Part of Series
Strange. Surreal. Shocking. Beautiful. APEX MAGAZINE is a digital dark science fiction and fantasy genre zine that features award-winning short fiction, essays, and interviews. Established in 2009, our fiction has won several Hugo and Nebula Awards. We publish every other month. Issue 134 contains the following short stories, essays, reviews, and interviews. EDITORIAL Musings from Maryland by Lesley Conner ORIGINAL SHORT FICTION The Walking Mirror of the Soul by Renan Bernardo The Healer by Jennifer Marie Brissett The Words by Clelia Farris (translated by Rachel Cordasco) Observations of a Small Object in Decaying Orbit by Margaret Dunlap Butirub by Samit Basu Learning to Accept What’s to Come by Scott Edelman CLASSIC FICTION The Satellite Charmer by Mame Bougouma Diene NONFICTION The Line Between Science Fiction and Fantasy is Blurring, and I’m Into It by Joy Sanchez-Taylor How Can You Be? by Jason Sanford Words for Thought: Short Fiction Review by AC Wise INTERVIEWS Interview with Author Renan Bernardo by Marissa van Uden Interview with Author Margaret Dunlap by Marissa van Uden Interview with Cover Artist Andrew McIntosh by Bradley Powers
Authors
Marissa van Uden is an editor and writer from Aotearoa-New Zealand who now lives in rural Vermont, in a little cabin in the woods. She is the editor of The Off-Season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird (Dark Matter Ink, 2024) and the Apex Strange Microfiction anthologies. She is also the EiC of the imprint Violet Lichen Books and an associate editor and interviewer for Apex Magazine. Her fiction has appeared in Dark Matter Magazine, Zero Dark Thirty, Los Suelos, and Vastarien Literary Journal. She loves animals, wild things, and weird horror.
Samit Basu is an Indian novelist best known for his fantasy and science fiction work Samit's most recent novel, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, was published by Tordotcom in the US and Canada in Oct 2023. His previous novel, the anti-dystopian near-future The City Inside (Tordotcom, '22) was on the Washington Post and Book Riot best SFF of 2022 lists and earlier shortlisted for the 2020 JCB Prize (India) as Chosen Spirits. Samit's first novel, The Simoqin Prophecies, published by Penguin India in 2003, when Samit was 23, was the first book in the bestselling Gameworld Trilogy and marked the beginning of Indian English fantasy writing. The other books in the trilogy are The Manticore’s Secret and The Unwaba Revelations. Samit’s US/UK debut, the superhero novel Turbulence was published in the UK in 2012 and in the US in 2013 to rave reviews. It won Wired‘s Goldenbot Award as one of the books of 2012 and was superheronovels.com’s Book of the Year for 2013. Samit has also written children's books, published short stories for adults and younger readers in Indian and international anthologies, and has been a columnist and essayist in several leading Indian and international publications. Samit also works as a screenwriter and director. His debut film, House Arrest, was released as part of Netflix’s International Originals in 2019, and was one of Netflix’s top 5 most viewed Indian films that year. He wrote the film and co-directed it with Shashanka Ghosh. Samit’s work in comics ranges from historical romance to zombie comedy, and includes diverse collaborators, from Girl With All The Gifts/X-Men writer MR Carey to Terry Gilliam and Duran Duran. Samit was born in Calcutta, educated in Calcutta and London, and currently works between Delhi and Kolkata. He runs a newsletter, Duck of Dystopia (samit.substack.com) and can be found on social media at @samitbasu, and at samitbasu.com
Renan Bernardo is a Nebula and Ignyte finalist author of science fiction and fantasy from Brazil. His short fiction appeared in Reactor/Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Apex Magazine, Podcastle, Escape Pod, Daily Science Fiction, and others. He writes from secondary world fantasy to dark science fiction, and he enjoys the intersection of climate narratives with science, technology, and the human relations inherent to it. His solarpunk/clifi short fiction collection, Different Kinds of Defiancé, was published in 2024. His dark space opera novella, Disgraced Return of the Kap’s Needle, was released in 2025.
Jason Sanford is three-time finalist for the Nebula Award and an active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Born and raised in the American South, he currently lives in the Midwestern U.S. His life's adventures include work as an archaeologist and as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Jason's first novel Plague Birds will be released by Apex Books in September 2021. He has published dozens of short stories in Asimov's Science Fiction, Interzone, Analog: Science Fiction and Fact, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Fireside Magazine, and other places. Books containing his stories include multiple "year's best" story collections and The New Voices of Science Fiction. Jason’s awards and honors include being a finalist for the Nebula Awards for Best Novella, Best Novelette and Best Short Story. He has also won two Interzone Readers' Polls for best story of the year and been a co-winner of a third Poll. Jason's other honors include receiving a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, being nominated for the BSFA Award, and being longlisted for the British Fantasy Award. His stories have been named to multiple Locus Recommended Reading Lists along with being translated into a number of languages including Chinese, Spanish, French, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Italian and Czech.
