The Axe & Quill Anthology Vol. II is the culmination of 20 writing contributions from the UNC Charlotte 2023-2024 academic year. Each contributor is a member of The Axe & Quill Writing Society. Through poetry, prose, and research, this anthology explores how we have come to conceptualize and cope with living before the end of the world, or as we call it, the “pre-apocalypse.” We have been and will continue to live in this era. For our entire lives, there has been a sense of impending doom, with the threat of disaster in the back of our minds. But the world isn’t over yet. This anthology features a looming end of days in the form of eldritch gods, hate, environmental crises, and war that could happen tomorrow or beyond our lifetimes.