We're 'Book of the Week'! - Poetry Book Society, Meg's Monday Muse

The Aftershock Review is now Book of the Week!

We’re Book of the Week — Meg’s Monday Muse

This is a somewhat belated celebration, as I’ve had a very busy week finishing my memoir and sending it to my agent and ALSO sorting Aftershock admin, and also being a bit unwell… But, last Monday, something beautiful happened. The Aftershock Review was chosen as Book of the Week by the Poetry Book Society in their Meg’s Monday Muse newsletter.

That’s right, our survivor-led, trauma-aware, fiercely tender magazine, born from my bed in Chorley while I was navigating complex PTSD, has now been celebrated by one of the most trusted voices in UK poetry.

Meg wrote:

“The Aftershock Review is a tremendous outcry in the face and the aftermath of trauma… a magnificent outpouring—as much of hope and beauty as it is of pain.”

When I first thought of this idea, still bedbound, still unsure if I’d ever be able to move through the world again, I couldn’t have imagined this. I only knew we needed a space for poems that told our truths in beautiful, crafted, prize-winning ways. Not prettified versions of survival, but the real stuff: the wreckage, the tenderness, the grit, the bloom. But done with editorial rigour, rather than just for catharsis. I dreamed of it becoming THE place to turn to for work that looks at the aftershocks. And, well, it looks like maybe that’s true?

Now that space exists. It's being read. It's being felt.

Thank you to every poet who trusted me with your work.

To everyone who crowdfunded this before a single page existed.

To the readers who picked it up and sat with these poems like small fires in their hands.

And to Meg, for seeing what we made and naming it necessary.

If you're new here:

The Aftershock Review features over 50 poets aged 17 to 89, writing through trauma, tenderness, illness, love, madness, grief, and what’s left when the worst is over—but we’re still here. Contributors include Pascale Petit, Joseph Fasano, Helen Ivory, Jenny Pagdin, Rhian Elizabeth, Rushika Wick, and so so many others.

Next Wednesday, we will be in Chorlton as part of Chorlton Arts Festival with an incredible lineup for our first Aftershock Live event.

You can get your copy here: www.aftershockreview.com

And if you believe in this, please share. Word of mouth is how we survive.

We did this. From bed. From ruins. From the aftermath.

Here’s to Aftershock.

Here’s to poetry that refuses to look away.

With love,
Max x