Apex Magazine is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction. Double issue special! EDITORIAL Words from the Editor-in-Chief—Jason Sizemore FICTION Asylum of Cuckoos — Lila Bowen To Blight a Fig Tree Before It Bears Fruit — Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley A Night Out at a Nice Place — Nick Mamatas The Heaven-Moving Way — Chi Hui Symphony to a city under the stars — Armando Saldaña The Ghost Stories We Tell Around Photon Fires — Cassandra Khaw The Best Friend We Never Had — Nisi Shawl Origin Story — T. Kingfisher NONFICTION Interview with Lila Bowen (Delilah S. Dawson) — Andrea Johnson Interview with Cover Artist Daniele Serra — Russel Dickerson Orrin Evans: The Pioneer of Black Comic Book Publishing — Shawn Pryor Fear of Failure 2.0 — Damien Angelica Walters POETRY Treebound — Mary Soon Lee Monster: Puppeteer — Mary Soon Lee the saddest of angels — Jeremy Paden COLUMNS Between the Lines with Laura Zats and Erik Hane Page Advice with Mallory O'Meara and Brea Grant