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]

"In writing personal stories and dissecting our pasts like mad scientists, I often encourage students to create a writin...
11/07/2025

"In writing personal stories and dissecting our pasts like mad scientists, I often encourage students to create a writing practice that still honors our brain’s loving nature to protect us from memories we might not need to revisit. Still, it can be frustrating."

Marnie Goodfriend contributed this week's writing tip, "The Permission to Forget When Writing Through Personal Trauma." Read the tip now on Cleaver: https://tinyurl.com/35e59c7f

And check out Marnie's upcoming masterclass, WRITING THE BODY. https://tinyurl.com/42y6am5v

We all live in and through our bodies. Bodies can be political battlegrounds, sacred spaces, sites of pleasure, or crime...
11/04/2025

We all live in and through our bodies. Bodies can be political battlegrounds, sacred spaces, sites of pleasure, or crime scenes. 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.

Join us for our next masterclass, WRITING THE BODY, taught by Marnie Goodfriend. Generate material from lived experiences and come away with new entry points into your work.

WRITING THE BODY
with Marnie Goodfriend
Sunday, Nov. 23
2-4pm ET on Zoom

https://cleavermagazine.submittable.com/submit/337168/marnie-goodfriend-writing-the-body-november-23-2025

"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.

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Chestnut Hill, PA

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