“Horror is enjoying a period of unparalleled popularity. Horror novels regularly make the bestseller lists. Horror films, whether big budget or bargain basement, rake in the bucks. In short fiction, the horror genre continues to prosper and develop, as older writers perfect their art and new writers come along to lead the genre in new directions.
“Horror stories have a way of springing up everywhere—not just in science fiction/fantasy magazines and anthologies, but in amateur publications and in any sort of periodical that might publish fiction. Trying to read all the horror stories published during each year and then select the best of them is no easy task. You are holding the result of a year’s reading and selecting.”