Go small and go home.

In our call for FamPunk, this was one of the guidelines. It is something that many of our submitters responded to, and referenced directly in their cover letters. Go small and go home.

So many spec fic stories go big. They get larger and larger, up to and involving saving the world/galaxy/universe. They expand and expand, and… then what? Who ever really gets to be a main character in that story? Can you really imagine yourself there? And, is the science/fantasy element really important to the story, or is it just the same old hero story dressed up in spaceships and lasers?

In this issue, we wanted to subvert some of the assumptions built into sci-fi and fantasy, the need to be expansive and overblown.

Science fiction and fantasy has its established norms, the things we expect to see. We wanted to see something different. That quest for subversion is the essence of “punk.” While it’s been argued in some social channels that the term “punk” is overused, we wanted to uplift anti-establishment, non-conforming, rule-breaking approaches to speculative fiction writing.

Rather than the hero’s journey, rather than big grand adventures, we sought out stories that embrace mundanity, everydayness, families of all shapes and creations. We wanted to bring some closeness to genre fiction.

When the large institutions fail us, it is the smaller units that see us through. The families, in all their shapes and sizes, joys and annoyances.  Assembled families, imagined families, godly families. Nuclear families and mechanical families. Across all submissions, it was fascinating to see how authors interpreted ‘family,’ and how they wove those concepts into their writing.

FamPunk isn’t a subgenre that existed before now, and it’s not something that necessarily needs to exist after. It’s not a new category that has to come sweeping through. It’s just a way of playing with ideas, questioning norms, and featuring other kinds of stories. We think the stories in this edition do a beautiful job of combining the two things. They give us characters who exist in alternate worlds/sciences/magics, and they make us care about their small concerns. Their everyday lives. The little things, small, at home, and so very important to the characters.

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Ⓒ Emma Burnett