Five years after St. Martin's launched Gardner Dozois's annual series of large SF volumes, it launched a parallel series for fantasy and horror--though the first two books were titled just The Year's Best Fantasy. Both series had substantial introductions summarizing the state of the field, providing awards winners, obituaries, etc., and long lists of honorable mentions at the end. Introductory material passed 100 pages in the later volumes, some contributed by other editors.
In this series Ellen Datlow chose the horror stories and Terri Windling the fantasy, and in most cases the selector was evident by the introduction to each story, initialed by one or the other. After Windling's departure, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant collaborated with Datlow for four final volumes. As with Dozois' series, books were published simultaneously in hardcover (St. Martin's) and trade paperback (St. Martin's Griffin); the photo shows a mix.
Most frequently reprinted authors: Jane Yolen (22); Charles de Lint (15); Delia Sherman (14); Steve Rasnic Tem (13); Neil Gaiman (13); Joyce Carol Oates (10); Terry Dowling (10).
Most frequent sources: all books (553), all magazines (424); of magazines, F&SF (60), The New Yorker (22), Omni (21), Asimov's or IASFM (16), Sci Fiction (15).
The Year's Best Fantasy: First Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 1988)
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The Year's Best Fantasy: Second Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 1989)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Third Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 1990)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 1991)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 1992)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 1993)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventh Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 1994)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 1995)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Ninth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 1996)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Tenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 1997)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eleventh Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin, 1998)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin, 1999)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Thirteenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's, 2000)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourteenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin, 2001)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifteenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin, 2002)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Sixteenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin, 2003)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin, 2004)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighteenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Gavin Grant & Kelly Link, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin, 2005)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006: Nineteenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin, 2006)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin, 2007)
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The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-first Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin, 2008)
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Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky
(Tori Amos 2002 Tour Book, 2002)
-- Vol. #16
Queen of Knives
(Tombs, 1995)
-- Vol. #9
Shoggoth's Old Peculiar
(The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy, 1998)
-- Vol. #12
Snow, Glass, Apples.
-- Vol. #8
A Study in Emerald
(Shadows Over Baker Street, 2003)
-- Vol. #17