Winter 2026

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Editors

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Fiction Contributors

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Visual Art Contributors

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Nonfiction Contributors

Drama Contributors

Looking back through previous Spellbinder issues, including the first to be published, we were reminded of the excitement and pride that shaped the magazine’s beginnings. Five years later, we feel that same sentiment. While this marks the 21^st issue of Spellbinder, it is the first under our direction as Editors-in-Chief. We step into this role with purpose and a strong commitment to the magazine’s standards and the inclusive space it fosters through the work of its contributors and the dedication of its team.

Since the start, Spellbinder’s ethos has been to cultivate emerging and international voices within the writing community, and to create a safe space for new voices to be heard across the world. Our contributors are at the heart of what we do, and we see that reflected in each step of the process: from the care taken by our editors as they read each submission, to the mindful edits they give with the intention of preserving the author’s voice and bringing out their best work. We are humbled not only by the eagerness of our contributors, but by the dedication of our editors, who volunteer their time and hard work towards crafting the best issues possible.

Spellbinder remains a platform for brave and uncompromising art. Central to our publication is honesty: in the voices we publish, the conversations we encourage, and the way work is presented. Our aim is simple and deliberate, to honour creative voices and share their work with integrity and intention.

The 21^st issue of Spellbinder is full of exciting, well-crafted pieces. Our Poetry editors selected works that take the ordinary and press into its depths, uncovering and articulating inner lives in startling, original ways. Fiction includes a raw, vulnerable, and dark personification of anxiety, as well as a haunting yet lyrical love letter to our own greatest enemy, and those are just to name a few. For Nonfiction, we have a witty memoir about a high school art teacher and how his metre stick “made an impact” on the life of his students; and another equally crisp but contemplative piece about the hippie experience on the archipelago of Haida Gwaii. And finally, a fleeting, poetic encounter between four figures in a shared space, where language circles memory, presence, and uncertainty is our Drama piece.

While Spellbinder remains rooted in what readers recognise and value, we are equally invested in what lies ahead. As we began our roles as Editors-in-Chief, we asked ourselves what more was possible. This issue is only the beginning.

Thank you to our contributors, our team, and our readers for your trust and continued support. Here’s to the 21^st Issue of Spellbinder!

Co-Editors-in-Chief
Effy Kousteni & Tatianna Kalb

Poetry Shortlist – Winter 2026

Kara Lynn Amoit	Planets
Carol J Forrester	A book on the human soul merits that it be given human clothing
RJ Equality Ingram	Kill Bill Vol III Kill Bill Vol IV
Simon Parker	Walking with James Schuyler
Jillian Stacia	Buttercups

Fiction Shortlist – Winter 2026

C. Inanen	Only a Matter of Time
Al M Wakeman	Potato Skin, Chicken Skin, Other

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