It’s time to add horror and romance to the Best American roster.
I’m a sucker for The Best American series. For whatever reason (be it the generally strong curation, the often-fascinating opinions of guest editors, or a residual nationalism I should probably interrogate a bit more closely) I always look forward to the tidy paperbacks and approach them as a kind of survey-course designed to show what was up the prior year in American letters. I think the structure is also terribly compelling: there is a series editor, who works to keep an eye on the field at large and compiles a long-list of stories, and then a guest editor who does the work of narrowing down the final choices. This, in theory, ensures that the choices aren’t homogeneous or repetitive and instead that they’re always somehow refreshed and revised with each ensuing year—and while it doesn’t always work like that, for the most part it succeeds. (It’s even more fun when, as Heidi Pitlor said happened with Lauren Groff in this year’s Best American Short Stories, the guest-editor pushes back and tells the series editor to send them more dynamic or more interesting stuff!) There’s an understanding, I think, that these are not definitive lists but rather well-curated attempts to show what’s going on in any given field.
I’m here today to tell you that I think we are due for two further additions to the Best American canon: Horror and Romance.
I’d argue that we’re actually overdue for a horror collection, in much the same way that the introduction of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy a decade ago was overdue: the genre has moved from the margins into the mainstream conversation, not just in literature but in TV and film and music and even non-fiction. And the romance boom of the last few years isn’t going away, so we might as well confirm its importance to the culture at the same time as we welcome horror more formally to the fold.
I should acknowledge that there are “best of the year” collections for horror (as there are for SFF and mystery/suspense) already out there. Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year collections are wide-ranging and curated by one of the best editors in the business, but they’re out from a genre press and pointed very much towards the already-genre-embracing. The series should continue for as long as Ellen (or whoever might someday succeed her) want to publish it, much the same way that Otto Penzler has run a Best Mystery Stories series for years. We can and should have multiple iterations of such things!
I’m bringing this all up right now because this year’s Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy includes a number of stories from the Jordan Peele-edited Out There Screaming, an unabashedly horror-focused collection—and while they do fit, thematically, I couldn’t help feeling like there was some mission creep happening. Sure, genre is mostly made up and it’s not like anybody was upset that Lauren Groff included Marie-Helene Bertino’s vampire story “Viola, in Midwinter” in Best American Short Stories—indeed, it might be good to see genre-creep happening! But also, damn it, I want a dedicated collection to scratch these particular genre itches.
I even have some suggestions for series editors! Emily Hughes is the no-brainer choice for Best American Horror, as I feel confident that her finger on the pulse of the genre would translate seamlessly to not only picking the long-list but picking great guest editors as well. Emily’s already the go-to for horror readers, so why not make it even more official? As for Best American Romance, I think that either or both of the Koch sisters (who run the bicoastal iterations of already-legendary romance bookshop The Ripped Bodice) would be awesome curators—not least of all because their specific curation has helped me get into romance over the last few years, so just imagine what they could do with introducing it to more readers?
All this to say: your move, Mariner Books / Harper Collins. I know the reading for the 2025 installments of Best American has already begun, but genre readers are scrappy and hungry—I bet these could be ready in time for next fall, if you move fast. There are certainly readers waiting, and I’ll be the first in line.
