Gavin J. Grant, Kelly Link and Ellen Datlow have reported that The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror has ended its run with St. Martin’s Press. Here’s what Grant and Link said: “Sad to say we have bad news about The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: there will be no volume this year after all.
“It is a simple truth that no book exists without much unseen work, so we’d like to thank the people at St. Martin’s who published the series for twenty-one years, the readers, writers (of the fiction, poetry, and the various annual summations), our co-editor Ellen Datlow, the packager Jim Frenkel, cover artist Tom Canty, and all the booksellers, librarians, and readers who supported the series over its lifetime.
“It has been an honor and a thrill to work on these books over the past six years. We edited five anthologies and were part way through the sixth when we got the news about the 2008 volume and we’d like to thank (and apologize to) all the editors, publishers, readers and writers who helped us by sending and recommending material.
“At this point in the year we’re usually deep in final reading and we can give the usual report: 2008 was a great year for fantasy. Over the next couple of months we’ll try and post more about what we read, recommendations, and so on.
“New incarnations of the book may appear, there will be further announcements as the year goes on.”
Then later this afternoon, Datlow reported, “Yes the YBFH is no more, but I’m delighted to announce that I’ve just been offered a two book deal with Night Shade to edit a Best of the Year in Horror anthology (not titled yet) – for this year and next. The deal is not set in stone but there’s no reason to believe it’s not a ‘go.'”
