What We’re About

This is a journal committed to diverse voices, an accessible journal, a journal for everyone. We’re interested in the work you’re producing—not where you’ve been published before. Our passion lies in giving readers a place to find exciting new work that inspires, stirs, surprises, and sparks the empathetic imagination.

Our origin story

Wendy Wallace and Bess Cooley met at the MFA program at Purdue University and bonded over Scotch and good writing. They both worked on Sycamore Review, Wendy as fiction editor and Bess as managing editor. In the summer of 2018, they decided to work together to create an online journal full of fresh and exciting poetry and prose.

Other stuff we’re proud of

Work that has appeared in Peatsmoke has been chosen for Best Small Fictions, the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Award for Emerging Writers, Best Microfictions, and The Slowdown podcast. Several pieces have also been chosen as finalists for Best of the Net and Wigleaf Top 50. And, even if a piece hasn’t been honored, we love it, believe in it completely, and are grateful to be able to give it a home with us.

about the people

Editors

Wendy Elizabeth Wallace (she/they) is a queer disabled writer. She grew up in Buffalo, New York, and has now landed in Connecticut by way of Pennsylvania, Berlin, Heidelberg, and Indiana. Their work has appeared in The Rumpus, Willow Springs, Brevity, Pithead Chapel, The Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Purdue University. Find Wendy on Bluesky @wendyewallace1.bsky.social

Bess Cooley (she/her) is a poet from the Midwest whose collection, Florence, forthcoming from Sundress Publications in October 2024. She won the 2017 Mississippi Review Poetry Prize, and her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Western Humanities Review, American Literary Review, and Verse Daily, among other journals. Educated at Knox College and Purdue University’s MFA program, she currently lives in Knoxville and teaches at the University of Tennessee. Find her at besscooley.com.

art editor

Shagufta Mulla is an artist, poet, and a veterinarian-turned-editor for books and online publications like TIME’s e-commerce section, TIME Stamped. Her art has appeared in The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Phoebe Journal, Five on the Fifth, Honeyguide Literary Magazine, and elsewhere. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in The Passionfruit Review, Wild Roof Journal, Stoneboat Literary Journal, the anthology NOMBONO by Sundress Publications, and elsewhere. She won second place in poetry for the 2025 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards, and in 2024 she was one of the winners in The University of Arizona Poetry Center’s Fifth Annual Haiku Hike. In 2022, she was a semifinalist in Crab Creek Review’s poetry prize, and in 2021 she won Blood Orange Review’s poetry prize. Find her on Instagram @s.mulla.dvm.

Assistant poetry Editor

Brooke Schifano is a writer and visual artist based in Boston, MA, where she splits her time between a tabby cat and a vining Pothos. She holds an MFA in poetry from UMass Boston, and her recent work can be found in Peatsmoke, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Salt Hill, and elsewhere.

Assistant Fiction editor

Lauren Cassani Davis is a writer based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, Monkeybicycle, Milk Candy Review, and elsewhere. Find Lauren on Twitter at @laurenhcd

web editor

Brittany Claytor is a freelance editor in the humanities and sciences, working on all things prose: scholarly articles, dissertations, fiction, non-fiction, grant applications, job documents, etc. Her publications include a performance review in Le Cygne, two book reviews for on-line journals, and a collection of shape poems she wrote and illustrated in second grade. She has a PhD in medieval literature from Purdue University, where she focused on the intersection of physical spaces, literature, and culture.

Social Media editor

Skylar Cadenhead (she/her), based in Middle Tennessee, is a hobbyist writer and lover of all things digital. After recently earning her BA in English from the University of Tennessee, she relocated to the Nashville area with her fiance. Skylar previously worked as the lead social media ambassador for the Department of English at her alma mater which sparked her love for promoting and sharing all forms of creativity.

Fiction Readers

Sofia T. Romero is a writer and editor who lives in the Boston area. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including Necessary Fiction, Rigorous, and Waterwheel Review. She is the author of the forthcoming story collection, We Have Always Been Who We Are (Blackstone, 2023). On Twitter/IG: @sofiatromero

Crystal Morales Coto is a queer writer from New England. Over the last decade, she has worked as a chief of staff, writer, editor, and novelist’s assistant. She’s an Assistant Copy Editor for Washington Square Review, and she has edited and written for Bennington Magazine, Ghost Proposal, and plain china: Best Undergraduate Writing. She holds a BA from Bennington College and is pursuing an MFA in Fiction from NYU. 

Livia Clark (she/her) is a graphic designer in New York City. She is a long-time mentor at Girls Write Now and attendee of the Tin House Summer Workshop. Check out her debut short story in Ninth Letter. Ig: @liviawclark

Laura Richardson is a writer based in Houston, Texas, where she teaches at Rice University. Her short fiction has appeared in Peatsmoke, The Pinch, and Southern Indiana Review and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Find links to some of her work at lrichardsonwrites.com.