Terra Preta Review seeks to unearth phenomenal writing. We’re especially drawn to writing that does what the centuries have done to terra preta: writing that breaks down those parts of our lives we’d rather consign to the trash heap, poems that sprout irrepressibly among the shards of the broken world.

We want writing that’s rooted in the body – the human body, the animal body, the earth’s body. We also want writing that grapples with the hard truths of modern life, that looks unflinchingly at the present and works to unearth today’s roots in the past. And we frankly admit to an unabashed love of science – geology, oceanography, geography, astronomy, quantum physics, you name it.

We want writing and art that’s smart and honest and real, true and clear as the sound of a bell, startling and thrilling as that first garden volunteer in early spring. We want writing that’s more interested in exploring questions than defining answers. If you haven’t yet read our home page manifesto, it would be a good way to figure out if you want to send us your work. We accept submissions on a rolling basis; check out our guidelines here. We believe in paying contributors and in supporting social justice; check out how proceeds are shared here.

Writers we love (a never-complete list):

Agha Shahid Ali

Maya Angelou

James Baldwin

Elizabeth Bishop

Lucie Brock-Broido

Lucille Clifton

Edwidge Danticat

Natalie Diaz

Ellen Doré Watson

Mark Doty

Cornelius Eady

Vievee Francis

Roberto Carlos Garcia

Ross Gay

Kahlil Gibran

Aracelis Girmay

Louise Glück

Seamus Heaney

Ilya Kaminsky

Yusef Komunyakaa

Li-Young Lee

Larry Levis

Audre Lorde

Anne Marie Macari

Osip Mandelstam

Shara McCallum

Jane Mead

Toni Morrison

Pablo Neruda

Red Pine (translator)

Claudia Rankine

Patrick Rosal

Patricia Smith

Studs Terkel

Natasha Trethewey

Jean Valentine

Sarah Vap

Judith Vollmer

Kurt Vonnegut