Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South

06/30/2023

Submit — Susurrus

⏲️ ONLY HOURS REMAIN! SUBMIT TODAY! ⏲️ Send us your , , , , and to Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South! We want your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender--all open to artists across the American South. More at the link below!

Guidelines *Submissions are open through midnight (EST) on June 30, 2023.Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imager...

06/29/2023

Submit — Susurrus

⭐️ ONE DAY LEFT ⭐️ to submit to our 7th issue! Send us your , , , , and to Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South! We want your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender--all open to artists across the American South. Learn more at the link below!

Guidelines *Submissions are open through midnight (EST) on June 30, 2023.Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imager...

06/28/2023

Submit — Susurrus

🚨🚨🚨ONLY 2 DAYS REMAIN to submit to our 7th issue! Send us your , , , , and to Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South! We want your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender--all open to artists across the American South. Learn more at the link below!

Guidelines *Submissions are open through midnight (EST) on June 30, 2023.Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imager...

06/27/2023

Submit — Susurrus

✨✨✨3 DAYS REMAIN to submit to our 7th issue! Send us your , , , , and to Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South! We want your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender--all open to artists across the American South! Learn more below!

Guidelines *Submissions are open through midnight (EST) on June 30, 2023.Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imager...

06/25/2023

Submit — Susurrus

⏰⏰⏰ 5 DAYS REMAIN to submit to our 7th issue! Send us your poetry, flash , fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South! We want your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender--all open to artists across the American South. Learn more below!

Guidelines *Submissions are open through midnight (EST) on June 30, 2023.Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imager...

06/20/2023

Submit — Susurrus

⌛️⌛️⌛️10 DAYS REMAIN to submit to our 7th issue! Send us your poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South! We want your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender--all open to artists across the American South. Learn more below!

Guidelines *Submissions are open through midnight (EST) on June 30, 2023.Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imager...

06/16/2023

Submit — Susurrus

🌟🌟 TWO WEEKS REMAIN to submit to our 7th issue! Send us your poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South! We want your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender--all open to artists across the American South. Learn more below!

Guidelines *Submissions are open through midnight (EST) on June 30, 2023.Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imager...

06/12/2023

Scaring Herons — Susurrus

"The rain swallows his red taillights. I linger a little while longer, savoring the warm stillness between of this dry alley. All day I have been poured between banks."

"Scaring Herons" by Gordon Johnston

  Scaring Heronsby Gordon Johnston   A Flint River Field Note       Tuesday, June 6, Eric O’Dell and I float seventeen and a half miles on the Flint from the Georgia 128 to the Georgia 96 bridge (door-to-door 8:45-6:03, on the water 10:25-4:30). Our late start is due to my torpor Monday e...

06/05/2023

Howard — Susurrus

"Most men put on their boots to go to work, but he took his off. I never saw him in a set of cowpens except in bare feet, and that’s how it went all day, bleeding cows, giving heifers shots, runnin’ back to bring one up—need be—he was unshod."

"Howard" by Sean Sexton

  Howardby Sean Sexton   ‘Time we got the first group penned, Howard would be in the barnyard, parked in the corner over by the loading chute, his blue truck pulled against the fence, topper lid open, him setting on the tailgate, waiting on us with his dog—Heeler mix I believe. He wore that sm...

06/02/2023

Wildwood — Susurrus

"The beech was my favorite tree: tree that the track-men spared because it was too far from their grade, tree that was riddled with woodpecker holes, tree I had hidden inside more than once, tree that I knew like a second skin."

- "Wildwood" by William Woolfitt

  Wildwoodby William Woolfitt   There was a beech tree on Turkey Bone Mountain in West Virginia that I visited often when I was twelve. I thought it might be all I had left of my father. Standing near the beech, I watched the crew of track-men working nearby, tipping their dumpcarts, spilling out ...

06/01/2023

Submit — Susurrus

🔔 Submissions open for our 7th issue! Submit your poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South! Send us your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender--all open to artists across the American South. Learn more at

Guidelines *Submissions are open through midnight (EST) on June 30, 2023.Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imager...

05/31/2023

The trains follow us — Susurrus

"The trains follow us; they check when we leave the house, and time their departures just so to slow our rushed pace. They no longer sing or speak, but crawl, wearily, to their next destination."

"The trains follow us" by Sarosh Nandwani

  The trains follow usby Sarosh Nandwani   The trains follow us; they check when we leave the house, and time their departures just so to slow our rushed pace. They no longer sing or speak, but crawl, wearily, to their next destination. When my husband was younger, he lived in a motel across from...

05/26/2023

Wild Violets — Susurrus

"and push the kitchen door out into April with me
where, before the first mow, the tiny violets

repeat themselves in spring babble, purple
white, yellow, blue, a mantra uttered, scattered

over verdant crowns."

"Wild Violets" by Elinor Ann Walker

  Wild Violetsby Elinor Ann Walker   Tiptoe past the tall, silent jars of preservedpickles, beans, tomatoes, and peaches that sinkarrested in their clove-redolent peppercorn brines,past the stolid wooden bowls of apples on the table,and push the kitchen door out into April with mewhere, before the...

05/24/2023

Livor Mortis — Susurrus

“We wear purple for mourning
one April morning for our prince.
A purple downpour.
People like that end of the world
be with the one you love
and let your faith guide you through
purple."

“Livor Mortis" by Mack Rogers

  Livor Mortisby Mack Rogers   People like a certain shade of purple.Black Panther beat til he turn purple.That royal purple.Bruised, butchered, and welcomed to the after-life purple. Put that on a t shirt purple.We like that Barney purple. David Joynerpurple. Green underbelly witha set of perfect...

05/22/2023

🔔 Submissions open for our 7th issue! Submit your poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South! Send us your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender--all open to artists across the American South. Learn more at susurrusthemagazine.com/submit

05/19/2023

The Last of December — Susurrus

“Too much, too much, and never enough—us now
all mouth and no stomach, nothing but hunger,
but heartache. Such a relief, then, this interruption,
when the boxes come out, the storage bins."

"The Last of December" by Joanna Grant

  The Last of Decemberby Joanna Grant   Disappointing, really. That’s all it ever could be,these high days, these holy days, all those ersatzgarlands, plastic wreaths, paper crowns, specialdishes, cookie swaps, and all that molting tinsel.Too much, too much, and never enough—us nowall mouth an...

05/17/2023

God's Country — Susurrus

“When I was a child, we worshiped horses. We loved
their unbridled force, how an apple compelled adoration
from what we knew could strike us down."

"God’s Country" by Whitney Rio-Ross

  God’s Countryby Whitney Rio-Ross   When I was a child, we worshiped horses. We loved their unbridled force, how an apple compelled adoration from what we knew could strike us down. We offered them our dollar bets and, in their name, partook of bourbon-pecan pie and virgin mint juleps. My ...

05/15/2023

Cursed is the Ground — Susurrus

"Now a different
spectacle: bush-clover, bobbers, thick blackberries,
their fruits hot and terribly sour, and, come August,
the apples I’m told are no good for eating."

"Cursed is the Ground" by Carson Colenbaugh

  Cursed is the Groundby Carson Colenbaugh   Little blanched bones lie at our feet in neat shambles,tidied in a row succinct as if still heldby tendons and muscle: “Probably a rat snakedropped by a clumsy hawk, see how all the vertebraeare still aligned? Only the flesh has been disturbed.”No s...

05/10/2023

Orange Juice — Susurrus

“when my family asks what I write, I tell them I write poems about

endings, I’m obsessed with endings in the way that I hate them so much I

want to peel back their skin and then eat them, so they don’t leave me..."

- "Orange Juice" by Jessica Cordes

  Orange Juiceby Jessica Cordes I’m afraid to  write about  your  voicemails  from  Colorado and  how theykiss me,   indie recs and blueberry  smoothie recipes,  when they kiss me Ismile   accidentally,   and  there’s   the   scent of   peeled  oranges,   peeledoranges ...

05/08/2023

Forgetting as freshwater pearl necklace — Susurrus

“somewhere, these cultured chalkwhite orbs were strung
together and clasped on a cushion of midnight
blue velvet for Grandpa Andy to buy."

- "Forgetting as freshwater pearl necklace" by nat raum

  Forgetting as freshwater pearl necklaceby nat raum   somewhere, these cultured chalkwhite orbs were strung together and clasped on a cushion of midnightblue velvet for Grandpa Andy to buy. the museumwas in the District and prismic pinpricks shot through the giftshop as we perused strings of pea...

05/05/2023

Perfume — Susurrus

"Take essences of things.
Like lime with its skin's light
of sheer green fields.
Or the scent
of damp forgotten earth."

'Perfume' by David Cazden

  Perfumeby David Cazden   Take essences of things.Like lime with its skin's light of sheer green fields.Or the scent of damp forgotten earth.Sweeten with wild rose and frail hyacinth, tiedwith its own laces on April lawns. Perfume should be worldly, spiced by trade-winds,fixed in ambergris.....

05/03/2023

Constelados en ti — Susurrus

"The blaze of springtime nights

cooled by the sweet aroma of the rain

con mis manos I give you spring year-round

propagating your light in all shadows

because in dreams I keep searching for you."

'CONSTELADOS EN TI' by Julián David Bañuelos

  CONSTELADOS EN TIby Julián David Bañuelos   Centelleante. You ask for the root.And since I am the son of a floristI slip through the tierra as if it sleptweary of its next moment without spring.The ante is high, diamante gleamlike the estrella we named together.The May sky near. The blaze of s...

04/23/2023

Welcome to Issue Six. This special issue is dedicated to the memories of Ann Brown and Grace Surbeck Gallo.

View issue here: susurrusthemagazine.com/issue-six

📸: Jennifer McKeen Rodrigues

03/15/2023

⭐️ Only HOURS remain to submit your poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus! Send us your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender--all open to artists across the American South. Learn more at susurrusthemagazine.com/submit

03/14/2023

Submit — Susurrus

Only ONE days remains to submit your poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus! Send us your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender, your work that sings and stings. Learn more at:

Guidelines *Submissions are OPEN through March 15th!Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imagery, vivid language, an...

03/13/2023

Susurrus

Only 2 days remain to submit your poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus! Send us your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender, your work that sings and stings. Learn more at:

A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South.

03/10/2023

Submit — Susurrus

Only 5 days remain to submit your poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus! Send us your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender, your work that sings and stings. Learn more at:

Guidelines *Submissions are OPEN through March 15th!Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imagery, vivid language, an...

03/08/2023

In the Week Before We Leave for the Clinic — Susurrus

🎉 Congratulations to our Best of The Net Poetry Finalist, Wendy Taylor Carlisle's "In the Week Before We Leave for the Clinic"

  In the Week Before We Leave for the Clinicby Wendy Taylor Carlisle   I inhabit planet grief, stumble around, enraged, terrified, bitten by grief’s mastiff, in a grief trance, I look up—grief n [[ME gref  < Ofr, sorrow, grief: < grever. ]1. intense emotional suffering caused by loss, disaste...

03/07/2023

Submit — Susurrus

⌛️Only 9 days remain to submit your poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus! Send us your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender, your work that sings and stings. Learn more at

Guidelines *Submissions are OPEN through March 15th!Susurrus accepts previously unpublished poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography from artists across the American South. We publish three times a year, during April, August, and December.We value lush imagery, vivid language, an...

03/04/2023

🔔 Only 11 days remain to submit your poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and photography to Susurrus! Send us your gorgeous and compelling, your thoughtful and tender, your work that sings and stings. Learn more at http://susurrusthemagazine.com/submit

03/01/2023

Colonies Failed There: My Narrative Inheritance — Susurrus

"In these stories, the pronoun we expanded. In that expansion, the past and present converged: we became our forebears, and they became us."

"Colonies Failed There: My Narrative Inheritance" by Marshall Moore

  Colonies Failed There: My Narrative Inheritanceby Marshall Moore   1.  Inbreeding. Although my mother wouldn’t say the word, she implied it when asked why she married a Marine from Louisiana instead of a local North Carolina boy. Down East, as that part of the state is nicknamed, wasn’t a p...

02/27/2023

I Am What I Ate: Foods From My Childhood — Susurrus

"We don’t talk about the history of these foods in the same way we don’t talk about the real history of race in the South or in America; we just turn them into something we can consume, something that’s easily digestible."

"I Am What I Ate: Foods From My Childhood" by Kevin Brown

  I Am What I Ate: Foods From My Childhoodby Kevin Brown   fried okraI ate few vegetables as a child, not because of my parents, but because I was a picky eater who refused to try new foods.  Beyond potatoes, I essentially ate three vegetables: corn, green beans, and fried okra.  The first was c...

02/24/2023

Balefire — Susurrus

"There were supposed to be two of us, but the Other was half-dead by the time I got here, and full-dead about six months in. I buried her body around the back of the light and told no one that she had passed. Loneliness becomes me, I think."

"Balefire" by Dori Lumpkin

  Balefireby Dori Lumpkin   There were supposed to be two of us, but the Other was half-dead by the time I got here, and full-dead about six months in. I buried her body around the back of the light and told no one that she had passed. Loneliness becomes me, I think. The downside to her passing, a...

02/24/2023

Fatal Flaw Salon: Acceptance & Rejection

"The South is such an expansive place. I think in a lot of people's imaginations they kind of have one idea of what it is. So we're always looking for pieces that expand the idea of what people think the South is, who Southerners are, what Southern culture is."

-Michelle Champagne, Editor in Chief of Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South

In the first of a series of illuminating salons, Fatal Flaw and friends discuss “Acceptance and Rejection.” Moderated by writer Laura Venita Green, a panel o...

02/22/2023

Graft: a sijo — Susurrus

"My mother says my body’s
not my body, but a bowed branch,
and my hand’s not my hand, but
an extension of her forearm..."

"Graft: a sijo" by Rosalind Rousseau

  Graft: a sijoby Rosalind Rousseau   My mother says my body’s not my body, but a bowed branch,and my hand’s not my hand, but an extension of her forearm;yet, severed from her, I grafted myself elsewhere; there, I grew. Rosalind Rousseau is the author of one full-length poetry memoir, Memos t...

02/17/2023

Ode to the marigold & mauve sunset — Susurrus

"Ode to you, lavender-whipped
clouds signaling my escape route. I left

the lemon cupcake party before
the grown-ups had their wine,

slid into garden thyme to cry."

"Ode to the marigold & mauve sunset" by Molly Bolton

  Ode to the marigold & mauve sunsetby Molly Bolton   glowing my handson my steering wheelgold, like Mary’s when she cupsher immaculate heart.Ode to you, lavender-whippedclouds signaling my escape route. I leftthe lemon cupcake party beforethe grown-ups had their wine,slid into garden thyme to c...

02/16/2023

Don't miss this amazing Salon Series by Fatal Flaw Literary Magazine with our Editor in Chief & Flash Editor Michelle Champagne as one of the panelists. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fatal-flaw-salon-series-acceptance-rejection-in-literary-magazines-tickets-540273381227

02/15/2023

Night Passage — Susurrus

"A hundred coyote yips and a heifer’s lowing send
me out from restive sleep—pajamas, jacket, shoved-
on shoes, boring the pasture dark on the side-by-side
through a burning headlamp hole of light."

'Night Passage' by Sean Sexton

  Night Passageby Sean Sexton   A hundred coyote yips and a heifer’s lowing sendme out from restive sleep—pajamas, jacket, shoved-on shoes, boring the pasture dark on the side-by-side through a burning headlamp hole of light. I turnbroad circles searching eyes in the field, fording ditches, ...

02/14/2023

This Thursday, February 16th join us on Zoom at 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT for the first of our upcoming series of illuminating salons, where Fatal Flaw and friends will discuss the topic of “Acceptance and Rejection.”

Rejection can be discouraging and frustrating, but is also an unavoidable part of the submission process. How can writers and artists increase their odds of acceptance? What happens on the other side of publishing? How do magazines make decisions on what types of work to include in an issue?

Moderated by writer Laura Venita Green, a panel of four editors from The Maine Review, Spoken Black Girl Mag, Susurrus, A Literary Arts Magazine of the American South, and Fatal Flaw will answer questions about editorial decisions and discuss the art of making a magazine.

RSVP for this FREE event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fatal-flaw-salon-series-acceptance-rejection-in-literary-magazines-tickets-540273381227

And be sure to comment below or DM us with questions you'd like answered during the event!

02/13/2023

This Is Not a Poem About my Dead Dog — Susurrus

"This is a poem about four daffodils,
plucked from the yard late in season.
Yellow, though no longer the hue
of fresh butter, nor a bee’s pollen-
powdered basket."

'This Is Not a Poem About my Dead Dog' by Emry Trantham

  This Is Not a Poem About my Dead Dogby Emry Trantham   This is a poem about four daffodils,plucked from the yard late in season.Yellow, though no longer the hueof fresh butter, nor a bee’s pollen-powdered basket. Softer, likethe pages of my grandmother’spound cake recipe, or dried pine kind...