A Note from Michele Slung

Will you help spread the word that material eligible for consideration in the annual Best American Mystery Stories — for example, right now, any story published between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2013 — can be submitted by authors (or editors, or simply interested admirers, for that matter) to:

Otto Penzler
Best American Mystery Stories
58 Warren Street
New York NY 10007

We used to see a great many more stories from online sources than we currently do. But whether the stories appear in anthologies, collections, books, magazines, newspapers, or quarterlies, or on any kind of website, we have to rely on their coming to us. While we’d like to be as inclusive as we can be, it’s simply beyond our powers to track them all down.

Let any/all writers know, whom you think might be interested or else who’d have friends/acquaintances that might be. And make sure they know we need to see hard copy, with some proof of year of publication attached, as well as contact info.

Authors can be American or Canadian, but it’s limited to those two, as per the publisher’s across-the-board strictures for “American.” The deadline for submissions is Dec 31st. But, truly, we’re very grateful to have them by Dec 1st, if at all possible. The holidays are distracting for everyone!

Thanks in advance for giving this a few moments of your attention.

Best,
Michele Slung
(for O.P.)