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vastchasmmag.bsky.social
Vast Chasm Magazine
@vastchasmmag.bsky.social
660 followers 200 following 190 posts
cultivating community and publishing bold work: flash, short fiction, cnf, poetry, and other nonconforming pieces
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vastchasmmag.bsky.social
Feeling disconnected? Have we got a remedy for you!

Sink your crab claws into the interactive NYT-style Connections game from our latest issue
vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/i...
Issue 16 Interactive by Vast
The world is a whole lot less lonely when you’re making connections. Create groups of four using some important words from the pieces in this issue. With this Connections game, we wanted you to get…
vastliterarypress.org
October 26, 2025 at 5:31 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
@ianli.bsky.social so good!
October 25, 2025 at 12:18 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
"First came the birds, flapping in the same futile way I do when I swim—unable to make headway against the inexorable pull of a strange, incomprehensible physics.”
— Ian Li, “When the Sky Tumbled Down” in 25Q4

vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...
When the Sky Tumbled Down
First came the birds, flapping in the same futile way I do when I swim—unable to make headway against the inexorable pull of a strange, incomprehensible physics. I ached to help them, but my manage…
vastliterarypress.org
October 25, 2025 at 12:16 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
“I don’t have to tell you that I was the younger brother, or that after that birthday I always got a present on Luke’s birthday.”
— Zach Edson, “By My Own Hand” in 25Q4

vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...
By My Own Hand
Three facts. One: when researchers leave a man alone in a room for fifteen minutes, with a button they can press in order to shock themselves, two-thirds will—bzzt—press the button. Two: while I wa…
vastliterarypress.org
October 25, 2025 at 2:54 AM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
“they said my great-grandmother
taught herself to read by whispering
hymns backward into a jar.”
— Carrie Farrar, “I Am the Twitch in the Family Line” in 25Q4

vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...
I Am the Twitch in the Family Line
they said my great-grandmothertaught herself to read by whisperinghymns backward into a jar.kept snakes in the stove,sucked pennies clean for luck.the men said she was feeble.the women said, nervou…
vastliterarypress.org
October 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
“M.’s first week, you teach her to prune tomatoes: how to choose one or two promising stems to trellis and prune the rest. At first this feels like butchery, but then you learn it’s more like mercy.”
— Sara Sherburne, “The Bleeding Edge” in 25Q4

vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...
The Bleeding Edge
You shift on M’s bed to sit cross-legged, a little closer to her. Her hair is creeping into a mullet, the kind that sneaks up on you during the grow-out. Candlelight paints her leg hairs gold. You …
vastliterarypress.org
October 22, 2025 at 3:00 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
“I tried it all. Boxes arrived from Alaska, from Maine, from Maryland. I developed a loyalty to my crustaceans of choice.”
— Juliet Way-Henthorne, “To All the Crabs I’ve Loved Before” in 25Q4
vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...
To All the Crabs I’ve Loved Before
It feels time to share the pandemic story no one asked for.  Other single women learned to bake sourdough. Some learned French. Some learned to make perfect little ice cubes with flowers froze…
vastliterarypress.org
October 21, 2025 at 5:32 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
“Outside, I watch boys hang loose as marionettes / on a dying earth beneath a dying sun.”

— @mattroywriter.bsky.social, “I’m in Our Coffee Shop” in 25Q4

vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...
I’m in Our Coffee Shop
The young man at the next table is evangelizingto another young man.He is arguing we might live in a simulation.Something about light not behaving intuitively.He’s on to Lazarus and The Screwtape L…
vastliterarypress.org
October 20, 2025 at 4:27 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
We have new CNF from Sara Sherburne coming your way soon. Gear up with “How Embracing My Challenges Helped Me Through the Chaos” @thriveglobal.bsky.social

community.thriveglobal.com/how-embracin...
How Embracing My Challenges Helped Me Through the Chaos - Thrive Global
After my lymphoma diagnosis blasted open my world at 25, I learned the potential for purpose and autonomy to support my well-being.
community.thriveglobal.com
October 17, 2025 at 11:52 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
We’ll have a new poem by Carrie Farrar in our next issue, but first, indulge in “A Dance With Rumination” in The Art of Autism magazine.

the-art-of-autism.com/a-dance-with...
A Dance with Rumination
By Carrie Farrar My mind is moving rapidly My thoughts, a reverie Of frantic worries entertained Despite the calm I see. ___________________________ My
the-art-of-autism.com
October 16, 2025 at 11:39 AM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
We’ll have new prose from Zach Edson in our upcoming issue. If, understandably, you can’t wait, turn your attention to “A Signal Echoing through Radiospace” in On the Premises.

onthepremises.com/issues/issue...
Issue #45, Third Place | On the Premises
Fiction Magazine
onthepremises.com
October 15, 2025 at 2:05 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
You’re going to want to grab a cup of coffee and enjoy new poetry from @mattroywriter.bsky.social, coming soon. In the meantime, sit by the campfire and “Tell Me the Story of Something Ending” @havenspec.bsky.social
www.havenspec.com/tell-me-the-...
Tell Me the Story of Something Ending by Matthew Roy, Haven Spec Magazine
Fiction and Poetry for the 21st Century!
www.havenspec.com
October 15, 2025 at 4:09 AM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
Don't panic, but the sky will be falling in the upcoming flash from @ianli.bsky.social. Until then, get a little nostalgic about corded phones with "not tied down" out of @strangehorizons.bsky.social

strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...
not tied down
they say spacewalks are safer than ever
strangehorizons.com
October 13, 2025 at 7:13 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
You're going to want to sink your crab claws into Juliet Way-Henthorne's CNF, but start by getting to know a bit more and checking out "The Quiet"

jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/25/g...
The Quiet by Juliet Way-Henthorne
I’ve sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Casey through all the sad movies of the last six years. We were the last two in the theater downtown, the last place playing The Boy and the Heron. I felt her heart ...
www.hobartpulp.com
October 12, 2025 at 6:47 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
We were excited to learn Harriet Weaver has a new piece coming out in the Roanoke Review next month! While you wait, revisit her poem “To the Girl Working at the Tea Shop in Provincetown”
vastliterarypress.org/2025/07/20/w...
To the Girl Working at the Tea Shop in Provincetown
I asked you about the novel you were readingand realized too late I was flirting,despite wearing an oversized nautical sweaterand a fanny pack designed to carrya child around my postpartum fat. You…
vastliterarypress.org
October 10, 2025 at 8:25 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
Leave your baggage behind and take a trip on over to Meeting House to read “MIA” by Sara Rauch

www.meetinghousemag.org/stories/mia
MIA —Meetinghouse Literary Journal
“We’ll deliver it as soon as it turns up. I’ll need your name and a description of a few items inside the missing piece, please.” The office was cramped, papers stacked high, central air blasting from...
www.meetinghousemag.org
October 9, 2025 at 11:20 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
It was a joy to read and an honor to share, Lindy! Always glad for any excuse to spend time with your work.

Added bonus if it means we get to be supportive (like an extra-firm mattress 😁)
October 9, 2025 at 8:28 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
We want to make sure you didn’t miss this piece by Jennifer Lai in Issue 15:
vastliterarypress.org/2025/07/20/l...
Missed Connections
Seattle, WA Northbound on the Sound Transit Light Rail  We sat opposite one another, heading from the U district to my stop at Mountlake Terrace. New Year’s Eve. Around 9:30 p.m. You: Olive-gr…
vastliterarypress.org
October 9, 2025 at 12:46 AM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
A piece by @lindybiller.bsky.social is always a treat, but this one you can practically taste: waxwingmag.org/items/issue3...
Salt | Lindy Biller
My mother says her mouth tastes like salt. Her lips, her tongue, her teeth. It started the day my boyfriend and I moved in together, though, according to her, the timing was purely coincidental.❡
waxwingmag.org
October 7, 2025 at 9:32 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
You're going to want to revisit Emma Townsend with this 2025 poem "hi elise" out of Parley Lit

www.parleylit.com/emmatownsend
Emma Townsend — storytelling is a performance
www.parleylit.com
October 6, 2025 at 5:21 PM
vastchasmmag.bsky.social
Read three of 25Q3 contributor @mmveritas.bsky.social's poems @acrossthemargin.bsky.social. As they put it, “traverse the dark borderlands of human emotion where love, grief and rage intertwine in quietly explosive ways.”
acrossthemargin.com/three-poems-...
Three Poems by M. M. Adjarian — Across The Margin
Three Poems by M. M. Adjarian — Across The Margin
acrossthemargin.com
October 6, 2025 at 12:54 AM