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surelymag.bsky.social
surely magazine
@surelymag.bsky.social
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surelymag.com
formerly Shirley Magazine; still publishing bold, weird fiction writing three times a year; still edited by Colleen Burner and Lauren Perez.
Next submission window: 11/17/25 to 1/20/26
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surelymag.bsky.social
surely magazine @surelymag.bsky.social · 20d
because time collapses over the next couple months, we're opening our reading window a little early—send us your best strange fiction between November 17th and January 10th!
our guidelines and more about what we want can be found at surelymag.com/about
surely will be open for submissions on november 17! surelymag.com/about
surelymag.bsky.social
the window is open!
surelymag.bsky.social surely magazine @surelymag.bsky.social · 20d
because time collapses over the next couple months, we're opening our reading window a little early—send us your best strange fiction between November 17th and January 10th!
our guidelines and more about what we want can be found at surelymag.com/about
surely will be open for submissions on november 17! surelymag.com/about
November 17, 2025 at 7:28 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
issue 27 of surely brought us stories of uncanny loneliness within one's own body or environment, with characters searching for ways out via connection—by Noémi Kiss-Deáki, Kara Crawford, Billie Chang, and Sarah Terez Rosenblum.
revisit it with us at surelymag.com/archive
A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "As he did, to his relief, he heard the cries had changed, there were no sounds of despair or pain coming from the chamber anymore, instead it was as if a bull or cow had taken over the room, nay, something feral; a great feral force was at work in that room. — Noémi Kiss-Deáki, 'The Cuckold' (Issue 27, 2024)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "You tell yourself you'll start practicing unscrewing the crank, just in case something like this happens again, but you get too wrapped up in your classes to really think about it. It stays tightened. There is safety in constriction. The danger is letting loose, is opening yourself up to something trying to burrow and shove its way inside you. — Kara Crawford, 'Chastity Crank' (Issue 27, 2024)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "When he stills, Denise uses two fingers to push his belly and out comes Miss Aquamarine Boom, still whole, her gills fluttering, as if inviting a slice of lemon or stick of herb inside. As if to say, I'm still here, and I hope you're hungry. — Billie Chang, 'You're a Werewolf' (Issue 27, 2024)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "By Monday morning, most of the plant's leaves looked deflated, like someone had pricked them with pins as she slept. She rummaged her purse for her Swiss Army knife. Maybe if she sliced off the dead parts, the plant would revive. — Sarah Terez Rosenblum, 'Hopscotch' (Issue 27, 2024)”
November 16, 2025 at 7:28 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
the window opens soon—just on the other side of this weekend!
surelymag.bsky.social surely magazine @surelymag.bsky.social · 20d
because time collapses over the next couple months, we're opening our reading window a little early—send us your best strange fiction between November 17th and January 10th!
our guidelines and more about what we want can be found at surelymag.com/about
surely will be open for submissions on november 17! surelymag.com/about
November 14, 2025 at 5:16 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
issue 26 was made up of three stories with a mischievous take on ubiquitous life from Laura Wolf Benziker, Suzy Eynon, and Avitus B. Carle—read it at surelymag.com/archive 〰️
A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "The icy wind stings her skin, in a good way. Ah, the blankness of freedom! A shrill cry splits the air. A small girl stands on the walkway by the store, caterwauling at the van that has just driven away without her. — Laura Wolf Benziker, 'Pickup / Drop off' (Issue 26, 2023)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "The surrender of consciousness is what troubles her, this feeling of slipping from the waking world to the dark, and that she is expected to trust this shift each night, no questions asked. Everyone is complicit in the propaganda of sleep. — Suzy Eynon, 'Gerbil Girl' (Issue 26, 2023)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "'Girl,' the weakest of my orgasms grabs the pillow from my bed and holds it between her legs. The others run out of my bedroom, all laughing, all excited and smelling like Cucumber Melon or Warm Vanilla Sugar. — Avitus B. Carle, 'I Keep My Orgasms to Myself' (Issue 26, 2023)”
November 2, 2025 at 6:38 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
because time collapses over the next couple months, we're opening our reading window a little early—send us your best strange fiction between November 17th and January 10th!
our guidelines and more about what we want can be found at surelymag.com/about
surely will be open for submissions on november 17! surelymag.com/about
November 1, 2025 at 5:04 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
our 25th issue was our 1st issue of surely, and it was a little creepy and a lot strange, thanks to Robert Long Foreman, Sophie Campbell, Kerry Anderson...
A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "Karen winced. "You might not want to dive right into Danzig sex. You could try Danzig IV, but even then I'm not sure. Making love to Danzig is for couples who are a little farther along than you two." — Robert Long Foreman, 'Mercy Mercy Mercy Mercy Mercy Mercy Me' (Issue 25, 2023)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "Isla never told me what the spaewife said to her, what she promised, what she planned to do to Elsie. I still don't know how much of the stories about her are true. Eventually, I stopped asking Isla about it at all. — Sophie Campbell, 'Many Moons Will Fall' (Issue 25, 2023)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "I cleared the table, his bowl still full, the pan-fried tilapia surrounded by congealed patches of garlic butter, untouched. A trio of ants floundered in the fibrous soup spill. I scooped spill and ants up in a paper towel. I threw everything away. — Kerry Anderson, 'Desire' (Issue 25, 2023)”
October 26, 2025 at 3:45 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
issue 24 was our last issue of Shirley Magazine—and we couldn't have ended that chapter with a better issue—with four surreal stories from Liz Rosen, James Pate, Benjamin Henry DeVries, and Nicole Chrenek. 〰️
Shirley Magazine lives forever, at surelymag.com/archive
A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "She turned the heart over, examined every part of it. Even through the gloves she could tell the texture was a weird mixture of fibrous muscle and slick innard, the opposite in every way to the flat, defined little emoji they used every day in their 'likes.' — Liz Rosen, 'Ghost Heart' (Issue 24, 2022)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "He had no hair and the ice cream that he had been made from had started to drip into his eyes and run off his nose like sweat. "I'm here, children," he said in a voice that sounded as if he were tired but trying so hard to sound enthused. — James Pate, 'Mister Ice Cream' (Issue 24, 2022)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "Legends die in the spaces between ranches. There are not so many places to commune. The itinerants are charged with passing along legends. They do not always serve. They sometimes stay tight-lipped. — Benjamin Henry DeVries, 'The Angel of Teeth' (Issue 24, 2022)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "I wanted to crawl into her skin and be her, be with her, be the hybrid we were slowly becoming. She kissed me back with the same urgency, as if sensing my panic and realising, yes, we needed to act quickly. — Nicole Chrenek, 'Double, Double' (Issue 24, 2022)”
October 12, 2025 at 5:15 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
one more look into our latest issue for your mid-week reading: with Fractures by Amy DeBellis...
blue text on a cream-colored background reads: My heart does its own little relevé into my throat. I almost rise, but there's nowhere to go—the seats are full on both sides of me, and in order to get out I'd have to fight my way through, wielding my cane in front of me. — Amy DeBellis, "Fractures"
October 8, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by surely magazine
amykdebellis.bsky.social
New story "Fractures" out in @surelymag.bsky.social - about a ballet dancer after a career-ending injury. 🩰https://surelymag.com/fractures
Fractures by Amy DeBellis — surely
surelymag.com
October 4, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by surely magazine
salenacasha.bsky.social
Another feature from @surelymag.bsky.social. do not sleep on this issue surelymag.com/a-story-abou...
October 4, 2025 at 10:11 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
read Walking Tom by Robert Long Foreman: surelymag.com/walking-tom
blue text on a cream-colored background reads: "I'm talking about walking corpses," said Carol. "But it's not so much a thing as an activity. Like, there's no walking corpse. It's not a kind of corpse. It's what you do. Walk the corpse." — Robert Long Foreman, "Walking Tom"
October 2, 2025 at 2:55 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
issue 32 starts with the cozily surreal A Story About a Fire by Salena Casha
surelymag.com/a-story-about-a-fire
blue text on a cream-colored background reads: The screen is haunted by an emerald field or a bouquet of healed coral set somewhere none of us can afford to fly to and subsequently ruin (or maybe, maybe, what I see on the screen isn't even real, but I can't contend with that on a Monday. — Salena Casha, "A Story About a Fire"
September 30, 2025 at 4:26 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
issue 29 has been moved to the archive
surelymag.com/archive 🚪
the cover page of issue 29 of surely magazine, september 2024. author names listed: zeke jarvis, joseph clegg, jennifer walker, nora ray, suzanne miller. all text is a muted sea green over a light clinical green background
September 30, 2025 at 1:33 AM
surelymag.bsky.social
issue 32 is up today, with gleefully disorienting stories from Salena Casha, R.K. West, Robert Long Foreman, and Amy DeBellis 〰️
enjoy, at surelymag.com
surely
surelymag.com
September 29, 2025 at 3:26 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
issue 23 of Shirley Magazine met "what if" with magic in unexpected ways, with stories by Valerie Alexander, Daniel Allen Solomon, Andrew Martin...
A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "The casket was carved with roses on each end, lined with pale blue satin and airtight. No sunlight. Emily could sleep safely in it all day. — Valerie Alexander, 'The October Bed' (Issue 23, 2022)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "The dead man fixes his good eye, the one that wasn't halfway knocked from his skull, the one that isn't bulging, on the living man. Couldn't stand the waste, he says. — Daniel Allen Solomon, 'River' (Issue 23, 2022)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "Then the screws started spelling out words in cursive, like I had learned to do in school earlier that year. But the screws didn't seem interested in communication. Just in how words felt to write. — Andrew Martin, 'Misbehaving Screws' (Issue 23, 2022)”
September 27, 2025 at 11:09 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
Issue 22 of Shirley finds surrealism in the body, in nature, and far-flung pockets of the universe with stories from Kyra Enby, Ashley McCurry, Jessica Wright...
A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "The patient gulps and massages her belly. The doctor's office transforms into a park: pond, trees, sunlight. The color palette should contradict the office as best it can, which shouldn't be hard to do if the graphic designer chooses the inside of a colon for the office. — Kyra Enby, 'As Seen on TV' (Issue 22, 2022)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "The breathwork is intended to stimulate the vagus nerve and desensitize a trauma response, taking my body out of "fight or flight." What she doesn't yet know is that I never actually make it to these crossroads. — Ashley McCurry, 'Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy' (Issue 22, 2022)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "He chuckled like a river breaking on rocks and threw her mind back to a childhood spent on-planet. Social climbers everywhere. Gravity sucking her feet like iron filings to a magnet. — Jessica Wright, 'A Pair of Shoes' (Issue 22, 2022)”
September 21, 2025 at 6:27 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
📣 one more week! send us the stories you found growing in the back of the closet! 📣
surelymag.bsky.social surely magazine @surelymag.bsky.social · Aug 1
the window is OPEN! send us your stories from now until Sept. 15 〰️ guidelines and more can be found at surelymag.com/about
about — surely
surelymag.com
September 8, 2025 at 9:11 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
issue 21 of Shirley has four stories of monsters, hauntings, and the shimmering donkey in your kitchen 🐴 Read the work of Jasmine Sawers, Sarah Batista Pereira, Yael Grunseit, and Christopher Fuller over at surelymag.com/archive 〰️
A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "In Khun Yai's stories, the yaks disguise themselves as beautiful women who ensnare human men or adopt human daughters. They can pretend for a long time, but at the first scent of betrayal, the yaks unhinge their jaws and devour those who love them before the phra-aek arrives to save the day. — Jasmine Sawers, 'The Anchored World' (Issue 21, 2021)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "Everyone wants to live here and only a few people are meant to, so you tear down an old building. Put up a new one. You put people in their places, but you don't think about it—not enough to make it last. — Sarah Batista Pereira, 'Please Understand: the People Before Me Were Bringing the Property Value Down' (Issue 21, 2021)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "Once disassembled she wanted me to fry her in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. She made me picture myself slobbering while gnawing on her leg, letting her greasy light drip down my chin. She instructed me to consume all of her, to let my stomach balloon and growl from fullness. — Yael Grunseit, 'Life: the Abstract Donkey' (Issue 21, 2021)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "His nose, hitherto a vestigial mass of cartilage and half-dead nerves clinging to his face, had awakened. He could smell through the miasma of hot slime in the bag and into the very substance of the building: wood glue, dust, mice. — Christopher Fuller, 'The Wild Hunt' (Issue 21, 2021)”
September 6, 2025 at 4:12 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
this weekend we're time-warping back 4 years to issue 20 of Shirley, with some hot and haunting stories from C. Michael Mincks, Laura Vincent, Richard Helmling, and Jessica Hatch. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

go back in time with us at surelymag.com/archive
A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "Maybe somewhere on Earth there was a shadow the size of a country in our shapes, so vast you could only maybe see it from an airplane or a satellite. — C. Michael Mincks, 'Advent Daybreaks on the Rockabye Pridelands' (Issue 20, 2021)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "I was stuck. Forcibly paused by the horror of it all. Unable to swivel and leave, or to move forwards with intent. Her bloody fingers appeared around my neck with impressive deliberacy. — Laura Vincent, 'Beach Festival' (Issue 20, 2021)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "A smudge of dark brown was dried blood. A gelatinous blob was a swollen eye. The blue bunting was a shirt. And the whole thing was a human body. — Richard Helmling, 'Bloom' (Issue 20, 2021)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "She showed up when and where her agent told her to, focused solely on conducting the way a puppeteer manipulated strings, pulling music from the bows and reeds of a great, human instrument. — Jessica Hatch, 'Toscanini in the Plague Year' (Issue 20, 2021)”
August 31, 2025 at 7:40 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
the submission window is still open—won't you throw your story through it, like a soft breeze or perhaps a nice rock? there's just under a month left to show us your strange fiction for issue 32 🪨💨
surelymag.bsky.social surely magazine @surelymag.bsky.social · Aug 1
the window is OPEN! send us your stories from now until Sept. 15 〰️ guidelines and more can be found at surelymag.com/about
about — surely
surelymag.com
August 20, 2025 at 2:42 AM
surelymag.bsky.social
today we're looking back at issue 19 of Shirley, which is packed to the gills with flash fiction by Travis D. Roberson, Lucie Bonvalet, Fortunato Salazar...
A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "Every night the trash can fills with locusts, their stiffened bodies crinkling like candy wrappers. Some of them explode beneath her heels, leaving behind streaks of yellow guts. — Travis D. Roberson, 'Fertile' (Issue 19, 2021)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "Black hats, amaranth and tan bras, gazar slacks, small brass clasps, damp arms and palms, strass, mascara. Tall dark plants, small brass lamps, black and smalt walls, bad art, haggard masks, warm Pall Mall ash. — Lucie Bonvalet, 'Alas, Ada' (Issue 19, 2021)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "they stocked the pantry, a facility, one vat nurtured an oracle, the oracle ate, shat, so did caddie. — Fortunato Salazar, 'MA' (Issue 19, 2021)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "the boy, good grief, their body, such as it was, a thing not unlike a corporeal form, rounded, shell discoloration, not unlike freckles, other discoloration not entirely unlike human, anyway within the realm — Fortunato Salazar, 'NJ' (Issue 19, 2021)”
August 17, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by surely magazine
surelymag.bsky.social
the window is OPEN! send us your stories from now until Sept. 15 〰️ guidelines and more can be found at surelymag.com/about
about — surely
surelymag.com
August 1, 2025 at 5:31 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
the window is OPEN! send us your stories from now until Sept. 15 〰️ guidelines and more can be found at surelymag.com/about
about — surely
surelymag.com
August 1, 2025 at 5:31 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
we're taking a look back at Shirley's 18th issue, with stories by Tariq Shah, Noa Covo, and Meghan Louise Wagner that take on unique relationships between people and animals (& people becoming animals).
read it at surelymag.com/archive!
A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "As the weeks passed, the alligator's original purpose became vague to Dylan. Susan never really cared to understand in the first place. — Tariq Shah, 'Homeless Hearts' (Issue 18, 2020)” A white background with two thin black outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, black text reads: "'What if,' she asks, 'what if we meet someone we used to know, in the wild?' 'We won't remember,' the brunette replies. 'It could be our very own child and we wouldn't know.' The women sigh collectively in relief. — Noa Covo, 'The Waiting Room' (Issue 18, 2020)” A black background with two thin white outlines of circles overlapping. Inside the circles, white text reads: "His black eyes glisten and become round, his small nose and mouth take shape, I can see his teeth when he smiles. I sit on toilets and press his sharp nose into the skin on my neck and something about the pressure makes me able to breathe. — Meghan Louise Wagner, 'Lucky Piggy' (Issue 18, 2020)”
July 27, 2025 at 6:41 PM
surelymag.bsky.social
somehow it's just a week away—our next submission window is August 1 through September 15!
guidelines and desires can be found at surelymag.com/about
surely will be open for submissions in one week (August 1!) surelymag.com/about
July 25, 2025 at 3:02 PM