The Best British Short Stories 2013. Edited by Nicholas Royle - Softcover

Nicholas Royle was born in Manchester in 1963. He is the author of seven novels, including: Counterparts, Saxophone Dreams, and First Novel, and a short story collection, Mortality. He has edited sixteen anthologies, including A Book of Two Halves and Neonlit: Time Out Book of New Writing. He lives between London and Manchester and teaches creative writing at MMU. Guy Ware's stories have appeared online, in magazines and in numerous anthologies. His collection, You Have 24 Hours to Love Us (Comma, 2012), was longlisted for both the Frank O'Connor International Award and the Edge Hill Short Story prizes. 'Hostage' was subsequently included in the Best British Short Stories 2013 (Salt). The Fat of Fed Beasts is the first novel he hasn't put in a drawer and left there. Charles Boyle has published a number of poetry collections (for which he was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot, Forward and Whitbread Prizes), a short novel (winner of the 2008 McKitterick Prize) and two books combining text and photography. He runs the small press CB editions. This is his first book of stories. Lesley Glaister is the prize-winning author of twelve novels, most recently, Chosen. Her stories have been anthologised and broadcast on Radio 4. She has written drama for radio and stage. Lesley is a Fellow of the RSL, teaches creative writing at the University of St Andrews and lives in Edinburgh. Charles Lambert was born in Lichfield, the United Kingdom, in 1953. After going to eight different schools in the Midlands and Derbyshire, he won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge from 1972 to 1975. In 1976 he moved to Milan and, with brief interruptions in Ireland, Portugal and London, has lived and worked in Italy since then. Currently a university teacher, academic translator and freelance editor for international agencies, he now lives in Fondi, exactly halfway between Rome and Naples. Adam Marek won the 2011 Arts Foundation Fellowship in short story writing. His collection, Instruction Manual for Swallowing, was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor Prize, and in 2010 he was shortlisted for the inaugural Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award. He lives in Bedfordshire with his wife and sons. Alison Moore's first novel, The Lighthouse, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Awards (New Writer of the Year), winning the McKitterick Prize. Both The Lighthouse and her second novel, He Wants, were Observer Books of the Year. Her shorter fiction has been included in Best British Short Stories and Best British Horror anthologies, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra and collected in The Pre-War House and Other Stories. Born in Manchester in 1971, she lives near Nottingham with her husband Dan and son Arthur. Alex Preston was born in 1979. He is the award-winning author of three novels and appears regularly on BBC television and radio. He writes for GQ, Harper's Bazaar and Town & Country Magazine as well as for the Observer's New Review. He teaches Creative Writing at the University of Kent and regular Guardian Masterclasses. He is @ahmpreston on Twitter. David Rose was born in 1949, living outside West London, between Windsor and Richmond. He spent his working life in the Post Office. His debut story was published in The Literary Review, and since then, has been widely published in small presses in the U.K. and Canada. He is joint owner and Fiction Editor of Main Street Journal. Robert Shearman has published three collections - Tiny Deaths, Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, Everyone's Just So So Special. An award-winning playwright, radio dramatist and Doctor Who screenwriter, he is currently resident writer at Edinburgh Napier University. Nikesh Shukla is the author of Meatspace, the Costa First Novel Award-shortlisted Coconut Unlimited and the Sabotage Reviews Best Novella winner The Time Machine. He is the host of The Subaltern Podcast and Dumsnet. He wrote Kabadasses, a comedy lab pilot for Channel 4 in 2011 and the award-winning short film, Two Dosas, based on his short story of the same name. His short stories have appeared in the Sunday Times, Best British Short Stories 2013, Too Much Too Young, Teller Magazine, Litro and Five Dials, and been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. He lives in Bristol.

If the aim of this collection is to show the scope of the short story, then it does so well ... Thought-provoking and highly recommended.--Shelley Marsden "Irish World "

Nicholas Royle's affair with all things uncanny shines through.--Clare Conlon "Bookmunch "

Let's hope this series becomes an annual fixture.--Chris Power "The Guardian "

If you are new to short stories or are going to get only one short story collection this year then we recommend this one highly--Lovereading UK

An aweseome anthology from an exciting publisher. Features some writers you know, alongside those you'll hear more of in the future.--Waterstones, Reading