Please excuse our pixel dust as we redesign the journal's site again. Submissions remain open.

This poem about bucket lists, dolphins, and a baby in a pool will sneak up on you. Funny, restless, and deeply human. sanantonioreview.org/2019/09/25/h... #Poetry #BucketList #Dolphins #SanAntonioReview

What if the real magic of grad school isn't saving yourself — but discovering the hidden network that was supporting you all along? A brilliant essay on shame, radical imagination & the Patronus Paradox. sanantonioreview.org/2022/07/03/t... #HarryPotter #GradSchool #RadicalImagination #Writing

A rare interview with John Whitbourn — on alt-history, sub-creation, Counter-Reformation fiction, and writing to please yourself. Valedictory and brilliant. sanantonioreview.org/2020/08/12/i... #SpeculativeFiction #AltHistory #WritingCraft #SanAntonioReview #Writing #Interviews

What if decay is desire? This fierce essay rethinks preservation, queerness, and care through the bird bodies of the Peabody Museum. sanantonioreview.org/2022/04/03/t... #QueerEcology #MultispeciesCare #DecayAndRenewal #SanAntonioReview #Theory #Care #Essay

A luminous essay about wilderness, friendship, and the landscapes that reshape us forever. Read "Obsidian Fields" by Patricia Contaxis in San Antonio Review: sanantonioreview.org/2023/02/22/o... #CreativeNonfiction #WildernessWriting #ObsidianFields #SanAntonioReview #Essay #Writing

John Bonanni's "Gown Men and the Siren" is a stunning fiction piece weaving Jim Crow Louisiana, Vodou, and the real story of Lloyd Price into a haunting Southern narrative you won't forget. sanantonioreview.org/2019/07/03/g... #SouthernFiction #LloydPrice #NewOrleans #ShortStory #Fiction

Update: We’ve worked with Stripe to mitigate recent card-testing attacks. Our site wasn’t compromised — bad actors used public credentials on their own pages. Security has been strengthened, and we expect to reopen submissions this weekend. Thanks for your patience and support.

We’re pausing submissions. After a surge in fraudulent charges, Stripe failed to stop them — and is now charging us $15 per dispute. That’s unsustainable for a small journal. We’re exploring better protection or a new processor. In the meantime, donations help keep us going. #Stripe #Fraud

I wrote a review of Jamie Hood's thoughtful and devastingly amazing memoir, Trauma Plot. Also, my review is a defense of the craft of trauma writing itself. Check it out in @sanantoreview.bsky.social! #bookreview #writing #review #memoir

“Rape is the opposite meaning.” Ana Hein on how Jamie Hood’s Trauma Plot breaks narrative form to tell what resists telling — where self, time, and language fracture and reform. Read: sanantonioreview.org/the-formal-p... #LitCrit #Memoir #Feminism #Writing #Books #Reviews

“Daisy jumped over the moon.” — a father’s story becomes a lifeline against the unbearable. Chuck Schading’s piece is a blend of grief, love, and imagination. Read: sanantonioreview.org/and-the-cow-... #ShortFiction #LitMag #Grief #Storytelling #Love

The AI boom is fueling a literal and metaphorical power grab by tech billionaires—and forcing a reckoning.

“We got each other.” — Alynne’s world narrows to survival, until Bandit expands it again. Peyton Ellas’s “Bandit” traces dignity, danger, and loyalty in the spaces where systems fail. Read: sanantonioreview.org/bandit-peyto... #ShortFiction #LitMag #Dogs #Survival #ShortStory

“‘What you really like… is being unsupervised.’” A man loops his old neighborhood — circling memory, work, and a father slipping away. “Speaking of Ice Cream” lingers where humor meets heartbreak. sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/17/s... #fiction #amreading #literature #shortstory

“‘We don’t talk about things we don’t like.’” A child’s memory becomes a reckoning with inheritance — silence, expectation, and the quiet art of rebellion. Read “The Inheritance.” sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/16/t... #memoir #writing #literature #womenwriters #shortstory #fiction

“The room cannot be entered, the door is open…” A haunting poem of memory, longing, and the spaces we can’t quite return to. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/15/w... #poetry #memory #longing #writing #literature

“The map changes when the light shifts.” A quiet, searching poem about identity, the body, and finding language for love. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/14/w... #poetry #identity #love #writing #literature

“Altering the air and licking the borders…” A quiet morning disrupted — this poem turns comfort into unease with a single, slithering presence. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/13/v... #poetry #writing #atmosphere #tension #literature

“Poems just coming / shopping lists.” A sharp, relatable poem about writer’s block, doubt, and the search for inspiration. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/12/p... #poetry #writing #writersblock #inspiration #literature

“Plastic roses bloom.” A series of Paris haikus where beauty, artifice, and quiet moments drift along the canal. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/11/h... #poetry #haiku #paris #travel #writing

My friend had never needed so much shoulder // so much ferocity to ferry her intent

“She, who heals, hadn’t grasped what I, a butcher, knew.” A striking poem about the tension between care, force, and lived knowledge. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/10/v... #poetry #writing #labor #ethics #literature

The human endeavor requires constant struggle against entropy. In David E. Matthews’ visual poem, Sisyphus pauses — but only for a moment. The work always resumes. #Entropy #VisualPoetry #Sisyphus #Philosophy #ArtAndScience

A room holds everything — love, memory, and loss. A quiet, moving poem about what remains after someone is gone. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/09/a... #poetry #grief #memory #love #writing

“I lost it twice half-finished…” A sharp, minimalist poem about books, loss, and the art of never quite finishing. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/08/m... #poetry #books #reading #minimalism #writing

“I touch the snow to feel you again.” A quiet, haunting poem where absence lingers in the cold and memory becomes something you reach for. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/07/w... #poetry #love #loss #winter #writing

“You only want what you want when you can’t have it.” A tense, lyrical poem about longing, denial, and the charged space in between. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/06/l... #poetry #longing #desire #writing #literature

“You think you know someone, but you only nip the flesh.” A haunting poem about fleeting connections, aging, and the quiet distance between people. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/05/d... #poetry #friendship #aging #writing #memory

“The tree feels #noshame.” A vivid, visceral poem where hunger, nature, and desire blur into something unapologetically alive. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/04/n... #poetry #nature #writing #desire #art

“Where life appears as death in still disguise.” A dark, atmospheric poem where beauty and menace blur in the swamp’s uneasy stillness. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/03/t... #poetry #nature #darkpoetry #writing #literature

Many thanks to @sanantoreview.bsky.social for publishing my poem "All All #72" on their website. sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/02/a...

What you don’t write gives what you do its power. In this response to Toni Morrison, David E. Matthews explores silence as form — where poetry approaches zero and meaning expands. #ToniMorrison #VisualPoetry #ConceptualPoetry #ArtAndLanguage #Poetics

“I thought songs of peace were worth a life.” A stark, urgent poem confronting war, identity, and what it means to count. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/02/a... #poetry #politics #writing #peace #literature #war

“Another word for love is gamble.” A neon-soaked poem of chance, desire, and fleeting connection between strangers. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/04/01/l... #poetry #love #writing #desire #literature

“She signs the register as ‘B,’ all that was left.” A powerful, fragmented poem where life is tallied in loss, memory, and survival. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/03/31/h... #poetry #writing #memory #grief #literature

“The mist… washes the traces of barriers.” A poem where Niagara Falls becomes a force for unity beyond borders, politics, and division. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/03/30/t... #poetry #nature #unity #writing #globalvoices

“A fort that contains infinity now.” A nostalgic poem where childhood spaces become whole worlds — and memory builds what time can’t erase. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/03/29/h... #poetry #nostalgia #childhood #writing #memory

“Forfeit a part of you to accumulate another.” A stark, haunting poem on sacrifice, memory, and the cost of becoming. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/03/29/a... #poetry #writing #identity #art #literature

“You stay stuck in the concaves of my footprints.” A sharp, mythic poem about power, growth, and leaving others behind. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/03/27/g... #poetry #writing #empowerment #literature #art

also re-sharing the op-ed I wrote following Alex Pretti's murder for MedPage www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...

Really excited to have a new poem in The @sanantoreview.bsky.social The San Antonio Review. sanantonioreview.org/2026/03/26/u...

“Another ‘un-strange fruit’ lies at the bottom of the tree.” A stark, necessary poem on violence, memory, and what we choose to grow next. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/03/26/u... #poetry #socialjustice #BLM #writing #art #poem

“Vastness isn’t elsewhere—it’s right here.” A reflective poem on presence, limitation, and the quiet grace of everyday life. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/03/25/t... #poetry #mindfulness #writing #presence #literature

Cash is trash. In "Zero Duration," David E. Matthews traces how value collapses the moment it’s created—where debt defines reality and everything trends toward zero. What is value, and who decides? sareview.org #ZeroDuration #Enshittification #ArtAndEconomics #VisualPoetry #LateStageCapitalism

“She was once a girl who dared to dream big.” A powerful story of resilience, friendship, and rising beyond doubt — honoring a journey shaped by strength and love. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2026/03/24/o... #writing #women #resilience #friendship #poetry

“a life is given to me that allows my life’s beginning.” Lisa Keeton’s "December Song" weaves memory, grief, and transformation into a powerful meditation on love and becoming. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2021/03/24/d... #poetry #comingofage #memory #writing #women

“threads woven into a scarf of black and red…” Larry Smith’s "Women’s Hair" is a sensual, image-rich poem of memory, touch, and beauty—where every detail lingers. Read it at sanantonioreview.org/2019/06/02/w... #poetry #sensorypoetry #writing #imagery #litmag #women #poem

200 years of free New York City buses. Refund 70 percent of the tariffs the Treasury Department collected illegally. Restore Trump’s cuts to clean energy projects, 6 times over. 247 Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus. 1.4 billion pairs of Florsheim dress shoes.

“There will be no medals awarded for speaking truth now.” RC deWinter’s "at the mouth of the tomb" is a fierce, apocalyptic meditation on power, decay, and truth in a broken world. Read at sanantonioreview.org/2020/06/27/a... #poetry #politicalpoetry #truth #writing #poem