Best Recent Short Stories (2024)

"This Skin Was Once Mine: When her father dies under mysterious circumstances, Jillian Finch finds herself grieving the man she idolized while struggling to feel comfortable in the childhood home she was sent away from nearly twenty years ago. Then Jillian discovers a dark secret that will threaten to undo everything she has ever known about her father. -- Seedling: A young man's father calls him early in the morning to say that his mother has passed...

"An anthology of classic murder mysteries - the unfamiliar, the unjustly forgotten, and little-known gems by the most famous practitioners A Penguin Classic These are not the usual suspects. When Edgar finalist Michael Sims formed the line-up for The Penguin Book of Murder, he did not include the familiar classics that you can find anywhere. Although he wanted to explore the first century of murder mysteries (from 1827 to 1924), he sought out the...

Hugo Award winning editor, and horror legend, Ellen Datlow presents this chilling horror anthology of original short stories exploring the endless terrors of winter solstice traditions across the globe, featuring chillers by Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu and many more. The winter solstice is celebrated as a time of joy around the world--yet the long nights also conjure a darker tradition of ghouls, hauntings, and visitations. This...

Too often, science fiction and fantasy stories erase--or cure--characters with disabilities. Soul Jar, edited by author and bookstore owner Annie Carl, features thirty-one stories by disabled authors, imagining such wonders as a shapeshifter on a first date, skin that sprouts orchid buds, and a cereal-box demon. An insulin pump diverts an undead mob. An autistic teen sets out to discover the local cranberry bog's sinister secret. A pizza delivery...

"Contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Lauren Groff has selected an exciting and engaging variety of stories by an international array of both celebrated and emerging writers. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Groff, fascinating observations from the winning writers on what inspired their work, and an extensive and useful directory of magazines...

Publisher Annotation: With a breathtaking array of original stories from around the world, P. Dj el i Clark, Amal El Mohtar, Garth Nix, Darcie Little Badger, Sheree Ren ee Thomas, and two dozen other fantasy and science fiction geniuses bring a new and exciting twist to one of the most beloved figures in fiction, witches, in never-before-seen works written exclusively for The Book of Witches, compiled by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan and illustrated...

Many Worlds, or The Simulacra is an anthology of reality-bending stories from a one-of-a-kind collective of authors building a shared multiverse. The stories in this anthology range from quietly strange to ambitiously speculative. Humans transform into cosmic energy or sentient algae. A man wakes up in a new body in a world with continents cut out, months absent from the calendar year, and souls misplaced. Students at a high school regularly vanish...

The essential second volume of bestselling author Peter S. Beagle's short stories, including one previously unpublished and four uncollected stories, shows again that Beagle is one of America's most influential fantasists. With his celebrated versatility, humor, and grace, Beagle is at home in a dazzling variety of subgenres. Evoking comparison to such iconic authors as Twain, Tolkien, Carroll, L'Engle, and Vonnegut, this career retrospective celebrates...