Michael Kelly’s Year’s Best Weird Fiction has fast become one of my favorite Year’s Best series. Kelly is the editor of the acclaimed anthology series Shadows and Tall Trees, and every year he invites a guest editor to help select the finest strange and weird fiction from the last 12 months.

Laird Barron and Kathe Koja ably assisted with the first two volumes, and this year Simon Strantzas (Burnt Black Suns, Shadows Edge) bent his considerable editorial talents to the task. It arrives in hardcover and trade paperback from Undertow Books next month.

Showcasing the finest weird fiction from 2015, volume 3 of the Year’s Best Weird Fiction is our biggest and most ambitious volume to date.

Acclaimed editors Simon Strantzas and Michael Kelly bring their keen editorial sensibilities to the third volume of the Year’s Best Weird Fiction. The best weird stories of 2015 features work from Robert Aickman, Matthew M. Bartlett, Sadie Bruce, Nadia Bulkin, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Conn, Brian Evenson, L.S. Johnson, Rebecca Kuder, Tim Lebbon, Reggie Oliver, Lynda E. Rucker, Robert Shearman, Christopher Slatsky, D.P. Watt, Michael Wehunt, Marian Womack, Genevieve Valentine.

No longer the purview of esoteric readers, weird fiction is enjoying wide popularity. Chiefly derived from early 20th-century pulp fiction, its remit includes ghost stories, the strange and macabre, the supernatural, fantasy, myth, philosophical ontology, ambiguity, and a healthy helping of the outre. At its best, weird fiction is an intersecting of themes and ideas that explore and subvert the Laws of Nature. It is not confined to one genre, but is the most diverse and welcoming of all genres.

This series is perfect for those Black Gate readers who prefer dark fantasy, or who are looking for something just a little left of ordinary.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

“The Strangers” by Robert Aickman (The Strangers and Other Writings)
“Rangel” by Matthew M. Bartlett (Rangel)
“Little Girls in Bone Museums” by Sadie Bruce (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2015)
“Violet is the Color of Your Energy” by Nadia Bulkin (She Walks in Shadows)
“Fetched” by Ramsey Campbell (Horrorology)
“Guest” by Brian Conn (The Bestiary)
“The Marking” by Kristi DeMeester (Three-lobed Burning Eye #27)
“Seaside Town” by Brian Evenson (Aickman’s Heirs)
“Julie” by L.S. Johnson (Strange Tales V)
“Rabbit, Cat, Girl” by Rebecca Kuder (XIII: Stories of Transformation)
“Strange Currents” by Tim Lebbon (Innsmouth Nightmares)
“The Rooms Are High” by Reggie Oliver (The Sea of Blood)
“The Seventh Wave” by Lynda E. Rucker (Terror Tales of the Ocean)
“Blood” by Robert Shearman (Seize the Night)
“Loveliness Like a Shadow” by Christopher Slatsky (Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales)
“Honey Moon” by D.P. Watt (A Soliloquy for Pan)
“The Devil Under the Maison Blue” by Michael Wehunt (The Dark #10)
“Orange Dogs” by Marian Womack (WeirdFictionReview.com)
“Visit Lovely Cornwall on the Western Railway Line” by Genevieve Valentine (The Doll Collection)

We covered the previous volumes here:

Future Treasures: Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volume Two, edited by Kathe Koja
Alien Rats, Apocalyptic Nightmares, and a Horror Worse Than Ghosts: Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume One, by James McGlothlin
Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume One, by John R. Fultz
Future Treasures: Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume One, edited by Laird Barron

And we’ve covered nine previous Best of the Year volumes for 2016:

Nebula Awards Showcase 2016, edited by Mercedes Lackey
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten, edited by Jonathan Strahan
The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 1, edited by Neil Clarke
The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016, edited by Rich Horton
The Year’s Best Military & Adventure SF 2015, edited by David Afsharirad
The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novellas 2016, edited by Paula Guran
The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2016, edited by Paula Guran
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016, edited by Karen Joy Fowler and John Joseph Adams
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois

Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume 3 will be published by Undertow Publications on October 11, 2016. It is 382 pages, priced at $19.99 in trade paperback, and $4.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Beatriz Martin Vidal.

See all of our coverage of the best in upcoming fantasy here.