Some sad news - the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series from St Martin's Press, originally edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling and latterly by Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, will no longer be published. The 21st Annual Collection, published in 2008, was the last one.
I have a complete set of these: the British editions (retitled Demons & Dreams) of the first two (the only two published in the UK). Although I've bought other Year's Best volumes, this was the only one that I made a point of buying every year. I can't begin to guess how many superb stories - and superb writers - I was introduced to by these books.
As a writer, the anthology was something to aspire to. I never managed to get in it myself, though I did have honourable mentions from time to time, and that gave you a boost on days when you wonder if you'll ever write anything worth reading ever again.
I have a complete set of these: the British editions (retitled Demons & Dreams) of the first two (the only two published in the UK). Although I've bought other Year's Best volumes, this was the only one that I made a point of buying every year. I can't begin to guess how many superb stories - and superb writers - I was introduced to by these books.
As a writer, the anthology was something to aspire to. I never managed to get in it myself, though I did have honourable mentions from time to time, and that gave you a boost on days when you wonder if you'll ever write anything worth reading ever again.