Best British Short Stories 2018 Read online

  WYL MENMUIR is a novelist and editor based in Cornwall. His bestselling debut novel, The Many (Salt), was longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize. In November 2016, Nightjar Press published a limited-edition chapbook of his story Rounds and in 2017, the National Trust published his story, In Dark Places. He has written for Radio 4’s Open Book and the Observer, and is a regular contributor to the journal Elementum. He teaches creative writing at Falmouth University and Manchester Metropolitan University and is co-creator of Cornish writing centre The Writers’ Block.

  ADAM O’RIORDAN was born in Manchester. In 2008 he became the youngest Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust, the Centre for British Romanticism. His first collection of poetry, In the Flesh, won a Somerset Maugham Award in 2011. He is Academic Director of the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. His first collection of short stories, The Burning Ground, was longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize.

  IAIN ROBINSON’s short stories have appeared in the journals Litro, The Missing Slate, Wales Arts Review, and The Lonely Crowd, as well as in the anthologies Hearing Voices and Being Dad. His novel, The Buyer, was published in 2014. He was formerly an editor at Lighthouse Journal. He teaches at the UEA and lives in Norwich.

  CD ROSE is the author of Who’s Who When Everyone is Someone Else and the editor of The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure. His short fiction has appeared in 3:AM, Gorse, Lighthouse and The Lonely Crowd.

  ADRIAN SLATCHER was a COBOL programmer for nine years, and currently works on digital innovation projects in Manchester. He has an MA in novel writing from the University of Manchester and his stories and poems have been published in Unthology, VLAK, The Rialto, Confingo, Verse Kraken and elsewhere. He blogs about literature at artoffiction.blogspot.com.

  WILLIAM THIRSK-GASKILL was born in Leeds in 1967. He performs at spoken-word events throughout the north of England. His poetry collection, Throwing Mother in the Skip, and his short fiction collection, Something I Need To Tell You, are both published by Stairwell Books.

  CHLOE TURNER’s stories have appeared in The Nottingham Review, MIR Online, Kindred and Halo. She won the 2017 Fresher Prize and the Local Prize in the 2017 Bath Short Story Award.

  LISA TUTTLE has been writing strange, weird and fantastic fiction nearly all her life. Her first short story collection was A Nest of Nightmares (1986); her first novel, a collaboration with George R R Martin, Windhaven, first published in 1981, has been widely translated and is still in print. She is a past winner of the John W Campbell Award, the British Science Fiction Award and the International Horror Guild Award. Most recently she has written the first two volumes of a supernaturally tinged detective series: The Curious Affair of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief and The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross.

  CONRAD WILLIAMS is the author of nine novels: Head Injuries, London Revenant, The Unblemished, One, Decay Inevitable, Loss of Separation, Dust and Desire, Sonata of the Dead and Hell is Empty. His short fiction is collected in Use Once Then Destroy, Born With Teeth and I Will Surround You. He has won the British Fantasy award, the International Guild award and the Littlewood Arc prize. He lives in Manchester with his wife and three sons.

  ELEY WILLIAMS is currently writer-in-residence at the University of Greenwich. Her collection of prose, Attrib. and other stories (Influx Press), was listed among ‘Best Books of 2017’ by the Guardian, the Telegraph and the New Statesman and chosen by Ali Smith as one of the year’s best debut works of fiction at the Cambridge Literary Festival. It was also awarded the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2018 and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2018.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  The editor wishes to thank Jez Noond.

  ‘The War’, copyright © Owen Booth 2017, was first published in Hotel issue 3, and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘And Three Things Bumped’, copyright © Kelly Creighton 2017, was first published in The Lonely Crowd issue 6, and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Paymon’s Trio’, copyright © Colette de Curzon 2017, was first published as Paymon’s Trio (Nightjar Press) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘The Homing Instinct’, copyright © Mike Fox 2017, was first published in Confingo issue 8, Autumn 2017, and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Dog People’, copyright © M John Harrison 2017, was first published in You Should Come With Me Now (Comma Press) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘And What If All Your Blood Ran Cold’, copyright © Tania Hershman 2017, was first published in Some of Us Glow More Than Others (Unthank Books) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Mask’, copyright © Brian Howell 2017, was first published in Milk: An Anthology of Eroticism (Salo Press) edited by Sophie Essex and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Trio For Four Voices’, copyright © Jane McLaughlin 2017, was first published in Ruins & Other Stories (Cinnamon Press) edited by Adam Craig and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘We Are Methodists’, copyright © Alison MacLeod 2017, was first published in all the beloved ghosts (Bloomsbury) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Skin’, copyright © Jo Mazelis 2017, was first published in The Lonely Crowd issue 8, and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘In Dark Places’, copyright © Wyl Menmuir 2017, was first published as In Dark Places (National Trust) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘A Thunderstorm in Santa Monica’, copyright © Adam O’Riordan 2017, was first published in The Burning Ground (Bloomsbury) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Dazzle’, copyright © Iain Robinson 2017, was first published in The Lonely Crowd issue 6, and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Sister’, copyright © CD Rose 2017, was first published in The Lonely Crowd issue 8, and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Life Grabs’, copyright © Adrian Slatcher 2017, was first published online in Empty State and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘How to Be an Alcoholic’, copyright © William Thirsk-Gaskill 2017, was first published in Anglo Files 183 and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Waiting For the Runners’, copyright © Chloe Turner 2017, was first published in Waiting For the Runners (TSS Publishing) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘The Last Dare’, copyright © Lisa Tuttle 2017, was first published in Halloween Carnival Volume Five (Hydra) edited by Brian James Freeman, and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Cwtch’, copyright © Conrad Williams 2017, was first published in I Will Surround You (Undertow Publications) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Swatch’, copyright © Eley Williams 2017, was first published in Attrib. (Influx Press) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  Paymon’s Trio

  A Thunderstorm in Santa Monica

  Trio For Four Voices

  How to Be an Alcoholic

  We Are Methodists

  Life Grabs

  Dog People

  Skin

  Cwtch

  And Three Things Bumped

  In Dark Places

  The War

  And What If All Your Blood Ran Cold

  The Homing Instinct

  Mask

  Sister

  Waiting For the Runners

  Swatch

  The Last Dare

  Dazzle

 

 

 
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