Welcome Solstice! It’s hard to believe the year is nearly half over. We hope this month finds you either warm outside in the shade of your choice or warm inside with a mug of something delicious, enjoying a good read either way. And we have some suggestions for you!
Issue 138
Issue 138 continues to release! With cover art by Robson Michel, original fiction by Alexander Langer, Chisom Umeh, Mary G. Thompson, Tre Harris Salas, P.A. Cornell, and Suyi Davies Okungbowa, reprints from Marian Denise Moore and Tim Pratt, an essay by Carina Bissett, and flash fiction by K. R. March and Valerie Kemp, this issue is rich with content.
Danged Black Thing by Eugen Bacon
Coming June 20th from Apex Book Company and Eugen Bacon is the exciting collection Danged Black Thing. Danged Black Thing is a unique voice of black speculative fiction in transformative stories of culture, diversity, climate change, unlimited futures, a collision of worlds and mythology. It casts a gaze at mostly women and children haunted by patriarchy in Eugen Bacon’s bold and evocative text. This stupendous cover art and design is by Elena Betti. Preorders opened May 23rd!
Snap Judgment
Apex Magazine is excited to present SNAP JUDGMENT Episode 7. SNAP JUDGMENT is our rapid-fire, live-streaming critique series.
Every quarter, industry professionals Jason Sizemore, Lesley Conner, and a special guest offer live feedback on the first page (up to 250 words) of genre short stories or novels. These first pages are read aloud by our talented host and narrator, Aly Grauer.
Snap Judgment 7 will be livestreamed on Friday, June 30 at 1pm ET (10 am, PT 12 pm CT, 6 pm UTC)! We are pleased to announce that our special guest editor for this event is author and editor Nick Mamatas!
Nick Mamatas is the author of several novels, including I Am Providence and The Second Shooter. His short fiction has appeared or will soon appear in Best American Mystery Stories, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Tor.com, McSweeney’s, and many other venues. Much of it was recently collected in The People’s Republic of Everything. Nick is also an anthologist; his latest book is Wonder and Glory Forever: Awe-Inspiring Lovecraftian Fiction.
Submissions close May 31st!
StokerCon 2023
Editors in Chief Lesley Conner and Jason Sizemore will be at StokerCon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from June 15th to June 18th. They’ll be on a number of panels—attendees can check their schedules to catch up with the Apex Editors!
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.
You can find our current list of classes here. Classes in June include “The History, Present, and Future of Cosmic Horror” with Mary Sangiovanni, “Keep It Short: Writing Flash Fiction” with Rebecca E. Treasure, and “Writing SF Like A Scientist” with Premee Mohamed. We also have classes with Ai Jiang, Delilah S. Dawson, and Richard Thomas upcoming!
Apex Flash Fiction
The Flash Fiction Contest for May 7th-30th—themed Rain—will close on May 31th. The theme for June 7th-30th will be announced and will open to the public on June 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 announced no later than the 15th of the following month and 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 the 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 138. We’ll have interviews, two critique opportunities, and 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
