Pulp Literature Summer 2022: Issue 35

In this issue ... It’s summertime, and the water’s fine … or is it? ‘Collector’ by cover artist Akem beckons us beneath the surface and between the pages. But in ‘A Collection of Secrets’ by feature author Rhea Rose and ‘The Island’ by M Denise Beaton, we discover that some treasures are better left hidden.

Back on shore, summer brings around friends both new and old in ‘Audrey and the Crow’ by Cadence Mandybura, ‘The Two Oh Four Six’ by Dustin Moon, ‘Floaters’ by Kevin Sandefur, and ‘Whispers in Between My Shoulder Blades’ by Christine Breede.

Shapeshifers in ‘Shadow Work’ by Soramimi Hanarejima and ‘Gwannyn’s Song’ by JM Landels show us the secret to sacrifice. And families come together, reshaped, in Kaile Shilling’s SiWC honourable mention, ‘Death and Laughter’.

Allison Bannister in ‘The Play’s the Thing’ and Mel Anastasiou in ‘Pretty Lies: Hold On’ draw inspiration from the classics. And poetry from Dawn Macdonald and Yuan Changming reminds us that love is classic too.

Rhea Rose has published many Canadian speculative short-fiction stories and poems. She is a three-time Aurora Award nominee, and is currently nominated a fourth time, for her editorial work and writing in Polar Starlight, an online zine of speculative poetry by Canadian authors. Her story 'The Gamogue' appears in Pulp Literature Issue 12, Autumn 2016.

JM Landels is the author of the bestselling Allaigna's Song trilogy, the final book of which, Allaigna's Song: Chorale, is now available from Pulp Literature Press. 'Gwannyn's Song' tells the story of Allaigna's grandfather's second wife, Gwannyn Doristi. When asked why she chose to write this piece, Jen told us, "Gwannyn was cast in the role of wicked stepmother against her will. She wanted me to tell her true story." Reader beware: here there be spoilers. You can find @jmlandels on most social media platforms and at jmlandels.stiffbunnies.com.

Mel Anastasiou is a novel acquisitions and story editor with Pulp Literature Press, and she co-founded Pulp Literature magazine in 2013. Mel helps writers develop through her structural editing, her popular 'Writing Muse' Twitter feed, and two workbooks, The Writer's Boon Companion: Thirty Days Towards an Extraordinary Manuscript and The Writer's Friend and Confidante: Thirty Days of Narrative Achievement. Her fiction includes the Hertfordshire Pub Mysteries, the Monument Studio Mysteries, and the Stella Ryman Mysteries, for which she won a Literary Titan Gold book award and was longlisted for the Leacock Medal.