31 Days of Horror-- Day 11: Short Stories

Today’s post is a reminder about the satisfaction of horror short stories. Here is a link to every post I have tagged short stories.  I am trying not to repeat myself, so use that link for more.

Today I want to highlight 2 new collections that are solid additions to most public library collections.

The first is edited by one of my favorite horror authors, Robert Dunbar [click on his name for posts featuring him on this blog.]  His newest work is a collection he has edited entitled, Dark Forest.  From Goodreads:

Stay out of the woods. 

Something deadly lurks among the shadows, and the trees themselves seethe with menace. No one is safe.These classic tales of the malignant wilderness by master storytellers like Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Ambrose Beirce, and E. Nesbit are annotated and introduced by contemporary talents, all of whom add their unique insights and perspectives. (The anthology also includes the novella WOOD by Robert Dunbar.) 

...We fear darkness. We fear eyes that watch from the foliage. Sometimes we fear the foliage. And perhaps we should. Long before haunted houses existed, haunted forests circled the globe. Homer knew it. The Brothers Grimm knew it. In legend, all the great mythic quests of self-discovery begin with a hero entering a forsaken wood. Some journeys also end there... 

These tales of the evil woods are introduced and annotated by Paul G. Bens, Jr., Ramsey Campbell, Sandy DeLuca, Robert Dunbar, James Everington, Greg F. Gifune, Kevin Lucia, Ronald Malfi, Lisa Mannetti, Elizabeth Massie, and B.E. Scully.

The second work I want to highlight is a collection I first previewed with this guest post by its editor, Richard Thomas.  The New Black is an impressive collection that I will be publicly advocating for in the October 15, 2014 issue of Library Journal.  Here is a preview of some of what I will have to say about this collection:

Short stories are often a great bet during the Halloween season because they offer the casual horror fan snippets of creepy fun. A great recent option is The New Black edited by Richard Thomas with an introduction by Bram Stoker Award winning author Laird Barron. Featuring tense, atmospheric, and twisted stories by acclaimed authors like Benjamin Percy, Roxanne Gay and Craig Davidson , these neo-noir tales merge literary fiction with any combination of dark genre fiction from crime and horror to fantasy and Southern Gothic with touches of the grotesque along the way. Readers who want to dip their toes in the forbidden depths of chills and thrills should start here for the best of today’s dark and twisted tales.

Finally, I want to end this post by reminding you all that the short story is a vibrant format in the horror world.  There are many amazing and wonderful works to be read. If you want to see a list of what the Horror Writers Association and its members deem the most worthy of your attention, click here for their public archive of recommended reads. Organized first by year, and then by format, quality short stories and novellas are well represented in these lists.