There are different ways to categorize and define punk genres, and since we’re doing an anthology of punk genre stories, I thought it a good idea to outline how we at Schreyer Ink define them.
- A punk genre takes the tech, culture, and aesthetic of a specific place and time period and builds on it, generally expanding it into an alternate future/history
- Punk genres can take place at any time in history and in any culture
- There is generally a light paranormal or occult element, or some mention of cryptids (as real or mythological within the story’s universe)
- Most importantly, punk genres are about exploring what ifs
There are multiple punk genres, each based on different time periods, and often, the science fiction of a specific decade ages into the punk genre for its decade.
As you can see from these two charts, different people order them differently, name them differently, and divide them differently.
Most people agree that steampunk, the most common punk genre, is Victorian themed, with steam power, corsets, earth tone colours, leather, etc. While it’s often listed as the first, you can reach back further and do steel punk (knights in armor), stone punk (stone age), or any other pre-Victorian era. (Shakespeare Punk anyone?) We include Clockwork in our definition of Steampunk.
From there it gets confusing, so here is OUR categories, and what we mean by them:
- Diesel Punk – Industrial revolution and the birth of the Diesel Engine. Can include WW1. Oil and gas powered but early-stage engines. This tends to be a grubby, gritty genre with child labour, poverty, and war as major themes. Check out the video game “Dishonoured” for one version of Diesel Punk.
- Deco Punk – The roaring twenties, dirty thirties, and early forties in the Golden Age of Hollywood. The video game BioShock does a great job of this with the art-deco setting of the underwater city. This has a lot of glitz and glamour and hope to it.
- Atom Punk – Late 40s into the 50s. This is both pre-war atomic power and post war atomic wasteland. Think Leave it to Beaver but with science fiction elements. Fallout has mastered this genre, combining gritty post-war wastelands with the suburbia aesthetic of our WWII and post war eras. If pre-war or an AU where WWII never happens, this is a cheery genre. If post war, it’s wasteland with a homey touch.
- Ray Punk – we put this in the 60s, in the golden age of science fiction. Ray Bradbury, Flash Gordan – ray guns, bubble space helmets and impossible space suits, walking on Mars. This is bright and cheery, hopeful, exploration, larger than life heroes, great leaps forward.
- Cassette Futurism – a great name for 70s inspired punk. Think Videodrome. We’re talking science fiction where cassette and VHS and big switch boards still rule. Look at Rogue One too, how they have to transport a large, chunky, physical storage device instead of just beaming the information over. This one can go either way, between gritty and upbeat.
- Cyber Punk – we’re back to gritty with the 80s inspired tech and grunge culture. Blade Runner is a perfect example, as is William Gibson’s work. Basic computers are all the rage and we can do ANYTHING with them. Holoscreens and projectors, early wireless communication, big hair, big shoulder pads, neon everything, dirty grungy everything.
- Bio Punk – I’m sure you could set it in any era, but we’re looking at 80s onward with a specific focus on medical advances – new spins on Frankenstein’s monster, plagues, viral outbreaks, whatever. Take a specific medical “almost” and make it a huge break through and imagine a future based on that.
- Nano Punk – It’s like the mechanical punk aspects of Steam and Diesel on steroids. Instead of focusing on computers or medical the focus is on nano bots, nano tech, and robotics. Again, take place any time after the 80s and stretch forward from there.
- Cyber Punk – Ready Player One, Lawn Mower Man, Max Headroom. From the mid 90s on, this punk genre focuses on the internet and VR.
- Splatter Punk – can take place at any time, and can be combined with any other punk genre or stand alone. More paranormal/cryptid content, or make the human the monster. This is the bizarro, horror, slasher fest of the punk genres
- Magic Punk – you know how you have magical realism or urban fantasy? stories that take a modern setting and add old fantasy elements to it? Magic Punk is the opposite. It’s classical fantasy settings with modern elements added to it – like magical movie theatres, teen girl magazines, sports competitions, etc. Want a prime example? Read The Ballad of Mable Goldenaxe
- Green Punk – anything that takes a green tech innovation and projects us into a sustainable, hope-filled future. This is springing up in response to the totalitarian dystopian sci-fis with starvation and pollution and vast wastelands and disease (which I’m sure will become it’s own punk genre once it stops being current – maybe Death Punk, or Tyranny Punk … I don’t know, I’m horrible at this). I honestly put Star Trek here – green tech, world peace, no further dependency on money, cures for diseases, universal health care … grab any of that and run with it, grab solar, wind, whatever. This is also being labled Hippy Punk or Granola Punk – so grab your off grid communes and imagine a future for them.
As you can see, there’s a lot of variation and choice here. Most often, punk genres are born out of dominant cultures (UK, USA), but it doesn’t have to. We’d love to see other punk genres, like Samurai Punk, Afro Punk, anything not set in UK/US based worlds.
Remember, our submission period opens December 1. We’ll be choosing stories based on originality, the ability to hook us and draw us in, staying in-genre, ability to follow submission guidelines, and technical writing ability.
If you’re not sure, submit anyways. We do accept both multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions of new stories and reprints.
We look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Schreyer Ink Publishing 