Two recent write-ups for this year’s anthology appeared recently. Hannah Niemeier at The New Criterion says these stories “place the poetic qualities of the short story on full display.” Here’s a highlight:
Jo Lloyd’s “The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies,” a rare work of historical fiction (for this collection, at least), satirizes a British mine owner in a triumph of dialect that would have made Jonathan Swift proud.
That’s a great distillation of a story I loved—for its dystopian texture, its Wolf Hall-like atmosphere, and as always, Jo Lloyd’s terrific and affecting prose. Read the review here.
And a second review, at Kirkus, observes “A strong collection of first-rate work without a false note. Essential for students of the form.”