Hellbender Magazine

WINTER 2025 SUBS NOW CLOSED. 2024 issues are now live on our site. West Virginia University’s grad-run lit mag. Formerly Cheat River Review.

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

ICYMI: "Metamorphosis" and "Spooky Spring" are both available to read on our site. https://t.co/oUpUb3L892

Thank you to our incredible contributors, with extra thanks to "lost issue" Spooky Spring writers and artists for being patient with us through the transformation💚

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

A peek behind the scenes of our team's inboxes.

We're not leaving this hellscape platform just yet, but soon. Find us on Bluesky @hellbendermag.bsky.social

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

While our Winter 2025 general submissions window is now closed, we are still open for submissions for our Logo Contest! We'll be taking Logo Contest submissions till Jan. 1 2025, so send your slimiest salamanders our way! https://t.co/R1ERnXWqAG

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

ATTN: Artists!! Hellbender Logo Contest SUBS OPEN 12/01/24

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

ATTN: Artists!! Hellbender Logo Contest SUBS OPEN 12/01/24

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

CNF and visual artists, you know what to do.

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

Fiction submissions are FULL and closed! We hellbenders are truly blessed. Huzzah!! 🍻

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

Our little salamander bellies are FULL of gorgeous poetry submissions. 🥰 Thank you to the poets who hit our submission cap faster than we could have imagined! CNF and Fiction are filling up fast, too. Don't wait!

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

In just three days, we're almost halfway to our submission caps 😱

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

Did you know? The hellbender salamander's diet primarily consists of tasty & nutritious short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and art.

F E E D. U S.

(subs open now)

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

Looking for good news in this hellscape? How about this: subs open this Friday.

#amwriting #amsubmitting #literarymag #poetry #shortfiction

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

Word of the Week:

phrontist - "a profound thinker; applied ironically to Socrates by Aristophanes" (wordnik. com).

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

Heads up, buttercups: #HellbenderMagazine will be opening for general submissions in #Fiction, #CreativeNonfiction, #Poetry, and #VisualArt in exactly 1 week for our Winter 2025 issue. More deets soon. Very soon. Crack those knuckles and tear into your keyboards, friends...

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

Word of the Week with Kelly Ward:

solastalgia - "a form of emotional or existential distress caused by negatively perceived environmental change" (Wikipedia).

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

Just kidding. Fun things ahead, though. Stay tuned

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

Did you know: a group of hellbenders is called a "literary magazine staff meeting."

[kbarley @kbarley66]

I have three photos in the latest @hellbendermag :)
"flag" + "daydreaming" + "rays"
the first taken in nyc almost exactly a year ago, perhaps more relevant today

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

“the hands that mixed batter for countless confections / and always passed me a beater to lick, salmonella be damned”

Poetry from Kelly White Arnold in our Metamorphosis issue 🍰

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

“His anger, a thunderous force, tore through their home, leaving emotional havoc in its trail.”

Read the rest of this visceral story by Huina Zheng in the Metamorphosis issue.

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

“the lip of the Sprite can is a blade”

Read the rest of this poem, “BREAKING: one man dead from Bikini Kill crowd, no one cares,” by @beanbie666 in our Metamorphosis issue

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

“‘Does God even like sex?’ Ever since our freshman year of high school, my peers tell me I ask ‘dangerous’ questions.”

Stunning CNF titled "Coming of Age" from Winnie CT in our Metamorphosis issue!

[Hellbender Magazine @hellbendermag]

“we drove in the city of cavities. / you with your dashboard face & me with / my dreams of husband-life.”

Read Robin Gow's poem "potholes" in the Metamorphosis issue!