THE BEST
HORROR OF THE YEAR
Volume Four
Also Edited by Ellen Datlow
A Whisper of Blood
A Wolf at the Door (with Terri Windling)
Alien Sex
Black Heart, Ivory Bones (with Terri Windling)
Black Swan, White Raven (with Terri Windling)
Black Thorn, White Rose (with Terri Windling)
Blood is Not Enough: 17 Stories of Vampirism
Blood and Other Cravings
Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror
Digital Domains: A Decade of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Haunted Legends (with Nick Mamatas)
Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
Lethal Kisses
Little Deaths
Lovecraft Unbound
Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy
Nebula Awards Showcase 2009
Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex
Omni Best Science Fiction: Volumes One through Three
Omni Books of Science Fiction: Volumes One through Seven
OmniVisions One and Two
Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe
Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears (with Terri Windling)
Salon Fantastique: Fifteen Original Tales of Fantasy (with Terri Windling)
Silver Birch, Blood Moon (with Terri Windling)
Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers (with Terri Windling)
Snow White, Blood Red (with Terri Windling)
Supernatural Noir
Swan Sister (with Terri Windling)
Tails of Wonder and Imagination: Cat Stories
Teeth: Vampire Tales (with Terri Windling)
The Beastly Bride: And Other Tales of the Animal People (with Terri Windling)
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Two
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three
The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People
The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales (with Terri Windling)
The Dark: New Ghost Stories
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy
The Faery Reeclass="underline" Tales from the Twilight Realm
The Green Man: Tales of the Mythic Forest (with Terri Windling)
Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales (with Terri Windling)
Twists of the Tale
Vanishing Acts
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (with Terri Windling, Gavin J. Grant, and Kelly Link)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank Melody Chamlee for being my first reader. I’d like to thank Stefan Dziemianowicz for his generosity and his time and Charles Tan for bringing material from the Philippines to my attention. Also thanks to Andrew Alford, Nick Mamatas, and Michael Kandel for their suggestions.
I’d like to acknowledge the following magazines and catalogs for invaluable information and descriptions of material I was unable to obtain: Locus, Publishers Weekly, British Fantasy Society Journal, S.F. Commentary, and Prism (the quarterly journal of fantasy given with membership to the British Fantasy Society). I’d also like to thank all the editors who made sure I saw their magazines during the year, the webzine editors who provided printouts, and the book publishers who provided review copies in a timely manner. Also, the writers who sent me printouts of their stories when I was unable to acquire the magazine or book in which they appeared.
Thanks to Merrilee Heifetz and Sarah Nagel at Writers House.
And a very special thank you to Jeremy Lassen, Jason Williams, and Ross Lockhart.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Little Green God of Agony 
Stephen King
Stay Leah Bobet
The Moraine Simon Bestwick
Blackwood’s Baby Laird Barron
Looker David Nickle
The Show Priya Sharma
Mulberry Boys Margo Lanagan
Roots and All Brian Hodge
Final Girl Theory A. C. Wise
Omphalos Livia Llewellyn
Dermot Simon Bestwick
Black Feathers Alison Littlewood
Final Verse Chet Williamson
In the Absence of Murdock Terry Lamsley
You Become the Neighborhood Glen Hirshberg
In Paris, In the Mouth of Kronos John Langan
Little Pig Anna Taborska
The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine Peter Straub
Honorable Mentions
About the Authors
SUMMATION 2011
The eighteen stories and novelettes chosen this year were published in anthologies, magazines, a webzine, single author collections, and a literary journal. The writers live in the United States, Australia, England, The Netherlands, and Canada. Six stories are by writers I’ve never published before, and coincidentally those writers are all female.
Some of the best short horror fiction I read during 2011 was between 9,500 and 16,000 words. Unfortunately, because of space considerations I was only able to take six lengthy stories. But I’d like to make special note of those that I couldn’t take and suggest that readers get hold of them: “The Men from Porlock” and “The Siphon” by Laird Barron, “Ghosts with Teeth” by Peter Crowther, “A Child’s Problem” by Reggie Oliver, and “Near Zennor” by Elizabeth Hand.
The Bram Stoker Awards for Achievement in Horror are given by the Horror Writers Association. The awards for material appearing during 2010 were presented at the organization’s annual banquet held Saturday evening, June 18, 2011 in Uniondale, New York.
2010 Winners for Superior Achievement:
Noveclass="underline" A Dark Matter by Peter Straub (Doubleday/Orion Books); First Novel (Tie): Black and Orange by Benjamin Kane Ethridge (Bad Moon Books) and The Castle of Los Angeles by Lisa Morton (Gray Friar Press); Long Fiction: Invisible Fences by Norman Prentiss (Cemetery Dance Publications); Short Fiction: “The Folding Man” by Joe R. Lansdale (from Haunted Legends); Anthology: Haunted Legends edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas (Tor); Fiction Collection: Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster); Non-Fiction: To Each Their Darkness by Gary A. Braunbeck (Apex Publications); Poetry Collection: Dark Matters by Bruce Boston (Bad Moon Books).