Abyss & Apex

Our mission is to publish the finest in human-written (no AI!) speculative and imaginative fiction and poetry, with special attention to character-driven stories that examine the depths and heights of emotion and motivation from a broad variety of cultural and social perspectives. A&A wants to publish powerful stories that resonate in our minds and hearts long after a first reading, stories that make us want to read them again and again. We look for the unique: stories that stand out in a genre that pushes the envelope of unusual. We take special delight in detailed world-building: we like slipstream, YA, hypertext fiction, dark fantasy, science fiction puzzle stories, magical realism, hard science fiction, soft science fiction, science fantasy, urban fantasy, military science fiction, ghost stories, space opera, cyberpunk, steampunk . . . there is very little we will not look at, although we have a severe allergy to zombies, elves, retold fairy tales, sports, westerns, werewolves, vampires, and gratuitous sex and violence. We also are not interested in severely political stories, whether slanted left or right. No politics. We have no subject/topic preference, beyond a requirement that the work have a speculative element. We are happy to read stories that don’t quite seem to fit elsewhere.

Abyss & Apex likes to see strong, emotionally resonant, literary-quality poetry with a clear speculative element (fantasy, science fiction, or surrealism in any combination. Although dark poems are encouraged, we DO NOT publish horror). There are no format or length restrictions for poetry (but try to refrain from epic-length works. Our love of poetry exceeds the space and funds we have to publish it, so acceptances for publication are highly competitive. Chopped-up prose, forced rhymes, and work with no rhythm has little chance for acceptance. Humor is fine, but the piece should still have literary merit (in both length and literary depth). Clever, cutesy poems will have to offer much more to be published. We strongly encourage that you read work in recent past issues and our senior poetry editor’s editorial focus discussed in his introduction. Poetry from its wondrous diversity of poets is welcomed from anyone regardless of cultural, social, religious, political, or any other demographic difference, but in no way does anything but the crafting of the poem itself, consistent with our aesthetics and editorial focus, will be considered in any rubric implemented to determine acceptance.