Laird Barron Anthologies books in order

Reading order

Laird Barron’s short fiction has appeared in dozens of multi-author anthologies since his first published story landed in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 2003. Over two decades, he has contributed to 59 anthologies ranging from Cthulhu mythos collections like The Book of Cthulhu (2011) and Cthulhu Fhtagn! (2015) to themed horror anthologies such as Tales of Jack the Ripper (2013) and Seize the Night (2015). His work also shows up regularly in best-of compilations edited by Ellen Datlow and Paula Guran.

The breadth of these appearances reflects how widely Barron’s fiction is sought by editors in the horror and dark fantasy space. Many of the stories that first appeared in these anthologies were later collected in his own books, but the anthologies themselves are where some of his best work debuted. Collections like Supernatural Noir (2011), Lovecraft’s Monsters (2014), and When Things Get Dark (2021) put his stories alongside other major names in the field. For readers trying to track down a specific Barron story, the anthology publication history often holds the key.