about
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