West Trade Review
@westtradereview.bsky.social
Publishing the best contemporary fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry since 2009. Literary magazine based out of Charlotte, NC. https://westtradereview.com/
“That first night I still remember the moon, white and distant and radiant.” Excerpt from Jacqueline Kolosov’s “The Month Before a Book is Born,” new on our Substack, Roots & Words. Read the full piece at the link below: buff.ly/kRZWoaX #WritingCommunity #BookTok #SmallPress
“wandering not in time but of time of a lost boy in the sedge of adulthood: hold boy abandon boy” Excerpt from “beyond animal instinct, I” by Liam Leslie. It is forthcoming in the Fall 2026 collection of Online Exclusives. Listen to Liam read the full poem: buff.ly/SpRV3dM #WritingCommunity
Submissions open. Send us your best short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Before submitting, please review our submission guidelines at the link below: buff.ly/1onqFYC #WritingCommunity #AmWriting
“As a kid I’d take a blanket way out into the yard and I’d just look at the stars and I’d cry.” Excerpt from Willie Carver Jr.'s “Ars Audiendi,” forthcoming in the Fall 2026 collection of Online Exclusives. Full poem below: buff.ly/4O8tS0V #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #LitMag #Poetry
"Poetry's lifeblood is its against-all-odds idiosyncratic nature and its obstinacy in the face of the myriad pressures to be anything else or sound any other way than the way it does. That's what makes poetry queer. That's what makes poetry useful."
“Each prose poem fractal spreads, folds over one another, and interweaves in stupendous forms.” Excerpt from review of Ampersand Organ by heidi andrea restrepo rhodes, new from @milkweed.bsky.social. Full review: buff.ly/ZevTP4F #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #ProsePoetry #NewWork #BookTok
“By the silence of the milky way & temple bells, I hear your sharp breath in my ear.” Excerpt from “the wilderness” by Kandala Singh. It is forthcoming in the Fall 2026 collection of Online Exclusives. Details below: buff.ly/H5OeTGr #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriterSky
West Trade Review seeks essays that explore the idea of inheritances. We are not looking for family memoir, nor for essays on the mechanism of transmission. In other words, don't show us how it got to you. Show us how you carried and dealt with what you didn't choose. buff.ly/Ntxllih #LitMag
“At times the speaker’s proximity to loss is suffocating; at others, speakers evince an even greater discomfort from a sense of cosmic loneliness.” Excerpt from review of Emily Skaja’s "Black Lake," new from @graywolfpress. buff.ly/qaS3KzC #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriterSky
“At times the speaker’s proximity to loss is suffocating; at others, speakers evince an even greater discomfort from a sense of cosmic loneliness.” Excerpt from review of Emily Skaja’s "Black Lake," new from @graywolfpress. buff.ly/qaS3KzC #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriterSky
“My mother's brain is a book with pages turning themselves.” This week’s #FlashbackFriday is Janine A.Willis’s “Ice Cubes That Remember Champagne.” It appeared in the Winter 2025 edition. Read the full story at the link below: buff.ly/Z95ShM8 #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #LitMag
“Each prose poem fractal spreads, folds over one another, and interweaves in stupendous forms.” Excerpt from review of Ampersand Organ by heidi andrea restrepo rhodes, new from @milkweed.bsky.social. Full review: buff.ly/ZevTP4F #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #ProsePoetry #NewWork #BookTok
"Poetry's lifeblood is its against-all-odds idiosyncratic nature and its obstinacy in the face of the myriad pressures to be anything else or sound any other way than the way it does. That's what makes poetry queer. That's what makes poetry useful."
Get inspired. Connect with other readers and writers. Become an annual subscriber to our Substack, Roots & Words, and receive a complimentary copy of our spring print edition of West Trade Review or become a free subscriber to our newsletter. buff.ly/Ntxllih #WritingCommunity #LitMag
“With every little death of the self that Nguyen explores, and with every dark night of the soul, comes the promise of dawn and rebirth.” Excerpt from the review of “The Between The Self and Other” by Hieu Minh Nguyen, new from @tinhouse.bsky.social. buff.ly/GSu0FqN #WritingCommunity #AmWriting
West Trade Review seeks essays that explore the idea of inheritances. We are not looking for family memoir, nor for essays on the mechanism of transmission. In other words, don't show us how it got to you. Show us how you carried and dealt with what you didn't choose. buff.ly/Ntxllih #LitMag
“The truth Petrou offers is that each of us is driven by our own wants and disappointments, an age-old story set against a modern campus landscape.” Excerpt from review of Laurie Petrou’s The Rayburn Affair, new from @houseofanansi.bsky.social. buff.ly/9mdoC9t #WritingCommunity #AmWriting
“As a kid I’d take a blanket way out into the yard and I’d just look at the stars and I’d cry.” Excerpt from Willie Carver Jr.'s “Ars Audiendi,” forthcoming in the Fall 2026 collection of Online Exclusives. Full poem below: buff.ly/4O8tS0V #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #LitMag #Poetry
The finished book. Spine of the Hug: Poems by Alec Hershman. Available for presale at the link below: buff.ly/JcfiEJf #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #SpineOfTheHug #SmallPress #DebutPoetry
Seeking poems that perform Olympic feats with language that leave the reader in wonder while referring to the basic things that make us human. We want powerful imagery and the juxtaposition of images in unexpected ways. Aug.'s theme is being alone. buff.ly/r0mqE09 #WritingCommunity #AmWriting
“By the silence of the milky way & temple bells, I hear your sharp breath in my ear.” Excerpt from “the wilderness” by Kandala Singh. It is forthcoming in the Fall 2026 collection of Online Exclusives. Details below: buff.ly/H5OeTGr #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriterSky
Submissions open. Send us your best short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Before submitting, please review our submission guidelines at the link below: buff.ly/L31Rqgy #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #SubmitWork
"To be in between requires a softening that isn’t a giving up but more of a yielding," -Jacqueline Kolosov, author of Motherhood, and the Places B_e_tween (Iron Oak Editions, 2026). Due out October 6th. Preorder at the link below: buff.ly/hfBpNKQ #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriterSky
We are seeking poems that perform Olympic feats with language that leave the reader in wonder while still referring back to the basic things that make us human. August’s theme of turning points. September's upcoming theme is on being alone. buff.ly/wuwkk42 #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriterSky
West Trade Review seeks essays that explore the idea of inheritances. We are not looking for family memoir, nor for essays on the mechanism of transmission. In other words, don't show us how it got to you. Show us how you carried and dealt with what you didn't choose. buff.ly/Ntxllih #LitMag
“As a way of entering a room, say no to the amplified leaves, to the eyes that land as they do” Excerpt from Alec Hershman “From the Courtyard,” from his collection, Spine of the Hug, forthcoming September 15th. Listen to him read at the link below:
Get inspired. Connect with other readers and writers. Become an annual subscriber to our Substack, Roots & Words, and receive a complimentary copy of our spring print edition of West Trade Review or become a free subscriber to our newsletter. Details at the link below: buff.ly/kBVvMcA #LitMag
“His own poems are mostly candy. His own poems are mostly cat. His own poetry is mostly this is not.” Excerpt from David Ward’s “Intarsia.” It is forthcoming in the Fall 2026 collection of Online Exclusives. Read the full poem at the link below: buff.ly/0BzV4h0 #WritingCommunity #AmWriting
“The author examines what it means to act in a world with limitless hope and potential.” Excerpt from review of Claudia Rankine’s Triage, new from @graywolf.bsky.social. Read the full review at the link below: buff.ly/LZFIWMX #Bookstagram #BookReview
