Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner
Apex Magazine 2021
ISBN TPB 9781955765060
544 pages
With stories by Alix E. Harrow, Sam J. Miller, Sheree Renée Thomas, Cassandra Khaw, and many more, Apex Magazine 2021 is a collection of darkly beautiful tales appearing originally in Apex Magazine January-December 2021. From a spaceship in the far-flung reaches of space to a cozy living room where a detective interviews a killer, this anthology explores the good and the ugly. It dissects what makes us human versus what makes us monsters.
Within these pages, you will meet a golem that doesn’t know how to save its family, a group of robots debating whether they are alive, and a woman striving for that social media-perfect life. From parasitic twins to a hospital dreamscape, to a town full of people wearing masks, this anthology will take you on journeys you never could have expected.
Come with us and discover the 48 surreal, strange, shocking, and beautiful stories in Apex Magazine 2021.
Table of Contents
“Root Rot” — Fargo Tbakhi
“Your Own Undoing” — P H Lee
“Love, That Hungry Thing” — Cassandra Khaw
“Mr. Death” — Alix E. Harrow
“The Niddah” — Elana Gomel
“All I Want for Christmas” — Charles Payseur
“Gray Skies, Red Wings, Blue Lips, Black Hearts” — Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
“Barefoot and Midnight” — Sheree Renée Thomas
“The Amazing Exploding Women of the Early Twentieth Century” — A.C. Wise
“Black Box of the Terraworms” — Barton Aikman
“If Those Ragged Feet Won’t Run” — Annie Neugebauer
“A Love That Burns Hot Enough to Last: Deleted Scenes From a Documentary” — Sam J. Miller
“The Life and Death of Mia Fremont: An Interview with a Killer” — A.K. Hudson
“This Is the Moment, Or One of Them” — Mari Ness
“Throw Rug” — Aurelius Raines II
“Mishpokhe and Ash” — Sydney Rossman-Reich
“All This Darkness” — Jennifer R. Donohue
“DEMON FIGHTER SUCKS” — Katherine Crighton
“Eilam Is Forever” — Beth Dawkins
“Without Wishes to Bind You” — E. Catherine Tobler
“How to be Good” — R. Gatwood
“Osu” — Kingsley Okpii
“Survival, After” — Nicole J. LeBoeuf
“What Sisters Take” — Kelly Sandoval
“Cottonmouth” — Joelle Wellington
“Next to Cleanliness” — Rose Keating
“Discontinuity” — Jared Millet
“Candyland” — Maggie Slater
“Gift for the Cutter Man” — D. Thomas Minton
“Wake Up, I Miss You” — Rachel Swirsky
“Security Breach at Sugar Pine Suites” — Pamela Rentz
“Happy Trails” — Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr.
“Marked by Bears” — Jessie Loyer
“Spirits of the Broken Lands” — Kevin Wabaunsee
“When Evening Arrives” — Tiffany Morris
“An Incident at Hellpoint Prime” — Norris Black
“To Seek Himself Again” — Marie Croke
“This Shattered Vessel, Which Holds Only Grief” — Izzy Wasserstein
“In Haskins” — Carson Winter
“Whose Mortal Taste” — Erin K. Wagner
“Hank in the South Dakota Sun” — Stephanie Kraner
“I Call Upon the Night as Witness” — Zahra Mukhi
“Soil of Our Home, Storm of Our Lives” — Renan Bernardo
“Robin’s Last Song” — Nina Munteanu
“Godmother” — Cheryl S. Ntumy
“The synchronism of touch” — Gabriela Damián Miravete
“Dreamports” — Tlotlo Tsamaase
“Samsāra in a Teacup” — Lavanya Lakshminarayan
Reviews
"Apex Magazine 2021 as a book is a gripping collection of obscure and compelling short stories. The international cast of authors is equally diverse as their tales. Many of the writers are best-selling and prize-winning."
—San Francisco Book Review
"Apex Magazine 2021 edited by Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner is a fantastic collection from one of the best literary magazines online today. These stories are beautiful, fun, heartbreaking, entertaining, and worth your time. Highly recommended."
—Eric Primm
About the Editors
Jason Sizemore is the publisher and former editor-in-chief of Apex Magazine. He has been editing for nearly 20 years and in that time has picked up numerous major award-nominations for his work. Currently, he lives in Lexington, KY, where he futilely tries to convince the locals that science fiction is far more fun than thoroughbred racing. Find him online at jason-sizemore.com.
Lesley Conner is the editor-in-chief of Apex Magazine. She lives in Maryland where she leads the local Girl Scout troop, taking them to frequent forays into the eastern wilds. You can follow her online via Twitter @lesleyconner.
Cover art by Marcela Bolívar
Apex Book Company
Provocative. Entertaining. Fantastical.