The Best Weird Fiction of the Year
May 01, 2025 4:06 am
Hello All,
Happy Beltane! I hope that you are all taking care of yourselves and of each other. It's a new day, a new month, and we continue to seek and find joy in the world. Which brings me to today's announcement:
The inaugural volume of The Best Weird Fiction of the Year will be published this November.
This is a relaunch—in a way. Let me explain.
From 2014 to 2018 I was Series Editor for the Year’s Best Weird Fiction, an anthology launched not only to showcase some of the superlative strange fiction being published, but to also provide a home to often unclassifiable modes of fiction that were not, in my view, being represented in other ‘Year’s Best’ or ‘Best Of’ anthologies. A dedicated volume of the weird. An anthology to fill some of those genre gaps.
Why launch a new iteration of this series?
The initial Year's Best Weird Fiction, won a British Fantasy Award; and was a two-time Locus Recommended Read. And was very well-received by critics and reviewers. Seven years on I still get asked about the series. And, frankly, given the sad demise of The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, and others, as well as the sheer number of excellent stories falling through the cracks, I felt it was time to resurrect the concept. I conferred with a number of colleagues about the plan and I was heartened by their enthusiasm and good graces. So here we are!
To be sure, there is no shortage of ‘Year’s Best’ anthologies. Some quite good. And some, like Tenebrous Press’s Brave New Weird, and Neon Hemlock’s We’re Here, are actively filling some of those gaps, and are well worth your time. But there will always be gaps. Some driven by commercial market concerns, some by taste and aesthetics. This new volume will strive to be in conversation with those other anthologies, while hopefully providing its own distinct voice.
The initial iteration, the Year's Best Weird Fiction, grew to be massively time-consuming and expensive. It employed a different guest-editor for each volume, and many of the story reprints were rather exorbitant to acquire. This new volume, then, will be a scaled down version. I plan to open briefly each Spring for submissions from the previous year and publish the volume in November.
And we are now open to both submissions and pre-orders!
I understand that it is a leap of faith to pre-order a book when its contents are still to be determined. I've no doubt it will live up to the high standards of all our previous titles. I am not crowd-funding for this book, so it will live or die—hopefully live—on pre-orders. If you'd like to go on this new adventure with us, you can pre-order our print and eBook bundle here:
If you're a writer with weird fiction published last year, we can now consider your work. Please read the guidelines carefully.
GUIDELINES
This is a reprint fiction anthology, to be published this year, 2025. Yes, later this year. I am seeking material first published last year, in 2024. To be clear, only weird fiction FIRST published in 2024 is eligible for inclusion in this volume. I will accept translated work as long as the first English-language publication was 2024.
To repeat—this is for 2024 material only!
Stories should be between 500 and 7500 words. If it is slightly over, you can send it along. Please check with your publisher if you are uncertain about the reprint rights to your work.
Writers can send in their work only through the form on our site. Do not e-mail your story. You can send in more than one story, but each must be sent separately. As this is a reprint anthology bound to receive hundreds of submissions, you will only receive a response if I choose your story. Thank you for understanding.
Publishers and editors! You are encouraged to send electronic or digital copies via the email address below. ePubs are preferred, but I will also accept text files (Word), Mobi, or PDF. Please do not cherry-pick selections. Send the entire book, journal, or magazine to:
bestspecfic (at) gmail (dot) com
Deadline for all material is May 30, no exceptions.
Payment is a small honorarium and 1 copy each of the print and electronic editions.
Please note: Only writers whose work is selected for the volume will be contacted.
Thank you!
We also have a small bio site with the guidelines and pre-order info, should you want to bookmark it.
Warm Wishes,
Michael (and the Undertow team)
Undertow Publications