Comma Press: 74 books

Respected crime writer, critic and editor Martin Edwards introduces a selection of Conan Doyle's most influential and innovative stories, as well as providing a critical analysis of Doyle's work. In his perceptive introduction, Edwards charts Conan Doyle's development into not only one of the world's leading popular writers, but a formal innovator of the short story. 

Featuring: M.J. Hyland, Alison MacLeod, Jon McGregor, K.J. Orr and S.W. Wilson. ‘We are living through a golden moment in the history of the short story,’ wrote The Guardian recently, and the annual BBC National Short Story Award is both a testament to this, and one of the reasons...

Two unaccompanied children travel across the Mediterranean in an overcrowded boat that has been designed to only make it halfway across… A 63-year-old man is woken one morning by border officers ‘acting on a tip-off’ and, despite having paid taxes for 28 years, is suddenly cast into the...

A young woman sits by her father’s deathbed, lamenting her failure to keep a promise to him… A struggling writer walks every inch of the city in search of inspiration, only to find it is much closer than she imagined… A girl collapses from hunger at the side of the road and is...

**Featuring: ** Beryl Bainbridge, Brian Patten, Clive Barker, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Ramsey Campbell, Paul Farley, Margaret Murphy, Dinesh Allirajah, James Friel, and Tracy Aston. A baby blown out of an upstairs window by a WWII bomb lives to hear others tell the tale… A woman embarks on...

Featuring: Sarah Hall, Lucy Wood, Lisa Blower, Lavinia Greenlaw and Lionel Shriver. Edgar Allan Poe once claimed the greatest literary works were those that could be read ’in one sitting’. ‘Brevity must be in direct ratio of the intensity of the intended effect,’ he argued, once...

Featuring leading scientists acting as consultants on the stories, and writing scientific afterwords, bringing the theory featured in the stories to life, including Prof. Sarah Bridle (Jodrell Bank), Prof. Jonathan Wolff and Prof. Frank Jackson (the inventor of the 'Mary's Room' thought experiment). Science...

Sara Maitland selects a collection Hawthorne's best stories, as well as providing a critical analysis of Hawthorne's work. Drawing out themes in Hawthorne's work including iIntertextuality', 'excess', 'social critique' and 'refusal of closure', Maitland's specially commissioned introduction encourages us to re-evaluate the stories of a pioneer of the short from. 

In this new edition, Sean O'Brien introduces a selection of stories from the master of the American Gothic short story, as well as providing a critical analysis of the form and style of Poe's work. Featuring: 'Ms. Found In A Bottle', 'The Fall of the House of Usher', 'The Man of the Crowd The Oval...

‘I often ask myself what makes a story work,’ wrote the great American author, Flannery O’Connor. ‘I have decided that it is probably some action, some gesture of a character... which is both totally right and totally unexpected... one that is both in character and beyond character.’ The...

The relationship between sleep and storytelling is an ancient one. For centuries, sleep has provided writers with a magical ingredient – a passage of time during which great changes miraculously occur, an Orpheus-like voyage through the subconscious daubed with the fantastic. But over the last ten...

Featuring: David Constantine, Aminatta Forna, Sarah Hall, Jon McGregor and Helen Oyeyemi. The BBC National Short story Award is one of the world's largest awards for a single short story. All five shortlisted stories, including the winner, are published here side by side. The Award is...

Featuring: Robert Barnard, Martyn Bedford, Ann Cleeves, Bernie Crosthwaite, Carol Anne Davis, Martin Edwards, Jurgen Ehlers, Kate Ellies, Liz Evans, Paul A Freeman, Jim Gregson, Mick Herron, Sarah Hilary, Andre Marois, Amy Myers, Christine Poulson, Karline Smith, Douglas Stewart and Yvonne...

***Winner of the National Crime Short Story Prize*** Robert Barnard's contribution 'Sins of Scarlet' won the National Crime Short Story Prize. Featuring: Michael Jecks, Bill Kirton, Peter Lovesey, Stuart Pawson, Christine Poulson, Zoe Sharp, Frank Tallis, Yvonne Eve Walus, Carla Banks,...