The Aftershock Review is a poetry magazine for survivors, truth-tellers, and those writing from the raw edges of experience. We publish bold, emotionally resonant work that speaks from the aftermath: of trauma, of illness, of silence, and dares to name what’s often left unsaid.

Founded in 2025 by poet and editor Max Wallis, The Aftershock Review emerged from the conviction that poetry can hold space for devastation and transformation in equal measure. Our contributors include award-winning poets, emerging voices, and those historically underrepresented in publishing, especially writers living with mental illness, disability, and the complex legacies of survival.

Each issue is curated with care, shaped around thematic tremors such as grief, rage, queerness, reckoning, tenderness, memory, and resistance. We also publish Pocket Aftershock pamphlets—short, subversive collections curated by guest editors exploring radical themes with intimacy and fire.

This Substack is our digital home. It's a place to share published poems, editorial notes, behind-the-scenes dispatches, writing prompts, and exclusive content from the Aftershock community.

We also host The Daily Aftershock, a short-form podcast series offering one poem or provocation a day. Each episode is a pulse: a flash of language, a prompt, a question, or a fragment from the storm. It’s a daily companion for writers, readers, and anyone surviving out loud.

Join us.

We’re building something fierce, fragile, and necessary. Come shake the page with us.

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It’s time to rebuild.

– Max Wallis, Editor-in-Chief, The Aftershock Review