Issue III is released. Read for free or buy print copies above.
Dear Readers,
Like the arrival of a tornado after a hurricane, the second part of 2020 seemed to bring a second wave of devastation cracking down across the world’s already bent back. Which is why we aren’t going to mention any of it here in this letter. Instead, we’d like to turn our faces toward the sun, stand quietly for a moment, and enjoy the warmth. Regardless of the partitions carved between us, regardless of the pain and horror bristling like the spines of some horrible monster across every TV screen of every day, there is hope on the horizon: We have vaccines rolling out across the nation. We have new leadership devoted to unity, not hate, within the Capital. We have each other.
And we have, of course, stories to embrace us through the long night. Issue III of Ember Chasm proved to be both the biggest challenge, and the biggest accomplishment of this review yet. Clocking in at nearly two hundred pages, and featuring the talented winners of the first ever Ember Chasm fiction and poetry contests, this edition could almost be considered a book, not a magazine. The stories beyond this letter moved mountains within our hearts, yanked us down into deep, cool caverns of the human experience that we hadn’t explored before, and yet we were glad we had—a drug-fueled party that lingers in memory like a flared flame, a romance featuring an alien and an octopus, a brutal embrace in a parking lot, wintry nights and rats, and so much more.
We hope you enjoy reading the stories within this issue as much as we did, and thank you, endlessly, for bearing with us as we continue to overcome life’s hurdles. Our futures—yours, ours, and Ember Chasm’s—are burning bright and hot with hope. We’ll reach out for your hand again soon.
Sincerely,
Miranda & Nathan
Featuring moving stories from these talented artists:
Sunshine Barbito ・ Marcella Alvarez ・ John Waterfall ・Ariel Horton ・Annie Martin ・Chris Bottomley ・Megna Paula ・Mary Liza Hartong ・Simon Thalmann ・K. Riley ・Mika Nadolsky ・Anne Cooperstone ・Sean-Taro Nishi ・Kay Bontempo ・Isaiah Badger Pittman ・Jaime Seno ・Nicolina Schonfarber ・Regina Caggiano ・Jade Rivers ・c.p.h ・Alexis M. Telyczka ・Coleman Bomar ・Angela V. Scardigno ・Martha Clarkson ・William Fillmore ・Keelin Montzingo ・Ani Hovak ・Lawrence Bridges ・Bonnie Brock Sunshine Barbito ・ Marcella Alvarez ・ John Waterfall ・Ariel Horton ・Annie Martin ・Chris Bottomley ・Megna Paula ・Mary Liza Hartong ・Simon Thalmann ・K. Riley ・Mika Nadolsky ・Anne Cooperstone ・Sean-Taro Nishi ・Kay Bontempo ・Isaiah Badger Pittman ・Jaime Seno ・Nicolina Schonfarber ・Regina Caggiano ・Jade Rivers ・c.p.h ・Alexis M. Telyczka ・Coleman Bomar ・Angela V. Scardigno ・Martha Clarkson ・William Fillmore ・Keelin Montzingo ・Ani Hovak ・Lawrence Bridges ・Bonnie Brock
Ember Chasm Review Fiction & Poetry Winter Contest
Ember Chasm Review is very excited to announce our third Ember Chasm Fiction and Poetry Contest. There is no theme for this contest, however, we enjoy innovative, gritty, and/or brutally honest prose and poetry. We encourage you to explore the published works of our judges, as detailed below, and look to our previous issues for more inspiration. Though we lean towards literary fiction, we are always happy to review genre fiction as well. There will be two writers in each category awarded for our contest. The prizes are as follows:
First Place: $200, a physical trophy, publication in Ember Chasm, interview with Ember Chasm, and a free contributor copy of the contest issue (issue five)
Second Place: publication in Ember Chasm, interview with Ember Chasm, and a free contributor copy of the contest issue (issue five)
Our guidelines:
- Ember Chasm allows authors to submit one to five poems or a short story of up to 7,000 words. You may submit to both categories but you must submit separately.
- Please remove all identifying information from your submitted document.
- Please use .doc, or .docx file formats. Submissions in other formats will not be accepted.
- We would appreciate if you use a serif font such as Times New Roman or Garamond.
- If you’ve submitted to any of our other contests, you are more than welcome to submit to this one as well. All we ask is that you submit a different piece of writing or a new draft of the writing you submitted previously.
Submissions are now open for Issue Four
We want stories that scream in libraries, stories that veer us down a hidden road in a well-known city—we want the stories you construct outside your comfort zone. Diversity of content is appreciated: play with genre, form. Break walls and show us the mold sprouting beneath. We especially encourage submissions from emerging, unpublished, and undergraduate writers.
Issue Four submissions will close in August.
