Welcome to Apex Magazine issue 143.
I’ve been calling this issue the plant body-horror issue for a while now around the Apex offices. Stories filled with rich dirt and growing things and gardens and pain. These stories fit together in a way that made me giddy and excited. And publishing them in March, right as winter is easing its hold on my little corner of the world and as spring’s roots are digging into the soil, felt like perfection. What I didn’t remember when I was building the fiction lineup for this issue was the way all of these stories revolve around really complex family relationships. Whether those are feelings of rejection from a parent, rivalry between siblings, or a child who sees a horrible truth about someone they love for the first time, these stories dare to take the reader to a place that is uncomfortable and honest.
We open the issue with “The Ghost Tenders of Chornobyl.” Ukrainian-born author Nika Murphy wrote this story in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (be sure to read Marissa van Uden’s interview with Nika). I have read this story several times, and every time my heart aches for the main character Sasha. Even though he is a ghost, with war raging in the lands around him and the memories of his father’s inability to accept him, Sasha is stuck. His anger and helplessness leave him unable to move on. This story is beautiful and sad and raw with emotion. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do.
The opening sentence of “Everything in the Garden is Lovely” by Hannah Yang completely took my breath away and set the expectations for the story at an incredibly high level: “Now that I’ve failed as a woman, my punishment is to become a garden.” Fortunately, Yang delivered with an powerful story that scrutinizes societal expectations for womanhood and what it means to be successful. This story is not an easy read—especially if you are someone who struggles with feelings of failure or not being good enough, someone who doesn’t feel like you fit in the role the world is trying to force upon you. But there is a beauty in the pain, and possibly a sense of relief.
“Complete Log of Week 893819—Dana's Story” by Renan Bernardo takes readers to an orphanage that is unlike any you have seen before. The children are cared for by an entity called LAIR that is both inside their heads and in the structures in which they live. The children spend their days telling each other stories about how they will be adopted one day—whether through magical doorways that open in the trees surrounding them or a giant spider. None of them know where their parents went or why, but they hold onto hope that one day they’ll have a family. This story is beautiful in the way it unfolds for the main character Dana and for the reader.
Natasha King’s “Chị Tấm is Tired of Being Dead” is a gloriously macabre fairy tale about the intricacies of sibling relationships and rivalries. This story highlights the cycles that sisters can become trapped in, where love, jealousy, and anger become intertwined and amplified to a point where nothing and no one can interrupt it. The descriptions in this story are visceral and beautiful, and the emotions are sharp.
In “The Ferns and the Fiddleheads,” Leah Ning explores the complexities of child-parent relationships. The lengths one will go to save the other, the intensity of feelings of betrayal and love, and the inner turmoil these can cause. This story is a journey that starts with one step, if you are willing to take it. Fantastic!
For flash fiction, we have Andrew Kozma’s “The End of the Middle,” a surreal piece written for our MIDDLE flash fiction theme, and Lyndsey Croal’s “A Ring Around,” a science fiction piece for our SOLITUDE theme.
Our reprints this issue are by Christopher Caldwell and Eden Royce. Our essays are by Shiv Ramdas and E.D.E. Bell. Marissa van Uden interviews Nika Murphy and Natasha King in our author interviews, and Bradley Powers discusses art with our cover artist Caroline Jamhour.
At the end of 2023, Apex Magazine first reader and drabble king Kai Delmas ran our Holiday Horrors Micro Fiction Contest with the theme of RENEWAL, and the winner and runners-up are in this issue. Congratulations to Kati Bumbera for winning this contest, and to Faith Allington and Circe Moskowitz for being our runners-up. Thank you to everyone who entered.
As always, if you enjoy the work that the Apex team brings to you issue after issue, please consider supporting us financially. We have yearly subscriptions available through the Apex Magazine website, as well as on Weightless Books. You can purchase individual issues wherever you buy your ebooks. Or you can support us on Patreon. Our managing editor Rebecca Treasure does an amazing job of making sure we have exclusive bonus content on Patreon each and every month for our patrons, and there are several tiers to fit a variety of budgets.
Thank you for reading.
Lesley Conner
Editor-in-Chief
