​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.

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.