It’s nomination time once more! The BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction is open to any shorter work of science fiction or fantasy (40,000 words or under) first published in 2018.

These days, alongside the formal nominations, we also crowdsource a list of suggested reading. Anyone may suggest SFF works they think are worth checking out, and we use these suggestions to create (in no particular order) the list below. You can also still explore the Google sheet.

Formal nominations for the awards are also now open. To nominate and vote you must be a BSFA member (join here). If you’ve recently joined and don’t yet have a membership number, don’t worry! You’re still eligible to nominate and to vote.

So what was the most exciting short SFF in 2018? Let’s find out …

‘Survival Lies’ by Irette Y. Patterson ( FIYAH ) → search

) → search ‘So Easy’ by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘Other People’s Dreams’ by Nina Kiriki Hoffman ( F&SF ) → search

) → search ‘Some Personal Arguments in Support of the BetterYou (Based on Early Interactions’ by Debbie Urbanski ( Strange Horizons ) → search

) → search ‘Water Babies’ by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff ( Bridge Across the Stars ) → search

) → search ‘A Saddening Bore’ (from Munchausen by eproxy resin) by Robert Kiely ( Big Echo ) → search

) → search ‘Their Eyes Like Dead Lamps’ by Izzy Wasserstein ( Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet ) → search

) → search ‘The Prisoner’ by Robert S Malan ( Luna Press Publishing ) → search

) → search ‘The Synchronist’ by Fran Wilde ( Infinity’s End ) → search

) → search ‘Deep Down in the Cloud’ by Julie Novakova ( Clarkesworld ) → search

) → search ‘Crooks Landing, By Scaffold’ by G V Anderson ( Nightmare ) → search

) → search ‘Cleaning Up’ by Brian M. Milton ( Fireside ) → search

) → search ‘Real Girls’ by Laurie Penny (Wired) → search

‘The Blitz of Din Barham’ by Cameron Johnston ( Heroic Fantasy Quarterly ) → search

) → search ‘Six Kilometers Around’ by Meghan Cruickshank ( The Future Fire ) → search

) → search ‘The Dying Glass’ by Cameron Johnston ( Deep Magic ) → search

) → search ‘Furious Girls’ by Juliana Goodman ( FIYAH ) → search

) → search ‘The Grays of Cestus V’ by Erin Roberts ( Asimov’s ) → search

) → search ‘Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie Sing the Stumps Down Good’ by LaShawn M. Wanak ( FIYAH ) → search

) → search ‘Speak Easy, Suicide Selkies’ by E. Catherine Tobler ( Beneath Ceaseless Skies ) → search

) → search ‘Good to Go’ by Vaughan Stanger ( Electric Athenaeum ) → search

) → search ‘Sour Milk Girls’ by Erin Roberts ( Clarkesworld ) → search

) → search ‘Dust to Dust’ by Mary Robinette Kowal ( Fireside ) → search

) → search ‘Grey Halls’ by Rachael Cupp ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘Stones’ by Marian Womack ( Luna Press Publishing ) → search

) → search ‘Zen’ by Eliot Fintushel ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘The Gophers of High Charity’ by Kimberly Unger ( Strange Fuse ) → search

) → search ‘Telling Stories’ by Ruth Booth ( The Dark ) → search

) → search ‘A Most Elegant Solution’ by M. Darusha Wehm ( Terraform ) → search

) → search ‘Into the Gray’ by Margaret Killjoy ( Tor.com ) → search

) → search ’44 Fields’ by Will Ellwood ( Big Echo ) → search

) → search ‘Territory: Blank’ by Aliya Whiteley ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘Don’t Be Evil’ by Tim Maughan ( Big Echo ) → search

) → search ‘The Girl On Platform Two’ by Ray Daley ( Jouth Anthology; Blaster Books ) → search

) → search ‘The Cut’ by Elsie Donald ( Primordial ) → search

) → search ‘Court of Birth, Court of Strength’ by Aliette de Bodard ( Beneath Ceaseless Skies ) → search

) → search ‘The Gift of Angels: an introduction’ by Nina Allan ( Clarkesworld ) → search

) → search ‘Wishes Folded into Fancy Paper’ by Kimberly Unger ( Strange Fuse ) → search

) → search ‘Ashen Wings and Lightless Skies’ by Amelia Sirina ( The Future Fire ) → search

) → search ‘Last Address’ by Brian Olszewski ( The Future Fire ) → search

) → search ‘Dandelion’ by Elly Bangs ( Clarkesworld ) → search

) → search ‘Obscura’ by Yoon Ha Lee ( Strange Horizons ) → search

) → search ‘Waterbirds’ by G V Anderson ( Lightspeed ) → search

) → search ‘Muse’ by Ray Daley ( Cat Tails; War Zone Anthology ) → search

) → search ‘Mother Tongues’ by S. Qiouyi Lu ( Asimov’s ) → search

) → search ‘It’s Easy to Shoot A Dog’ by Maria Haskins ( Beneath Ceaseless Skies ) → search

) → search ‘When Leopard’s-Bane Came to the Door of Third Heaven’ by Vajra Chandrasekera ( Liminal ) → search

) → search ‘The Land of Somewhere Safe’ by Hal Duncan ( Newcon Press ) → search

) → search ‘A Night Out at a Nice Place’ by Nick Mamatas ( Apex ) → search

) → search ‘Not According To Design’ by Ray Daley ( Mythic Magazine #7 ) → search

) → search ‘One for Sorrow, Two for Joy’ by LaShawn M. Wanak ( Fireside ) → search

) → search ‘Cosmic Spring’ by Ken Liu ( Lightspeed ) → search

) → search ‘Victed’ by L P Melling ( Write Ahead/The Future Looms ) → search

) → search ‘White Noise’ by Kai Hudson ( Anathema ) → search

) → search ‘Asphalt, River, Mother, Child’ by Isabel Yap ( Strange Horizons ) → search

) → search ‘The Things I Miss The Most’ by Nisi Shawl ( Uncanny ) → search

) → search ‘The Miracle Lambs of Minane’ by Finbarr O’Reilly ( Clarkesworld ) → search

) → search ‘A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies’ by Alix E. Harrow ( Apex ) → search

) → search ‘Write ME’ by Emily Bowles ( Shoreline of Infinity ) → search

) → search ‘The Tea Master and the Detective’ by Aliette de Bodard ( Subterranean/JABberwocky ) → search

) → search ‘Talking to Ghosts at the Edge of the World’ by Lavie Tidhar ( Infinity’s End ) → search

) → search ‘Uncle Ping’s Evening Farewell’ by Ray Daley ( Insignia Volume 5 ) → search

) → search ‘Body Drift’ by Cynthia Ward ( Analog ) → search

) → search ‘Singles’ Day’ by Samantha Murray ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘Stone, Paper, Stone’ by Joanna Ruocco ( Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet ) → search

) → search ‘The House of Y’ by Joanna Parypinski ( Black Static ) → search

) → search ‘Parental Control’ by Mazi Nwonwu ( AfroSF v.3 ) → search

) → search ‘Down Where Sound Comes Blunt’ by G V Anderson ( F&SF ) → search

) → search ‘The Treatment’ by Koren Shadmi ( Terraform ) → search

) → search ‘Kingfisher’ by Marian Womack ( Luna Press Publishing ) → search

) → search ‘Sherbet in Silver’ by Brenda W. Clough ( Book View Cafe ) → search

) → search ‘Dying Light’ by Maria Romasco Moore ( Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet ) → search

) → search ‘Schrödinger’s’ by Julie C. Day ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘Requiem for Kingkillers and Queenmakers’ by Andrea Tang ( The Future Fire ) → search

) → search ‘Versions of the Sun’ by A.J. Hammer ( Anathema ) → search

) → search ‘Death’s Door’ by Alaistar Reynolds ( Infinity’s End ) → search

) → search ‘Little Grey Weirdos’ by Anna Ziegelhof ( The Future Fire ) → search

) → search ‘AI and the Trolley Problem’ by Pat Cadigan ( Tor.com ) → search

) → search ‘All the Time We’ve Left to Spend’ by Alyssa Wong ( Robots vs. Fairies ) → search

) → search ‘Plantation / Springtime’ by Lia Swope Mitchell ( Big Echo ) → search

) → search ‘Looking for Landau’ by Steven J. Dines ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘Yard Dog’ by Tade Thompson ( FIYAH ) → search

) → search ‘The Only Harmless Great Thing’ by Brooke Bolander ( Tor.com ) → search

) → search ‘Cherry Wood Coffin’ by Eugenia Triantafyllou ( Apex ) → search

) → search ‘The New Heart’ by Natalia Theodoridou ( Fireside ) → search

) → search ‘Golubash, or, Wine-War-Blood-Elegy’ by Catherynne M. Valente ( Lightspeed ) → search

) → search ‘Throw Caution’ by Tim Major ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘Intervention’ by Kelly Robson ( Infinity’s End ) → search

) → search ‘The Advantages of Unofficial Consultation’ by Brian M. Milton ( Otter Libris ) → search

) → search ‘Tet Tet Tetramina’ by Ahimaz Rajessh ( Big Echo ) → search

) → search ‘The Doomsday Machine Retires’ by Ray Daley ( Third Flatiron Monstrosities Anthology ) → search

) → search ‘The Persistance of Blood’ by Juliette Wade ( Clarkesworld ) → search

) → search ‘#NoBadVibes’ by Katy Lennon ( Shoreline of Infinity ) → search

) → search ‘Last Small Step’ by Stephen Baxter ( Infinity’s End ) → search

) → search ‘Being an Account of The Sad Demise of The Body Horror Book Club’ by Nin Harris ( The Dark ) → search

) → search ‘The Eobshin Song’ by Russell Hemmell ( Aurealis ) → search

) → search ‘The Mark’ by Abi Hynes ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘Domestic Violence’ by Madeline Ashby ( Slate ) → search

) → search ‘The Long Way’ by William Campbell Powell ( Abyss & Apex ) → search

) → search ‘The Built New Jerusalem on the Ruins of the Old’ by William Squirrel ( The Future Fire ) → search

) → search ‘An Improper State Of Mind’ by Ray Daley ( Mind Candy Anthology ) → search

) → search ‘Robot Story II’ by Sheaquan M. Datts ( Terraform ) → search

) → search ‘The Fate of the World, Reduced to a Ten-Second Pissing Contest’ by Erica L. Satifka ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘Drift-Flux’ by Wole Talabi ( AfroSF v.3 ) → search

) → search ‘Balloon Man’ by Shiv Ramdas ( Giganotosaurus ) → search

) → search ‘The Need for Air’ by Lettie Prell ( Tor.com ) → search

) → search ‘With These Hands: An Account of Uncommon Labour’ by LH Moore ( FIYAH ) → search

) → search ‘Baleen, Baleen’ by Alexandra Renwick ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘How to Swallow the Moon’ by Isabel Yap ( Uncanny ) → search

) → search ‘About Helen’ by Tade Thompson ( ShortList ) → search

) → search ‘The Bridge’ by Joyce Chng ( Anathema ) → search

) → search ‘Longing for Earth’ by Linda Nagata ( Infinity’s End ) → search

) → search ‘Some Of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr Toad’ by Daniel Mallory Ortberg ( The Merry Spinster ) → search

) → search ‘The Starship and the Temple Cat’ by Yoon Ha Lee ( Beneath Ceaseless Skies ) → search

) → search ‘Walking’ by Der Nister trans. Joseph Tomaras ( Strange Horizons ) → search

) → search ‘The Athuran Interpreter’s Flight’ by Eleanna Castroianni ( Strange Horizons ) → search

) → search ‘Flesh and Coin’ by Anna Stephens ( Art of War anthology ) → search

) → search ‘Prophet of the Roads’ by Naomi Kritzner ( Infinity’s End ) → search

) → search ‘The Daughter Cells’ by Daniel Mallory Ortberg ( The Merry Spinster ) → search

) → search ‘Meat And Salt And Sparks’ by Rich Larson ( Tor.com ) → search

) → search ‘Toothsome Things’ by Chimedum Ohaegbu ( Strange Horizons ) → search

) → search ‘Stet’ by Sarah Gailey ( Fireside ) → search

) → search ‘Snake Season’ by Erin Roberts ( The Dark ) → search

) → search ‘Marrow’ by E. Catherine Tobler ( Black Static ) → search

) → search ‘The Purpose of the Dodo is to be Extinct’ by Malcolm Devlin ( Interzone ) → search

) → search ‘This War of Ours’ by Timandra Whitecastle ( Art of War ) → search

) → search ‘The Eyes of the Flood’ by Susan Jane Bigelow (Lightspeed) → search

Note: this list hasn’t been thoroughly checked or anything, so there’s a chance some things have slipped in that aren’t actually eligible (let us know if you spot any errors)! We’ll follow up soon with posts for the other three categories. We’ll also update this post every now and then as new suggestions roll in.

One last thing: Donna Scott, esteemed and most high Chair of the BSFA and general Ace-of-all-trades, is editing The Best of British SF 2018 for Newcon Press, currently open for submissions. This is a reprint anthology, and defines ‘British’ as born in the UK and/or resident in the UK.