Peatsmoke Journal

Best of Net 2026 Nominations Peatsmoke Journal

Fiction "On Earth as It is in Heaven" by Cortez "Little Drama" by Meghan Dairaghi Nonfiction "Two-Way Mirror" by Rachel Dorn "What Would My Dress Be Made Of" by Annastacia Stegall

Poetry "The Poem Hopes this Message Finds You Well" by Sarah Burke "The Hollow Becoming" by Sullivan Jordan "Big Thicket" by Eric Roy "Upstairs" by Liam Chimba "Fog" by Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey "Fencing in the Farm" by Garth Pavell

Art "Dual Deer" by Ruby Wang "Yeye (Ships That Sailed)" by Ara Deinde "Serene" by Sewkhy Tan

The wait is over... Congratulations to our Best of Net 2026 nominees!
Cortez
@manateevanity.bsky.social
Rachel Dorn
Annastacia Stegall
Sarah Burke
Sullivan Jordan
Eric Roy
Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey
Garth Pavell
Ruby Wang
Ara Deinde
Sewkhy Tan

"Lucky for him something in me is like a sheep with a bell. But not all of me. And lately the clapper’s started going wonky, almost like an alarm."
Read more of "Bitters" by Sarah Bess Jaffe on our website!
Art: “Contrite Respite” by Brooke Walker

"The sun hit the cloudbank a fist’s width above the horizon and swelled enormously, pregnant with its own death, melting, bleeding, then spilling into the sea, metal and crucible as one..." - @gabriella-p-h.bsky.social "r/Hell"
Art: “Harpies” by Rollin Jewett

Our Goldfinch Math Doesn't Add Up — Peatsmoke Andrea Bishop She turns herself upright but otherwise remains still, like she’s choosing whether to give up or go on. It takes a moment to regain your bearings when you survive. To recalculate your ...

“She turns herself upright but otherwise remains still, like she’s choosing whether to give up or go on. It takes a moment to regain your bearings when you survive. To recalculate your odds.”

@andreabishop.bsky.social in @psmokejournal.bsky.social www.peatsmokejournal.com/summer-2025-...

It's almost sweater season... What's up your sleeve?
We are OPEN for submissions for ALL genres!

"She turns herself upright but otherwise remains still, like she’s choosing whether to give up or go on. It takes a moment to regain your bearings when you survive."
Read "Our Goldfinch Math Doesn't Add Up" by @andreabishop.bsky.social on our website!
Art: “Queencard” by Lindsay Liang

An honor to be a finalist! Thank you so much, @psmokejournal.bsky.social 🙏💚💜💙❤️

Congrats to the winners of the @psmokejournal.bsky.social Summer Editor's Prize! 👏 Delighted to be a finalist & be included in the next issue, in such fine company! 🥰

@erinstriff.bsky.social @dfcohen.bsky.social @rosaleenlynch.bsky.social @eileentomarchio.bsky.social

2025 Summer Editor's Prize Poetry Winner: "The Odds" by Emily Portillo. Finalists: Sean Cho A. for "A cube who is growing. and growing unsure of himself. #4" and Sarah Moore for "Vampire Wife" Flash Winner: "Orange Juice" by David Cohen. Finalists: Rosaleen Lynch for "Bodies of Water", Eileen Frankel Tomarchio for "Sad Library Things", and Kim Magowan for "On Her Way to the Corner Store" Fiction Winner: "Teeth in All the Wrong Places" by Emely Taveras. Finalists: Emily Drew for "Terminal Break", Erin Striff for "Sustainable Living", and Gretta Trafficante for "Penny's Head" Congratulations to all the winners, and we thank everyone for their submissions! Sincerely, Peatsmoke Journal

Our 2025 Summer Editor's Prize Contest has come to an end! We'd like to thank everyone for their submissions- it made our job so hard! Without further ado, here are our winners!

In case you've missed it... we are OPEN for art submissions!

"Paris and Pulitzer Prizes are good pearls for other pails. Only let me have eternity in the overalls of the ordinary."
Read "Full on Empty" by Angela Townsend if you are feeling toot-avoidant!
Art: "Lamb3" by Katie Lamb

Congratulations! "Sticks and Stones" by Jennifer S. Lange Chosen for Best of Net 2025

Huge congratulations to Jennifer S. Lange for being selected for Best of Net 2025 with "Sticks and Stones" which was featured in our Winter 2024 Issue! Hurrah!

Calling all poets! We are reopening our 2025 Summer Editor's Contest for poetry through this Friday, 8/8! We can't wait to see what you send our way!

Check out some really cool work by emerging artists and writers! (Including myself, haha)

There are only a few hours left on our 2025 Summer Editor's Prize Contest! Submit on our website!

We have been FLOODED with amazing pieces for our 2025 Summer Editor's Competition! Don't forget the competition closes tomorrow! We would love to hear from you!

So excited to be included in this lineup. Thanks @psmokejournal.bsky.social ❤️❤️❤️ Looking forward to reading the other stories.

"The party ends. The aftertaste lingers." Read "The Host Family" by Rachana Pathak on our website today for a story that lingers!
Art: “Novalis 2025” by Milena Makani

Peatsmoke Peatsmoke is a literary journal committed to publishing fresh and exciting poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Our Summer 2025 Issue is HERE! www.peatsmokejournal.com
FLASH:
☀️Rachana Pathak
☀️Angela Townsend
☀️ @andreabishop.bsky.social
FICTION:
☀️ @gabriella-p-h.bsky.social
☀️Sarah Bess Jaffe
☀️Caroline Okello
ART:
☀️Rollin Jewett
☀️Brooke Walker
☀️Lindsay Liang
☀️Jennifer Lamb
☀️Subarna Talukder Bose

Color photo of the flowering weed, Common Teasel. One of the flowering heads is being pollinated by a butterfly and a bumble bee.

Our Summer 2025 Issue, launching TOMORROW, is definitely bringing the heat. Please enjoy this beautiful art piece, "Lamb3", by Jennifer Lamb which was selected for the cover!

We would like to extend a big congratulations to William Hawkins for being selected for the Wigleaf Top 50 with "How Well You Know the Art of Love" which was published in our Winter 2024 Issue!

In just a few short hours, our 2025 Summer Editor's Prize Contest will be live! The contest will last from July 1st-August 1, 2025. Find more information on our pinned post and our website!

“Because you don’t have to be dead to leave a ghost.” If you need a hit to the heart, try “Eulogy for a Living Uncle”, a flash piece, by J. Condra Smith.

Art: “8” by Migyoung Yun

When Stars Are Just Stars — Peatsmoke Joel Hans There was a moment, when he stopped swinging his arms and legs but had not yet stood, where I thought he would tell me what came after, but that was when I realized there were things insid...

OK having a good day so I'm posting one more—"When Stars Are Just Stars" started with a moment Mabel and I shared in Flagstaff then became something far different. Grateful to @psmokejournal.bsky.social for picking it up (oh gosh what is time) two years ago!

www.peatsmokejournal.com/summer-2023-...

"Turtle Balloons" by Stephen Mirabito is great for a day of wonder in the relentless mundane. Check it out!

“The census is coming up. There is a loophole to get out of any parking citation.”

Art: “The Part of Dorothy’s Fever Dream that Went Untold” by Thad DeVassie

Read
@pegahouji.bsky.social 's mind-reeling "Hayoula" on our site!
"She reads her daughter’s books twice, running her index finger along the edges, hoarding all the paper cuts for herself. She scours the pages for Hayoula claw prints..."

Art: “Llorando a Rodón en Butoh; 2” by Jorge Luna

Peatsmoke Journal 2025 Summer Editor's Prize Contest What can I submit? Flash Fiction Poetry Winner Receives $350 and publication in Peatsmoke Journal! When? July 1- August 1, 2025 Entry fee: $12 All entries will be considered for publication! For more information, please visit our website! www.peatsmokejournal.com

We are closed for submissions until July 1st to ramp up for our 2025 Summer Editor's Prize Contest which will run July 1-August 1, 2025! We are so excited for your entries!

Congratulations to our wonderfully talented contributors Tara Isabel Zambrano, @aniking.bsky.social , and Cathy Ulrich whose work was chosen for Best Small Fictions!

Sink your teeth into this flash by @aniking.bsky.social !
"Because Pastor said it doesn’t matter if our eyes are closed if we pray with our whole hearts, Tattletale, worry about your own eyes."
Art: "Lure" by Madison Huffman