Cleaver Magazine

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]

"The struggles Mushtaq depicts are culturally specific, yet their underlying truths resonate with women across the globe...
10/31/2025

"The struggles Mushtaq depicts are culturally specific, yet their underlying truths resonate with women across the globe. This is because patriarchy takes on many forms depending on different cultures and locations, but ultimately, its results are the same: it controls and destroys women’s lives."

Mehruba Chowdhury reviewed HEART LAMP: Selected Stories (2025, And Other Stories UK), by Banu Mushtaq and translated by Deepa Bhasthi. Read the review on Cleaver. https://www.cleavermagazine.com/heart-lamp-by-banu-mushtaq-reviewed-by-mehruba-chowdhury/

Cleaver publishes craft essays on writerly topics. If you are a poet, fiction writer, essayist, or graphic narrative art...
10/30/2025

Cleaver publishes craft essays on writerly topics. If you are a poet, fiction writer, essayist, or graphic narrative artist and would like to propose a craft essay, contact the editors with a query before submitting.

https://www.cleavermagazine.com/craft-essays/

10/28/2025

Find your next favorite. Our book reviews and author interviews cover the best in indie publishing. Link in our bio.

"Ultimately the compelling pursuit at the heart of 'Sacred and Perishable' is not in solving for blame or for a catharti...
10/28/2025

"Ultimately the compelling pursuit at the heart of 'Sacred and Perishable' is not in solving for blame or for a cathartic release from the spectacle of violence, but in the survival of beauty-as-self-actualization in a way that transcends dissolution."

Adam Michael Finney reviewed SACRED AND PERISHABLE (Nine Syllables Press), the poetry collection from Carissa Natalia Baconguis.
https://www.cleavermagazine.com/sacred-and-perishable-by-carissa-natalia-baconguis-reviewed-by-adam-michael-finney/

"Hours of stillness accumulate tension; your body interprets extended sedentary work as a low-level threat. You’re writi...
10/27/2025

"Hours of stillness accumulate tension; your body interprets extended sedentary work as a low-level threat. You’re writing from fight-or-flight mode, which explains why the prose feels forced, the dialogue wooden, the emotional beats false."

Farin Martinez provided our recent Writing Tip, "When the Page Goes Blank: How Walking Unlocks Narrative." Read it now: https://www.cleavermagazine.com/how-walking-unlocks-narrative-a-writing-tip-by-farin-martinez/

Writing the body allows us to tap into experiences that shape identity, memory, and voice, creating work that feels urge...
10/24/2025

Writing the body allows us to tap into experiences that shape identity, memory, and voice, creating work that feels urgent and alive—whether we are writing from personal experience or building characters on the page.

Our next masterclass, WRITING THE BODY with Marnie Goodfriend, will use guided exercises and short readings to generate new material from lived experiences, such as eating, politics, aging, gender, health, intimacy, trauma, and crime. Join us Sunday, November 23, 2-4pm on Zoom.

See our website for more info and to register. https://cleavermagazine.submittable.com/submit/337168/marnie-goodfriend-writing-the-body-november-23-2025


"My idea of hybridity is collaborative. A poet once told me that my collages are collaborative because I’m using things ...
10/23/2025

"My idea of hybridity is collaborative. A poet once told me that my collages are collaborative because I’m using things that are already in the world, and I’m incorporating them and remaking them and responding to them. Reading is also a kind of collaboration and has always been one of my main ways of being a writer."

Amy Beth Sisson interviewed Linda Norton, author of CLOUD OF WITNESSES: Essays, Poems, Collages. Read it now on Cleaver.

https://www.cleavermagazine.com/an-interview-with-linda-norton-author-of-cloud-of-witnesses-by-amy-beth-sisson/

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