Welcome to Apex Magazine issue 137!
It has been my honor to guest-edit this issue of Apex focused on featuring Asian and Pacific Islander voices from the homelands and the diaspora.
The more I read, the more I found myself feeling that “Asian and Pacific Islander” is a reductive way to shove dozens of disparate cultures under one umbrella for rhetorical convenience. It would be laughably easy to pack a magazine with clever, compelling fiction from any one of the cultures under this umbrella, and while demographic-specific special issues like this are a step forward, we still have a long way to go before our voices are equally heard. However, I think there’s value in bringing us together, particularly in an increasingly globalized world. It’s important to have a seat at the table—but it’s just as important to have someone else to sit with. Genre fiction is a party, and it’s more fun when you bring friends.
This issue opens with “Loving Bone Girl” by Tehnuka, a scorchingly tender love story that examines the aftereffects of war. Tehnuka builds her characters with honesty and delicacy as she introduces us to Vasanthi, who can create new places out of nothing.
“Your Wings a Bridge” by Michelle M. Denham looks at the traditional East Asian folktale of the Cowherd and the Weaver from the eyes of a magpie navigating the tension between love and duty in her own way. This may well be my favorite take on the story so far!
Murtaza Mohsin’s “The Flowering of Peace” is our first sci-fi offering featured in this issue. Noor, long separated from her home village of Phoolnagar, returns as the emissary of an alien race—but she has personal reasons for returning, which Mohsin unpacks with all the care and the critical eye they deserve.
Back in the realms of myth, Sydney Paige Guerrero shows us how gods are diminished in “Liwani,” a fantasy that slips into something darker as the goddess of light descends to Earth. Her answer to what becomes of gods with no followers is a fascinating one, full of vivid imagery.
My first fiction publication was in Apex, so I’m very pleased to be able to present someone else’s debut now. “The Matriarchs” is Lois Mei-en Kwa’s first fiction publication. This gorgeous sci-fi story spans generations and vast galaxies in less than 3,000 words with rhythmic, poetic prose.
Our final original story in this issue is “The Toll of the Snake” by Grace P. Fong, a mashup of the Chinese myth of White Snake and the Greek Medusa story set in Golden Age Hollywood. This piece is packed with foreshadowing and delightfully snappy dialogue from the first scene. Fong builds tension masterfully as she moves the story forward to its dramatic climax.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Grace P. Fong and Murtaza Mohsin for this issue’s author interviews. Lesley Conner, who is much better equipped to ask interesting questions about art than I am, interviewed our cover artist, Dee Nguyen.
We’re featuring two personal favorites of mine by Zen Cho and Vajra Chandrasekera as our classic fiction. Manuia Heinrich Sue and Z Aung deliver sharp insights and calls to action in their essays.
It has been simultaneously a delight and a heartbreak to put this issue together. Given infinite resources (money with which to buy stories and brain cells with which to edit them; both of these are in short supply), I could have filled whole books with searing, heartfelt fiction by brilliant Asian and Pacific Islander authors. I am thoroughly delighted by the six stories I get to present to you in this issue. At the same time, there are so many more stories I wished I could feature, and let go only reluctantly. I hope they find homes in places besides my own heart, where other people will enjoy them as much as I did.
I am writing this editorial hours after Everything Everywhere All at Once achieved their Oscars sweep. Every time I refresh my tabs, I see posts on social media from other Asian creators declaring this Our Moment—but that’s not enough for me. Let’s make every moment our moment.
Iori
Tokyo, March 2023
