Vast Chasm Magazine

Issue 16 Interactive by Vast The world is a whole lot less lonely when you’re making connections. Create groups of four using some important words from the pieces in this issue. With this Connections game, we wanted you to get…

Feeling disconnected? Have we got a remedy for you!

Sink your crab claws into the interactive NYT-style Connections game from our latest issue
vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/i...

@ianli.bsky.social so good!

When the Sky Tumbled Down First came the birds, flapping in the same futile way I do when I swim—unable to make headway against the inexorable pull of a strange, incomprehensible physics. I ached to help them, but my manage…

"First came the birds, flapping in the same futile way I do when I swim—unable to make headway against the inexorable pull of a strange, incomprehensible physics.”
— Ian Li, “When the Sky Tumbled Down” in 25Q4

vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...

By My Own Hand Three facts. One: when researchers leave a man alone in a room for fifteen minutes, with a button they can press in order to shock themselves, two-thirds will—bzzt—press the button. Two: while I wa…

“I don’t have to tell you that I was the younger brother, or that after that birthday I always got a present on Luke’s birthday.”
— Zach Edson, “By My Own Hand” in 25Q4

vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...

I Am the Twitch in the Family Line they said my great-grandmothertaught herself to read by whisperinghymns backward into a jar.kept snakes in the stove,sucked pennies clean for luck.the men said she was feeble.the women said, nervou…

“they said my great-grandmother
taught herself to read by whispering
hymns backward into a jar.”
— Carrie Farrar, “I Am the Twitch in the Family Line” in 25Q4

vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...

The Bleeding Edge You shift on M’s bed to sit cross-legged, a little closer to her. Her hair is creeping into a mullet, the kind that sneaks up on you during the grow-out. Candlelight paints her leg hairs gold. You …

“M.’s first week, you teach her to prune tomatoes: how to choose one or two promising stems to trellis and prune the rest. At first this feels like butchery, but then you learn it’s more like mercy.”
— Sara Sherburne, “The Bleeding Edge” in 25Q4

vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...

To All the Crabs I’ve Loved Before It feels time to share the pandemic story no one asked for.  Other single women learned to bake sourdough. Some learned French. Some learned to make perfect little ice cubes with flowers froze…

“I tried it all. Boxes arrived from Alaska, from Maine, from Maryland. I developed a loyalty to my crustaceans of choice.”
— Juliet Way-Henthorne, “To All the Crabs I’ve Loved Before” in 25Q4
vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...

I’m in Our Coffee Shop The young man at the next table is evangelizingto another young man.He is arguing we might live in a simulation.Something about light not behaving intuitively.He’s on to Lazarus and The Screwtape L…

“Outside, I watch boys hang loose as marionettes / on a dying earth beneath a dying sun.”

— @mattroywriter.bsky.social, “I’m in Our Coffee Shop” in 25Q4

vastliterarypress.org/2025/10/18/2...

25Q4 Editor’s Note For one reason or another (you can probably guess), I’ve been thinking about what it means to be disappeared, snatched up and vanished by larger forces in the world. I have this…

Did you miss it? Issue 16 is waiting just for you. Toss that loneliness aside and find a connection.

vastliterarypress.org/25q4/

25Q4 Editor’s Note For one reason or another (you can probably guess), I’ve been thinking about what it means to be disappeared, snatched up and vanished by larger forces in the world. I have this…

It’s here! Throw your arms around Issue 16: explore the isolation and seek connection in the void. 

It’s got crab claws and viola strings, pop tabs and yurts, rarefied air and the weakest tea you’ve ever had. Come on in and cozy up.

vastliterarypress.org/25q4/

How Embracing My Challenges Helped Me Through the Chaos - Thrive Global After my lymphoma diagnosis blasted open my world at 25, I learned the potential for purpose and autonomy to support my well-being.

We have new CNF from Sara Sherburne coming your way soon. Gear up with “How Embracing My Challenges Helped Me Through the Chaos” @thriveglobal.bsky.social

community.thriveglobal.com/how-embracin...

A Dance with Rumination By Carrie Farrar My mind is moving rapidly My thoughts, a reverie Of frantic worries entertained Despite the calm I see. ___________________________ My

We’ll have a new poem by Carrie Farrar in our next issue, but first, indulge in “A Dance With Rumination” in The Art of Autism magazine.

the-art-of-autism.com/a-dance-with...

We’ll have new prose from Zach Edson in our upcoming issue. If, understandably, you can’t wait, turn your attention to “A Signal Echoing through Radiospace” in On the Premises.

onthepremises.com/issues/issue...

Tell Me the Story of Something Ending by Matthew Roy, Haven Spec Magazine Fiction and Poetry for the 21st Century!

You’re going to want to grab a cup of coffee and enjoy new poetry from @mattroywriter.bsky.social, coming soon. In the meantime, sit by the campfire and “Tell Me the Story of Something Ending” @havenspec.bsky.social
www.havenspec.com/tell-me-the-...

not tied down they say spacewalks are safer than ever

Don't panic, but the sky will be falling in the upcoming flash from @ianli.bsky.social. Until then, get a little nostalgic about corded phones with "not tied down" out of @strangehorizons.bsky.social

strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

You're going to want to sink your crab claws into Juliet Way-Henthorne's CNF, but start by getting to know a bit more and checking out "The Quiet"

jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/25/g...

Time for a little togetherness! Issue 16 is almost here, so you're going to want to spend some time getting to know these lovely contributors!

Three Aprils April 2023 I am still married.  My husband is elsewhere.  My children sleep in their beds.  I ready the house and myself for when they wake. I am the center of a seesaw and I keep th…

Still can't get over Danielle Monroe's lovely CNF piece "Three Aprils." If you didn't catch it last time, don't miss it twice! vastliterarypress.org/2025/07/20/m...

To the Girl Working at the Tea Shop in Provincetown I asked you about the novel you were readingand realized too late I was flirting,despite wearing an oversized nautical sweaterand a fanny pack designed to carrya child around my postpartum fat. You…

We were excited to learn Harriet Weaver has a new piece coming out in the Roanoke Review next month! While you wait, revisit her poem “To the Girl Working at the Tea Shop in Provincetown”
vastliterarypress.org/2025/07/20/w...

MIA —Meetinghouse Literary Journal “We’ll deliver it as soon as it turns up. I’ll need your name and a description of a few items inside the missing piece, please.” The office was cramped, papers stacked high, central air blasting from...

Leave your baggage behind and take a trip on over to Meeting House to read “MIA” by Sara Rauch

www.meetinghousemag.org/stories/mia

It was a joy to read and an honor to share, Lindy! Always glad for any excuse to spend time with your work.

Added bonus if it means we get to be supportive (like an extra-firm mattress 😁)

Missed Connections Seattle, WA Northbound on the Sound Transit Light Rail  We sat opposite one another, heading from the U district to my stop at Mountlake Terrace. New Year’s Eve. Around 9:30 p.m. You: Olive-gr…

We want to make sure you didn’t miss this piece by Jennifer Lai in Issue 15:
vastliterarypress.org/2025/07/20/l...

A piece by @lindybiller.bsky.social is always a treat, but this one you can practically taste: waxwingmag.org/items/issue3...

Emma Townsend — storytelling is a performance

You're going to want to revisit Emma Townsend with this 2025 poem "hi elise" out of Parley Lit

www.parleylit.com/emmatownsend

Three Poems by M. M. Adjarian — Across The Margin Three Poems by M. M. Adjarian — Across The Margin

Read three of 25Q3 contributor @mmveritas.bsky.social's poems @acrossthemargin.bsky.social. As they put it, “traverse the dark borderlands of human emotion where love, grief and rage intertwine in quietly explosive ways.”
acrossthemargin.com/three-poems-...

You won't have to be lonely much longer! Our fall issue comes out later this month, but we'll spend the week revisiting those lovely folks from issue 15.

Make-a-Micro – Issue 15 by Vast In the spirit of jumping into uncertainty and making something new together, we invite you to pick two random numbers between one and eight (or spin our wheel twice) and form a new micro story. Can…

We know you’ve been yearning to join in on the fun so…

Put your own spin on the issue with our Make-A-Micro interactive piece vastliterarypress.org/2025/07/20/m...

‪“I am the center of a seesaw and I keep the balance. I cook, clean, plan, arrange, manage, and listen…I hold the middle. I hold still.”‬

‪— Danielle Monroe, “Three Aprils” in 25Q3‬

‪https://vastliterarypress.org/2025/07/20/monroe-three-aprils/‬

To the Girl Working at the Tea Shop in Provincetown I asked you about the novel you were readingand realized too late I was flirting,despite wearing an oversized nautical sweaterand a fanny pack designed to carrya child around my postpartum fat. You…

It’s what we all dream of...
taking ourselves to the forest to dance naked
away from laundry and picking up
countless old socks and half-full Coke cans—
in other words, away from men.

— Harriet Weaver, “To The Girl Working at the Tea Shop in Provincetown”
vastliterarypress.org/2025/07/20/w...

‪“The first time you saw him, you thought, No one should be that perfect. It was impossible. No one’s lips were that color naturally.”‬

‪— Sara Rauch, “December” in 25Q3‬
‪https://vastliterarypress.org/2025/07/20/rauch-december/‬