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.

​Nightjars are summer visitors to Britain, which makes me feel better about these two new spring titles being a little late arriving. Yesterday afternoon I walked through herds of red deer in Bushy Park to pick up Colette de Curzon’s signed chapbooks from the Norbiton home of one of her daughters. ‘Paymon’s Trio’ is Colette de Curzon’s first published short story. She wrote it at the age of 22 – in 1949. She is due to celebrate her 90th birthday later this year.
 
David Wheldon has been a published author since 1983, when his first novel, The Viaduct, won the Triple First Award in a competition judged by Graham Greene and William Trevor. I am indebted to David Rose for recommending David Wheldon’s work to me.
 
Nightjar is a labour of love and I loved doing the shoots for these covers. I’m grateful to Paul Ayres of Ayres Violins, Didsbury, Manchester, for the loan of a violin, also to Anstey Spraggan and Colin Cross for putting me in touch with him. The chess set came from Oxfam in Didsbury Village. Unfortunately it’s one piece short, so I don’t feel I can give it back to them (although it didn’t stop whoever donated it in the first place). The hand came from Bowlee Car Boot Sale, Middleton, north Manchester, and it’s not going anywhere because I love it.
 
Huge thanks to Nightjar’s designer, John Oakey of johnoakeydesign.co.uk, and to Claire Dean, who maintains and updates these pages. Claire’s excellent debut short story collection, The Museum of Shadows and Reflections, was published towards the end of last year. She has two brand-new stories due in Nightjar later this year.
 
The chapbooks are printed by H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith, who have printed all 28 titles in the series.
 
With eight titles now in print, discounts for bulk orders are available. These may be announced on Twitter from time to time, or feel free to email for details. See the ‘About’ page for contact details.
 
 

As in the spring, so in the autumn, the new Nightjars are a little on the late side. Autumn may have left the building, but the two latest titles have left the printers and are en route to their authors for signature. They are: ‘Fury’ by DB Waters and ‘Rounds’ by Wyl Menmuir.  Neither author has appeared in Nightjar before. DB Waters has published some short fiction, while Wyl Menmuir was longlisted earlier this year for the Man Booker Prize with his first novel, The Many (Salt Publishing).
 
The cover photography is by me, but that’s OK, because I’ve John Oakey of johnoakeydesign.co.uk to make it look good. I’m hugely indebted to him and to Claire Dean, who maintains and updates these pages. Claire’s excellent debut collection, The Museum of Shadows and Reflections, is imminent but you have to order it to be sure of getting a copy. 
 
The chapbooks are printed by H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith, who have printed all 26 titles in the series.
 
With 11 titles in print, discounts for bulk orders are available. Please email for details. See the ‘About’ page for contact details.
 
 

A little later than normal – arguably, June is summer rather than spring, although it doesn’t look much like summer out there as I type this – two new titles are now available: ‘The Numbers’ by Christopher Burns and ‘Jackdaws’ by Neil Campbell.  Chris has appeared in Nightjar before, with ‘Lexicon’, while Neil is new to the series but is no stranger to publication. 

The cover illustrations are taken from recent paintings by Manchester-based artist Jen Orpin, whose work can be seen on her Facebook page. I am indebted, as always, to John Oakey of johnoakeydesign.co.uk and to Claire Dean, who maintains and updates these pages. The chapbooks are printed by H&H Reeds Printers Ltd of Penrith, who have printed all 24 titles in the series.

With nine titles in print, discounts for bulk orders are available. Please email for details. See the ‘About’ page for contact details.