Ellen Datlow Shares What Giving Us 16 Years Of The Best Horror Is Like!
Ellen Datlow Shares What Giving Us 16 Years Of The Best Horror Is Like!
Ellen Datlow is the World Fantasy Award, Hugo Award and Bram Stoker Award-winning editor and anthologist for the Best Horror of the Year series, and for numerous other horror, fantasy and science fiction collections and series. She is hailed as one of the most influential voices in these genres.
PSM: In Best Horror of the Year 16, you’ve managed to capture and comment on a terrific volume of work, with much of it from indie and smaller presses and outlets. How hard is it to keep track of all this activity, and how do you do it?
Ellen Datlow (ED): I keep my eyes and ears open on social media and at conventions and also regularly follow-up with magazines/websites, and publishers with whom I’ve had a relationship over the years. And of course, I put out my annual Call for Submissions. It’s definitely difficult to keep track, but whenever I receive a physical or e-copy of something, I log it in to my “checklist” and once I or one of my readers (I have one on the west coast who reads e-material that I think will only have minimal horror and one in NYC who reads physical material for me. Each passes on stories that they think are horror and that I’ll appreciate.)
PSM: As an editor and anthologist, you range over a hugely wide area of horror writing in its broadest sense. Are there any particular sub-genres or styles of horror you think are especially worth spotlighting?
ED: Not really. I have my favorites of course. It’s not sub-genre or style but I prefer stories with strong plots, no matter what genre I’m reading in .
PSM: Horror is proverbially held up as a mirror of our current discontents. If this is so, what do you think the recent horror writing you’ve seen is echoing in the contemporary state of the world?
ED: Some of it is too obvious. That’s always been a problem with some fiction (horror or not). I want to be caught up in a story, not its politics. Of course, every story has a political point of view but I really loathe being hit over the head with it.
PSM: Brits seem to enjoy a good level of representation in BH16, with 9 stories out of 19. Do you feel there’s any special reason for this, and what other non-American locations, if any, would you single out as interesting venues for horror writing?
ED: Actually, only six Britons are in the book. The two Scottish and one Welsh contributors would–I’m pretty sure– not want themselves referred to as Brits.
Any part of the world can be used to create an “interesting” horror story. The value is always what the writer does with it. 2023 UK writers just happened to publish a lot of stories I loved. It changes every year.
I don’t read with “representation” in mind. I read for horror that inspires a sense of dread, stories that stick with me, that reward multiple readings (because any story I take for the Best of the year will be read by me at least three times: first read, reread if I noted it during my initial reading, another read in the copy editing version I get from my publisher. And some stories I read more often than that, because at the end of the process my job is to eliminate stories until the wordage is pruned to a manageable size eg: #15 came in at about 157,000 words #16 at 138,00 words –including front matter. I usually begin the culling process with at least twice the amount of wordage I can use.
PSM: Allied to this question, what hitherto underrepresented groups or communities do you think are contributing the most interesting horror?
ED: I’ve seen a lot more work getting published with LBGTQ+ themes and more short fiction being published by people of color, in and outside the US. More horror coming out of Japan, Korea, southeast Asia, and east Asia; from Mexico, Latin America, Africa. More fiction in translation. However, much of it is (in my mind) more dark fantasy than horror. I’d prefer it to be darker.
PSM: What’s your evaluation of recent horror productions in film, TV (streaming or broadcast), and other media, and how these relate to current concerns in written horror?
ED: I rarely watch horror movies, although in 2024 I really loved Substance, and the fourth season of True Detective. Substance is a great example of body horror, which is one of the major subgenres in horror fiction today. The most recent season of True Detective reflects the real life issues of the murders of indigenous women and the lack of urgency in solving these cases.
PSM: Aside from the next edition of Best Horror, are there any particular personal projects that you’d either like to mention, or would simply like to do?
ED: I’ve just handed in Night and Day, an all original anthology of stories focusing on either day or night to Saga. The book will look like the old Ace doubles and I’m excited about the presentation. It’ll be out September 2nd.
I’m working on a reprint anthology of cosmic horror for Tachyon.
I continue to acquire short stories and novellas for Reactor, Tor.com, and Nightfire. Nathan Ballingrud’s Cathedral of the Drowned, his sequel to Crypt of the Moon Spider will be out in 2025, as will Kathleen Jennings’ novella Honeyeater (which is dark fantasy rather than horror).