Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One | 2009 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 2 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Two | 2010 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 3 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Nine | 2017 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 4 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four | 2012 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 5 | The Best Horror of the Year Volume Five | 2013 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 6 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Six | 2014 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 7 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Seven | 2015 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 8 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Twelve | 2020 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 9 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eight | 2016 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 10 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Ten | 2018 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 11 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three | 2011 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 12 | The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction | 2018 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 13 | The Best Horror of the Year Volume Thirteen | 2021 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 14 | The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eleven | 2019 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 15 | The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen | 2022 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 16 | The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fifteen | 2024 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 17 | The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen | 2024 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
| 18 | The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Seventeen | 2025 | Nathan Ballingrud | Buy |
Nathan Ballingrud’s stories appear in 18 volumes of the Best Horror of the Year anthology series edited by Ellen Datlow, spanning from Volume One (2009) through Volume Seventeen (2025). This extensive presence across nearly two decades of annual selections underscores his status in the horror genre.
Ellen Datlow is one of the most respected editors in horror fiction, and her annual selections are considered a reliable gauge of the genre’s best short work. Ballingrud’s near-continuous presence across the series, from the very first volume onward, speaks to the consistency of his output. The 2018 collection The Best of the Best Horror of the Year gathered the strongest stories from the first ten volumes, and Ballingrud was included there as well.
The series covers Volumes One through Seventeen, plus that “best of” compilation, for a total of 18 entries. Readers looking for a curated introduction to modern horror short fiction will find these anthologies useful, and Ballingrud’s stories are among the highlights in many of them.