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Ghost thumbs. Microscopic dogs. One very sad can of tomato soup... Helen Marshall's second collection offers a series of twisted surrealities that explore the legacies we pass on to our children. A son seeks to reconnect with his father through a telescope that sees into the past. A young girl discovers what lies on the other side of her mother's bellybutton. Death's wife prepares for a very special funeral. In Gifts for the One Who Comes After, Marshall delivers eighteen tales of love and loss that cement her as a powerful voice in dark fantasy and the New Weird. Dazzling, disturbing, and deeply moving.

Sometimes a game, even a sacred game, can have far-reaching consequences. In bear country young Skye learns just how far she is willing to go to play the game properly in order carry on the traditions that came before her and will most likely continue long after she is gone.

This short story can be found in the anthology Worlds Seen in Passing: Ten Years of Tor.com Short Fiction (2018), edited by Irene Gallo. It is included in the collection Gifts for the One Who Comes After (2014).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

When I was younger I didn't know a thing about death. I thought it meant stillness, a body gone limp. A marionette with its strings cut. Death was like a long vacation – a going away. Not this.

Storms and flooding are worsening around the world, and a mysterious immune disorder has begun to afflict the young. Sophie Perella is about to begin her senior year of high school in Toronto when her little sister, Kira, is diagnosed. Their parents' marriage falters under the strain, and Sophie's mother takes the girls to Oxford, England, to live with their Aunt Irene. An Oxford University professor and historical epidemiologist obsessed with relics of the Black Death, Irene works with a Centre that specializes in treating people with the illness. She is a friend to Sophie, and offers a window into a strange and ancient history of human plague and recovery. Sophie just wants to understand what's happening now; but as mortality rates climb, and reports emerge of bodily tremors in the deceased, it becomes clear there is nothing normal about this condition – and that the dead aren't staying dead. When Kira succumbs, Sophie faces an unimaginable choice: let go of the sister she knows, or take action to embrace something terrifying and new.

Imaginarium 3: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing is a reprint anthology collecting speculative short fiction and poetry (science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, etc.) that represents the best work published by Canadian writers in the 2013 calendar year.

Featuring Colleen Anderson, James Arthur, Madeline Ashby, Siobhan Carroll, Anne Carson, Kate Cayley, Peter Chiykowski, Jan Conn, Joan Crate, Indrapramit Das, Craig Davidson, Cory Doctorow, Amal El-Mohtar, Ian C. Esslemont, Gemma Files, Laura Friis, Richard Gavin, Jennifer Giesbrecht, Kim Goldberg, Neile Graham, Nalo Hopkinson, Louisa Howerow, Claire Humphrey, Matthew Johnson, Catherine MacLeod, Tam MacNeil, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Kim Neville, David Nickle, Robert Priest, Robin Richardson, Leon Rooke, Geoff Ryman, Simon Strantzas, Jane Tolmie, Halli Villegas, and A.C. Wise.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Once More Into the Woods - essay by Ian C. Esslemont
• Rosary and Goldenstar - (2013) - short story by Geoff Ryman
• Nahuales - (2013) - short story by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Trap-Weed - (2013) - novelette by Gemma Files
• A Tall Girl - (2013) - poem by Kim Goldberg
• The Easthound - (2012) - short story by Nalo Hopkinson
• The Correspondence Between the Governess and the Attic - (2013) - novelette by Siobhan Carroll
• Said the Axe Man - (2013) - short story by Tam MacNeil
• Turing Tests - (2013) - poem by Peter Chiykowski
• The Fairy Godmother - (2013) - short story by Kim Neville
• Wife of Brain (excerpt from Red Doc) - (2013) - poem by Anne Carson
• The Salt and Iron Dialogues - (2013) - novelette by Matthew Johnson
• Jinx - (2013) - poem by Robert Priest
• The Book with No End - (2013) - short story by Colleen Anderson
• Neanderthal Man, Theory and Practice - (2013) - poem by Kate Cayley
• All My Princes Are Gone - (2013) - poem by Jennifer Geisbrecht
• Harvesting Lost Hearts - (2013) - poem by Louisa Howerow
• By His Things Will You Know Him - (2013) - short story by Cory Doctorow
• Girls Watch in the Mirror at Midnight for a Vision of a Future Husband - (2013) - poem by Kate Cayley
• The Runner of n-Vamana - (2013) - short story by Indrapramit Das
• In the Year Two Thousand Eleven - (2013) - poem by Jan Conn
• Lesser Creek: a Love Story, a Ghost Story - (2013) - short story by A. C. Wise
• The Book of Vole (excerpts) - (2013) - poem by Jane Tolmie and Perry Rath
• Black Hen à la Ford - (2013) - short story by David Nickle
• Jazzman/Puppet - (2013) - poem by Joan Crate
• Ushakiran - (2013) - short story by Laura Friis
• Ksampguiyaeps--Woman-Out-to-Sea - (2013) - poem by Neile Graham
• Fishfly Season - (2013) - short story by Halli Villegas
• A Cavern of Redbrick - (2013) - short story by Richard Gavin
• Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis - (2013) - poem by Robin Richardson
• Your Figure Will Assume Beautiful Outlines - (2013) - short story by Claire Humphrey
• A Charm for Communing with Dead Pets During Surgery - (2013) - poem by Peter Chiykowski
• Stemming the Tide - (2013) - short story by Simon Strantzas
• Social Services - (2013) - short story by Madeline Ashby
• How Gods Go on the Road - (2013) - poem by Robin Richardson
• Oubliette - (2013) - novelette by Gemma Files
• :axiom: the calling (excerpt) - (2013) - poem by Daniela Elza
• The Salamander's Waltz - (2013) - novelette by Catherine MacLeod
• Lost - (2013) - poem by Amal El-Mohtar
• Firebugs - (2013) - novelette by Craig Davidson
• Frankenstein's Monster - (2013) - poem by James Arthur
• Conditional Sphere of Everyday Historical Life - (2013) - short story by Leon Rooke

Showcasing the finest weird fiction published 2016, volume 4 of the Year's Best Weird Fiction is our biggest and most ambitious volume to date.

Acclaimed editors Helen Marshall and Michael Kelly bring their editorial acumen to the fourth volume of the Year's Best Weird Fiction. The best weird stories of 2016 features work from Dale Bailey, Gary Budden, Octavia Cade, Indrapramit Das, Malcolm Devlin, Jeffrey Ford, Camilla Grudova, Daisy Johnson, Katie Knoll, Usman T. Malik, Sam J. Miller, Irenosen Okojie, Aki Schilz, Johanna Sinisalo, and Sarah Tolmie.

No longer the purview of esoteric readers, weird fiction is enjoying wide popularity. Chiefly derived from early 20th-century pulp fiction, its remit includes ghost stories, the strange and macabre, the supernatural, fantasy, myth, philosophical ontology, ambiguity, and a healthy helping of the outre. At its best, weird fiction is an intersecting of themes and ideas that explore and subvert the Laws of Nature. It is not confined to one genre, but is the most diverse and welcoming of all genres.

Table of Contents:

• "I Was A Teenage Werewolf," by Dale Bailey. First published in Nightmare Magazine #51.
• "Breakdown," by Gary Budden. First published in 'The Short Anthology: The Second Issue'.
• "The Signal Birds," by Octavia Cade. First published in Liminal Stories #2.
• "Breaking Water," by Indrapramit Das. First published at Tor.com.
• "The End Of Hope Street," by Malcolm Devlin. First published in Interzone #266.
• "The Blameless," by Jeffrey Ford. First published in 'A Natural History of Hell'.
• "Waxy," by Camilla Grudova. First published at Granta Online.
• "A Heavy Devotion," by Daisy Johnson. First publishd in 'Fen'.
• "Red," by Katie Knoll. First published at The Masters Review Online.
• "In The Ruins Of Mohenjo-Daro," by Usman T. Malik. First published in 'The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu'.
• "Angel, Monster, Man," by Sam J. Miller. First published in Nightmare Magazine #40.
• "Outtakes," by Irenosen Okojie. First published in 'Speak, Gigantular'.
• "Beating The Bounds," by Aki Schilz. First published in 'The Unreliable Guide To London'.
• "The Kings With No Hands," by Johanna Sinisalo. Translated by J. Robert Tupasela. First published in 'Finnish Weird 3'.
• "The Dancer On The Stairs," by Sarah Tolmie. First published in 'Two Travelers'.