Submissions are now open till May 15 – read our submission guidelines here: avelvetgiant.com/submit

'at night I country you which is to say I don't know how to empire w/o turning the entire world inside and out' -'LIFE AS DIRECTED BY TAIKA WAITITI,' Salonee Verma. Read the rest & 'ON THE CARE AND FEEDING OF FIRSTBORN MACHINE GIRL' here: avelvetgiant.com/salonee-verma

'at the behest of some
tiktok witches
i get two candles
give them names
separate each into bowls of water
tie a red string around their ribs
& set them alight' -Yung Hegelian

avelvetgiant.com/leon-barros

Congratulations to our pushcart prize 2023 nominees ❣️Eva Lewis Salonee Verma, Connie Mae Concepción Oliver, jaric Yung Hegelian & Dev Murphy

'Tomorrow—maybe tomorrow you will drink up the sea. Have you tried to climb the highest mountain and eat the snow at its peak lately? If so, head to paragraph 11.' -'Are you an ant, an oarfish, or a mountain lion?' by Isaac Fox avelvetgiant.com/isaac-fox

“Look at how the moon faces us, shines on us, quieter than the sun. 

We don’t even know how the moon happened (do we?) We don’t know if it was once part of earth, or if it fell into our arms.”

-“Mareada,” Connie Mae Concepción Oliver

read more from our inspiring interview with torrin a. greathouse in our new issue! we talk community, the “Truth,” formal constraints, etymology, being a Virgo & more ✨

AVG stands against genocide. Free Palestine 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Writers Against the War on Gaza is an ad hoc coalition committed to solidarity and the horizon of liberation for the Palestinian people. Join 700+ writers, artists, and others in signing our open letter, and find out more: writersagainstthewarongaza.com

It’s our incredible journal illustrator’s BIRTHDAY today! happy birthday Freb on Bsky 💙☁️ 💕 read her artist statement for our current issue here! avelvetgiant.com/illustrator-st…

'God made a child of her breath & named her a star in exchange for his own blood - he slots himself into her tonue & melts with the sky like a sacrifice' -L.H. avelvetgiant.com/l-h

“They go bug catching and girl! purposely hits boy. with the net to be playful and boy. responds with *apologetic* and girl! does the same and they go back and forth with that for a while.” -“this date in Animal Crossing is sponsored by Fanta,” jaric avelvetgiant.com/jaric-sarmiento

“The story, it demands heaviness, and inconclusivity. It demands it doesn’t know where it begins and where it ends, where it overlaps with the truth, and where the truth merges into the body of a hole. The story demands to be human.” -Eva Lewis avelvetgiant.com/eva-lewis

“this country could make me weep

 a sad gun
under the big top 
world

brand persona as camp marketing as camp lemon patterned wine cup as camppppp

the girl who made fun of the hole
in my dress is a nurse now 

I have to gum it down” -grace (ge) gilbert

avelvetgiant.com/gracegegilbert

“No more gunning
for a time long passed
like the portion of an orange rind
pressed to the bottom of a bowl.
No more bullets
on your alleged badness.
No more swelter.
I have ripped thru
the knot in my hair.
You have ripped the knot
out.” -Margaret Saigh avelvetgiant.com/margaret-saigh

congrats to our issue 8 best of net nominees! antmen ✌🏼🦭 sienna liu Despy Boutris dhwanee 🇵🇸 Suzanne Highland & nicole v basta 🫶 read their work here!: avelvetgiant.com/issue-8

“I stopped dressing for the male gaze, I say. I stopped dressing for Fermi’s, says the alien. They are suddenly breasted, or I am suddenly noticing. My own chest deflates. We walk to the beach at night and plant my dog’s baby teeth” -quinn rennerfeldt fairchild 🏳️‍🌈 bit.ly/3ESNkoG

We love these three little pieces about an alien by quinn rennerfeldt fairchild 🏳️‍🌈 in A Velvet Giant. Each one blends sci-fi and surrealism, straddling the border between everyday events and dream logic. Anything can happen at any moment in these, and it's delightful.
avelvetgiant.com/quinn-rennerfe…

“How nice it had seemed at first, to leave the babes outside on the porch in the sun while we tinkered! And then, fast as you knew it, the babes were gone.” -Dev Murphy avelvetgiant.com/dev-murphy

here’s my poem “archangels” in Issue 9 of A Velvet Giant