Cleaver Magazine

Cleaver Magazine publishes sharp-edged art & literary work by established & emerging voices. To “cleave” is both to stick tight and to fall away.

Cleaver Magazine shares “cutting-edge” artwork and literary work from a mix of established and emerging voices.We publish a quarterly literary magazine with poetry, short stories, essays, flash prose, visual art, graphic narratives, and visual art. Look for the literary quarterly in March, June, September, and December. In each issue we present several emerging writers and alongside established wr

iters and artists. We see ourselves as facilitators and stewards of the literary and artistic work that we publish. In addition to our literary quarterly, we publish weekly and daily features, including Life As Activism (poetry and prose with a social justice theme), writer-to-writer craft essays, author interviews, travel essays, and reviews of books from small and independent publishers. Our weekly in-house advice columnist, “Ask June” opines on matters punctuational, interpersonal, and philosophical, spinning wit and literary wisdom in response to your ethical quandaries. Our podcast On The Edge is a virtual poetry reading series, available for download on iTunes and SoundCloud. Our radio plays feature original short scrips performed by professional actors. The scripts are available for download as PDF files; the recordings are free for listeners on iTunes and SoundCloud. About our name: “cleave” is a Janus word, also known as an “auto-antonym”, meaning both itself and its opposite. A cleaver is the most broad-edged and brutally efficient kitchen knife, designed to be swung like a hammer for the most effective channel of force. “Cleave” also means to come together with strong attachment. Submissions guidelines at the Cleaver Magazine website. For book review queries, see the masthead on our website. For other queries, email: [email protected]

08/28/2025

"For every writer who publishes a book, you will find one who wishes she could add one more sentence, revise one paragraph, give more depth to a secondary character."

THE PRESENT TENSE: Conversing with Characters, Then and Now, a craft essay by Elaine Neil Orr, is up on Cleaver. Read it now: https://www.cleavermagazine.com/the-present-tense-conversing-with-characters-then-and-now-by-elaine-neil-orr/

08/27/2025

Some work needs to be seen to be fully understood. VISUAL POETICS, the Cleaver Poetry Contest judged by Kazim Ali, is open through Monday, September 1, 2025.

Show us 1-4 poems that engage with visual life, whether this is as a traditional poem accompanied by a single photo, or a complete re-imagining of how language can live on the page. Show us your family albums gilded with language, your graphing calculator love letter, your rendering of a casserole recipe in the shape of Mt. Fuji.

For more info, please see our website.
https://www.cleavermagazine.com/contests/

08/26/2025

"I want to be destabilized by the line, brought to the brink of knowing only to have the known snatched away."

POETRY AND THE KINK: The Inherent Queerness of the Poetic Line, a craft essay by Matthew W. Baker, is now available on Cleaver. Read it now: https://www.cleavermagazine.com/poetry-and-the-kink-the-inherent-queerness-of-the-poetic-line-by-matthew-w-baker/

08/25/2025

"My goal was to write about Cuba in such a way that my reader would feel like they were there alongside me, riding on my shoulders as I open each door along my pilgrimage: drumbeats and dances that invoke the gods and the animal sacrifices that feed them; ancestral altars and séances that bridge the living and the dead; pilgrimages—ten thousand strong—that honor and celebrate Cuba’s spiritual mothers, Ochún, and Our Lady of Charity."

Karla Cordero was is conversation with Rebe Huntman, author of MY MOTHER IN HAVANA: A MEMOIR OF MAGIC & MIRACLE (Monkfish Book Publishing). Read the interview now on Cleaver. https://www.cleavermagazine.com/a-conversation-with-rebe-huntman-author-of-my-mother-in-havana/

08/22/2025

LAST CHANCE 🫣 to sign up for Megan Stielstra's all-new, all-genre masterclass this Sunday, August 24, 2-4pm ET on Zoom!

We write what is urgent to us; we rewrite to make it urgent for others. This lightning-bolt session examines rewriting as an invitation to invite other people—readers—into your writing practice and, in many ways, your own head and heart.

Sign up now! https://cleavermagazine.submittable.com/submit/327483/megan-stielstra-building-a-rewriting-practice-august-24

08/21/2025

"I talk to my students a lot about access points, and we play around with them in class. And for 'Deaf Heaven,' I wanted to try something I hadn’t tried before, so I took a bit of inspiration from Flannery O’Connor and tried to get into my story via mood and tone."

Jen Michalski was in conversation with Curtis Smith, author of DEAF HEAVEN (Running Wild Press). Read the interview now on Cleaver. https://www.cleavermagazine.com/a-conversation-with-curtis-smith-author-of-deaf-heaven/

08/20/2025

"The text feels as though it were crafted in a series of concentric circles, each opening into the next as the reader moves further into the story."

Tigerlily Warner reviewed JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF LIFE by Tezer Özlü. The book, first published in Turkish in 1983, is out in English for the first time, translated by Maureen Freely. Read the review on Cleaver. https://www.cleavermagazine.com/journey-to-the-edge-of-life-by-by-tezer-ozlu-reviewed-by-tigerlily-warner/

08/19/2025

SHE'S BACK! The incomparable Megan Stielstra is back for an all-new, all-genre masterclass this Sunday, August 24, at 2pm Eastern on Zoom.

BUILDING A REWRITING PRACTICE examines rewriting as an invitation to invite other people—readers—into your writing practice and, in many ways, your own head and heart. Pulling from both literary and oral storytelling traditions, we’ll engage in activities asking us to consider the different stages of the rewriting process.

Sign up now for this lightning-bolt session! https://cleavermagazine.submittable.com/submit/327483/megan-stielstra-building-a-rewriting-practice-august-24

08/15/2025

Cleaver reviews books published by small and indie presses, including poetry chapbooks and works in translation. If you’re a reviewer interested in writing for Cleaver or an author with a forthcoming / recently published book, please fill out the contact form on our website. Link in our bio.

08/13/2025

"Putting pressure on your characters’ conversations will inevitably bring in all of the imperfections that make speech sound authentic."

Rebecca Entel contributed the latest Writing Tip to the newsletter. Read "Get it Wrong: Crafting Authentic Dialogue through Mistakes and Omissions" now on Cleaver.

https://www.cleavermagazine.com/get-it-wrong-a-writing-tip-by-rebecca-entel/

08/12/2025

POETS: Here's a chance to have your work seen by the incomparable Kazim Ali, during our 2025 Visual Poetics contest, open through September 1.

Poet, editor, and prose writer Kazim Ali was born in the United Kingdom to Muslim parents of Indian descent and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East.

Ali’s poetry collections include Sukun (Wesleyan University Press, 2023), The Voice of Sheila Chandra (Alice James Books, 2020), Inquisition (Wesleyan, 2018), Sky Ward (Wesleyan, 2013), The Fortieth Day (BOA Editions, 2008), and The Far Mosque (Alice James Books, 2005), which won Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award.

More info on the contest may be found on the Cleaver website. Submit soon; we close in only a couple of weeks. https://cleavermagazine.submittable.com/submit/332269/2025-visual-poetics-contest

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