The nation's favourite annual guide to the short story, now in its eleventh year. Best British Short Stories invites you to judge a book by its cover - or, more accurately, by its title. This critically acclaimed series aims to reprint the best short stories published in the previous calendar year by British writers, whether based in the UK or elsewhere. The editor's brief is wide ranging, covering anthologies, collections, magazines, newspapers and web sites, looking for the best of the bunch to reprint all in one volume. This new anthology includes stories by Julia Armfield, A.J. Ashworth, Iphgenia Baal, Emma Bolland, Tom Bromley, Gary Budden, Jen Calleja, Robert Dewa, John Foxx, Josephine Galvin, Uschi Gatward, Meave Haughey, Hilaire, Alice Jolly, Isha Karki, Yasmine Lever, Simon Okotie, Mel Pryor, Douglas Thompson and Matthew Turner.

'A gothic fairy tale, sublime in its creepiness' Florence Welch When Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. As Miri searches for answers to her wife's altered state, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp... 'Frightening, otherworldly, but above all gripping' Sunday Times 'Deeply romantic and fabulously strange' Sarah Waters 'Beautiful, otherworldly, like floating through water with your eyes open' Daisy Johnson 'Essential and haunting' Stylist 'Deeply romantic and devastating' Refinery29

Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award

From White Review Short Story Prize winner Julia Armfield, a brilliant, provocative debut story collection for fans of Carmen Maria Machado and Kelly Link.

In her electrifying debut, Julia Armfield explores women’s experiences in contemporary society, mapped through their bodies. As urban dwellers’ sleeps become disassociated from them, like Peter Pan’s shadow, a city turns insomniac. A teenager entering puberty finds her body transforming in ways very different than her classmates’. As a popular band gathers momentum, the fangirls following their tour turn into something monstrous. After their parents remarry, two step-sisters, one a girl and one a wolf, develop a dangerously close bond. And in an apocalyptic landscape, a pregnant woman begins to realize that the creature in her belly is not what she expected.

Blending elements of horror, science fiction, mythology, and feminism, salt slow is an utterly original collection of short stories that are sure to dazzle and shock, heralding the arrival of a daring new voice.