, The Third Alternative, Cemetery Dance, Weird Tales, F&SF etc) or from anthologies and collections, unless I don't have or can’t get that anthology or collection. And please do not send a SASE. If I choose a story you will be informed. If you want to confirm that I‘ve received something, enclose a self-addressed-stamped postcard and I will let you know the date it arrived. For stories that appear on the web, please send me (or have the publisher send me) print-outs of your story.
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Mark Shiney
| | Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 10:19 am: | |
Hi Ellen, just a quick question: I wanted to find out if you'd received Scared Naked Magazine Issue#1 Volume#2 for this year? The reason I'm asking is that I have a story in that issue and it looks as though the magazine is no longer publishing. |
EDatlow
| | Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 05:58 pm: | |
Nope. Doesn't look like I"ve gotten any this year. Can you still contact them to ask that they send me copies of whatever issues they did publish in 2004?
Thanks. |
JackC
| | Posted on Thursday, July 22, 2004 - 02:56 pm: | |
EDatlow, I'm curious how authors that are selected for inclusion in YBFH are notified--by you or their publisher? |
EDatlow
| | Posted on Thursday, July 22, 2004 - 10:49 pm: | |
I can only respond about the horror. If the author is someone I know, I notify them. If the story is from a genre magazine/anthology/collection and I don't know them personally, I contact their publisher and ask for their contact info (and I assume the publisher lets them know).
If it's a non-genre venue (such as The New Yorker or Esquire or a mainstream collection or anthology, the packager, Jim Frenkel, contacts the magazine or the book publisher.
Mainstream book publishers, or rather their subrights depts, will often sell us the rights to reprint the story or poem but do not always contact the author. This has happened more than once that a mainstream author found out he/she was in our book by accident, many years later. I think this sucks, but it's not our call since we often are not given contact info for the author at all. |
TL Morganfield
| | Posted on Monday, August 02, 2004 - 08:36 am: | |
Ellen,
For those of us sending material ourselves, should we include a coverletter with it, and if so, what information do you need on that? My story's from Gothic.net (I'm assuming that isn't a magazine you read frequently) and I'm not sure that all the pertinent pub information appears on the printable version.
Thanks!
Best,
Traci |
EDatlow
| | Posted on Monday, August 02, 2004 - 02:04 pm: | |
Traci,
I've printed out some of the stories from Gothic.net already.
When was yout story published? If in the last month then yes, I need it and would appreciate where and when it was published.
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TL Morganfield
| | Posted on Monday, August 02, 2004 - 04:31 pm: | |
Ellen,
My story went up the last week of March. It's called "The Wonder Tower." If you don't already have a copy, I'll send one on to you via snail mail.
Thanks for your time.
Best,
Traci |
EDatlow
| | Posted on Monday, August 02, 2004 - 06:31 pm: | |
Traci,
Please do.
Thanks |
EDatlow
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 03, 2004 - 06:24 pm: | |
There's been a sighting of YBFH #17 for sale (but not in NYC).
Also, we got a starred review in Publishers Weekly this week.
It can be read on my website:
http://www.datlow.com/reviews/index.html |
W. Olivia
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 04, 2004 - 02:57 pm: | |
Mark, I'm not sure your info on Scared Naked is correct. I've got a story appearing in the next issue. It's the June 2004. Per Anthony Beal, it was held up due to a major printer error however it looks as if the new cover is up the website.
W. Olivia
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Mark Shiney
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 04, 2004 - 04:16 pm: | |
W. Olivia, yes, I received word from Anthony himself that the publication is alive and well.
--Mark |
Geoffrey Maloney
| | Posted on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 04:35 am: | |
Ellen,
Thanks so much for the HMs in YBFH#17 for "Sophie's Sixpence" and "The Bush of Ghosts". It was great to see so many Aussies make it onto the HMs - we all get excited about this stuff down here - makes us feel that we are finally getting out of the woods and per head of population in the English language maybe we ain't doing so bad.
BTW Do you get Sarah Endacott's "Orb"? The latest issue has just come out and it has some good things in it. If not I'll have a word to Sarah.
cheers
Geoff |
EDatlow
| | Posted on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 09:52 am: | |
Geoff, "Sophie's Sixpence" was on my short list but ultimately I had too many stories about children.
Is Orb a magazine? Never seen it and yes, I would like to. |
EDatlow
| | Posted on Sunday, September 12, 2004 - 06:58 pm: | |
So far I've chosen three stories for YBFH #18:
"Hunting Meth Zombies in the Great Nebraskan Wasteland" by John Farris from Elvisland
"Ding-Dong-Bell" by Jay Russell from the forthconing anthology edited by Steve Jones Don’t Turn Out the Light
"Singing My Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan from the Australian collection Black Juice. |
Ahmed A. Khan
| | Posted on Monday, September 13, 2004 - 08:26 am: | |
Ellen, I have a question. In the first post of this thread you stated "no email submission". Does this restriction extend to sending you links for stories published online? And do these rules apply to submissions to Kelly Link too?
Ahmed
http://whortleberrypress.9f.com |
EDatlow
| | Posted on Monday, September 13, 2004 - 09:29 am: | |
Hi Ahmed. I want hard copies of submissions. Ohterwise I forget to check out links. Same with Kelly and Gavin. Hard copies--always!
THanks |
Eric Marin
| | Posted on Monday, September 13, 2004 - 03:29 pm: | |
Hi, Ellen. Do you prefer to receive hard copies of webzine issues all at once near the deadline or an issue at a time as each issue goes online? My speculative fiction and poetry 'zine, Lone Star Stories, has two more issues to go before year's end, but I'd be happy to send the prior 2004 issues in to you now.
Thanks! |
EDatlow
| | Posted on Monday, September 13, 2004 - 04:48 pm: | |
Eric,
I'd be happy to get what you've got now. I hate getting huge batches of stuff at the end of the year.
Thanks for asking. |
Eric Marin
| | Posted on Monday, September 13, 2004 - 05:24 pm: | |
Ellen,
Will do! |
Chris Dodson
| | Posted on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 06:39 pm: | |
Ellen,
Have you seen Judy Budnitz's story "Miracle," from The New Yorker?
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/content/?040712fi_fiction
I'm not really even sure if this would be considered horror, but it certainly creeped the hell out of me. It starts out as a somewhat light surrealist piece, then grows progressively darker as the story continues. I'm pretty desensitized when it comes to horror stories, but the ending of this one left me feeling pretty queasy.
Anyway, I highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet.
Chris Dodson
Tugboat Veteran for Truth |
EDatlow
| | Posted on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 08:50 am: | |
Chris,
I have read it and I liked it but I did't love it enough to take for the horror section.
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Roger
| | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 06:54 pm: | |
Ms. Datlow,
Right now the PS Publishing website lists Stephen Jones' Don't Turn Out The Light as "Early 2005". If this book is indeed not published until 2005, will you still include Jay Russell's "Ding-Dong-Bell" in YBFH 18, or will we have to wait until #19?
Roger |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Monday, October 25, 2004 - 07:04 pm: | |
Uh oh. If it doesn't make 2004 then it goes into volume 19--I'll have to check with Peter Crowther to see what he says.
Thanks for the heads-up. |
SaraT
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - 07:19 pm: | |
Ellen, have you made all your picks for YBFH #18? If so, will you be listing your selections for the anthology soon? |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - 08:00 pm: | |
Sara,
Not even close. I've only chosen about 36,000 words so far.
"Ding Dong Bell" by Jay Russell dropped out till next year. |
brian
| | Posted on Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 09:01 am: | |
Ellen, how many words do you have to make? Also, when do you announce the stories you've selected, and when does the book get released? |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 03:45 pm: | |
Brian,
I have about 130,000 words or so. I'll announce the entire list once I choose them all(although I've already listed a couple above). I leave for three weeks in NZ and Australia in a week so I'll be making a bunch of final decisions this week. I'll announce them before I leave.
The book comes out in August. |
Robert Burke Richardson
| | Posted on Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 05:18 pm: | |
Chris;
Thanks for posting the link to "Miracle." I hadn't read it before -- it's pretty good. |
brian
| | Posted on Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 08:48 pm: | |
Thanks, Ellen, I'm looking forward to it. |
Benny
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 06:50 pm: | |
Ellen, wha'happened? You never announced those final decisions for YBFH #18 before you left. Hope you list them sometime soon. Oh, and enjoy your trip. |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 02:33 am: | |
Benny,
I'm not done choosing. Sorry. I will when I'm finished :-)
I'm having fun. |
shawna
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 06:04 pm: | |
Ms. Datlow, what criteria do you use to select the stories for "The Years Best. . ."? The short stories that always stand out to me are the ones that I remember the characters more than the situations. I like good characters and witty dialogue. |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 08:43 am: | |
Shawna,
My reactions to each story are paramount. I don't analyze why the story works or doesn't. Occasionally, I'll read a story and know immediately that I want it for my half of YBFH. More often it's a process of elimination. I note the stories that I like best and then go back to them over and over again until I have 125,000 words of horror or so.
So it's the stories that stay with me and that I still think are multi-layered and creepiest or most disturbing or whatever else makes up "horror"--at the end of the process. |
Daniel
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 08:33 pm: | |
I thought I'd add my two cents here, for what it's worth. A few years back I bought the YBFH anthology and, with all due respect, I was greatly disappointed. It's only my opinion, but I found a lot of the horror stories to have long-winded passages of description and unmemorable people inhabiting those tales. I, too, enjoy stories with interesting characters and lively dialogue. I would really like to see more of that in the horror field in general. But I suppose maybe there's a dearth of writers who can write people well. So maybe you don't have much in that area to select from. The best writers are all doing novels, I guess. |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 09:32 pm: | |
Obviously, that is your opinion and I disagree with it heartily on every point or I wouldn't be editing short fiction. :-)\
I think there are excellent short horror stories being published and I believe I'm reprinting them. Last year and this I could have filled the horror half of YBFH two times over.
Name some horror stories you've read in the past couple of years that you have liked.
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JV
| | Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 05:26 am: | |
I'm trying to figure out where all the good horror novels are, frankly. Seems to me the best work is being done at the short story and novella length. Not that there aren't good horror novels out there, but I disagree with Daniel's comment.
JeffV |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 07:43 am: | |
Most of the good horror novels I've read (and as mentioned, I rarely have time for novels at all any more) have been marketed as mainstream, not in the horror genre at all. |
Sean Wallace
| | Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 10:08 am: | |
I'd have to agree with Ellen, Jeff. I've really enjoyed a number of dark fantasy / horror novels in the mainstream category—not much is being published in the horror small press of such quality, perhaps?
Sean |
JV
| | Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 10:48 am: | |
Well, that's what I was getting at, really. 
JeffV |
StephenB
| | Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 01:51 pm: | |
The SF and horror genres have always been strong in shorter than novel forms, and will probably always maintain that. |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 02:21 pm: | |
Stephen,
I agree with you. |
joseph
| | Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 10:27 pm: | |
Well, I guess you can't please everyone, Ellen. I myself am a fan of your YBFH anthologies. The only thing I see lacking are stories with gay protagonists. Of course, I mention this because I am a gay man. But it does seem that gay protagonists are usually (not always) relegated to anthologies that solely deal with homosexuals. Which is too bad for the reading public and the publishers of those books. Too bad for the readers because lack of exposure limits their perspective of others who may be different from themselves. And too bad for the publishers because I know for a fact that if their book has a homosexual protag word gets out fast on the gay websites and gay publications, greatly increasing that book's sales. . .Oh well, maybe they'll learn someday. |
chance
| | Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 04:51 am: | |
Joseph -
I'm not sure what you expect them to learn. I think editors buy the stories they like the best and fit well with the themes of the anthology they are putting together. To buy less than the best stories available because you want to chase a market doesn't seem wise to me. Sometimes the best stories will include ones with gay protagonists, and sometimes not (and oftentimes you simply can't tell because it doesn't come up.)
You might want to check out "Dead Boy Found" by Christopher Barzak published in Trampoline (he also has a very lovely story coming out from Realms of Fantasy next month called "The Language of Moths.") and Charlie Finlay's "Pervert" (orginally printed in F&SF) is being published in Year's Best Science Fiction 10, ed. by Hartwell and Kramer. |
Gordon Van Gelder
| | Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 06:01 am: | |
You might also want to look up "Serostatus" by John Peyton Cooke in the January 2004 F&SF. And keep an eye out for a story by David Gerrold called "thirteen o'clock" we'll be publishing later this year. But I think Chance's point is right on target. I'd be nuts if I started buying stories just because of the protagonist's sexual orientation, or gender, or species, or whatever. |
jeff ford
| | Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 06:24 am: | |
Joseph: Also, Rick Bowes has a collection coming out from PS Publishers in the UK this year titled Streetcar Dreams, which, like Barzak's work and like Gordon is saying, is fiction I'd recommend to anyone who likes to read good fiction. Rick's also got a book from Golden Gryphon later this year, From the Files of the Time Rangers, and if you haven't checked out his novel Minions of the Moon, you're missing a great book. |
Christopher Rowe
| | Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 06:35 am: | |
Paul Park's collection has a great story called "The Last Homosexual," but yeah, the collection's worth seeking out for ALL the stories in it. |
T Andrews
| | Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 07:25 am: | |
I'm just putting the finishing touches on a story with a gay protagonist. I'm going to send it to one of the genre sf/f online publications. The 'gayness' of my character is merely incidental and has no bearing on the plot. It would be good to see more of those characters that are traditionally marginalized, find themselves homes in good stories. |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 08:34 am: | |
I've got a Vonda McInytre novelette coming out this week that is a fascinating hard sf story in which sexuality is crucial to the story. I don't want to say more because the relationships between male and female are really complicated--it's not even clear if the characters are exactly human.
But as Gordon and Chance say or imply, it's more important for an editor to buy the best stories than to enforce an agenda on herself. |
chance
| | Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 02:49 pm: | |
I've got a Vonda McInytre novelette coming out this week that is a fascinating hard sf story in which sexuality is crucial to the story.
ooooo sounds fascinating - I can hardly wait. |
SandraP
| | Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2005 - 12:14 am: | |
I'd like to see more gothic horror in YBFH in the vein of Poe and Dickens. Will you have any, Ellen? |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2005 - 07:53 am: | |
Sandra, I'n not really sure what that means in contemporary terms, but there are a few stories I've picked that might fit the bill: one by Frances Oliver and one by Tina Rath. |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 02:03 pm: | |
The horror half of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror is as follows:
Best of the Year 2004
Hunting Meth Zombies in the Great Nebraskan Wasteland John Farris Elvisland
6300
Singing My Sister Down Margo Lanagan Black Juice 3800
And the Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead Richard Mueller F&SF May 6100
Stripping Joyce Carol Oates Postscripts spring 800
Restraint Stephen Gallagher Postscripts spring 7900
Water Babies Simon Brown Agog! Smashing Stories 10,900
A Night in the Tropics Jeffrey Ford Argosy January/February 7800
Clownette Terry Dowling SCIFICTION December 15 5400
The Skin of the World Douglas Clegg The Machinery of the Night 4000
A Trick of the Dark Tina Rath The Mammoth Book of Vampires 3300
The Owl Conrad Williams Use Once, Then Destroy 6100
Bulldozer Laird Barron SCIFICTION August 25 10,600
Mr. Aickman's Air Rifle Peter Straub McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories 9500
The Cajun Knot Melanie Fazi The 3rd Alternative Issue 40 6100
Guts Chuck Palahniuk Playboy March 3000
A Hazy Shade of Winter Simon Bestwick A Hazy Shade of Winter 5600
Dancing on Air Frances Oliver Dancing on Air 6600
We Find Things Old Bentley Little The Last Pentacle of the Sun 5100
Seven Feet Christopher Fowler Demonized 6700
The Oracle Alone Catherynne M. Valente Music of a Proto-Suicide 800
The Bad Magician Philip Raines and Harvey Welles Albedo Issue 28 7800
Frozen Charlottes Lucy Sussex Forever Shores 4100
Lapland, or Film Noir Peter StraubConjunctions 42: CINEMA LINGUA: Writers Respond to Film 2500
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John Joseph Adams
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 05:16 pm: | |
"Hunting Meth Zombies in the Great Nebraskan Wasteland" -- Wow! What a great title! I've got to read that!
Glad to see Palahniuk's "Guts" in the book, Ellen -- I thought that was superb. |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 09:40 pm: | |
John,
It a term paper --really!
I think "Guts" is as funny as it is disgusting :-) |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 09:41 pm: | |
errr. I mean "it's a term paper." |
Simon Owens
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 09:51 pm: | |
Ellen, if forced to pick the top three short fiction horror venues (by top, I don't mean by quality, but rather by the most well-known as specifically "horror" magazines), it would be Chizine, Flesh & Blood, and Cemetery Dance. I only own one of the volumes of your Year's Best Antho, but in that TOC you didn't reprint any stories from those three venues, and it appears that you won't be reprinting anything from those venues in this volume either. It seems kind of odd, care to comment?
Btw, this isn't a mean-spirited accusation of any kind, I’m just pointing out what I consider to be a weird occurrence. I guess the most obvious answer you're going to give is "There wasn't anything in those venues this year that I liked enough to reprint," but based on this year's TOC and the volume I already own, it just seems kind of weird that not a single story from any of those venues made it in (and of course I recognize that perhaps in another volume that I don't own a story could have made it in). |
DannyW.
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 10:17 pm: | |
Sorry, Ellen, I'm not going to buy this year's issue either. |
brian
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 10:23 pm: | |
I have to agree with Mr. Simon Owens. The three top horror venues are repeatedly being overlooked by you. I really think it's a little pretentious to call the anthology the "The Year's Best...". It would more aptly be "Ellen's Rather Esoteric Look at 2004 Horror Stories". (Or as a lot of writer's call it when you're not looking "More Stories by Ellen's Friends.") ;-) |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 10:26 pm: | |
Simon:
You, of course have indeed answered your own question. I didn't like anything in those venues enough to choose them. It as simple as that.
I think CD had a very good year and there were two stories that made my short list that I finally eliminated. Chizine and Flesh and Blood also had a number of good stories.
If you're hinting that I have some kind of agenda, your mistaken. I choose what I like best. |
Ellen Datlow
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2005 - 10:32 pm: | |
Danny,
Sorry to hear that. Any specific reason?
Brian,
Very few of the writers whose work is in YBFH are friends of mine. Most of them I don't even know.
Further, thirteen of the authors on the list above are in the horror half for the first time ever. So basically you're just blowing smoke out of your you know what ;-) and those who say I publish my friends are just envious tha | |
