Q: "R U Elastic?" A: "Yes I am!"
In November 2002 I formed Elastic Press, an independent company dedicated to publishing short story collections by new and established authors. At that time, very few publishers concentrated solely on the short form, and even now mainstream publishers are very reluctant to do so. There was a gap in the marketplace, and I filled it.
Elastic Press published four short story collections per year, and usually one anthology. Including myself, a complete list of our publications were collections by Andrew Humphrey, Gary Couzens, Marion Arnott, Antony Mann, Kay Green, Brian Howell, Allen Ashley, Steven Savile, Nick Jackson, Tim Lees, Matt Dinniman, Tim Nickels, David Swann, Neil Williamson, Mike O'Driscoll, Maurice Suckling, Mat Coward, Tony Richards, Robert Neilson, Jai Clare, Mike Dolan, Daniel Marcus, Gareth L Powell, Chris Beckett and Geoffrey Maloney.
In 2005 and 2009 Elastic Press also won the Best Small Press Award presented annually by the British Fantasy Society. As this award is voted on by members of the society, rather than a committee, it was especially pleasing to receive such recognition.
Our peculiarly themed anthologies include "The Alsiso Project" (BFS winner of Best Anthology 2005), "The Elastic Book of Numbers" (BFS winner of Best Anthology 2006), and "Extended Play: The Elastic Book of Music" (BFS winner of Best Anthology 2007). Our 30th title celebrated six years of publishing in the genre with "Subtle Edens: An Anthology of Slipstream Fiction".
In addition to the BFS awards, "Other Voices" won an East Anglian Book award in 2008, and "The Turing Test" won the prestigious Edge Hill Short Story Prize in 2009.
Finally, from November 2008, Elastic Press closed its doors. It was time to move onto other things.
