The Aftershock Review: Issue One
‘NOW MORE THAN EVER WE NEED THE AFTERSHOCK REVIEW
– THE PERFECT MAGAZINE FOR OUR TRAUMATIC TIMES.’
— PASCALE PETIT
A bold new literary magazine for our most urgent voices.
The Aftershock Review is an intervention—a rupture in the poetry publishing scene. Survivor-led, trauma-aware, and artistically fearless, it was conceived from bed by editor Max Wallis, who was disabled throughout 2024 with complex PTSD. This debut issue brings together over 50 poets, aged 17 to 89, whose work confronts trauma with clarity, compassion, and craft.
This is not a wellbeing project. This is literature forged from survival—poems shaped by psychosis, PTSD, cancer, addiction, injustice, and the griefs that leave lasting marks. But crisis is not our only mode. This issue also celebrates queer love, tenderness, defiance, and reinvention.
In early 2025, we raised £7,000 through crowdfunding and private donations—proof of the hunger for work that speaks from and to the aftershocks.
Alongside leading voices such as Hugo Williams, Gwyneth Lewis, Inua Ellams, Joseph Fasano, and John McCullough, we honour the late Jackie Hagan—an outstanding performance poet whose voice continues to shake the world.
Spanning sections like A Furious and Tender Reckoning, Naming the Damage, Psychosis / Madness / Survival, Pop Vision, and Queer Inheritance / Queer Disclaim, this issue is a testament to resilience, resistance, and radical craft.
Founded in the North West and shaped by a queer, disabled, and neurodivergent editor, The Aftershock Review is more than a magazine. It is a space where poetry refuses silence, where survival becomes language, and where trauma is transformed.
Made from bed.
Built by community.
This is poetry that fights back.
MEMBERS ENJOY 25% OFF ALL POETRY BOOKS
Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books
Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books