Witness Magazine

Witness Editors

Witness blends the features of a literary and an issue-oriented magazine to highlight the role of the modern writer as witness to his or her times. Launched in Detroit in 1987, the magazine is best known for showcasing work that defines its historical moment; special issues have focused on political oppression, religion, the natural world, crime, aging, civil rights, love, ethnic America, and exile. The issues “New Nature Writing,” “The Sixties,” “Sports in America,” and “The Best of Witness, 1987 – 2004” eventually appeared as university press anthologies.In 2007, Witness moved to Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The magazine now publishes one special print issue and two general online issues each year and increasingly seeks out work that contextualizes the American experience by highlighting issues of global concern.

Hello, Dark Holidays…

How does one cry for help from these seasonal prisons? –On Beauty, by Zadie Smith Merry and bright? Or dark and dismal? Depending on how you holiday, we have you in mind this season with an entirely new zine. We’re spiking the eggnog to introduce spiced realism and bittersweet fantasy to this problematic season. We’re… [Read More]

Introducing the Spring 2019 issue of Witness: Disarm

The Spring 2019 issue of Witness is here! Featuring: Fiction by Mark Budman, Miriam Cohen, Samar Fitzgerald, Jameelah Lang, Robert McBrearty, Lance Olsen, Jennifer Sears, Courtney Sender, Eric Severn, and Christine Vines Poetry by Kazim Ali, Marina Blishteyn, Lauren Camp, Trace DePass, Ricardo Hernandez, Adrian Lurssen, and Gale Marie Thompson Nonfiction by Amy Collini, David… [Read More]

Announcing the winners of the 2019 Witness Literary Awards

The editors of Witness are pleased to announce the winners and runners-up of the first Witness Literary Awards in Fiction and Poetry. Poetry judge Hanif Abdurraqib has selected Sophia Stid’s poem “Apophatic Ghazal” as the first-place winner and Renia White’s poem “lump” as the runner-up. Fiction judge Lesley Nneka Arimah has selected Jane Pek’s story… [Read More]

Witness Launches Annual Literary Awards in Fiction and Poetry

The editors of Witness are pleased to announce that we are open for submissions to the first annual Witness Literary Awards in Fiction and Poetry. Submissions to our 2019 contest will be open from August 15 through October 1. *Note: Contest deadline has been extended to October 7* One winner in each genre receives $500… [Read More]

Vol. XXIX.2 Summer 2016

CURRENT ISSUE » XXIX.2 (Summer 2016) Sugato Mukherjee / “The Living Gods of Malabar” Theyyam is an ancient religious tradition of Malabar in North Kerala, India. A hierarchy of gods and goddesses are believed to be embodied in flesh and blood by oracles, who use ritual music, dance, and chanting to portray and invoke the… [Read More]

Vol. XXVIII No. 2 (Summer 2015)

Ashley Gilbertson / VII Fiction Sara C. Thomason, Liberation Day John Colasacco, The Boy Who Didn’t Wash Chris Fink, Strings Lindsay Sproul, Jack Armstrong Gwen Goodkin, One From Many Nonfiction Mike Smith, Shadow Texts Poetry Lia Greenwell, Montauk, NY Christopher Citro, Nerve Endings Like Strawberry Runners Cody Ernst, Unstuck Derek Gromadzki, Escapement Virginia Konchan, Anodyne… [Read More]

Vol. XXVII No. 2 (Summer 2014)

Neil de la Flor / “Wraith”Veronica Ortiz (pianist) and Jahzel Dotel perform prior to the opening of Cask, a theatrical dance production created by Marissa Alma Nick based on Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado,” on October 25, 2013, at the Miami Dade County Auditorium On.Stage Black Box. Fiction Michael Hyde, The… [Read More]