It is our great pleasure to announce four new stories from authors all new to Nightjar, but by no means new to publishing. Jim Gibson made a splash last year with his debut collection, The Bygones (Tangerine Press). His story – ‘A Symbol of a Memory’ – is paired with ‘Styx’ by novelist, poet, musician and Brixton Review of Books columnist Will Eaves. Best known, perhaps, as a poet and non-fiction writer, Jean Sprackland showed with her contributions to Ellipsis 1 (Comma Press, 2005) what an excellent short story writer she is; ‘Death Cookies’ offers further evidence. Cynan Jones is well known for writing outstanding short novels, but, as a past winner of the BBC National Short Story Award, he is no stranger to the short story. His ‘Stock’ was commissioned as a creative response to the work of the Narrating Rural Change network, but is published in the first instance by Nightjar.

Thank you, as ever, to John Oakey of John Oakey Design. John designs and typesets all our publications. Without him we could not function. Any technical issues with the website will be down to the technical deficiencies of the publisher, who wishes to thank his daughter, Bella Royle, for bailing him out again with invaluable help at the last minute. He much prefers taking the photographs that often appear on the covers – including these four new images – to wrestling with the website. Thanks, as always, to our excellent printers, H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith. 

We still send off international orders without any degree of confidence that they will arrive in one piece, if at all. To increase the chances of success in this area, we now routinely visit the Post Office and get a tracking number for orders going overseas. 

Elon Musk has had a good go at ruining Twitter but we persevere with it. If you're persevering with it, too, look out for occasional offers and competitions.

Uploading these new releases on the afternoon that Liz Truss resigned as UK Prime Minister, it occurred to us that we have published more stories this year than there have been Tory leadership elections – although not by many. Had we been able to publish yesterday, we could have wished Maxim Jakubowski a happy birthday. Let’s wish him one anyway – and many more to come. His story – ‘The Photographer’ – is paired with ‘The Birthday Presence’ by DF Lewis, making a most welcome return from reviewing fiction to writing it. Although fans of his ‘gestalt real-time’ reviews should be reassured that he continues to produce them, prodigiously. Indeed, we hope he will review his own Nightjar story alongside the other new titles. 

Let Andrew Hook’s new story be a warning to drivers who look away for too long – like careless film actors – from the view through their windscreen. His ‘Throttle Body’ is paired with ‘Imber’, an unsettling debut short story by musician and music journalist DH Thomas. 

Thank you, as always, to John Oakey of John Oakey Design. John is the designer and typesetter of all our publications. Without him we could not function. Any technical issues with the website will be down to the technical deficiencies of the publisher, who took the photographs that provide the four cover images. Thanks, as ever, to our excellent printers, H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith. 

We still send off international orders without any degree of confidence that they will arrive in one piece, or at all. To increase the chances of success in this area, we now tend to visit the Post Office and get a tracking number for each order going overseas. We will continue to monitor the situation as we very much want to continue to accept international orders, if possible.

Follow us on Twitter for occasional special offers and relief from the ongoing nightmare.

The plan had been to publish two pairs in spring and two pairs in summer, but various things got in the way and here we are, publishing four pairs in summer. We think they’re worth waiting for and we hope you do, too.
 
We couldn’t choose between David Bevan’s two stories – ‘The Golden Frog’ and ‘The Bull’ – so we decided to publish them both, together. They share more than just their author. Joanne Done and Douglas Thompson contribute eerie crime stories – ‘Medlar’ and ‘The Dissolving Man’ – with a difference. During lockdown, the hospitality sector shut down; the protagonists of Françoise Harvey’s ‘Guest’ and David Gaffney’s ‘The Country Pub’ might wish this were still the case. Pairing stories is a big part of what we are trying to do at Nightjar, so when the opportunity came along to publish a pair stories with the same title – ‘The Lake’ by Livi Michael and ‘The Lake’ by John Foxx – we didn’t hesitate.
 
Thank you, as ever, to John Oakey of John Oakey Design, who is the designer and typesetter of all our publications. Without him we would be unable to function. Bella Royle maintained the website during a transitional phase, and we are grateful to her; she has now handed over responsibility for that role to Nicholas Royle, so expect website chaos from here on in. Thanks, also, to our excellent printers, H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith. 

The cover images for three of these pairs of titles were taken by Nicholas Royle, but the images for the two stories by David Bevan are details of photographs by writer and photographer Maya Sharp. David Bevan and Maya Sharp – and Joanne Done, for that matter – are all recent graduates of the MA Creative Writing at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University.

For the last year or so, as many international customers will know, we have been experiencing enormous difficulties with sending orders overseas. Well, sending is fine. We send them – and they disappear, or they come back, or they are delayed in Customs in Chicago for three months, or they arrive in pieces in a plastic bag. We have had to replace a lot of lost orders. This is not the fault of international customers, of course. If only we did know whose fault it was. Brexit – that nightmarish own goal scored jointly by David Cameron and 52% of voters in the referendum – is partly to blame, but not wholly, as the problem is not confined to Europe. We considered restricting sales to the UK from now on, but couldn’t quite bring ourselves to take that step, so for now we trudge on, into the further reaches of the unknown.
 
Please get in touch (see About page) to find out about our ten-issue subscription offer or to request a discount on bulk orders. Do check Twitter for special offers and fun stuff.

​There’s no novelty gift, paper hat or bad joke, and they don’t go bang, but these further two new pairs of stories could become exciting additions to your yuletide festivities. Ideally there would have been a longer gap between the three pairs released last week and these new stories. Last week’s releases were, regrettably, late. The last thing we want is for readers to feel pressure to buy when funds might not be plentiful. Partly for this reason – and partly because M John Harrison’s last Nightjar story sold out in a couple of days, frustrating some regular readers who were unable to get copies – his new story, ‘English Heritage’, and its partner publication, Claire Deane’s ‘Middleton Sands’, is each published in an edition of 300. We’re delighted to welcome back both Mike and Claire.
 
We are equally delighted to welcome back Robert Stone, with his very fine ‘Spoon’, and to introduce, for the first time in Nightjar, Cliff McNish, whose story, ‘The Periphery’, you will want to place right at the centre of your Christmas reading.
 
We thanked them only last week, but however many times we thank John Oakey of John Oakey Design, the designer and typesetter of all our publications, and Bella Royle, for maintaining and updating this website, it could never be enough. Merry Christmas to them and to everyone at H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith, and to all Nightjar readers and writers.

Better late than never – these three – yes, three! – pairs of new stories were meant to be published in November, but various things went wrong or got in the way. Here are five writers who are new to Nightjar and one returning to the press with his third story for us. Christopher Burns’ previous Nightjar titles were ‘Lexicon’ and ‘The Numbers’; the author of ‘A Visit to the Bonesetter’, he is partnered with Jordan Harrison-Twist and ‘A Few Alterations’.
 
Ben Tufnell and David Frankel both know the art world. Their paired stories – ‘On Mirrors’ and ‘Return’ – are graced with cover illustrations by the late, great book-cover artist John Holmes. Book collectors might recongise these images from the covers of 1969 Panther editions of novels by Vladimir Nabokov and Ivy Compton-Burnett. We are very grateful to John Holmes’s family for permission to reproduce them and to Johnny Mains for putting us in touch.
 
Shirley Stephenson (‘Bat Walk’) and Justine Bothwick (‘Static’) have each gained an MA in creative writing, from York St John and Manchester Metropolitan universities respectively. This pair of stories was originally supposed to appear some time ago (‘Static’, optimistically, has ‘March 2021’ on its imprint page) but lockdowns and travel restrictions presented insurmountable difficulties.
 
Thank you, as ever, to John Oakey of John Oakey Design, who is the designer and typesetter of all our publications, and to Bella Royle, for updating this website. Without them we would be unable to function. Thanks, also, to the ultra-reliable and delightful H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith. 
 
Please get in touch (see About page) to find out about our ten-issue subscription offer or to request a discount on bulk orders. Do check Twitter for special offers and fun stuff.
 
One reason why the delayed publication of these three pairs of stories is frustrating is that it means there will be considerably less of a gap between them and any surprises we might have planned for Christmas…

Only a month has gone by since we published a pair of stories by Melissa Wan and Ailsa Cox and yet here we are again, with two pairs of new releases. We just couldn’t wait any longer.
 
We are thrilled to be publishing a new short story by playwright David Rudkin and are grateful to Gareth Evans and Jack McNamara for putting us in touch with David, whose story, ‘The Keeper’, is paired  with ‘Tower Block Ghost Story’ by TSJ Harling, a somewhat newer author we are equally excited to welcome to the list.
 
Imogen Reid came to our attention thanks to the wonderful Gordian Projects who in 2018 published her Losing Track fiction/script/essay hybrid, which has just been reprinted. Her new story, ‘The Elevator’, is paired with ‘Two Degrees of Freedom’ by novelist Simon Okotie. We’re excited to be publishing these two authors and in particular these two stories, as we are interested in exploring further the mysterious territory where the uncanny story and experimental fiction intersect, or overlap, or whatever it is they might do. We imagine that Giles Gordon, whose fiction ranged from traditional ghost stories to boldly innovative experimental writing, might have approved.
 
Thank you to John Oakey of John Oakey Design, who is the designer and typesetter of all our publications, and to Bella Royle, for updating this website and keeping the show on the road. Thanks, also, to the always-reliable H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith. 
 
Please get in touch (see About page) to find out about our ten-issue subscription offer or to request a discount on bulk orders. Do check Twitter for special offers and fun stuff.

As cautious optimism takes the country in the gentlest of holds – you could hardly call it a grip – it is our pleasure to announce a new pair of Nightar releases, ‘Cocky Watchman’ by Ailsa Cox and ‘This Must Be Earth’ by Melissa Wan. Both authors, one the world’s first professor of short fiction and the other a new writer with a handful of stories to her name, are appearing in Nightjar for the first time with new stories set in the north-west of England.
 
Thank you to John Oakey of John Oakey Design, who is the designer and typesetter of all our publications. A huge thank-you to Claire Dean who designed and maintained the website for more than ten years and a warm welcome to Bella Royle, who has kindly agreed to take over that role. Thanks, also, to the always-reliable H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith. 
 
Please get in touch (see About page) to find out about our ten-issue subscription offer or to request a discount on bulk orders. Do check Twitter for special offers and fun stuff.

We’ve gone Christmas crackers at Nightjar Press and decided to release a surprise pair of titles in time for the so-called festive period. The thinking behind this was to cheer people up at the end of a pretty awful year. ‘Like a Fever’ by Tim Etchells and ‘House Calls’ by Vlatka Horvat are available with immediate effect or, as we might more concisely have said, now. The stories are available singly or as a pair, as always. We’re just keen to emphasise the fact that Nightjar stories are released in pairs and that this is not a random thing. A story is paired with another story when two stories are found that speak to each in some way, even if that speaking is more of a ‘churring’, in the manner of nightjars. In fact, all the better if it is. The cover images are selected to reflect this. You might wonder why we don’t offer a financial incentive to order a pair, rather than just one title. The answer is because we’re a small press and we’re trying to at least break even.
 
Although, by launching another surprise publication, it might seem as if we were hellbent on losing money. The Invisible Collection is a 100pp original anthology of short stories by staff and students – and former students – of the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. The project was inspired by the discovery in the Special Collections of the university’s library of an uncut copy of an edition of a short story, ‘The Invisible Collection’, by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881–1942). Because the pages were uncut, it was, effectively, invisible. It is published in an edition of 200 unnumbered, unsigned, paperback copies, with a cover conceived – and illustrations by – Sian Bonnell of the Manchester School of Art. The anthology does not contain the Zweig story, which is available from Pushkin Press.
 
John Oakey of John Oakey Design is the designer and typesetter of all our publications, and Claire Dean designed and updates the website. Thanks, as ever, to them, and to the always-reliable H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith.
 
There are healthy numbers remaining of the four autumn titles and low numbers of one or two earlier titles. To enquire about special deals for bulk orders, please drop us an email (see About page) or check Twitter for special offers.

The previous two pairs of releases marked the start of Coronavirus lockdown in England. Some us might have been thinking that by the autumn everything would be back to normal. However, autumn is here – and so is the virus. And so, it seems, is a form of lockdown. Lockdown-lite. We have become characters in a sequence of dystopian novels ‘penned’, perhaps, by the Prime Minister. The false hope of Tier 1. The unbearable tedium of Tier 2. The awful isolation of Tier 3. We can only dream of life back under The Rule of 6. But things could be worse: we could wake up and find ourselves in Seventy-Two Virgins.
 
But, turning to fiction that’s worth publishing, Michael Walters’ first published short story, ‘Signal’, is paired with Hilaire’s thirty-seventh, ‘The Red Suitcase’. Signs and symbols – indeed, signals – populate both stories. Angela Goodman’s ‘Shannon’ and Tom Heaton’s ‘On Blackfell’ are stories about life, death and aeroplanes.
 
As always, we are indebted to John Oakey of John Oakey Design, for the design and typesetting of the publications, and Claire Dean, who designed and updates the website. Thanks also to super-quick and utterly professional H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith.
 
Unfortunately, due to rising postage costs elsewhere, we have had to increase prices for overseas postage and packing. Europe and RoW have gone up by £1 each starting with these four new titles. There are low numbers remaining of the three other titles still in print (overseas postage remaining at the old rates for these). To enquire about special deals for bulk orders, please drop us an email (see About page) or check Twitter for special offers.

The cover images for this pair of titles, their release delayed by the Coronavirus pandemic, were selected some weeks before the UK lockdown. With that in mind, they have a prophetic feel to them. We had hoped to release these at the same time as ‘Regret’ and ‘Trick of the Light’, but Daniel Gothard fell ill with Covid-like symptoms and it became impractical for him to sign his chapbooks. (Roberta Dewa signed ‘Hide’ just before lockdown.) Daniel, despite continuing health problems and a spell in hospital, has now managed to sign fifty copies of ‘The Wash’, so that we can make these two stories available.
 
I thanked them only a month ago, but I can’t thank John Oakey and Claire Dean enough. John, in the form of John Oakey Design, is Nightjar’s designer, while Claire Dean designed and continues to maintain the website. Nightjar is indebted to both of them. Thanks also, as ever, to H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith.
 
There are five other titles still in print, with only low numbers of three of them. To enquire about special deals for bulk orders, please drop us an email (see About page) or check Twitter for special offers.