Ellen Datlow - The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 4

The Ghosts & Scholars M. R. James Newsletter is edited by Rosemary Pardoe and continues to be published periodically. There were two issues out in 2011, and each included pieces of fiction in addition to scholarly essays and discussions of Jamesian work.

The Weird Review edited by S. T. Joshi and published by Centipede Press put out its second issue in the fall. It included eight pieces of fiction (two of them reprints), several pieces of poetry, a gallery of art by Alexander Binder, and five essays about horror and the weird tale.

Fangoria edited by Chris Alexander is the daddy of the existing magazines that cover horror movies of all types, and overall, it’s superficial but entertaining, covering big budget and independent horror productions, the grislier the better. The magazine also features regular columns on news, DVD releases, video games, horror music, comics, and books. And lots of gore. Fangoria celebrated its 300 thissue in February with capsule descriptions of dozens of horror movies from A-Z beginning with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein , and ending with Lucio Fulci’s Zombie .

Rue Morgue , edited by Jovanka Vuckovic, is another monthly media magazine covering horror in all its bloody glory (with the still photos to prove it) but unlike Fangoria , in between the gore there are often thoughtful articles and columns. One of the best things about Rue Morgue is their regular “Classic Cut” column on the last page of the magazine, which covers excellent, often obscure horror sources.

Video Watchdog is a bi-monthly magazine edited by Tim Lucas that specializes in analyzing the minute details of all kinds of movies, and is erudite yet entertaining. In addition to reviewing movies, there is a regular audio column by Douglas E. Winter, a book review column, and a regular column by Ramsey Campbell.

Black Static edited by Andy Cox is the consistently best magazine of dark fiction. A bi-monthly with several columns about movies and television, it has loads of reviews in addition to the fiction. The strongest stories in 2011 were by V.H. Leslie, Ray Cluley, James Cooper, Tim Lees, Carole Johnstone, Christopher Fowler, Daniel Kaysen, Barbara A. Barnett, Steven Pirie, Simon Bestwick, Alan Wall, Andrew Hook, and Alison Littlewood. Stories by Bestwick and Littlewood are reprinted herein.

Shock Totem: Curious Tales of the Macabre and Twisted edited by K. Allen Wood is a bi-annual dark fantasy and horror magazine with fiction and a little bit of nonfiction. The two issues in 2011 had strong stories by Aaron Polson, John Haggerty, Amanda C. Davis, Steven Pirie, Meckenzie Larsen, Lee Thompson, and Jeremy Kelly.

Dark Discoveries edited by James Beach had two issues out in 2011. Over the year it featured several good interviews with writers and artists, an essay about the emergence of splatterpunk and extreme horror in fiction plus a strong story by Nick Mamatas.

Supernatural Tales edited by David Longhorn comes out twice a year and is generally jam packed with excellent dark fiction, plus a handful of book reviews. In 2011 the strongest stories were by Stephen Cashmore, Andrew Alford, Katherine Haynes, and Louis Marvick.

Shadows & Tall Trees edited by Michael Kelly published its second issue in autumn 2011 and continues to fulfill its promise with an attractive, readable design and strong dark fiction plus movie and book reviews. The stories I liked best were by Louis Marvick, Alison Littlewood, Eric Schaller, and Ian Rogers.

Inhuman edited by Allen Koszowski specializes in updates of the classic pulp monster story, and features a generous number of illustrations by Koszowski throughout. The one issue out in 2011 mixed reprints with originals. Among the originals, there’s a notable story by Darrell Schweitzer.

Unspoken Water: Poetry and Short Fiction of the Strange edited by Ian Hunter (Red Raw Press) had two issues. The creepiest stories (and one poem) were by Steve Rasnic Tem, Gary McMahon, Kristine Ong Muslim, Steve Lockley, and Andrew Hook.

Dark Tales edited by Sean Jeffery is a UK magazine that’s up to its fifteenth issue but as far as I can recall, is new to me. It includes thirteen stories in seventy-five pages, with impressive dark fiction by Sally Quilford, Richard Smith, Bruce Currie, Kate Measom, Georgina Bruce, and Benjamin Mitchell. I’m looking forward to the next issue.

Phantasmagorium edited by Laird Barron is a new literary fiction quarterly that debuted in October in an electronic edition and a few months later in a print edition. There were six stories in this first issue, and I especially enjoyed those by Genevieve Valentine, Simon Strantzas, and Stephen Graham Jones. The Anna Tambour tale about dragons who have forgotten how to behave like dragons is not horrific, but it’s charming and would make a wonderful children’s picture book.

The Sirenia Digest is a long-running email newsletter by Caitlín R. Kiernan. For $10 a month, the reader might read a preview of a new work, a fragment of an old rare one or a brand new story or poem, usually by Kiernan, occasionally by one of her friends.

Bull Spec edited by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn is a quarterly magazine that takes its North Carolina roots seriously as it enters the second year of publication. It features science fiction, fantasy, and some horror fiction and poetry plus interviews and book reviews. It had one notable dark story by David Tallerman. Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine edited by the ASIM Hivemind, began publishing quarterly with issue 51. The notable darker fiction in 2011 was by Mark Lee Pearson, Ian McHugh, Thoraiya Dyer, Chris Miles, Nicole R. Murphy, and a collaboration by David Conyers and John Goodrich. Realms of Fantasy edited by Shawna McCarthy shut down again, this time for good but before it did the magazine published notable dark stories by Scott William Carter, Mark Rigney, Lisa Goldstein, Euan Harvey, and a collaboration by Josh Roun-tree and Samantha Henderson. Tin House #47: The Mysterious is most notable for Benjamin Percy’s marvelous interview with Peter Straub and John Crowley’s thoughtful nonfiction piece on the contemporary ghost story. There is some good fiction with slightly mysterious ramifications, but nothing dark enough to be considered horror. The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories: Crime Issue edited by F. H. Batacan provides five fascinating takes on life in the Philippines. The darkest are by Xin Mei and Maryanne Moll. There was also a dark story by Marianne Villanueva on the website. Asimov’s Science Fiction edited by Sheila Williams isn’t known for publishing horror but occasionally it does. In 2011 there were notable dark stories by Christopher Barzak, Melanie Tem, Zachery Jernigan, Esther M. Friesner, Steve Rasnic Tem, Robert Reed, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer published two issues in 2011, #358 the penultimate issue under VanderMeer’s auspices. An announcement was made in mid-August that Marvin Kaye was buying the magazine from John Betancourt and would be editing it himself, discharging VanderMeer and her staff. The last issue #359 edited by VanderMeer, would be out in February 2012. One of the two issues from 2011 was a steampunk themed issue. That and the second had notable dark stories by Karen Heuler, Peter Ball, Ramsey Shehadah, Brant Danay, and Nik Houser. On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic edited by The Copper Pig Writers’ Society, is a mixed-genre quarterly that’s been publishing regularly since 1989. During 2011 there were strong horror stories by Steve Vernon, Priya Sharma, Chadwick Ginther, Angela Dorsey, and Kate Riedel. A couple of periodicals not known for publishing horror ran special issues in the fall: Zoetrope: All Story , the horror issue published four new stories and a reprint by Poe, with notable dark work by Andrea Kleeman, Ryu Murakami, and Karen Russell. Granta ’s “horror” issue (#117) was a big disappointment. Although the first two stories are about dying and death (true or not, I’ve no idea), and many others are about deadly or threatening incidences around the world, few of the stories deal with those darkest of all human endings with any kind of storytelling. They’re mere recountings of incidents. The only two supernatural pieces of the entire fourteen are those by the late Roberto Bolaño — a straightforward description of a zombie movie that might be real or might be made up (it’s irrelevant as there’s nothing very interesting about it) and a new story by Stephen King, which is pretty good, but not among his best. Shimmer is a very attractive magazine edited by Beth Wodzinski. It’s meant to be a quarterly but only had one issue out in 2011. That issue had some fine darker fiction by K. M. Ferebee, L. L. Hannett, E. C. Myers, and J. J. Irwin. Albedo One edited by John Kenny, Frank Ludlow, David Murphy, Peter Loftus, and Robert Neilson is an always excellent mixed-genre magazine. There were two issues published in 2011. The strongest dark stories were by Robin Maginn (one in each issue), Peadar Ó Guilín, and Judith Brown. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet edited by Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link came out with one issue in 2011—there was one notable dark story by A.D. Jameson. ChiZine edited by Brett Alexander Savory has been running consistently good fiction and poetry on its site since 1997. The strongest during 2011 was by Joel R. Murr, Grant Palmquist, Sunil Sadanand, Lee Thomas, Leslie Claire Walker, A. C. Wise, Nadia Bulkin, Rain Graves, Livia Llewellyn, Gemma Files, and Simon Logan. The story by A.C. Wise is reprinted herein. Not One of Us edited by John Benson is an important biannual staple of the small press, publishing prose and poetry on the loose theme of “otherness.” The notable stories and poems published in 2011 were by Patricia Russo, Sonya Taaffe, K. M. Ferebee, Mike Allen, and Erik Amundsen. Murky Depths edited by Terry Martin finished its five year run with issue #18. It was a good looking package of prose/poetry and graphic novels. The art was inspired by the horror pulps like Uncanny Tales. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Gordon Van Gelder publishes a lot of dark fantasy and horror. During 2011 there were notable horror stories by Kate Wilhelm, Joan Aiken, Albert E. Cowdrey, Peter David, Donald Mead, M. Rickert, Deborah J. Ross, Evangeline Walton, and Chet Williamson. The Williamson is reprinted herein. Fantastic Women edited by Rob Spillman (Tin House Books) contains eighteen reprints originally published in the literary magazine Tin House between 2003 and 2010 and includes stories by Kelly Link, Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, Kate Bernheimer, and others.