Current Issue

Women :: Non-binary :: Art :: Fiction :: Poetry

In front of a roiling grey-blue cloud, a woman with a chignon and wearing a pale dress plays a spinet.

The Piano Tuner / Hannah Craig

Three leaves with jewel-like water droplets on their edges form a seat for a woman with short dark hair wearing a sarong.

Peyote / Alejandra Cabezas

Their relative sizes distorted, two children appear to stand on a branch next to a giant insect that is carrying a huge leaf.

This is the Time Just Before Spider Woman Meets Kiviuq / Shantell Powell

In front of a sandy desert edged with mountains, a woman in office attire steps over an obstacle that appears to consist of stars and planets in the night sky.

Pirate Shack Dollhouse / Mary Birnbaum

As though seated on the waveless water, a figure wearing a brightly-striped shirt and a black jumper has a waterspout in lieu of a head.

Full of Grace / Tracey Knapp

Standing on the roots of a giant tree, a woman wearing a red dress fiddles with a camera. Behind her, a giant red globe occupies the entire sky.

Bloody Country, Bloody Country, Bloody Country / Katie Manning

Only one small building is to be seen on what looks like a prairie. A giant woman wearing a green dress stands on the roof of the building, bending down as though to direct a bolt of lightning to the ground.

Let Down Your Hair / Kaleigh Walter

Against a red backdrop, a woman wearing a grey dress and brown platform shoes appears to be seated on an invisible chair. She is smiling, and her hands are raised.

Paris – I am with Hella and Joey in Giovanni’s Room / Carol Young

The sky is filled with terns, and on the back of one of them, a person carrying a bag seems to be walking.

Salad Theater / Narasu Rebbapragada

White woman in repose eating peach and surrounded by blossoms. Her eyes are ripped out and replaced by black-and-white wolves on ice.

Artist Interview / Donna Morello

With a vast landscape of clouds and water behind it, a figure wearing red trousers and a yellow Mackintosh seems to direct rays of color from a case toward the corner of the scene.

Portrait of Ma as Chinese Paper Cutting / Samantha Hsiung

With a dark sky behind it, a figure in a dark garment appears to hold up a piece of figured fabric that conceals her face.

Plateau / Pamela Annas

Figures stroll through an amphitheater of white stone. Although it appear to be daylight, the sky behind the amphitheater is dark, and filled with stars or planets.

Illegal Letters / Isra Rahman

We see just the face of a dark-haired woman surrounded by a piece of black-and-white geometrically-patterned fabric. Behind it, a red backdrop.

Meat / Sarah Eddy

Against an industrial backdrop, a woman wearing red trousers and carrying a bag in one hand and sunglasses in the other has a plume of smoke where her head should be.

Dr. Walter C. Alvarez and Dr. Harold G. Wolff Describe the Migrainous Woman and All Her Troubles / Therese Gleason

A figure wearing a red top and black pants appears to be climbing or descending from ropes attached to a sun-like object in the sky.

North Star / Jerrice J. Baptiste

Torso of a woman in front of a field on which a flock of geese or ducks is visible. Her eyes are obscured because of a cloud that appears to contain another flock of birds, this one flying.

Letter From the Tower of London / T.R. Poulson

Dear Reader,

There are changes afoot here at West Trestle, but before I tell all there is to be told, let me boast about this glorious winter issue. In these pages you will find Zeus and stars, shacks and shapeshifters, braids, blood, and funeral laughter. Here you will consider Anne Boleyn, Spider Woman, and the nature of a letter read in secret.

This beautiful issue includes work by Pamela Annas, Jerrice J. Baptiste, Mary Birnbaum, Alejandra Cabezas, Hannah Craig, Sara Eddy, Therese Gleason, Samantha Hsiung, Tracey Knapp, Katie Manning, T.R. Poulson, Shantell Powell, Isra Rahman, Narasu Rebbapragada, Kaleigh Walter and Carol Young, including intriguing collage by Donna Morello. Read her interview here. (Everything is best read on a non-mobile device.)

Also not to be missed: Jerrice J. Baptiste's Cross-Tie celebrating the work of Joanne Godley. "It's a holy moment to hear her read poems aloud," Baptiste writes of Godley.

As always, if you discover a morsel of something you love in these pages, that makes your head tingle, reach out to the authors or give them a shoutout on social media. Make writing less lonely.

Now, the dirt. Why is it called the dirt? Or the skinny for that matter? Conversation for another day.

I'm taking on a new project this autumn and will be stepping back from WTR for a bit, but I am so lucky and grateful that Annie Stenzel and Katherine Huang have agreed to wrestle this trestle while I do my thing. However, they do have their own happy lives to lead, so this means that we're trimming down to two more issues this year: May and September. Beginning in 2025, WTR will be published twice per year: March and September. In addition, we're no longer accepting fiction, which means that we are saying goodbye to fiction editor DeMisty Bellinger. We're grateful for her hard work and dedication, and we'll miss her.

The good news: We're delighted to announce that Anyély Gómez-Dickerson has signed on to be our social media coordinator and poetry reader. We're so looking forward to collaborating with her, and you can read her wonderful poem published in the September / October 2023 issue here.

The other good news: We are still very much dedicated to building a beautiful lit mag with a focus on equity, anti-racism, and great writing. Thanks for coming along. We couldn't do this without you.

Patricia Caspers
Founding EIC, West Trestle Review

January /February 2024

Artist: Donna Morello. See full gallery and read artist's interview here.

YOUR CART