
The 1979 Annual World's Best SF is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, the eighth volume in a series of nineteen. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in May 1979. It was reissued by DAW in 1984 under the variant title Wollheim's World's Best SF: Series Eight, this time with cover art by Olivero Berni.

Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology – Volume 4 is the fourth installment of Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology, one of the many Alfred Hitchcock story collection books; edited by Eleanor Sullivan. Originally published in hardcover as Alfred Hitchcock's Tales to Scare You Stiff in 1978, the book includes 26 short stories and a short novel called The Graveyard Shift by William P. McGivern. Also, within the 26 short stories is The Green Heart by Jack Ritchie which was made into the 1971 film A New Leaf.

Amazons! is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, with a cover and frontispiece by Michael Whelan. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in December 1979, and was the first significant fantasy anthology of works featuring female protagonists by (mostly) female authors. It received the 1980 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.

The Best of Avram Davidson is a collection of fantasy, science fiction and mystery short stories, written by Avram Davidson and edited by Michael Kurland. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in January 1979. The book has been translated into French.

The Best Science Fiction of the Year #8 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the eighth volume in a series of sixteen. It was first published in paperback by Del Rey Books in July 1979, and in hardcover by the same publisher in conjunction with the Science Fiction Book Club in August 1979. The first British edition was issued by Gollancz in the same year.

Black Colossus is a 1979 collection of two fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The book was published in 1979 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. as volume IX of their deluxe Conan set. The stories originally appeared in the magazine Weird Tales.

Black Tickets (1979) is a collection of short stories by American writer Jayne Anne Phillips. The collection was published by Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence.

The Bloody Chamber is a collection of short fiction by English writer Angela Carter. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1979 by Gollancz and won the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize. The stories share a theme of being closely based upon fairytales or folk tales. However, Carter has stated: My intention was not to do 'versions' or, as the American edition of the book said, horribly, 'adult' fairy tales, but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories.

Capitol (1979) was Orson Scott Card's second published book, and first foray into science fiction. This collection of eleven short stories set in the Worthing series is no longer in print. However six of the stories have been reprinted in The Worthing Saga (1990) and one of them in Maps in a Mirror (1990).

Convergent Series is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories by American writer Larry Niven, published in 1979. It is also the name of one of the short stories in the collection. The collection reprints the stories originally appearing in the 1969 collection The Shape of Space that were not part of the Known Space series. The collection includes newer stories, both fantasy and science fiction, some of which are in the Draco's Tavern series, none of which are in the Known Space series. The collection won the 1980 Locus Award for Best Single Author Collection.

Exiles on Asperus is a collection of science fiction short stories by British writer John Wyndham, writing as John Benyon, published in 1979 after his death by Coronet Books.

Fireflood and Other Stories is the first collection of short work by Vonda N. McIntyre, published in hardcover by Houghton Mifflin in 1979 and reprinted in paperback by Timescape Books in 1981. UK editions were issued by Gollancz in 1980 and by Pan Books in 1982; it was also issued by the Science Fiction Book Club. Fireflood placed fifth in the annual Locus Poll for best collection.

Hammer's Slammers is a 1979 collection of military science fiction short stories by author David Drake. It follows the career of a future mercenary tank regiment called Hammer's Slammers after their leader, Colonel Alois Hammer. This collection, and other novels and stories in the same setting, are collectively called the Hammer stories, and the setting is called the Slammers universe or the Hammerverse.

The Haunted Castle is a 1979 anthology of 12 fairy tales from around the world that have been collected and retold by Ruth Manning-Sanders. It is one in a long series of such anthologies by Manning-Sanders. This is a companion volume to Old Witch Boneyleg.

Hawks of Outremer is a collection of historical short stories by Robert E. Howard. It was first published in 1979 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 1,625 copies. The stories feature Howard's character Cormac Fitzgeoffrey and was edited by Richard L. Tierney. "Outremer" was how the Crusader states were often called; Fitzgeoffrey is depicted as a participant in the Third Crusade.

Heroic Fantasy is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Gerald W. Page and Hank Reinhardt. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in April 1979.

In the Mist and Other Uncanny Encounters is a collection of stories by British writer Elizabeth Walter. It was released in 1979 and was the author's first book published by Arkham House. It was published in an edition of 4,053 copies. The stories were selected by the author and were those she considered to be her best.

An Infinite Summer is the second collection of short stories by Christopher Priest and the first of his books to collect stories set in the Dream Archipelago. The stories had all previously been published in various anthologies and magazines; they may be described, somewhat interchangeably, as science fiction, fantasy literature, metafiction and macabre.

Science Fiction in Old San Francisco: Volume Two, Into the Sun & Other Stories is a collection of science fiction short stories by Robert Duncan Milne and edited by Sam Moskowitz. It was first published in 1980 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 1,500 copies. All but one of the stories first appeared in the magazine The Argonaut. The other story, "A Question of Reciprocity" first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner. This book with its companion volume History of the Movement From 1854 to 1890 won a Pilgrim Award for its editor, Moskowitz, in 1981.

Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 1 (1939) is an American collection of short stories, edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg, originally published by DAW books in March 1979. It contains science fiction stories selected by the editors that were published in the year 1939. The book is part of a 25 volume series. Each successive volume in the series contains stories from the next year, continuing through 1963. The series starts with 1939 because Asimov had previously published a three volume anthology series titled, "Before the Golden Age", covering years 1931 - 1938, which he considered to be definitive for those years. According to DAW, The Great SF Stories 1 (1939) "is the first in what Isaac Asimov plans to be a definitive series of sf anthologies, covering year by year the truly memorable stories that have progressively brought science fiction to its present prominence". The second volume of the series is Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 2 (1940).

Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 2 (1940) is an English language anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg. The series attempts to list the great science fiction stories from the Golden Age of Science Fiction. They date the Golden Age as beginning in 1939 and lasting until 1963. The book was later reprinted as the second half of Isaac Asimov Presents The Golden Years of Science Fiction: 36 Stories and Novellas with the first half being Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 1 (1939).

Jewels of Gwahlur is a 1979 collection of two fantasy short stories written by Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. The book was published in 1979 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. as volume VIII of their deluxe Conan set. The title story originally appeared in the magazine Weird Tales. "The Snout in the Dark" is the original fragment of a story that Howard never completed. It first appeared, completed by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, in the collection Conan of Cimmeria.

Little Birds is Anaïs Nin's second published work of erotica, which appeared in 1979 two years after her death, but was apparently written in the early 1940s when she was part of a group "writing pornography for a dollar a day."

Mayhem on Bear Creek is a collection of Western short stories by Robert E. Howard. It was first published in 1979 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 1,900 copies. The stories had not previously been collected.

Means of Evil is a collection of short stories by British writer Ruth Rendell.

Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club in October 1979 retailing at £4.50. It was the last Christie book to be published under the Collins Crime Club imprint although HarperCollins continue to be the writer's UK publishers.

Murder and Magic is a collection of short stories by American writer Randall Garrett, featuring his alternate history detective Lord Darcy. It was first published in paperback in 1979 by Ace Books, and has been reprinted a number of times since. It was later gathered together with Too Many Magicians (1967) and Lord Darcy Investigates (1981) into the omnibus collection Lord Darcy.

The Princess of All Lands is a collection of stories by American writer Russell Kirk. It was released in 1979 and was the author's first book published by Arkham House. It was published in an edition of 4,120 copies. The story "There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding" had won a World Fantasy Award in 1977.

The Road of Azrael is a collection of historical short stories by Robert E. Howard. It was first published in 1979 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 2,150 copies, of which, 300 were boxed and signed by the artist.

The Science Fictional Solar System is a 1979 anthology of science fiction short-stories revolving around the solar system. Its editors are Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh, and Martin H. Greenberg.

The Seed of Evil is the second science fiction collection by Barrington J. Bayley. The book collects thirteen short stories published between 1962 and 1979, several of which are original to this volume.

Shadows was a series of horror anthologies edited by Charles L. Grant, published by Doubleday from 1978 to 1991. Grant, a proponent of "quiet horror", initiated the series in order to offer readers a showcase of this kind of fiction. The short stories appearing in the Shadows largely dispensed with traditional Gothic settings, and had very little physical violence. Instead, they featured slow accumulations of dread through subtle omens, mostly taking place in everyday settings. While Grant himself was very adept at this kind of fiction, he contributed no stories to the anthologies, writing only the introductions and author profiles. The first volume in the series won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.

The Spirit of Dorsai is a collection of two science fiction stories by American writer Gordon R. Dickson. It was first published by Ace Books in 1979. The collection includes linking material and the stories are part of Dickson's Childe Cycle. The first story, "Amanda Morgan", is original to this collection. The other, "Brothers", originally appeared in the anthology Astounding, edited by Harry Harrison.

Swords Against Darkness IV is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Andrew J. Offutt. It was first published in paperback by Zebra Books in September 1979.

Swords Against Darkness V is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Andrew J. Offutt. It was first published in paperback by Zebra Books in November 1979.

Tales of Nevèrÿon is a collection of five sword and sorcery stories by Samuel R. Delany published in 1978. It is the first of the four-volume Return to Nevèrÿon series and contains the stories "The Tale of Gorgik," "The Tale of Old Venn," "The Tale of Small Sarg," "The Tale of Potters and Dragons," and "The Tale of Dragons and Dreamers."

Tales of Pirx the Pilot is a science fiction stories collection by Polish author Stanisław Lem, about a spaceship pilot named Pirx.

Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected is a collection of sixteen short stories written by British author Roald Dahl and first published in 1979. All of the stories were earlier published in various magazines, and then in the collections Someone Like You and Kiss Kiss.

Tales of the Werewolf Clan is a two-volume collection of horror short stories by American writer H. Warner Munn. The first volume was first published in 1979 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 1,000 copies and the second was published in 1980 in an edition of 1,018 copies. Many of the stories first appeared in the magazine Weird Tales or in the Lost Fantasies anthology series edited by Robert Weinberg. The first volume is subtitled In the Tomb of the Bishop and the second is subtitled The Master Goes Home.

Too Far to Go is a collection of short stories by the American author John Updike published in 1979 in conjunction with the showing of a two-hour television movie on the NBC network with Blythe Danner, Michael Moriarty, Kathryn Walker and Glenn Close. The linked stories focus upon the marriage and eventual divorce of Richard and Joan Maple and depict a 1960s New York City and New England milieu through the 1970s typical of much of Updike's fiction. Many of the stories were initially published as occasional stories in The New Yorker from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. The story "Your Lover Just Called" was later adapted into a playlet by Updike himself. It is included in his collection More Matter (1999). Most of these stories were also included in Updike's 2003 collection The Early Stories, except those published after 1975; namely, "Waiting Up", "The Red-Herring Theory", "Divorcing: A Fragment", and "Here Come the Maples". In August 2009, Everyman's Library published The Maples Stories, a new edition of Too Far to Go, including the final Maples story "Grandparenting".

The Trials of Rumpole is a collection of short stories by John Mortimer adapted from scripts for his TV series about Horace Rumpole.

Twenty Houses of the Zodiac (1979) was an English-language anthology of twenty selected international science fiction short stories for the 37th World Science Fiction Convention. It was edited by Maxim Jakubowski and published by New English Library. It contained stories from an international selection of authors, some who had never had their work translated into English before. Most of the works are unique to the collection and were never previously printed or later reprinted.

Universe 9 is an anthology of original science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the ninth volume in the seventeen-volume Universe anthology series. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in May 1979, with a paperback edition from Fawcett Popular Library in April 1980, and a British hardcover edition from Dennis Dobson in May 1980.

The Unorthodox Engineers were the subject of a series of science fiction short stories by Colin Kapp. They were a misfit bunch of engineers who solved problems of alien technology/weird planets in the future. The stories had a very large grain-of-salt-type humor.

When Things of the Spirit Come First is Simone de Beauvoir's 'first' work of fiction. After a number of false starts, in 1937 she submitted this collection of interlinked stories to a publisher. But it was turned down by both Gallimard and Grasset. It consists of five short stories which are weaved together in such a way that it to structurally similar to a more traditional novel. The first, "Marcelle", tells the story of the oldest of three siblings. She marries an abusive artist. The second, "Chantal", tells the story of a lycee philosophy teacher. She idealizes her life and becomes involved in the lives of her students but ultimately refuses to help them. "Lisa" is the third and shortest story, about a girl who struggles to live a spiritual life while existing in a physical body. "Anne", the fourth story, is the result of many of de Beauvoir's earlier attempts at writing. It parallels the story of her friend Elizabeth Mabille (Zaza) who died soon after her mother refused to allow her to marry Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The final story, "Marguerite" expresses the existential views that de Beauvoir herself believed that life itself should be experienced, rather than spirituality.