Datlow/Link/Grant 21st Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

This annual collection rounds up and showcases the best horror and fantasy from around the world. This year, Aussie authors, editors, publishers (primarily small press) and even our retailers (!) feature well, with two Australian author reprints, a number of Honorable Mentions, and lots of features in the round ups. I've pulled together what I can below, but please feel free to let me know of omissions or errors - I did my best to catch them all!

Reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008:

Garth Nix, "Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz go to war again", from Baen's Universe
Terry Dowling, "Toother", from Eclipse One, edited by Jonathan Strahan
Eileen Gunn, "Up the Fire Road", from Eclipse One, edited by Jonathan Strahan
Jeffrey Ford, "The Drowned Life", from Eclipse One, edited by Jonathan Strahan

Honorable Mentions (I've listed those I know are Australian authors or are from Australian collections):

Hagy Averbuch, "Let's come together", ZOMBIES
RJ Barker, "The Dry Heat, The Dust, The Martinis, and the Insects", IN BAD DREAMS
Lee Battersby, "Father Muerte and the Joy of Warfare", AUREALIS 37
Leigh Blackmore, "The Return of Zoth-Ommog", DAIKAIJU! 3: GIANT MONSTERS VS THE WORLD
Mike Brown, "Zombie Girl", ZOMBIES
Adam Browne, "An account of an experiment conducted by Fra Salimbene...", ORB 7
Sue Bursztynski, "Of loaves, fishes and Mars Bars", Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #29
Stephanie Campisi, "The ringing sounds of death on the water tank", IN BAD DREAMS
Matthew Chrulew, "Between the memories", AUREALIS 38/39
Matthew Chrulew, "How I learned to keep tidy", ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS INFLIGHT MAGAZINE #31
David Conyers, "From the Sick Trees", CTHULHU AUSTRALIS
David Conyers, "Weapon Grade", THE SPIRALLING WORM
David Conyers and John Sunseri, "The Spiralling Worm"
Aliette de Bodard, "Autumn's Country", ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS INFLIGHT MAGAZINE #30
Terry Dowling, "Jarkman at the Othergates", EXOTIC GOTHIC
Terry Dowling, "The Suits at Auderlene", INFERNO
Jennifer Fallon, "Demons of Fear", ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS INFLIGHT MAGAZINE #27
Kate Forsyth, "Moths" (poem), ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS INFLIGHT MAGAZINE #27
Jeff Harris, "Working stiffs", ZOMBIES
Robert Hood, "Monstrous Bright Tomorrows", IN BAD DREAMS
Richard Harland, "Special Perceptions", AT EASE WITH THE DEAD
Sue Isle, "Stranger and Sojourner", ORB 7
Rick Kennett, "The Dark and What it Said", ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS INFLIGHT MAGAZINE #28
Gary Kemble, "Dead Air", ZOMBIES
Margo Lanagan, "She-Creatures", ECLIPSE ONE
Sharyn Lilley, "Winter Solstice", IN BAD DREAMS
Martin Livings, "There was darkness", FANTASTIC WONDER STORIES
Maxine MacArthur, "Breaking the ice", DAIKAIJU! 2: REVENGE OF THE GIANT MONSTERS
Ian McHugh, "Grace", ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS INFLIGHT MAGAZINE #28
Ian McHugh, "The Greatest Adventure of All", COYOTE WILD, AUTUMN
Michael Merriam, "And a song in her hair", ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS INFLIGHT MAGAZINE #26
Jarrah Moore, "The Keepsake Purse", TICONDEROGA ONLINE, AUTUMN
Garth Nix, "Holly and Iron", WIZARDS
Ben Peek, "Black Betty", LONESTAR STORIES 23
Steve Savile, "A madness of ravens", DAIKAIJU! 3: GIANT MONSTERS VS THE WORLD
Cat Sparks, "Champagne and Ice", AUREALIS 38/39
Cat Sparks, "Hollywood Roadkill", ON SPEC, SUMMER
Cat Sparks, "A Lady of Adestan", ORB 7
Cat Sparks, "A million shadesof nightmare", DARK ANIMUS 10/11
AG Slatter (I think!), "Sour Dough", STRANGE TALES VOL II
Martin R Soderstrom, "Spark", ZOMBIES
Tiki Swain, "Birder", BORDERLANDS 9
Kaaron Warren, "Coelescence", AUREALIS 37
Kaaron Warren, "Cooling the crows", IN BAD DREAMS
Kaaron Warren, "His lipstick minx", THE WORKER'S PARADISE
Kaaron Warren, "Polish", ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS INFLIGHT MAGAZINE #28
Ysabeau Wilce, "Quartermaster Returns", ECLIPSE ONE
Marty Young, "The Wildflowers", FANTASTIC WONDER STORIES

Quite an impressive list and congratulations to all involved for this recognition. Throughout the two summations of 2007's horror and fantasy, there are great write ups for:
ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS (particularly that Rick Kennett's "The Dark and What it Said" was wanted for the volume but could just not fit in, p. lxxi);
AUREALIS ("...the premier mixed-genre magazine of Australia", p. lxv);
Altair Books with ZOMBIES ("...which despite the cheesy cover art has fourteen pretty good stories", p. li);
AUSTRALIAN GOTHIC: AN ANTHOLOGY OF AUSTRALIAN SUPER NATURAL FICTION, 1867-1937, edited by James Doig ("...a rich sampling of work", p. lii);
WIZARDS, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois ("...an excellent themed anthology" p. lii); and especially;
Jonathan Strahan's ECLIPSE ONE, which had an excellent write up in both summaries. From the Fantasy Summation: "...our hats are off to Strahan and Night Shade." (p. xx)

Interestingly, there was also mention of retailers Infinity Books (possibly meaning Infinitas?) and Pulp Fiction, as "...independent Australian bookstores" that might provide some of the plethora of Australian fantasy novels not yet available in the US.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: 21st Annual Collection is released today and looks like it will be a great read.

Open Market: "Masques" - CSFG Anthology

http://csfg.org.au/publishing/anthologies/masques

Submissions for the next CSFG Publishing anthology, Masques, are welcome between 20 April-31 October 2008.

Masques will be edited by Gillian Polack and Scott Hopkins. Stories may be any length up to 5,000 words. All approaches to the theme are welcome, as long as they are by nature speculative. Payment will be contributors' copies plus $10 for stories under 1,500 words and $25 for all other based on published word count.The editors will be pleased to see poetry and flash fiction as well as short stories. These will be paid at the rate of $5 for items less than two typeset pages. Poems longer than two pages will be paid at the applicable short story rate.

Submissions are encouraged from Australian writers of all levels of experience, with special encouragement given to CSFG members. Submissions should be sent (as plain email with stories as .rtf only) to masquessubmissions@gmail.com. Please make sure that the following information is in the email proper:

Name
Address
Email
Address
Name of story
Other contact information

If you wish to contribute to the interior artwork, please contact masquescsfg@gmail.com
Contact Information: masquescsfg@gmail.com

Welcome

I've been thinking about putting something like this together for a while now. I had the opportunity this year to market some Western Australian small press through two distributors here in WA who aim at libraries and schools. It struck me that while Australian small press produce some amazing works, often they receive little wider recognition due to a restricted distribution. This means authors don't receive all the kudos they should, general readership don't get access to many of these productions, and has a negative impact on further projects. I'd like to see that change. This is just my way of seeing if I can help increase the visibility of small press publishers in Australia to libraries, retailers and readers outside the traditional sales sphere of small press. My vision is grander than this little blog, but I'm starting here to see if I can get something going.

Please feel free to email me on australiansmallpress (at) gmail (dot) com with your blog or website details to add to the sidebar. I'll also be listing market calls and reading periods for markets, which I will list and post about when they are current. Future posts may focus on distribution, marketing, advertising, editing and many other relevant areas. Look forward to blogging with you!