Best British Short Stories 2016

by Nicholas Royle

  Greg Thorpe is a freelance writer, DJ, curator and event producer in Manchester. He is a graduate of Manchester University and the Creative Writing MA at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has written for City Life, Time Out, The Big Issue, Creative Tourist, Manchester Evening News, Northern Soul, the Liverpool Biennial, Manchester Art Gallery and Cornerhouse, and has been writer in residence for Islington Mill and Manchester Central Library. He has curated and produced events for Manchester International Festival, the closing of Cornerhouse, the opening of HOME, and the launch of the Meltdown Festival at Southbank.

  Mark Valentine is the author of ten short story collections, two biographies and two collections of poetry. As a journal editor he has been responsible for Source, Aklo and, since 2003, Wormwood. He published ‘The Foggy, Foggy Dew’, an early short story by Joel Lane, as a chapbook in 1986.

  Acknowledgements

  ‘Control Knobs’, copyright © Claire-Louise Bennett 2015, was first published in Pond (Fitzcarraldo Editions) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘A Leg to Stand On’, copyright © Neil Campbell 2015, was first published online in The Ofi Press Magazine Issue 42 and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘1977’, copyright © Crista Ermiya 2015, was first published in The Weather in Kansas: Short Stories (Red Squirrel Press) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Live From the Palladium’, copyright © Stuart Evers 2015, was first published in Your Father Sends His Love (Picador) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Walsingham’, copyright © Trevor Fevin 2015, was first published online in St Sebastian Review Vol 5 Issue 1 and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘The Staring Man’, copyright © David Gaffney 2015, was first published in Confingo Number 4 and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Distance’, copyright © Janice Galloway 2015, was first published in Jellyfish (Freight Books) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘The Politics of Minor Resistance’, copyright © Jessie Greengrass 2015, was first published in An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It (JM Originals) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘My Husband Wants to Talk to Me Again’ copyright © Kate Hendry 2015, was first published in Brittle Star Issue 36 and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘The Only Thing Is Certain Is’, copyright © Thomas McMullan 2015, was first published in Lighthouse 10 and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘In Theory, Theories Exist’, copyright © Graham Mort 2015, was first published in Terroir (Seren) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘A Belgian Story’, copyright © Ian Parkinson 2015, was first published in Gorse 4 and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘The Bluebell Wood’, copyright © Tony Peake 2015, was first published in Anglo Files 177 and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Wyndham Le Strange Buys the School’, copyright © Alex Preston 2015, was first published in Ambit 219 and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘The Woman Who Lived in a Restaurant’, copyright © Leone Ross 2015, was first published in The Woman Who Lived in a Restaurant (Nightjar Press) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Song of the River’, copyright © John Saul 2015, was first published online in The Stockholm Review Issue 11 and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Mrs Świętokrzyskie’s Castle’, copyright © Colette Sensier 2015, was first published in Flamingo Land and Other Stories (Flight Press/Spread the Word) edited by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Arrival’, copyright © Robert Sheppard 2015, was first published in Words Out of Time (Knives Forks and Spoons Press) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Some Versions of Pastoral’, copyright © DJ Taylor 2015, was first published in Wrote for Luck (Galley Beggar Press) and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘1961’, copyright © Greg Thorpe 2015, was first published in Transactions of Desire (HOME Publications) edited by Omar Kholeif and Sarah Perks, and is reprinted by permission of the author.

  ‘Vain Shadows Flee’, copyright © Mark Valentine 2015, was first published in Supernatural Tales 30 and is reprinted by permission of the author.