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.

We had already decided, before the Coronavirus pandemic struck, to do two pairs of titles this spring, as we did last autumn when celebrating ten years of publishing. And so we will, although one pair is being slightly delayed due to the self-isolation of one of the authors. In the meantime, instead of hanging on to the other two titles, we are very pleased to make these available.
 
Huge thanks as ever to John Oakey of johnoakeydesign.wordpress.com, and Claire Dean, who very kindly maintains the web site. Thanks also to H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith who continue to provide swift and excellent service at competitive prices.
 
We’re delighted to welcome Robert Stone and Andrew Humphrey to Nightjar. It’s especially satisfying when readers of our stories turn into contributors to the series.
 
As soon as it becomes practically possible to release the other pair of new titles, by Daniel Gothard and Roberta Dewa, we will do that – hopefully within no more than a few weeks.
 
There are just three older titles still in print. To enquire about special deals for bulk orders – including the forthcoming virus-delayed pair – please drop us an email (see About page) or check Twitter for special offers.
 

 
Nightjar readers who have remained with us from the start will know that we publish a pair of stories in the spring and another pair in the autumn, but this autumn, in what remains of our tenth-anniversary year, we are publishing two pairs. Huge thanks as ever to John Oakey of johnoakeydesign.co.uk, and Claire Dean, who maintains web site. Both John and Claire have remained loyal supporters of Nightjar since the beginning. During the ten years we have been publishing, we have remained with H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith for our printing needs, because they are lovely, competitively priced and achieve excellent results.
 
We sometimes reject submissions on the basis that they don’t feel like Nightjar stories, but, at the same time, what feels like a Nightjar story has perhaps changed a little over ten years. HP Tinker’s ‘Le détective’ and Paul Griffiths’ ‘so this is it’ may not immediately strike readers as typical Nightjar stories, but we are becoming increasingly interested in exploring possible links between experimental writing and uncanny effects. We are excited to welcome back M John Harrison, with ‘Doe Lea’, which is paired with a debut publication by Nicola Freeman, ‘Halloween’, one of the subtlest stories we have done.
 
As well as these four new titles, we have five others that remain in print, out of 40 stories published since 2009. Email for special rates for bulk orders (see About page) or check Twitter for special offers. The forthcoming schedule includes stories by Robert Stone and Daniel Gothard.

Nightjars typically live for four years in the wild, although the oldest wild bird is said to have been twelve. Nightjar Press is ten this year. That we have kept going for so long is thanks to a number of people, starting with our designer John Oakey of johnoakeydesign.co.uk, and Claire Dean, who has maintained and updated the web site throughout. Printing the chapbooks, since day one, has been undertaken by H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith, who may actually be the nicest printers in the world at the same time as consistently delivering superb results at competitive prices.
 
Thanks to the writers we have published, who have trusted us with their work, and to other writers who have submitted work that is often very good but not quite right for the press. And thanks to the readers, from regular customers who have copies of every title we have published, to those friends of our writers who place a single order as an act of friendship. Thanks, also, to Peter Tennant, who reviewed many of the titles in his former regular slot at Black Static, and to other reviewers who have written about our publications over the years. Thanks, finally, to editors such as Stephen Jones, Ellen Datlow, Michael Kelly and Johnny Mains, who have reprinted stories in their respective best-of-the-year anthologies.
 
We have been lucky to have a small handful of writers who know what we like and keep sending us great stories, among them Man Booker-shortlisted author Alison Moore, whose fourth story for Nightjar is one of our first two titles in our tenth-anniversary year, ‘Broad Moor’. She is joined by Lucie McKnight Hardy, whose debut novel, Water Shall Refuse Them, is due out this July from Dead Ink Books; her first story for Nightjar is ‘Jutland’.
 
There are now seven titles in print. Email for special rates for bulk orders (see About page) or check Twitter for special offers. We have new stories in hand for later in the year by HP Tinker and Paul Griffiths, and we have recently acquired a story by Robert Stone.

‘I find the autumn stimulating,’ writes the narrator of John Banville’s novel The Sea, ‘as spring is supposed to be for others.’ We are confident these two new stories about birds and parents and sons, by Mike Fox and Philippa Holloway, will be stimulating for new and existing Nightjar readers.
 
Mike Fox’s ‘The Violet Eye’ is a ‘quietly powerful unfolding of what we send out into the world’, according to Tania Hershman, while Jenn Ashworth hails Philippa Holloway’s ‘deftly constructed tale of domestic anxiety’.
 
We are particularly pleased with the cover illustrations, new linocuts by Alex Needham.
 
We are indebted as ever to John Oakey of johnoakeydesign.co.uk and to Claire Dean for maintaining and updating the web site.
 
The chapbooks are printed by H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith, who continue to match superb results with excellent service and competitive prices.
 
There are now seven titles in print. Email for special rates for bulk orders (see About page) or check Twitter for special offers. In 2019, Nightjar Press will be celebrating its tenth birthday with new stories by Alison Moore, Lucie McKnight Hardy and HP Tinker already lined up.
 

Spring 2018 took a long time to arrive and then flounced about with a series of mini heatwaves that, weirdly, seemed to coincide with bank holidays. The season’s Nightjar releases came similarly out of nowhere. Between them, Florence Sunnen and Matt Thomas have published only a handful of short stories. We are very pleased to present original stories by these exciting new writers on the theme of dysfunctional families.
 
Anne Billson described Florence Sunnen’s ‘The Hook’ as a ‘small masterpiece of surreal body horror’, while M John Harrison found Matt Thomas’s ‘Living Together’ to be ‘funny and increasingly unnerving’.
 
Nightjar Press is indebted to John Oakey of johnoakeydesign.co.uk and to Claire Dean, who maintains the web site.
 
Printing is by H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith, who deliver top-quality work at competitive prices and are totally reliable.
 
These two new releases mean there are currently five titles in print. Email for special rates for bulk orders (see About page) or keep an eye on Twitter for special offers.

Every year, Halloween comes around and, every year, we think it would be a smart move to get the autumn titles out to take advantage of its increasing popularlity. The trouble is we usually have this brainwave on 30 October, which is why we are already half way into November and only just announcing the stories of the season. They are ‘The Unwish’ and ‘Bremen’, both by Claire Dean.
 
Claire Dean’s outstanding debut collection, The Museum of Shadows and Reflections (Unsettling Wonder), came out last year, marking a high point in her development as a writer, and these two new stories show that she just continues to get better.
 
We are very lucky to have a pair of specially created covers by photographer and writer Bill Bulloch, whose work may be enjoyed here and, as ever, we are indebted to the brilliant John Oakey of johnoakeydesign.co.uk and to Claire Dean, who we are extremely fortunate to have hung on to as webmistress.
 
Printing is by H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith, who deliver top, top quality at competitive rates.
 
There are currently five titles in print. Email for special rates for bulk orders (see About page for bulk orders) or keep an eye on Twitter for special offers.