Cave wall with ancient handprints stencil art, featuring multiple white and reddish handprint silhouettes overlapping on a rough, reddish-brown surface.

Trace Fossil

/trās ˈfäsəl/

A fossil of a footprint, trail, burrow, or other trace of an animal rather than the animal itself.

The art in wake of the artist.

Spring

Keira Deer

Clinton Khile-Brägger

Virgil Suárez

Audrey Dubois

Laura Ann Reed

Ferris Jones

Marie Anne Arreola

Rachel Whalen

Erik Harper Klass

John Barrett Lee

Issue

Spring 2026

A colorful, abstract street scene drawing with various buildings, a crowd of people, and a truck in the foreground. The sky is painted with pastel shades.

2025

Anthology

Trace Fossils Review’s 2025 Anthology highlights some of our favorite pieces from the magazine’s second volume of publications.

Purchase the anthology

Trace Fossils Review’s 2025 Anthology highlights some of our favorite pieces from the magazine’s second volume of publications.

Purchase the anthology

Buzzcut

A Conversation With the Up & Coming

In July, Trace Fossils’ editor-in-chief, Jessie Leitzel, sat down with the 2025 Buzzcut interviewees, Ruby Varallo and Lillian Colette Hughes, to discuss their debut books…

Read the interview

A Conversation
With the Up & Coming

In July, Trace Fossils’ editor-in-chief, Jessie Leitzel, sat down with the 2025 Buzzcut interviewees, Ruby Varallo and Lillian Colette Hughes, to discuss their debut books…

Read the interview

Cover of a book titled "Bleeding Bloom" by Lillian Colette Hughes. The cover features a large deer skull with antlers lying on dark gravel, with small plants and mushrooms growing around it. In the background, a train tracks and a forested mountain scene is depicted under a dark blue sky.

Book cover titled 'RECEIPTS' by Ruby Varallo featuring an abstract illustration of a face with bold black outlines, stylized eyes, lips, and a starburst pattern around the face with newspaper text elements.

Current Issue

Featured

A digital painting of two women embracing each other, expressing intense emotion. One woman has earrings and glasses, while the other woman appears to be crying or laughing with eyes closed.

Through the River

Lila Hayes | Fiction

I Envy You, Marsh

Sophia Mandrier | Poetry

A child with light brown hair and big blue eyes wearing pajamas with red and orange scribbles, sitting next to a large dog with black and brown fur, pointed ears, and expressive eyes, indoors in a cozy room.

Friend of the Tide

Chloe Johnson | Fiction

A colorful abstract painting of a person with long hair and their head tilted back, surrounded by vibrant hues of pink, green, blue, and yellow with expressive brushstrokes.

Climate Change

Hunter Fulp | Poetry