MATTHEW SPERLING has had stories published in 3:AM, The Junket, The Literateur and The Short Anthology. He also writes poetry and criticism; his scholarly book, Visionary Philology, appeared from Oxford University Press in 2014, and he regularly writes about art for Apollo magazine. He was born in Kent in 1982, lives in north London and is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Reading.
REBECCA SWIRSKY has published stories in Matter, Ambit, Litro and the Bridport Prize anthology, and placed in competitions including the Fish, Bath, Bristol, Manchester, Sean O’Faolain and Bridport prizes. She was awarded a bursary from the Literary Consultancy and has been mentored by Stella Duffy through a Word Factory apprenticeship. She was awarded the AM Heath Prize for her MA in Writing from Sheffield Hallam University. She contributes art criticism and book reviews to publications including the Observer, Economist and Financial Times.
JOANNA WALSH has had work published by Granta, Dalkey, Salt, Gorse and others. Her collection, Fractals, was published by 3:AM Press in 2013. Hotel is forthcoming from Bloomsbury, and Vertigo (selected stories) from the Dorothy Project. She reviews books for a number of publications including the Guardian, New Statesman and The Nation. She is fiction editor at 3:AM Magazine, and runs @read_women. She is a member of the London Institute of Pataphysics, and also works as an illustrator.
CHARLES WILKINSON is the author of The Pain Tree and Other Stories (London Magazine Editions) and Ag & Au (Flare-stack Poets). His stories have appeared in Best Short Stories 1990, Best English Short Stories 2, Unthology, Supernatural Tales, Phantom Drift, Shadows & Tall Trees and elsewhere. He is a member of the Tindal Street Fiction Group.
Acknowledgements
The editor wishes to thank Sarah Fermi of the Brontë Society, Cathy Galvin of Word Factory and Gemma Hemming of Maney Publishing.
‘Five Thousand Lads a Year’, copyright © Jenn Ashworth 2014, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and is printed here by permission of the author.
‘LS Lowry/Man Lying on a Wall’, copyright © Neil Campbell 2014, was first published in Ekphrasis (The Knives Forks and Spoons Press) and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Lightbox’, copyright © Emma Cleary 2014, was first published in Lighthouse 5 and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘The Clinic’, copyright © Uschi Gatward 2014, was first published in Structo 12 and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Festschrift’, copyright © Jonathan Gibbs 2014, was first published in Gorse 2 and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Green Boots’ Cave’ copyright © Jim Hinks 2014, was first published in Short Fiction in Theory and Practice Volume 4 Issue 1 and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘The First Day’, copyright © Tamar Hodes 2014, was first published in Wiltshire View (September 2014) and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘The Iron Men’, copyright © Bee Lewis 2014, was first published in Anglo Files 174 and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Go Wild in the Country’, copyright © Alan McCormick 2014, was first published online in 3:AM Magazine and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher 6th August 1983’, copyright © Hilary Mantel 2014, was first published in the Guardian and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Secondhand Magic’, copyright © Helen Marshall 2014, was first published in Gifts For the One Who Comes After (ChiZine Publications) and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Eastmouth’, copyright © Alison Moore 2014, was first published in The Spectral Book of Horror Stories (Spectral Press) edited by Mark Morris and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘The Lake Shore Limited’, copyright © K J Orr 2014, was first published in the Dublin Review 56 and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Lucky’, copyright © Julianne Pachico 2014, was first published in Lighthouse 5 and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘The Tourists’, copyright © Julianne Pachico 2014, was first published by Daunt Books and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘May the Bell Be Rung For Harriet’, copyright © Tracey S Rosenberg 2014, was first published online on the Brontë Society website and reprinted in Brontë Studies Volume 40, Issue 1, and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Strong Man’, copyright © Helen Simpson 2014, was first published in the New Statesman and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Voice Over’, copyright © Matthew Sperling 2014, was first published online in The Literateur and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘The Common People’, copyright © Rebecca Swirsky 2014, was first published online in Litro and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Worlds from the Word’s End’, copyright © Joanna Walsh 2014, was first published in Best European Fiction 2015 (Dalkey Archive Press) edited by West Camel and is reprinted by permission of the author.
‘Fresh Water’, copyright © Charles Wilkinson 2014, was first published in Unthology 5 (Unthank Books) edited by Ashley Stokes and Robin Jones and is reprinted by permission of the author.
Best British Short Stories 2015 Page 24