We’re delighted to present the contents list for our upcoming Beyond & Within anthology: Folk Horror. Edited by Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan, this new collection of stories covers a wide range of mythologies and dark corners from around the world, revealing tales from the shadows of isolation, creepy forests and horrors rising from the land itself. Award-winning anthologists Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan have commissioned an outstanding selection of stories with contributions from authors including Neil Gaiman, John Connolly, Adam L.G. Nevill, Alison Littlewood and Jen Williams. 5 stories were also selected from an open submissions round held last year, which attracted hundreds of submissions.

The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative. The books themselves are gorgeous, with foiled covers, printed edges and published only in hardcover editions, offering a lifetime of reading pleasure.

 

Introduction excerpt by Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan:

‘But what is Folk Horror exactly? Is it witches, is it pagan rituals or maniacal cults, folklore, or is it supernatural? Or all of these and more? It’s safe to say it means different things to different people, but one aspect much of it has in common is the intrusion of the old into the new world, or more accurately rural into the urban. The veneer of civilisation being stripped away by something ancient and possibly dangerous or threatening; or perhaps it is being replaced by something more reliable, depending on your point of view? It’s one of the reasons why it crops up in times of high anxiety, usually after a period of celebration – as it did back there in the late ’60s and ’70s. It’s no surprise that there’s a resurgence at the moment then, given the turmoil in the world. No wonder movies like Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019), In the Earth (Ben Wheatley, 2021) and Matriarch (Ben Steiner, 2022), or books like Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (2013/16), The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (2020) and The Lost Village by Camilla Sten (2021), seem to have so much resonance at the moment…

And probably why we decided the time was right to gather together a truly unique set of Folk Horror tales ourselves, hopefully reflecting some of the range and diversity that it has to offer.’

 

The White Road by Neil Gaiman

The Well by John Connolly

Rabbitheart by Jen Williams

The Original Occupant by Adam L.G. Nevill

Summer Bonus by Lee Murray

The Druid Stone by Katie Young

Blessed Mary by Stephen Volk

The Great White by Benjamin Spada

The Marsh-Widow’s Bargain by H.R. Laurence

Good Boy by Alison Littlewood

The Finest Creation of an Artful God by B. Zelkovich

The Third Curse by Helen Grant

The Lights Under Rachel by Kathryn Healy

Pilgrimage of the Hummingbird by V. Castro

The Grim by Cavan Scott

Pontianak: An Origin Story by Christina Sng

Ghost Land of Giants by Linda D. Addison

 

Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan are the award-winning authors and editors of many books. Together they have co-edited anthologies such as The British Fantasy Society: A Celebration, A  Carnivàle  of Horror: Dark Tales from the Fairground, Hellbound Hearts, The Mammoth Book of Body Horror, Exit Wounds, Wonderland (a Shirley Jackson Award finalist), Cursed, Twice Cursed and The Other Side of Never, featuring authors such as Neil Gaiman, Joanne Harris, Dean Koontz, Catriona Ward and Stephen King. They have also been involved in organizing conventions for twenty years, co-chairing ChillerCon in Scarborough in May 2022. Find out more at their sites shadow-writer.co.uk and marieoregan.net.