Best British Short Stories

Every year since 2011, Nicholas Royle has read the year's British short fiction – magazines, journals, anthologies, chapbooks, online – and chosen the stories that stayed with him. The result is Best British Short Stories, published each August, and the closest thing the form has to an annual record.

The title has a longer history than that. It dates to the 1920s, when Edward J. O'Brien began a series of annual selections; Salt revived it in 2011 under Royle's editorship. Contributors have included John Burnside, Stuart Evers, Lesley Glaister, Hilary Mantel, Christopher Priest, Leone Ross, Will Self, Nikesh Shukla, Helen Simpson and Jeanette Winterson, alongside writers publishing their first story.

Each volume stands alone. Read together, they form a continuing survey of what British short fiction has been doing – which is why a good many readers return to the series year after year.