Level Best Books is an independent publishing cooperative which produces an anthology of Crime Stories by New England Writers annually in November. Well-regarded by readers and reviewers, stories published by Level Best have won the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, Derringer and Robert L. Fish (Award for Best First Short Story presented at the Edgar® banquet) Awards. Level Best also publishes the winning story from the Al Blanchard contest every year.
Founded by Skye Alexander, Kate Flora and Susan Oleksiw, Level Best’s goal is to publish the highest quality short fiction produced by crime writers from the six New England states. From the beginning, the anthology has contained tales from well-known authors and new voices. The original co-editors produced three volumes: Undertow, 2003, Riptide, 2004 and Windchill, 2005. Ruth McCarty replaced Skye Alexander and Level Best’s tradition of quality continued with Seasmoke, 2006, Stillwaters, 2007, Deadfall, 2008 and Quarry, 2009
In 2010, four new editors took on the anthology: Mark Ammons, Kat Fast, Barbara Ross and Leslie Wheeler. Our first volume, Thin Ice was released in November, 2010 with Dead Calm following in 2011 and Blood Moon in 2012. We are very proud to be a part of the Level Best Books tradition.
Level Best Books actively seeks submissions from both new and experienced writers. We also run an annual cover photo contest.
See the press release about the editors, here.
For submission guidelines, see this page.
Photo contest guidelines are here.
To buy the books, go here.
To sign up for our e-mail list, go here.
You can contact us at
levelbestbooks@yahoo.com
or
Level Best Books
411A Highland Avenue, #371
Somerville, MA 02144
or using the contact form below
