SILENT NIGHTMARES – TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chuck Palahniuk (Shock Induction, Fight Club) and Michael Bailey (Psychotropic Dragon, The Library of the Dead) bring you: SILENT NIGHTMARES: Haunting Stories to Be Told on the Longest Night of the Year. This anthology of entirely original dark holiday horrors will be published in the autumn of 2026 by Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. 

Along with a number of invited writers (and new fiction by both editors), they opened a small window of opportunity by way of an open call for submissions during the month of December, 2024. During that time, 2,138 short stories avalanched upon them before the end of the year. The goal? Choosing 6* wonderfully disturbing stories.

Table of Contents: 

“Father Christmas” – Brian Evenson
“Cause and Effect” – Alma Katsu
“Always Winter” – Mari Ness*
“Tidings” – Ramsey Campbell
“Shine a Light” – Zoje Stage
“A Season of Reflection” – Wil Dalton*
“Kingston” – Chuck Palahniuk
“We Have Always Been Red” – Annie Neugebauer*
“A Life Not Lived” – Joe R. Lansdale
“Circle Back” – Neil Krolicki*
“The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” – Joe Hart*
“God’s Wife” – Lisa Morton
“Loki’s Story” – Eugen Bacon
“The Cheapest State of Perfect Grace” – Gary A. Braunbeck
“Rapture” – Michael Bailey
“Christmas in Goblin” – Josh Malerman
“Steam” – Krissy Eliot*
“Lost Hearts” – Cynthia Pelayo
“The Singing Children” – Gabino Iglesias
“Yuletide Games with the Suicide Kings” – Jonathan Maberry

If you see a star (snowflake?) next to the names above, know that their writing was in the top 0.28-ish% of all submissions received, which is saying something. Be sure to seek them out. 

We hope this will be the first of many volumes of Silent Nightmares.