abraxas review was formed to celebrate the mysterious and strange. it was forged to encourage climbing the attic stairs and bringing a flashlight along, flooding the place with light. we want to read your treasure chest of weird stories you’ve never told anyone; we want to read your musings on being wrapped in flesh, your observations on the mad unfurling of time. together we form a rebellion against the tiny, blinking cursor on a clean, white document—because who would be born must first destroy a world.
we love reading work that strikes an intentional, but subtle message—work that haunts us, that keeps us thinking about it after we’ve read it. we seek poetry and prose with arresting emotional impact that’s achieved not by contrived figurative language, but language that surprises while serving a larger purpose.
send us your work that is authentic without being performative, that’s experimental without being pretentious, and that speaks to the humanity in all of us.
we can’t wait to read your work!
editors, abraxas review
ISSN 2997-2515
masthead
Marin Smith
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Marin Smith is a wordwrangler, poet, essayist, mother, and an Enneagram 4. She has an M.A. in English from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and her work has been published in MER Literary, Milk Art Journal, Literary Mama, Split Rock Review, Oregon English Journal, and forthcoming in CALYX Journal and others. You’ll can find her in the garden, coffee in hand, or connect with her here.
Savannah Anderson
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Savannah is an editor, poet, and researcher with a life-long passion for seeking out authentic human stories. She has an M.A. in English from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and has published work in Virginia Woolf and Heritage. Somewhat of an intelletctual nomad, Savannah is currently working on a collection of essays about growing up as a 6th generation cattle rancher and is researching radical poets of the 1920’s Greenwich Village.
Elina Katrin
Poetry Editor
Elina Katrin is a Syrian-Russian immigrant and the author of the poetry chapbook, If My House Has a Voice (Newfound, 2023). Her writing has appeared in Electric Literature, Poetry Daily, Mississippi Review, and elsewhere. A 2025 Vermont Studio Center and Periplus fellow, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hollins University.
Stu Watson
Fiction & CNF Editor
Stuart Watson worked at newspapers in Anchorage, Seattle and Portland, and has literary work in Bull, Barzakh, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Bending Genres (Best Microfictions nominee), Does It Have Pockets? and others.
Alexandra Gregorio
Editorial Intern
Alexandra is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo studying English, as well as completing a minor in Media Art, Society, and Technology, and a certificate in Technical and Professional Communications. After graduation, she plans to pursue a career in literary publishing to continue embracing her love of literature and storytelling beyond university.
Kevin Anderson
Poetry Editor
Kevin earned his MA from California Polytechnic State University in 2016 and studied in Dartmouth’s MALS program, where he published poetry and fiction in Clamantis. His poetry has appeared in Confluence, and his short story "The Thin Dust of Summer" was featured in Issue 1 of Abraxas. In 2021, he took up abstract painting. He lives on a farm in rural California with his wife, Savannah, and daughter, Hadley. He adores novels, philosophy, the Moderns and the Romantics, abstract painting, and writing as art. By day, Kevin directs a luxury winery.
Sholeh Prochello
Photography/Art Editor
Sholeh has an M.A. in English for California State Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo. She is an educator who enjoys dabbling in graphic design in her free time and reading anything and everything sci-fi and fantasy.
David Rockman
Fiction & Nonfiction Editor
David is a practicing therapist in the great state of California and sleep researcher at NASA Ames. He is interested in the strange, brutal, and true.