Job Shadowing Opportunity – Year’s Best Weird Fiction

Job Shadowing Opportunity – Year’s Best Weird Fiction

Dr. Helen Marshall has taken on the role of Volume Editor for The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume 4, a collection of short stories to be published by Undertow Press in 2017. Weird fiction is a diverse and eclectic mode of literature which can be said to encompass the ghost story and other tales of the macabre, blending supernatural, mythical, and even scientific tropes. The volume collects the best of English-language work FIRST published or translated this year, 2016.

Along with up to 125,000 words of the finest strange fiction from the previous year, each volume will include an introduction from the Guest Editor, a foreword from the Series Editor, and (at the discretion of the guest editor) a short list of other notable stories. The book will be available in trade-paperback and eBook.

She would be happy to allow MA and PhD students to “job shadow” her on this process in order to get a sense of how materials are selected for publication in anthologies.

Your Tasks:

Alongside her, you would be expected to read approximately 40 short stories selected by the Series Editor, Michael Kelly over the course of Trimester 2.
You would meet as a group once on Mon, April 24, 2pm – 4pm in Hel 208. You must bring a list of your top six short stories for discussion.
NB: Although she will be the final arbiter of the contents of the volume, she will gladly listen to your input!

What You Get:

One contributor’s copy of The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume 4
Your name as an assistant within the book
Additional free “weird” fiction books at the second meeting
Experience with the editorial process

How To Sign Up:

Please read Jeff and Ann VanderMeer’s introduction to “weird” fiction, published on Weird Fiction Review, to get a sense of the material you will be working with: http://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/05/the-weird-an-introduction/
Please read/listen to the following three short stories to get a sense of her taste:
“The Specialist’s Hat” by Kelly Link (podcast): http://podcastle.org/2015/03/31/podcastle-357-the-specialists-hat/
“The Hanging Game” by Helen Marshall: http://www.tor.com/2013/03/13/the-hanging-game/
“Sunbleached” by Nathan Ballingrud: http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/sunbleached/
Send me (helen.marshall@anglia.ac.uk), a short paragraph (200 words of so) outlining your experience and why you would like to be a part of this project.
Deadline: February 15, 2017

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