Chestnut Review 400

About

Why Chestnut Review? We’re not necessarily chained to metaphor, but this seems to us a good one. The chestnut blight that wiped out 4 billion (billion!) trees in North America in the early years of the last century doesn’t kill the stumps. So when those trees were cut down, in many places the stumps still send up young shoots over and over, and when they get old enough, the blight hits them and they die. And yet it sends up another. And another. A better metaphor for stubbornness we haven’t seen. Starting a literary magazine is never a wise idea, really. But we’re a little bit stubborn. A little bit picky in what we want. And if we don’t see it, then we want to create it (another great American value!) To extend the metaphor a little further, let’s fold you in. Artists who persist despite rejection, the intrusions of real life, the bills that must be paid, the jobs that must be done before any art can be created. That’s the best kind of stubbornness. A stubborn belief in your own worth, in the art of your hands, eyes, and mind. We seek storytellers—not just for fiction, but in all the genres we publish. We love clarity in art, but that doesn’t necessarily mean simplicity. Tell us a story. It could be a story in a poem, an essay, an image, but it is still a story. You tell it because it needs to be told. If you can make us feel the same way, we’ll work together to bring that story to the world.

Country of Publication & Year Established

United States

Established in 2019