An ice cream van rolls into a war zone. A goldfish pleads with its owner, who has seasonal affective disorder. An advertising agency of the future struggles to capture the zombie market. A woman screams silently at a pair of social workers who visit to talk about her anorexic daughter.Brought together for the first time and introduced by prize-winning novelist Kerry Hudson, The Forge Anthology is a collection of over 30 pieces of startling and thought-provoking flash fiction from t...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARDSAcutely observed, evocative collection of short stories from the Man Booker Prize-longlisted author of Unexploded, blending fiction, biography and memoirHovering on the border of life and death, these stories form a ground-shifting collection, taking us into history, literature and the hidden lives of iconic figures.In 1920s Nova Scotia, as winter begins to thaw, a woman emerges fro...

Macabre meetings, sinister excursions, and deadly relationships; uncanny encounters; a classic ghost story featuring an American god; a historical murderer revived in a frightening new iteration; innovative Lovecraftian turns; shadowy fairy tales and weird myths; strange children, the unexpected, the supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real . . . tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while invent...

**A horror short story from #1 bestseller, Paul Finch. Part of the Dark Winter Tales series: unputdownable reads for cold winter nights…**In 1975, 11-year-old Andrew Conroy was brutally murdered, his body hidden under a bush in a dense woodland area known as The Dell.The detective who headed the investigation, now in his late sixties, has felt guilty ever since that he was unable to solve the murder case.Each year he asks his son to drive him to The Dell so he can w...

On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the FantasticFrom its modest beginnings with a single test issue to its Aurora Award-winning present, On Spec has delighted its fans with tales of the fantastic for 25 years. What better way to celebrate On Spec's silver jubilee than showcasing some of its best stories?Spanning two decades of On Spec's history, these twenty-four stories and poems offer a tantalizing taste of the wondrous, dark, humorous, and surreal tales that have appeared...

Exploring grief, yet neither bleak nor overwrought, this powerful short story won the 2013 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition. The judge, Carl Nixon, commended its 'seemingly effortless artistry' and its skilful and well-sustained handling of demanding narrative techniques: 'the author does not miss a beat', he said. Cleverly juxtaposing the past and present, the narrator draws the reader into her life. The judge concluded: 'Beautifully controlled use of simile and ...

These outstanding stories from the 2010 Bristol Short Story Prize will provoke, stimulate, move, amuse, unsettle, and entertain

'Other folks get so well known,And nobody knows about my own,'Have you met my sister Jane? She's a great big crow! My Grandpa is an owler and Grandma knits jerseys for wasps! And my other Granny is an octopus...Meet Aunt Flo, Brother Bert and more extraordinary family members in Ted Hughes' irresistible Meet My Folks, his first book for children, illustrated beautifully by George Adamson.

Dark secrets lurk in a parent's bedroom, secrets that should never be unearthed. An inquisitive child seeking answers to the secrets; dark and mystical secrets to which only his parents know the horrifying reality.The Toy Hospital is a chilling tale as told by a child about to change his own world inexorably and permanently. This chilling tale comes from my upcoming anthology of short stories:' Death Row Rejects' The story is around 4200 words and is a short horror story told in the first ...

The third in a series of annual anthologies, The Best British Short Stories 2013 reprints the cream of short fiction, by British writers, first published in 2012. These stories appeared in magazines from the Edinburgh Review to Granta, in anthologies from various publishers, and in authors' own short story collections. They appeared online at 3:AM Magazine, Fleeting and elsewhere.This new anthology includes stories by: Charles Boyle, Reg...

Nineteen compelling and varied short stories by writers born or living in wals. With widely differing approaches to form and style, this is a confident selection of superb new stories from up-and-coming, established, and award-winning writers.

The story of an Aboriginal boy whose house is invaded by a Hairyman - a spirit the old people call a Quinkin. When a little green tree frog lands on his windowsill, he knows she has been sent by the ancestors to help him face his fears.BOORI MONTY PRYOR: AUSTRALIA'S CHILDREN'S LAUREATE 2012-13'I wake with a start. The doorknob turns. It's him. The Hairyman.'There's a bad spirit in our house. He's as ugly as ugly gets and he...