West Trade Review
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westtradereview.bsky.social
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/
Get inspired. Connect with other readers and writers.

Subscribe to our new Substack and receive our free monthly newsletter or become a monthly or annual subscriber for exclusive poems, essays, and community conversations.

Details at the link below:

buff.ly/ox3KTB0

#writingcommunity
November 24, 2025 at 5:04 PM
“Tell me, how

old were you

when you woke in the night

and could not hear

frogs croaking beneath the patio furniture?”

Excerpt from “The Dreamworld Radicalizes” by @thatdamngudapati.bsky.social. It appeared in Fall 2025's Online Exclusives.

Listen below:

buff.ly/6JkrLuM

#writingcommunity
November 24, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Submissions are open. Send us your best short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.

Before submitting, please review our guidelines at the link below:

buff.ly/Ep1in3e

#writingcommunity
November 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM
“Grey lingers like a bruise, nothing

risen from rot, skin pulped at the

knuckles, mind soft as spoiled fruit.”

Excerpt from this week’s #flashbackfriday, “The Longest Winter” by Zoe Boyer. It appeared in the Fall 2023 collection of Online Exclusives.

Read here: buff.ly/vnifjeW
#writingcommunity
November 21, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Get inspired. Connect with other readers and writers.

Subscribe to our new Substack and receive our free monthly newsletter or become a monthly or annual subscriber for exclusive poems, essays, and community conversations.

Details at the link below:

buff.ly/WHesogZ

#writingcommunity
November 20, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Along with our partners, @charlottelit, Goodyear Arts, and the Charlotte Poet Laureate, Jay Ward, we are proud to announce a year-long fellowship to support and expand the career of an emerging poet in the Charlotte, NC area. Applications accepted December 8th - 22nd.

Details:

buff.ly/6aD6P2G
November 20, 2025 at 4:31 PM
We are looking for 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.

November theme is community/connection.

December theme is “letting go.”

Details below:

buff.ly/5xi251l

#writingcommunity
November 20, 2025 at 4:02 PM
“Writing, like gardening, can be healing. By digging my hands into the dirt, I place roots or pull them.”

Excerpt from “Cultivation” by Rebecca Maine, exclusively on our Substack, Roots & Words.

Read the full essay at the link below:

buff.ly/i1bxQIn

#writingcommunity
November 19, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Need honest, constructive criticism to maximize your manuscript’s potential? Consider working with one of our professional editors who can offer detailed feedback. The @ironoakeditions.bsky.social editorial critique team is here to help.

Details below:
buff.ly/2jAcVmq

#writingcommunity
November 19, 2025 at 5:05 PM
We’re excited to announce the acquisition of Cristina Querrer’s poetry manuscript, Disobedient Archives: A Radical Catalog. It is forthcoming from ironoakeditions.bsky.social in the Spring of 2027.

#writingcommunity
November 19, 2025 at 4:30 PM
The editors of West Trade Review are looking for essays that explore creative life expansively conceived. We are seeking personal essays exploring creative practice, support for the literary or creative life, hopes/desires/goals.

Details at the link below:
buff.ly/NUlMB6T

#writingcommunity
November 19, 2025 at 4:03 PM
We are looking for 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.

Send us work exploring November’s theme of community/connection!

December’s theme is letting go!

buff.ly/0QQqF2i

#writingcommunity
November 18, 2025 at 5:05 PM
“through the hot murk I see him

stand

dripping and sunlit

his skin cherries

in the bitten air”

Excerpt from "Before He Leaves Me There" by McKinley Johnson. It appeared in the Fall 2025 collection of Online Exclusives.

buff.ly/dB0mu2r

#writingcommunity
November 18, 2025 at 4:30 PM
“Walker-Figueroa has curated an elusive and unifying tone that both aches, plays and emanates a heady decay."

Excerpt from the review of "Lazarus Species" by @madamesosostris.bsky.social, new from @milkweededitions.bsky.social.

buff.ly/ebvy0fH

#writingcommunity
November 18, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Join us for our first monthly book club discussion: Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume, Book 1, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025.

Expect engaging discussions related to both thematic content and writerly craft. Space is limited.

buff.ly/l6tWAZH

#writingcommunity
November 17, 2025 at 5:01 PM
“I buzzed around the trailer keeping my back to him,

left and right, stacking trampoline

boxes, distributing weight.”

Excerpt from “MY BOSS’S BOSS’S BOSS ASKS IF I’M A TOP OR A BOTTOM” by John Muellner. It appeared in the Fall 2025 Online Exclusives.

buff.ly/0aQZEZg

#writingcommunity
November 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Submissions are open. Send us your best short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.

Before submitting, please review our guidelines at the link below:

buff.ly/Ep1in3e

#writingcommunity
November 17, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Getting ready to submit to journals? Or maybe you've been hitting the rejection wall. If you're in the Charlotte area, you won't want to miss this panel where editors and readers offer tips on what gets you to "yes."

Register for this free event at the link below:

buff.ly/PGwV2Cm
November 17, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Looking for writing inspiration? Check out this week’s prose generative writing prompt from B.B. Garin at our Substack, Roots & Words.

buff.ly/RjDChtD

#writingcommunity
November 14, 2025 at 5:01 PM
“there is nothing left to exclaim. i’ve eaten

all the typewriter keys, pried each nail from each…”

Excerpt from this week’s #flashbackfriday is “Delayed Aubade” by Shelbi Church. It appeared in the Summer 2025 collection of Online Exclusives.

Read the full poem:
buff.ly/az4jjld
#writingcommunity
November 14, 2025 at 4:02 PM
We are looking for 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.

Send us work that explores November’s theme of community/connection.

Details & upcoming themes:

buff.ly/TquumE1

#writingcommunity
November 13, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Join us for our first monthly book club discussion: Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume, Book 1, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025.

Expect engaging discussions related to both thematic content and writerly craft.

Sign up here:

buff.ly/QMb91Du

#writingcommunity
November 13, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Need honest, constructive criticism to maximize your manuscript’s potential? Consider working with one of our professional editors who can offer detailed developmental feedback. The @ironoakeditions.bsky.social critique team is here to help you.

Details below:

buff.ly/nstRmKq

#writingcommunity
November 12, 2025 at 5:04 PM
“What carves me

up is the water and whirl

into its middle, made and

unmade by riptides.”

Excerpt from Dan Kraine’s “Solar Eclipse” from his first book, Strap, now available for preorder.

Get one here:

buff.ly/8dwAYxw

#writingcommunity
November 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
The editors of West Trade Review are looking for essays that explore creative life expansively conceived.

We are seeking personal essays exploring creative practice, support for the literary or creative life, hopes/desires/goals for the arts.

Details below:

buff.ly/y9bXI6B

#writingcommunity
November 12, 2025 at 4:05 PM