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This short story originally appeared in the anthology McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales (2003), edited by Michael Chabon, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, December 2012. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 14 (2003), edited by Stephen Jones
• Year's Best Fantasy 4 (2004), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Tails of Wonder and Imagination (2010), edited by Ellen Datlow
• My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (2010), edited by Kate Bernheimer
• Witches: Wicked, Wild & Wonderful (2012), edited by Paula Guran.

The story is included in the collection Magic for Beginners (2005).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

She has been hailed by Michael Chabon as "the most darkly playful voice in American fiction" and by Neil Gaiman as "a national treasure." Now Kelly Link's eagerly awaited new collection--her first for adult readers in a decade--proves indelibly that this bewitchingly original writer is among the finest we have.

Link has won an ardent following for her ability, with each new short story, to take readers deeply into an unforgettable, brilliantly constructed fictional universe. The nine exquisite examples in this collection show her in full command of her formidable powers. In "The Summer People," a young girl in rural North Carolina serves as uneasy caretaker to the mysterious, never-quite-glimpsed visitors who inhabit the cottage behind her house. In "I Can See Right Through You," a middle-aged movie star makes a disturbing trip to the Florida swamp where his former on- and off-screen love interest is shooting a ghost-hunting reality show. In "The New Boyfriend," a suburban slumber party takes an unusual turn, and a teenage friendship is tested, when the spoiled birthday girl opens her big present: a life-size animated doll.

Hurricanes, astronauts, evil twins, bootleggers, Ouija boards, iguanas, The Wizard of Oz, superheroes, the Pyramids... These are just some of the talismans of an imagination as capacious and as full of wonder as that of any writer today. But as fantastical as these stories can be, they are always grounded by sly humor and an innate generosity of feeling for the frailty--and the hidden strengths--of human beings. In Get in Trouble, this one-of-a-kind talent expands the boundaries of what short fiction can do.

Finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Table of Contents:

• The Summer People - (2011) - novelette by Kelly Link
• I Can See Right Through You - (2014) - novelette by Kelly Link
• Secret Identity - (2009) - novelette by Kelly Link
• Valley of the Girls - (2011) - shortstory by Kelly Link
• Origin Story - (2006) - novelette by Kelly Link
• The Lesson - (2015) - shortstory by Kelly Link
• The New Boyfirend - (2014) - novelette by Kelly Link
• Two Houses - (2012) - novelette by Kelly Link
• Light - (2007) - novelette by Kelly Link

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Fall 2014. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015, edited by Rich Horton, and The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, edited by Joe Hill and John Joseph Admas. It is included in the collection Get in Trouble: Stories (2015).

Read the full story for free at McSweeney's.

This novelette originally appeared in Tin House Magazine, Fall 2007. It can also be found in the anthologies Best American Fantasy 2, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, and Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2008 Edition, edited by Rich Horton. The story is included in the collection Get in Trouble: Stories (2015).

Nebula Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in the collection Stranger Things Happen (2001). The story can aslo be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifteenth Annual Collection (2002), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Nebula Awards Showcase 2003, edited by Nancy Kress and Poe's Children: The New Horror: An Anthology (2008) edited by Peter Straub.

BSFA and Nebula Award winning and Hugo, WFA and Sturgeon Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in the collection Magic for Beginners (2005) and was reprinted in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September 2005. The story can also be found in the anthologies Best Short Novels 2006, edited by Jonathan Strahan, Other Worlds Than These (2012), edited by John Joseph Adams, and Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries & Lore (2017), edited by Paula Guran. It is included in the collection Pretty Monsters (2008).

Kelly Link's engaging and funny stories riff on haunted convenience stores, husbands and wives, rabbits, zombies, weekly apocalyptic poker parties, witches, and cannons. Includes Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award winners. A Best of the Year pick from TIME, Salon.com, and Book Sense. Illustrated by Shelley Jackson.

Table of Contents:

• The Faery Handbag - (2004) - novelette
• The Hortlak - (2003) - novelette
• The Cannon - (2003) - shortstory
• Stone Animals - (2004) - novelette
• Catskin - (2003) - shortstory
• Some Zombie Contingency Plans - novelette
• The Great Divorce - shortstory
• Magic for Beginners - novella
• Lull - (2002) - novelette

Predatory kraken that sing with — and for — their kin; band members and betrayed friends who happen to be demonic; harpies as likely to attract as repel. Welcome to a world where humans live side by side with monsters, from vampires both nostalgic and bumbling to an eight-legged alien who makes tea. Here you'll find mercurial forms that burrow into warm fat, spectral boy toys, a Maori force of nature, a landform that claims lives, and an architect of hell on earth. Through these and a few monsters that defy categorization, some of today's top young-adult authors explore ambition and sacrifice, loneliness and rage, love requited and avenged, and the boundless potential for connection, even across extreme borders.

Table of Contents:

• Paolo Bacigalupi, Moriabe's Children
• Cassandra Clare, Old Souls
• Holly Black, Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind)
• M. T. Anderson, Quick Hill
• Nathan Ballingrud, The Diabolist
• Patrick Ness, This Whole Demoning Thing
• Sarah Rees Brennan, Wings in the Morning
• Nalo Hopkinson, Left Foot, Right
• G. Carl Purcell, The Mercurials
• Dylan Horrocks, Kitty Capulet and the Invention of Underwater Photography
• Nik Houser, Son of Abyss
• Kathleen Jennings, A Small Wild Magic
• Kelly Link, The New Boyfriend
• Joshua Lewis, The Woods Hide in Plain Sight
• Alice Sola Kim, Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying

Kelly Link has lit up adult literary publishing and Viking is honored to publish her first YA story collection. Through the lens of Link's vivid imagination, nothing is what it seems, and everything deserves a second look. From the multiple award-winning "The Faery Handbag," in which a teenager?s grandmother carries an entire village (or is it a man-eating dog?) in her handbag, to the near-future of "The Surfer," whose narrator (a soccer-playing skeptic) waits with a planeload of refugees for the aliens to arrive, Link's stories are funny and full of unexpected insights and skewed perspectives on the world. Her fans range from Michael Chabon to Peter Buck of R.E.M. to Holly Black of Spiderwick Chronicles fame. Now teens can have their world rocked, too!

Table of Contents:

• The Wrong Grave - (2007) - novelette
• The Wizards of Perfil - (2006) - novella
• Magic for Beginners - (2005) - novella
• The Faery Handbag - (2004) - novelette
• The Specialist's Hat - (1998) - short story
• Monster - (2005) - novelette
• The Surfer - (2008) - novella
• The Constable of Abal - (2007) - short story
• Pretty Monsters - novelette

Later editions also include

• The Cinderella Game - (2008) - short story

This novelette originally appeared in the collection Pretty Monsters (2008). It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Three (2009), edited by Jonthan Strahan.

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd (2009), edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2010 and Superheroes (2013), both edited by Rich Horton. The story is included in the collections Origin Stories (2012) and Get in Trouble: Stories (2015).

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in the collection 4 Stories (2000). The story is alos included in the collection Stranger Things Happen (2001).

Read the full story for free at Small Beer Press.

Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and re-craft a world of automatons, clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never were. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, utopian revolutionaries, and intrepid orphans solve crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships. Here, fourteen masters of speculative fiction, including two graphic storytellers, embrace the genre's established themes and refashion them in surprising ways and settings as diverse as Appalachia, ancient Rome, future Australia, and alternate California. Visionaries Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant have invited all-new explorations and expansions, taking a genre already rich, strange, and inventive in the extreme and challenging contributors to remake it from the ground up. The result is an anthology that defies its genre even as it defines it.

Table of Contents

• Clockwork Fagin - novelette by Cory Doctorow
• Everything Amiable and Obliging - novelette by Holly Black
• Finishing School: A Colonial Adventure - shortfiction by Kathleen Jennings
• Gethsemane - novelette by Elizabeth Knox
• Hand in Glove - novelette by Ysabeau S. Wilce
• Nowhere Fast - novelette by Christopher Rowe
• Peace in Our Time - shortstory by Garth Nix
• Seven Days Beset by Demons - shortfiction by Shawn Cheng
• Some Fortunate Future Day - shortstory by Cassandra Clare
• Steam Girl - novelette by Dylan Horrocks
• The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor - novelette by Delia Sherman
• The Last Ride of the Glory Girls - novelette by Libba Bray
• The Oracle Engine - novelette by M. T. Anderson
• The Summer People - novelette by Kelly Link

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Conjunctions #43. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best American Short Stories 2005 edited by Michael Chabon and Katrina Kenison, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 16 (2005), edited by Stephen Jones and American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940's to Now (2009), edited by Peter Straub. It is included in the collection Magic for Beginners (2005).

Kelly Link has been called "the most impressive writer of her generation" by Peter Straub and "a national treasure" by Neil Gaiman. Publications from Time to the Village Voice, from Locus to Salon, have lauded her as wildly talented and widely influential. In 2001, Link caused the literary world to catch its breath with Stranger Things Happen, one of the first great single-author collections of the new century. When it debuted, the book broke new ground in fantastic literature, and still reads as fresh, provocative, and dazzlingly original.

These stories are strange, quirky, smart -- and like no others. In "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose," a dead man sends letters to his living wife. In "The Specialist"s Hat," the rhymes and games of two children and their babysitter come to define, but not explain, a uniquely haunted house. In "The Girl Detective," the case of the tap-dancing bank robbers means a trip to the underworld. Among the eleven stories gathered here, readers will find dictators and extraterrestrials, an apocalyptic beauty pageant and two women named Louise.

Stories from Stranger Things Happen won Nebula, World Fantasy, and Tiptree Awards, and the volume garnered widespread acclaim. Link continues to earn accolades and find new readers with each story she publishes.

Table of Contents:

• Stranger Things Happen - interior artwork by Kathleen Jennings
• Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose - (1998) - shortstory
• Water Off a Black Dog's Back - (1995) - shortstory
• The Specialist's Hat - (1998) - shortstory
• Flying Lessons - (1996) - novelette
• Travels with the Snow Queen - (1996) - novelette
• Vanishing Act - (1996) - shortfiction
• Survivor's Ball, or, The Donner Party - (1998) - shortfiction (variant of Survivor's Ball, or The Donner Party)
• Shoe and Marriage - (2000) - shortfiction
• Most of My Friends Are Two-Thirds Water - (2001) - shortstory
• Louise's Ghost - (2001) - novelette
• The Girl Detective - (1999) - novelette

Unexpected tales of the fantastic, & other odd musings.

Table of Contents:

• Travels with the Snow Queen - (1996) - novelette by Kelly Link
• Scotch: An Essay into a Drink - (1997) - essay by Gavin J. Grant
• Unrecognizable - (1998) - poem by David Findlay
• mehitobel was queen of the night - (1999) - poem by Ian McDowell
• Tan-Tan and Dry Bone - (1999) - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• An Open Letter Concerning Sponsorship - (1999) - shortfiction by Margaret Muirhead
• I Am Glad - (1999) - poem by Margaret Muirhead
• Lady Shonagon's Hateful Things - (1999) - poem by Margaret Muirhead
• Heartland - (1988) - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• What A Difference a Night Makes - (2000) - shortfiction by Gavin J. Grant
• Pretending - (2001) - shortstory by Ray Vukcevich
• The Film Column: Don't Look Now - (2003) - essay by William Smith
• A is for Apple: An Easy Reader - (2001) - poem by Amy Beth Forbes
• My Father's Ghost - (2001) - poem by Mark Rudolph
• What's Sure to Come - (2002) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Stoddy Awchaw - (2002) - shortstory by Geoffrey H. Goodwin
• The Rapid Advance of Sorrow - (2002) - shortstory by Theodora Goss
• The Wolf's Story - (2002) - poem by Nan Fry
• Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland - (2002) - shortstory by Sarah Monette
• Tacoma-Fuji - (2002) - poem by David Moles
• Bay - (2003) - shortfiction by David Erik Nelson
• How to Make a Martini - (2003) - essay by Richard Butner
• Happier Days - (2003) - shortfiction by Jan Lars Jensen
• The Fishie - (2003) - shortstory by Philip Raines and Harvey Welles
• Dear Aunt Gwenda (The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet) (1) - [Dear Aunt Gwenda] - (2004) - essay by Gwenda Bond
• The Film Column: Greaser's Palace - (2004) - essay by William Smith
• The Ichthyomancer Writes His Friend with an Account of the Yeti's Birthday Party - (2003) - shortfiction by David J. Schwartz
• Serpents - (2003) - shortfiction by Veronica Schanoes
• Homeland Security - (2003) - shortfiction by Gavin J. Grant
• For George Romero - (2003) - poem by David Blair
• Vincent Price - (2003) - poem by David Blair
• Music Lessons - (2004) - shortstory by Douglas Lain
• Telling Lives - (2004) - shortstory by James Sallis
• The Museum of Last Week - (2004) - shortstory by James Sallis
• Help Wanted - (2005) - shortstory by Karen Russell
• "Eft" or "Epic" - (2005) - shortstory by Sarah Micklem
• The Red Phone - (2005) - shortstory by John Kessel
• The Well-Dressed Wolf - (2005) - shortfiction by Lawrence Schimel
• - The Well-Dressed Wolf - (2005) - interior artwork by Sara Rojo
• The Mushroom Duchess - (2005) - shortstory by Deborah Roggie
• The Pirate's True Love - (2005) - shortstory by Seana Graham
• You Could Do This Too - (2005) - essay by Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link
• The Posthumous Voyages of Christopher Columbus - (2006) - poem by Sunshine Ison
• And If They Are Not Dead, They May Be Living Still - (2006) - poem by Sunshine Ison
• This Is the Train the Queen Rides On - (2006) - shortstory by Becca De La Rosa
• Dear Aunt Gwenda (The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet) (2) - [Dear Aunt Gwenda] - (2005) - essay by Gwenda Bond
• Bright Waters - (2005) - novelette by John Brown
• How the Burkina Faso Bicycle Fell Apart - (2006) - poem by K. E. Duffin
• Forwarding Address - (2006) - poem by K. E. Duffin
• Sliding - (2006) - poem by D. M. Gordon
• You Were Neither Hot Nor Cold, But Lukewarm, and So I Spit You Out - (2006) - shortstory by Cara Spindler and David Erik Nelson

Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are.

With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance--and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they've been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers.

But their resurrection has attracted the notice of other supernatural figures, all with their own agendas. As Laura, Daniel, and Mo grapple with the pieces of the lives they left behind, and Laura's sister, Susannah, attempts to reconcile what she remembers with what she fears, these mysterious others begin to arrive, engulfing their community in danger and chaos, and it becomes imperative that the teens solve the mystery of their deaths to avert a looming disaster.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Troll's Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales (2009), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Four (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010, edited by Paula Guran. The story is included in the collection Pretty Monsters (2008).

This short story orginally appeared in The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales (2007), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, and was reprinted in Apex Magazine, July 2013. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Two (2008), edited by Jonathan Strahan. The story is included in the collection Pretty Monsters (2008).

Read the full story for free at Apex.

Locus, Hugo and Nebula Award winning and WFA and BSFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm (2004), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling. The story can also be found in the anthologies Fantasy: The Best of 2004 (2005) edited by Jonathan Strahan and Karen Haber, The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy for Teens: First Annual Collection (2005), edited by Jane Yolen and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Nebula Awards Showcase 2007, edited by Mike Resnick, Happily Ever After (2011), edited by John Klima, and Bloody Fabulous (2012), edited by Ekaterina Sedia. It is included in the collections Magic for Beginners (2005) and Pretty Monsters (2008).

Read the full story for free at the Small Beer Press website.

Sturgeon Award nominated short story. It originally appeard on Strange Horizons, October 17th 2015. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016, edited by Rich Horton and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection (2016), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Strange Horizons.

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology The Dark: New Ghost Stories (2003), edited by Ellen Datlow. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection (2004), edited by Ellen Datlow, Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link, and Zombies: The Recent Dead (2010), edited by Paula Guran. The story is inlcuded in the collection Magic for Beginners (2005).

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories (2014), edited by Stephanie Perkins. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Nine (2015), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Year's Best Young Adult Speculative Fiction 2014 (2016), edited by Julia Rios and Alisa Krasnostein.

World Fantasy Award winning short story. It originally appeared on Event Horizon Online, Nov 15, 1998. The story can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection (1999), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
• The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 10 (1999), edited by Stephen Jones
• Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic (2004), edited by F. Brett Cox and Andy Duncan
• Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology (2006), edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
• Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror (2010), edited by Ellen Datlow
• The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories (2011), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
• Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories (2015), edited by Audrey Niffenegger

The story is included in the collections Stranger Things Happen (2001) and Pretty Monsters (2008).

Read the full story for free at Small Beer Press.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories (2011), edited by Kelly Link and Gavin. J Grant. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2012, edited by Rich Horton. The story is included in the collection Get in Trouble: Stories (2015).

This novella originally appeared in Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy (2006), edited by Sharyn November. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume One (2007), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Way of the Wizard (2010), edited by John Joseph Adams. It is included in the collection Pretty Monsters (2008).

An anthology of unclassifiable short stories, all original to this anthology.

"No unblinkered, gloveless reader can resist the stream of associations unleashed by Ford's story and the rest of Trampoline: influences as disparate as science fiction, magic realism, pulp, and Twilight Zone morality plays."--The Village Voice

Table of Contents:

• The Force Acting on the Displaced Body - (2003) - shortstory by Christopher Rowe
• Well-Moistened With Cheap Wine, the Sailor and the Wayfarer Sing of Their Absent Sweethearts - (2003) - shortstory by Ed Park
• Angel - (2003) - shortstory by Shelley Jackson
• Impala - (2003) - shortstory by John Gonzalez
• Famous Men: The Periodic Table of Liquids - (2003) - shortstory by Samantha Hunt
• Famous Men: Igor and Igor and Igor and Igor - (2003) - shortstory by Samantha Hunt
• Famous Men: For Love - (2003) - shortstory by Samantha Hunt
• Gus Dreams of Biting the Mail Man - (2003) - shortstory by Alexander C. Irvine
• A Crowd of Bone - (2003) - novella by Greer Gilman
• Fuming Woman - (2003) - shortstory by Alan DeNiro
• Eight-Legged Story - (2003) - shortstory by Maureen F. McHugh
• King of Spain - (2003) - shortstory by Dave Shaw
• Bumpship - (2003) - shortstory by Susan Mosser
• The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet - (2003) - shortstory by Vandana Singh
• Shipwreck Beach - (2003) - novelette by Glen Hirshberg
• The Yellow Chamber - (2003) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Destroyer - (2003) - shortstory by Beth Adele Long
• Gods and Three Wishes - (2003) - shortstory by Carol Emshwiller
• Dead Boy Found - (2003) - shortstory by Christopher Barzak
• Insect Dreams - (2003) - novella by Rosalind Palermo Stevenson
• Ash City Stomp - (2003) - shortstory by Richard Butner
• King Rat - (2003) - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler

The protagonist in "Travels with the Snow Queen" reconsiders her fairy-tale romance when she deconstructs the clichés of traditional fairy tales and realizes that their heroines inevitably sacrifice and suffer much more than their heroes do.

This story can be found in the following anthologies and collections:

• The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection
• Stranger Things Happen
• The James Tiptree Award Anthology 1
• The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
• Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold

Read the full story for free at Uncanny Magazine.

Shirley Jackson Award nominated novelette. It originally appeaed in the anthology Shadow Show: All New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury (2012), edited by Mort Castle and Sam Weller. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven (2013), edited by Jonathan Strahan, The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2013, edited by Rich Horton, and Hauntings (2013), edited by Ellen Datlow. The story is included in the collection Get in Trouble: Stories (2015).

This short story originally appeared in Subterranean Online, Summer 2011. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six (2012), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Best of Subterranean (2017), edited by William Schafer. The story is included in the collection Get in Trouble: Stories (2015).

Read the full story for free at Subterranean.

This short story originally appeared in Century, Number 3, September-October 1995, and waa reprinted in Lightspeed, October 2014. It is included in the collection Stranger Things Happen (2001).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

even ingeniously reinvented fairy tales that play out with astonishing consequences in the modern world

Finding seeds of inspiration in the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly Link spins classic fairy tales into utterly original stories of seekers--characters on the hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their own sense of purpose.

In "The White Cat's Divorce," an aging billionaire sends his three sons on a series of absurd goose chases to decide which will become his heir. In "The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear," a professor with a delicate health condition becomes stranded for days in an airport hotel after a conference, desperate to get home to her wife and young daughter, and in acute danger of being late for an appointment that cannot be missed. In "Skinder's Veil," a young man agrees to take over a remote house-sitting gig for a friend. But what should be a chance to focus on his long-avoided dissertation instead becomes a wildly unexpected journey, as the house seems to be a portal for otherworldly travelers--or perhaps a door into his own mysterious psyche.

Twisting and winding in astonishing ways, expertly blending realism and the speculative, witty, empathetic, and never predictable--these stories remind us once again of why Kelly Link is incomparable in the art of short fiction.

Table of Contents:

• The White Cat's Divorce - (2019) - novelette
• Prince Hat Underground - novelette
• The White Road - novelette
• The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear - (2019) - short story
• The Game of Smash and Recovery - (2015) - short story
• The Lady and the Fox - (2014) - novelette
• Skinder's Veil - (2021) - novelette

For more than a decade, readers have turned to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror to find the most rewarding fantastic short stories. Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant continue their critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition with another stunning collection of stories. The fiction and poetry here is culled from an exhaustive survey of the field-- nearly four dozen stories, ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magical realism to dark tales in the Grand Guignol-style. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror and Year's Best sections--on comics, by Charles Vess, and on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge and on film and television by Edward Bryant. This is an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.

*Terry Bisson *Kevin Brockmeier *Dan Chaon *Peter Crowther *Theodora Goss *Daphne Gottlieb *Glen Hirshberg *Brian Hodge *Nina Kiriki Hoffman *Kij Johnson *Paul LaFarge *Thomas Ligotti *Sara Maitland *Maureen F. McHugh *Steve Rasnic Tem *Benjamin Rosenbaum *Michael Marshall Smith *Michael Swanwick *Karen Traviss *Megan Whalen Turner

Table of Contents:

• Summation 2003: Fantasy - essay by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
• Summation 2003: Horror - essay by Ellen Datlow
• Media of the Fantastic: 2003 - essay by Edward Bryant
• Comics and Graphic Novels: 2003 - essay by Charles Vess
• Anime and Manga: 2003 - essay by Joan D. Vinge
• Music of the Fantastic: 2003 - essay by Charles de Lint
• Obituaries: 2003 - essay by James R. Frenkel
• At the Mouth of the River of Bees - (2003) - shortstory by Kij Johnson
• Why I Became a Plumber - (2003) - shortstory by Sara Maitland
• Bread and Bombs - (2003) - shortstory by M. Rickert
• The Red Bow - (2003) - shortstory by George Saunders
• The Wife - (2003) - shortstory by Vandana Singh
• Only Partly Here - (2003) - novelette by Lucius Shepard
• Bone - (2003) - poem by Steve Rasnic Tem
• Old Virginia - (2003) - novelette by Laird Barron
• A Study in Emerald - (2003) - novelette by Neil Gaiman
• You Go Where It Takes You - (2003) - shortstory by Nathan Ballingrud
• L'Aquilone du Estrellas (The Kite of Stars) - (2003) - shortstory by Dean Francis Alfar
• Harvey's Dream - (2003) - shortstory by Stephen King
• Woeful Tales from Mahigul - (2003) - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• King Rat - (2003) - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• The Hortlak - (2003) - novelette by Kelly Link
• With Acknowledgements to Sun Tzu - (2003) - novelette by Brian Hodge
• Ash City Stomp - (2003) - shortstory by Richard Butner
• King Dragon - (2003) - novelette by Michael Swanwick
• Invisible Geese: A Theory - (2003) - poem by Patrick O'Leary
• The Perfect City - (2003) - poem by Patrick O'Leary
• Bedfordshire - (2003) - novelette by Peter Crowther
• N0072-JK1 - (2003) - shortstory by Adam Corbin Fusco
• Cell Call - (2003) - shortstory by Marc Laidlaw
• The Fishie - (2003) - shortstory by Philip Raines and Harvey Welles
• Hunger: A Confession - (2003) - shortstory by Dale Bailey
• Mr. Sly Stops for a Cup of Joe - (2003) - shortstory by Scott Emerson Bull
• The Baby in the Night Deposit Box - (2003) - novelette by Megan Whalen Turner
• Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur - (2003) - shortstory by Paul LaFarge
• The Silence of the Falling Stars - (2003) - novelette by Mike O'Driscoll
• At the Mythical Beast - (2003) - poem by Jon Woodward
• The Fluted Girl - (2003) - novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi
• The Brief History of the Dead - (2003) - shortstory by Kevin Brockmeier
• Flotsam - (2003) - novelette by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• The Bees - (2003) - shortstory by Dan Chaon
• Dancing Men - (2003) - novelette by Glen Hirshberg
• Lily, with Clouds - (2003) - shortstory by Theodora Goss
• The Man Who Did Nothing - (2003) - shortstory by Karen Traviss
• Husband - (2003) - shortstory by Shelley Jackson
• Open Doors - (2003) - shortstory by Michael Marshall Smith
• The Valley of Giants - (2004) - shortstory by Benjamin Rosenbaum
• Purity - (2003) - shortstory by Thomas Ligotti
• Ancestor Money - (2003) - shortstory by Maureen F. McHugh
• Final Girl II: The Frame - (2003) - poem by Daphne Gottlieb
• Almost Home - (2003) - novelette by Terry Bisson
• Honorable Mentions: 2003 - essay by uncredited
• The People Behind the Book - (2003) - essay by uncredited

For more than a decade, readers have turned to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror to find the most rewarding fantastic short stories. The critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition continues with another stunning collection, including stories by M. T. Anderson, Laird Barron, Simon Bestwick, Simon Brown, Stepan Chapman, Douglas Clegg, D. Ellis Dickerson, Terry Dowling, Andy Duncan, Jean Esteve, John Farris, Mélanie Fazi, Jeffrey Ford, Christopher Fowler, Stephen Gallagher, Theodora Goss, Elizabeth Hand, Alice Hoffman, Shelley Jackson, John Kessel, Margo Lanagan, Tanith Lee, Bentley Little, Elizabeth A. Lynn, Gregory Maguire, China Miéville, Richard Mueller, Joyce Carol Oates, Frances Oliver, Chuck Palahniuk, Tina Rath, Philip Raines and Harvey Welles, M. Rickert, Anna Ross, Alison Smith, R.T. Smith, Peter Straub, Lucy Sussex, Catherynne M. Valente, Greg Van Eekhout, and Conrad Williams. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, and sections on comics, by Charles Vess, on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge, on media, by Ed Bryant, and on music, by Charles de Lint. With a long list of Honorable Mentions, this is an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.

Table of Contents:

• Summation 2004: Fantasy - essay by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
• Summation 2004: Horror - essay by Ellen Datlow
• Fantasy and Horror in the Media: 2004 - essay by Edward Bryant
• Comics and Graphic Novels: 2004 - essay by Charles Vess
• Anime and Manga: 2004 - - essay by Joan D. Vinge
• Fantasy and Horror in Music: 2004 - essay by Charles de Lint
• Obituaries: 2004 - essay by James R. Frenkel
• The Oakthing - (2004) - novelette by Gregory Maguire
• Horton's Store - (2004) - poem by R. T. Smith
• Rite of Spring - (2004) - shortstory by Margo Lanagan
• A Hazy Shade of Winter - (2004) - shortstory by Simon Bestwick
• The Skin of the World - (2004) - shortstory by Douglas Clegg
• Zora and the Zombie - (2004) - novelette by Andy Duncan
• The Changeling - (2001) - poem by Theodora Goss
• Revenge of the Calico Cat - (2004) - novelette by Stepan Chapman
• Frozen Charlottes - (2003) - shortstory by Lucy Sussex
• Reports of Certain Events in London - (2004) - novelette by China Miéville
• House of Ice - (2004) - poem by Jean Esteve
• Restraint - (2004) - shortstory by Stephen Gallagher
• The Baum Plan for Financial Independence - (2004) - shortstory by John Kessel
• Dancing on Air - (2004) - shortstory by Frances Oliver
• Cold Fires - (2004) - shortstory by M. Rickert
• And the Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead - (2004) - shortstory by Richard Mueller
• A Trick of the Dark - (2004) - shortstory by Tina Rath
• The Bad Magician - (2004) - shortstory by Philip Raines and Harvey Welles
• Speir-Bhan - (2004) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• Hunting Meth Zombies in the Great Nebraskan Wasteland - (2002) - shortstory by John Farris
• Guts - (2004) - shortstory by Chuck Palahniuk
• Water Babies - (2004) - novelette by Simon Brown
• Mr. Aickman's Air Rifle - (2004) - novella by Peter Straub
• We Find Things Old - (2004) - shortstory by Bentley Little
• Wonderwall - (2004) - shortstory by Elizabeth Hand
• Postcretaceous Era - (2004) - shortstory by D. Ellis Dickerson
• Watch and Wake - (2004) - shortstory by M. T. Anderson
• The Oracle Alone - (2004) - poem by Catherynne M. Valente
• A Night in the Tropics - (2004) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Clownette - (2004) - shortstory by Terry Dowling
• Stripping - (2004) - shortstory by Joyce Carol Oates
• Seven Feet - (2004) - shortstory by Christopher Fowler
• Singing My Sister Down - (2004) - shortstory by Margo Lanagan
• Bulldozer - (2004) - novelette by Laird Barron
• These Various Methods of Brightness - (2004) - poem by Anna Ross
• The Cajun Knot - (2004) - shortstory by Mélanie Fazi (trans. of Le noeud cajun 2000)
• Tales from the City of Seams - (2004) - shortstory by Greg van Eekhout
• The Specialist - (2004) - shortstory by Alison Smith
• Here Is the Church - (2004) - shortstory by Shelley Jackson
• The Witch of Truro - (2004) - shortstory by Alice Hoffman
• Lapland, or Film Noir - (2004) - shortstory by Peter Straub
• What Her Mother Said - (2004) - poem by Theodora Goss
• The Owl - (2004) - shortstory by Conrad Williams
• The Silver Dragon - (2004) - novelette by Elizabeth A. Lynn
• Honorable Mentions: 2004 - essay by uncredited
• The People Behind the Book - essay by uncredited

For nearly two decades, readers have turned to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror to find the most rewarding fantastic short stories. Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin Grant continue this critically acclaimed and award-winning tradition with another stunning collection of stories. The fiction and poetry here is culled from an exhaustive survey of the field, nearly four dozen works ranging from fairy tales to gothic horror, from magic realism to dark tales in the Grand Guignol style. Rounding out the volume are the editors' invaluable overviews of the year in fantasy and horror, and sections on graphic novels, by Charles Vess; on anime and manga, by Joan D. Vinge; on media, by Ed Bryant; and on music, by Charles de Lint. With a long list of Honorable Mentions, this is an indispensable reference as well as the best reading available in fantasy and horror.

Table of Contents:

• Summation 2005: Fantasy - essay by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
• Summation 2005: Horror - essay by Ellen Datlow
• Fantasy and Horror in the Media: 2005 - essay by Edward Bryant
• Graphic Novels: 2005 - essay by Charles Vess
• Anime and Manga: 2005 - essay by Joan D. Vinge
• Music of the Fantastic: 2005 - essay by Charles de Lint
• Obituaries: 2005 - essay by James R. Frenkel
• Walpurgis Afternoon - (2005) - novelette by Delia Sherman
• The Mushroom Duchess - (2005) - shortstory by Deborah Roggie
• An Incident at Agate Beach - (2005) - novelette by Marly Youmans
• Among the Tombs - (2005) - shortstory by Reggie Oliver
• Obedience, or The Lying Tale - (2005) - poem by Jennifer Chang
• American Morons - (2005) - shortstory by Glen Hirshberg
• Shallaballah - (2005) - shortstory by Mark Samuels
• Night Train: Heading West - (2005) - poem by Sarah Monette
• Denial - (2005) - shortstory by Bruce Sterling
• Northwest Passage - (2004) - novelette by Barbara Roden
• Proboscis - (2005) - novelette by Laird Barron
• Kronia - (2005) - shortstory by Elizabeth Hand
• Omens - (2005) - poem by Kelly Everding
• Follow Me Light - (2005) - shortstory by Elizabeth Bear
• Boatman's Holiday - (2005) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• The Horse of a Different Color (That You Rode In On) - (2005) - shortfiction by Howard Waldrop
• Where Angels Come In - (2005) - shortstory by Adam Nevill
• Twilight States - (2005) - shortstory by Albert E. Cowdrey
• Jolly Bonnet - (2005) - poem by Andrew Bonia
• The Last Ten Years in the Life of Hero Kai - (2005) - novelette by Geoff Ryman
• The Souls of Drowning Mountain - (2005) - shortstory by Jack Cady
• The Last One - (2005) - shortstory by Robert Coover
• The Ball Room - (2005) - shortfiction by China Miéville and Emma Bircham and Max Schaefer
• Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus - (2005) - poem by Theodora Goss
• Vacation - (2005) - shortstory by Daniel Wallace
• Cruel Sistah - (2005) - shortstory by Nisi Shawl
• Ding-Dong-Bell - (2005) - shortstory by Jay Russell
• A Case Study of Emergency Room Procedure and Risk Management by Hospital Staff Members in the Urban Facility - (2005) - shortstory by Stacey Richter
• The Scribble Mind - (2005) - novelette by Jeffrey Ford
• Scarecrow - (2005) - shortstory by Tom Brennan
• Going the Jerusalem Mile - (2005) - shortstory by Chaz Brenchley
• Grief - (2005) - poem by Willa Schneberg
• Boman - (2005) - shortstory by Pentti Holappa
• The Machine of a Religious Man - (2005) - shortstory by Ralph Robert Moore
• Hot Potting - (2005) - shortstory by Chuck Palahniuk
• My Father's Mask - (2005) - novelette by Joe Hill
• The Guggenheim Lovers - (2005) - shortstory by Isabel Allende
• A Statement in the Case - (2005) - shortstory by Theodora Goss
• The Pavement Artist - (2004) - shortstory by Dave Hutchinson
• The Gypsies in the Wood - (2005) - novella by Kim Newman
• Honorable Mentions: 2005 - essay by uncredited
• The People Behind the Book - essay by uncredited

For twenty years this award-winning compilation has been the nonpareil benchmark against which all other annual fantasy and horror collections are judged. Directed first by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling and for the past four years by Datlow and Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, it consistently presents the strangest, the funniest, the darkest, the sharpest, the most original-in short, the best fantasy and horror. The current collection, marking a score of years, offers more than forty stories and poems from almost as many sources. Summations of the field by the editors are complemented by articles by Edward Bryant, Charles de Lint, and Jeff VanderMeer, highlighting the best of the fantastic in, respectively, media, music, and comics, as well as honorable mentions-notable works that didn't quite make the cut, but are nonetheless worthy of attention. The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twentieth Annual Collection is a cornucopia of fantastic delights, an unparalleled resource and indispensable reference that captures the unique excitement and beauty of the fantastic in all its gloriously diverse forms, from the lightest fantasy to the darkest horror.

Table of Contents:

• Summation 2006: Fantasy - essay by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
• Summation 2006: Horror - essay by Ellen Datlow
• The Year in Media of the Fantastic: 2006 - essay by Edward Bryant
• Fantasy in Comics and Graphic Novels: 2006 - essay by Jeff VanderMeer
• Music of the Fantastic: 2006 - essay by Charles de Lint
• Obituaries: 2006 - essay by James R. Frenkel
• Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter - (2006) - novelette by Geoff Ryman
• First Kisses from Beyond the Grave - (2006) - novelette by Nik Houser
• The Last to Be Found - (2006) - shortstory by Christopher Harman
• Fourteen Experiments in Postal Delivery - (2006) - shortstory by John Schoffstall
• Becoming the Villainess - (2006) - poem by Jeannine Hall Gailey
• Persephone and the Prince Meet Over Drinks - (2006) - poem by Jeannine Hall Gailey
• The Night Whiskey - (2006) - novelette by Jeffrey Ford
• In the House of the Seven Librarians - (2006) - novelette by Ellen Klages
• Drowning Palmer - (2006) - novelette by Sarah Monette
• Landfill - (2006) - shortstory by Joyce Carol Oates
• Another Word for Map is Faith - (2006) - shortstory by Christopher Rowe
• Lionflower Hedge - (2006) - shortstory by Ira Sher
• A Fearful Symmetry - (2006) - shortstory by Minsoo Kang
• Messages - (2006) - shortstory by Brett Alexander Savory
• Ballade - (2005) - poem by William Hope Hodgson
• My Babe, My Babe - (1912) - poem by William Hope Hodgson
• The Box - (2006) - shortstory by Stephen Gallagher
• Halfway House - (2006) - shortstory by Frances Hardinge
• La Fée Verte - (2006) - novelette by Delia Sherman
• Father Muerte & the Flesh - (2006) - shortstory by Lee Battersby
• Winkie - (2006) - shortstory by Margo Lanagan
• Tell - (2006) - poem by Nathalie Anderson
• Dog Person - (2006) - shortstory by Scott Nicholson
• The Extraordinary Limits of Darkness - (2006) - shortstory by Simon Clark
• Cup and Table - (2006) - shortstory by Tim Pratt
• The Churring - (2006) - shortstory by Nicholas Royle
• Dead Sea Fruit - (2006) - shortstory by Kaaron Warren
• Directions - (2006) - shortstory by Caleb Wilson
• La Profonde - (2006) - shortstory by Terry Dowling
• Journey into the Kingdom - (2006) - novelette by M. Rickert
• The Good Ones Are Already Taken - (2006) - novelette by Ben Fountain
• A Pig's Whisper - (2006) - shortstory by Margo Lanagan
• 31/10 - (2006) - shortstory by Stephen Volk
• Sob in the Silence - (2006) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Yep, I Said Camel - (2006) - poem by Josh Bell
• Femaville 29 - (2006) - shortstory by Paul Di Filippo
• A Siege of Cranes - (2006) - novelette by Benjamin Rosenbaum
• Is Rain My Bearskin? - (2006) - poem by Jeanne Marie Beaumont
• The Lineaments of Gratified Desire - (2006) - novella by Ysabeau S. Wilce
• Raphael - (2006) - novelette by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Muldoon - (2006) - novelette by Glen Hirshberg
• Honorable Mentions: 2006 - essay by uncredited
• The People Behind the Book - essay by uncredited

As in every year since 1988, the editors tirelessly scoured story collections, magazines, and anthologies worldwide to compile a delightful, diverse feast of tales and poems. On this anniversary, the editors have increased the size of the collection to 300,000 words of fiction and poetry, including works by Billy Collins, Ted Chiang, Karen Joy Fowler, Elizabeth Hand, Glen Hirshberg, Joyce Carol Oates, and new World Fantasy Award winner M. Rickert. With impeccably researched summations of the field by the editors, Honorable Mentions, and articles by Edward Bryant, Charles de Lint and Jeff VanderMeer on media, music and graphic novels, this is a heady brew topped off by an unparalleled list of sources of fabulous works both light and dark.

Table of Contents:

• Summation 2007: Fantasy - essay by Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link
• Summation 2007: Horror - essay by Ellen Datlow
• The Year in Media of the Fantastic: 2007 - essay by Edward Bryant
• Fantasy in Comics and Graphic Novels: 2007 - essay by Jeff VanderMeer
• Music of the Fantastic: 2007 - essay by Charles de Lint
• Obituaries: 2007 - essay by James R. Frenkel
• The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics - (2007) - novelette by Daniel Abraham
• Vampires in the Lemon Grove - (2007) - shortstory by Karen Russell
• Holiday - (2007) - shortstory by M. Rickert
• Hum Drum - (2007) - shortstory by Gary McMahon
• Scenes of Hell - (2007) - poem by Billy Collins
• Splitfoot - (2007) - shortstory by Paul Walther
• The House of Mechanical Pain - (2007) - shortstory by Chaz Brenchley
• The Last Worders - (2007) - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• The Monsters of Heaven - (2007) - shortstory by Nathan Ballingrud
• The Fiddler of Bayou Teche - (2007) - shortstory by Delia Sherman
• Monkey - (2007) - poem by Eliza Griswold
• Mr Poo-Poo - (2007) - shortstory by Reggie Oliver
• Winter's Wife - (2007) - novelette by Elizabeth Hand
• Troll - (2007) - poem by Nathalie Anderson
• The Tenth Muse - (2007) - shortstory by William Browning Spencer
• The Drowned Life - (2007) - novelette by Jeffrey Ford
• The Swing - (2007) - novelette by Don Tumasonis
• Follow Me Home - (2007) - poem by Sonya Taaffe
• The Forest - (2007) - novelette by Laird Barron
• Fragrant Goddess - (2007) - shortstory by Paul Park
• Up the Fire Road - (2007) - novelette by Eileen Gunn
• The Gray Boy's Work - (2007) - novelette by M. T. Anderson
• The Seven Devils of Central California - (2007) - poem by Catherynne M. Valente
• The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate - (2007) - novelette by Ted Chiang
• Valentine, July Heat Wave - (2007) - shortstory by Joyce Carol Oates
• A Thing Forbidden - (2007) - shortstory by Donald Mead
• A Reversal of Fortune - (2007) - shortstory by Holly Black
• Village Smart - (2007) - poem by Maggie Smith
• Rats - (2007) - shortstory by Veronica Schanoes
• A Perfect and Unmappable Grace - (2007) - shortstory by Jack M. Haringa
• The Boulder - (2007) - shortstory by Lucy Kemnitzer
• The Hill - (2007) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Lovers: (Jaafar the Winged) - (2007) - poem by Khaled Mattawa
• The Ape Man - (2007) - shortstory by Alexander MacBride
• The Hide - (2007) - shortstory by Liz Williams
• England and Nowhere - (2007) - shortstory by Tim Nickels
• Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again - (2007) - novelette by Garth Nix
• Toother - (2007) - shortstory by Terry Dowling
• Closet Dreams - (2007) - shortstory by Lisa Tuttle
• The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change - (2007) - novelette by Kij Johnson
• Honorable Mentions: 2007 - essay by Ellen Datlow and Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link