by @basicchunnel, curator of HOWLS Book Club nominees for March 2024’s “The Sordid Unsorted” category
Themed Fiction anthologies have an obvious appeal for both writers and readers — a concept or focus which unites its contents in an evident way. Unthemed anthologies, on the other hand, are less popular in part because that obvious focus is absent. What you get instead through an unthemed volume is a cross section of time: Writers of the moment, at various points in their careers, brought together to make a case for the breadth of approach and sensibility in the field, if not the state of the art itself (it goes without saying that there are never enough pages, and each editor filters with their own sensibility.) If horror short fiction is your jam, there is no better means of getting the lay of the land, and finding new favorites.
To that end, I’m putting forth a slate of famed and / or unsung horror anthologies without theme, full of reliable veterans, ambitious upstarts, and ham-and-egg journeymen. Some books hail from the vaunted golden age of 1980s horror, some hew closer to our present.
Cutting Edge edited by Dennis Etchison
“[Etchison] sees this anthology as “explorations of the inscape,” bold new writers unwilling to look backwards, who wish to forge unafraid into untamed territory without regard for genre limitations or, indeed, monetary reward. These stories fall through publication cracks: too raw and intense for the mainstream; not supernatural enough, perhaps, for horror fans bred on “haunted houses and fetid graveyards…” (Will Erickson, Too Much Horror Fiction blog)
~
This book is undersung amongst the much-vaunted crop of 1980s horror anthologies, much as Etchison himself was undersung as an author of weird tales. Etchison pulls from the then-contemporary (Clive Barker submits an occult detective yarn, and Peter Straub’s novella “Blue Rose” would go on to seed a celebrated trilogy of novels) but also tips toward his origins – many authors were Twilight Zone alums.
Notably, the anthology goes farther afield than most in terms of its literary form (not to mention depictions of sex); the evils of Vietnam are a recurring element in many stories. There are some absolute killers here.
StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
Poe’s Children edited by Peter Straub
From the incomparable master of horror and suspense comes an electrifying collection of contemporary literary horror, with stories from twenty-five writers representing today’s most talented voices in the genre.
Horror writing is usually associated with formulaic gore, but New Wave horror writers have more in common with the wildly inventive, evocative spookiness of Edgar Allan Poe than with the sometimes-predictable hallmarks of their peers. Showcasing this cutting-edge talent, Poe’s Children now brings the best of the genre’s stories to a wider audience. Featuring tales from such writers as Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Carroll, Poe’s Children is Peter Straub’s tribute to the imaginative power of storytelling. Each previously published story has been selected by Straub to represent what he thinks is the most interesting development in our literature during the last two decades.
Selections range from the early Stephen King psychological thriller “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet,” in which an editor confronts an author’s belief that his typewriter is inhabited by supernatural creatures, to “The Man on the Ceiling,” Melanie and Steve Rasnic Tem’s award-winning surreal tale of night terrors, woven with daylight fears that haunt a family. Other selections include National Book Award finalist Dan Chaon’s “The Bees”; Peter Straub’s “Little Red’s Tango,” the legend of a music aficionado whose past is as mysterious as the ghostly visitors to his Manhattan apartment; Elizabeth Hand’s visionary and shocking “Cleopatra Brimstone”; Thomas Ligotti’s brilliant, mind-stretching “Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story”; and “Body,” Brian Evenson’s disturbing twist on correctional facilities.
Crossing boundaries and packed with imaginative chills, Poe’s Children bears all the telltale signs of fearless, addictive fiction. (StoryGraph)
~
Peter Straub stopped writing novels after In The Night Room underperformed commercially in 2004. Publishers had lost interest in him, but their loss was the broader horror writing community’s gain. Straub refocused, writing some short stories but spending most of his twilight years as an ambassador and elder statesman in horror publishing. Most notably, he edited the Library of America’s massive and definitive omnibus volumes of American horror fiction throughout history.
But before that opus, he started with this, a “state of the art” anthology drawing from of-the-moment authors in their prime (Hand, Evenson, Kelly Link, Caitlin R. Kiernan) and his own venerable contemporaries (King, the Tems, Ramsey Campbell, M. John Harrison). It’s as vital a record one can find of horror’s high points in the years immediately preceding the true blooming of Straub’s mentorship in the ‘10s (Barron, Langan, etc). Even as I’m not a huge fan of every writer on this list, there are no bum notes, imo.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
Prime Evil edited by Douglas E. Winter
A stunning anthology of short stories by the current masters of the horror genre. Every story is wickedly compelling, full of vampires, both traditional and some modern updates of the species. Each piece explores the human psyche and soul, revealing our most primal needs and fears as humans. (Goodreads)
~
While not quite as legendary as Dark Forces, Prime Evil is a cornerstone work that helped demonstrate the 80s as a creative boom for horror. It is ambitious — every author is well-established and well-honed, and every story (save Etchison’s) is original to the volume, which is rare. But it’s also uncommonly lean as anthologies go, weighing in at a scant 322 pages. It’s the original home of King’s EC-spirited classic “The Night Flier”, and likewise the origin of “Alice’s Last Adventure”, Tommy Ligotti’s gothic riff on Lewis Carroll. MJ Harrison’s “The Great God Pan” would go on to be reprinted in Poe’s Children (see above) and premise his later novel, The Course of the Heart, which just happens to be my favorite novel.
StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
Fearful Symmetries edited by Ellen Datlow
Wander through visions of the most terrible of angels, the Seven who would undo the world. Venture through Hell and back, and lands more terrestrial and darker still. Linger a while in childhoods, and seasons of change by turns tragic and monstrously transformative. Lose yourself amongst the haunted and those who can’t let go, in relationships that might have been and never were. Witness in dreams and reflections, hungers and horrors, the shadows cast upon the wall, and linger in forests deep.
Come see what burns so bright. . . . (StoryGraph)
~
I would be in total remiss were I to neglect Ellen Datlow’s contributions to horror anthologizing – she’s stewarded the industry’s annual best-ofs for a long stretch (with Stephen Jones handling annuals on the old side of the pond), but she’s also put together her share of original and reprint volumes.
Most of her anthologies, however, are themed, and she’s said that’s mainly a matter of commerce. Fearful Symmetries is a notable deviation into the unthemed, and like Prime Evil it is focused on its contemporary moment: This is the “state of the art” following six years after Poe’s Children. Many active writers you likely know feature, and many of those would become repertory players, so to speak, in Datlow’s collections going forward. A good document of the ‘10s in short horror.
StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
Dark Forces edited by Kirby McCauley
This is the ultimate feast of fear by a host of horror writers such as Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell, and others. Twenty-four macabre tales include the nerve-twisting novelette The Mist by Stephen King. Previously published in mass market by Bantam. (Goodreads)
~
I’d argue that the bar for visionary, epochal fiction anthologies was set by one Harlan Ellison, who as editor of 1967’s sci fi compendium Dangerous Visions featured both entirely original contents (ie no reprints) and defined what New Wave science fiction was to many.
(Infamously, his championing of the very black and very gay Samuel R. Delany was a major driver of reactionary “hard” sci fi’s rise in the 70s. Chip’s capstone story in Dangerous Visions won the Nebula, to the ire of many a white dude.)
My suspicion is that when Kirby McCauley, the literary agent for the upstart Stephen King circa the late 70’s, got it in his mind to edit a horror anthology, he had Ellison on the brain… And a lot of influence and financial capital to spend. When people talk about legendary horror story anthologies of the 80s, this is arguably the name that comes up most often. It helps that McCauley got a prime cut from his ringer of a client – Ellison gave “Aye, and Gomorrah…” as the coda to his volume, and McCauley kicks off his own with none other than “The Mist”. Later reprints place it as the last story in the antho, iirc.
In terms of its TOC, there are names of pulp journeyman lifers you may not recognize, but this is also the oldest “state of the art” anthology on the ballot – such people were less celebrated contemporaries of the big Names (Wolfe, Bradbury, Gorey, Matheson) also featured. There are also a few “new” writers who are still working grandmasters of the form – Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Tuttle, Joyce Carol Oates. You even get a few legit weirdos in Robert Aickman and TED Klein.
StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
Dark Stars edited by John F.D. Taff
Dark Stars is a tribute to horror’s longstanding short fiction legacy, featuring 11 terrifying novelettes from today’s most noteworthy authors, edited by Bram Stoker Award-nominee John F.D. Taff, with an introduction by bestselling author Josh Malerman (Bird Box).
Created in the tradition of the 1980 horror classic anthology Dark Forces edited by Kirby McCauley, this collection features all original novelettes showcasing the top talent in the horror field today, with a committed line-up of stories from both established names and up-and-coming voices. Dark Stars is not themed, allowing each author to write their very best horror story, unhampered by the need to conform to any unifying tropes. (StoryGraph)
~
Given Dark Forces gracing the ballot, and the absence of a representative from our current decade, it felt fitting to bring in John F.D. Taff’s tribute to that beloved forebear. It has some things that its predecessor noticeably doesn’t – a more diverse TOC, for one (though John, my man, was Lisa T not available for a repeat appearance?).
While I can’t know how uncertain a horror hound would have found the lineup of Dark Forces in 1980, I can say that as someone who reads a lot of horror short fiction now, all the authors listed in Dark Stars are well-established and prolific (Livia Llewelyn, present here though effectively retired, is an exception, and it’s good to see her here), especially when it comes to this kind of project at this level of publishing. But that may well be a mark in its favor – familiarity can promise consistenty, something that anthologies are perennially accused of lacking.
Bookshop* | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
And The Winner Is…
Out of these five books, HOWLers voted to read Poe’s Children edited by Peter Straub. Discussion starts on March 18, and you can join in by joining the Discord!
Our Kickstarter for Howls from the Scene of the Crime, our upcoming crime horror anthology, is live now! Back us on Kickstarter!
*The HOWLS Bookshop.org affiliate storefront pays a 10% commission to HOWL Society and gives a matching 10% to independent bookstores