It's somehow always surprising when December rolls around. The last month of the year is a good time to reflect on everything accomplished in the previous year and to look ahead to the coming months. We've published some amazing fiction this year and are grateful to each and every one of you for being with us on this journey.
For a full review of our 2023 original fiction, including award eligibility, go here: https://apex-magazine.com/apex-blog/apex-magazine-2023-award-eligibility/
As a reminder, Apex Magazine general submissions will be closed for the month of December. However, flash fiction will be open from 12/7-12/31, our drabble contest is open until 12/15, and The Map of Lost Places will be open from 12/1 to 12/31.
Issue 141
Issue 141 continues to release on the website. Cover art by Peter Mohrbacher, original fiction by J.S. Breukelaar, A.M. Lomuscio, E. Catherine Tobler, Jolie Toomajan, and Erica Satifka, flash by Leah Ning and Liv Strom, essays by Sarah Pinsker and Leanna Renee Hieber, and reprints from R.J. Joseph and Zin E. Rocklyn. And some exciting news! A.C. Wise is returning with the wonderful Words for Thought short fiction review column! Buckle up - this issue is a wild one!
Resurrections by Ada Hoffmann
Resurrections by Ada Hoffmann is available for advance order! Buy now and save 40% on the trade edition! This collection will release December 19th!
This collection of short stories and poems by Ada Hoffmann traverses extraordinary universes packed with faeries, cyborgs, talking otters, punitive gods, lovestruck sea creatures, fossil hunters, extraterrestrials, and much more. Exploring themes of love and self-existence, community and otherness, and perseverance, Resurrections is a wondrous blend of genres and literary forms.
Each universe contains an intricately crafted history, cast of characters, places, and paradoxes. From layered magical realms to beauty supply storerooms, Hoffmann brings often-overlooked characters and perspectives to life and lets their unfettered reality expand our imaginations. Resurrections is a glimpse into the spectrum of human existence, flitting from world to world in Hoffmann’s spectacular style.
The Map of Lost Places Submissions
Editors Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner are looking for stories about places where weird things happen. Places that have strange histories, their own traditions and customs, their own dangers. These can be based off real folk tales or old wives tales - think the Mothman in Point Pleasant, WV - or ones that you come up with all on your own. But your story should tell of someone going to one of these places - either intentionally or they just stumble across it - and what happens when they encounter the frightening/strange thing that is in or occurs in that location.
In order to avoid duplicates in the open submission call, locations already chosen by the featured authors are listed below. This list will be updated as the authors make their decisions, so be sure to check our guidelines for updates!
- Indiana
- Monroe, GA
- Underwater cave in the Caribbean Sea
- The Forbidden City in Beijing, China
- Central Pennsylvania
- Arkabutla Lake in Coldwater, Mississippi
Submissions period is December 1st through December 31st, 2023. Submissions Guidelines here: https://apexbookcompany.moksha.io/publication/the-map-of-lost-places/guidelines
Strange Locations: An Anthology of Dark Travel Guides
As part of our successful Map of Lost Places Kickstarter, we are excited to announce the upcoming Strange Locations microfiction anthology, the third in the brilliant series of microanthologies edited by Marissa van Uden.
We are looking for speculative microfiction in the form of tourist brochures, travel blogs, and travel guides to the strangest, darkest places you can imagine.
Tell us a story while guiding the reader down hidden trails into eerie landscapes, weird biotech gardens, creepy scifi cities, surreal forests, or secret magical places. We’re looking for pieces that reveal intimate stories of loss, horror, or yearning in the voice of the fictional travel writer, or that use specific setting details to show whole new worlds between the lines.
We love dark fantasy, science fiction, horror, eco-horror, clifi, Weird fiction, folk horror, and body horror. Don’t be afraid to mix genres and experiment!
Holiday Horrors Drabble Contest
We are delighted to announce that longtime Apex Magazine first reader Kai Delmas is taking the editorial chair for the return of our Holiday Horrors - this time as a Drabble Contest!
This year we're changing it up. 250 words was way too easy, we want more in less. We want your best, shortest, awesomest short-short stories. We want your drabbles!
And who better than to judge these drabbles than the great, the kind, the funny(?), the almighty Drabble King himself, Kai Delmas? (Yes, he wrote this himself. He insisted.) Kai is one of our slush readers with years of experience when it comes to knowing what makes a story an Apex story. Many of you might remember him from our Snap Judgment Episode #6. Kai is the author of dozens of drabbles, and he has a drabble collection under production with Shacklebound Books.
We are excited to have him as our judge for this contest. Check out all the submissions details here. Contest opened on 12:00am PST November 18th, 2023 and closes at 11:59pm PST, December 15th, 2023.
Writing Classes with Apex
The Reach Your Apex initiative is our way of making the knowledge and skills of publishing professionals available to those individuals who are seeking to improve their literary craft. While a majority of our offerings target the craft of writing, we will intersperse our curriculum with workshops/webinars covering various topics about the art of editing and the business side of publishing. We just launched a website dedicated to our classes and workshops, including on-demand recordings!
You can find our current list of classes here. Classes in November include Revising Your Novel with Premee Mohamed, as well as a three part course on writing nonlinear fiction with Premee Mohamed! Coming up, we've got Getting Into Character with Arley Sorg, a reprise of the popular Writing with ADHD with Premee Mohamed, and classes from Arley Sorg, Lavie Tidhar, Richard Thomas, Leah Ning, A.C. Wise, and Nick Mamatas! We also now offer pre-recorded on demand classes as well as critiques and query feedback!
Apex Flash Fiction
The Flash Fiction Contest for November 7-30—themed The Middle—will close on November 30. The theme for December 7-31 will be announced and will open to the public on December 7th for flash fiction submissions. Themes are chosen by Patrons at the end of the month and announced to Patrons on the 1st of each month. Submissions will be open to the public on the 7th of each month. Submissions close on the last day of the month at midnight (US Central Time).
The winner will be paid $0.08/word or $10, whichever is more. The winning story will appear on our Patreon as an exclusive and will be included in a forthcoming issue of Apex Magazine.
Discord Happenings
As always, we have fun and community on our Discord, including critique swaps, co-writing opportunities, and general community support for writers. (Rejectomancy, anyone?)
Patreon Exclusives
On our Patreon, we have an exciting lineup of exclusives for our Patrons from the Authors of Issue 141 as well as from our book company authors. We'll have our usual interviews, critique opportunities, a surprise recipe or two, and some story insights. Keep an eye on our Patreon!
Not a Patron? Join us for as little as $3/month to get access to these exclusives and the magazine in your inbox!
To add the Apex Events Calendar to your google calendar, follow this link: https://tinyurl.com/4c74rext
