Guest Editor: CX Reader, Chris Corlew (bio follows)
The world is a bummer right now: We’re living through the sixth mass extinction in our planet’s history. Plant and animal species are dying off. New environmental conditions are being created. There’s an island of trash in the Pacific. Viruses that predate humanity are thawing out, the old becoming new again in life-threatening ways. Algae blooms in underwater ecosystems are changing which species thrive there.
But… at least we can write through it?
Writing is often a way to cope with things we don’t understand, a way to explore solutions, a way to underscore something fundamentally human that has no choice but to shine in hard times.
As the world is being reshaped before our eyes—largely thanks to human activity—do new monsters emerge? Is the old new again? And in what ways? How do we mourn the loss of what was?
“Cryptids and Climate Change” is a short way of saying we want horror and sci-fi/fantasy. We want elegies, surrealist prose poems, writing that tangles with an uncertain landscape. We’re upping the word count limit from 1,500 to 2,500 this month, so let some long fiction sing. This doesn’t have to be a doom-and-gloom issue. We can find some hope in the future, too. Just please: surprise us with your imagination and curiosity.
SUBMIT HERE! (Submission cap is 100; ends September 2)
Chris Corlew is a writer and musician living in Chicago. He has been a contributor at Cracked.com and Mental Floss and has been published in Vagabond City, Whiskey Tit Journal, and Cotton Xenomorph. With Bob Sykora, he co-hosts The Line Break, a podcast about poetry and basketball. With Brendan Johnson, he is one-half of Lazy & Entitled, a musical project and writing collaboration. He can be found on blogging at shipwreckedsailor.substack.com or on Twitter @thecorlew.