art by @yiionesa on ig
⊱ SONDER LITERARY ☆
Welcome to the official Sonder Literary website! We are a queer and youth-run literary zine determined to bring equality and whimsy back to publishing. Everything you need to know about us can be found here, including our submission forms, issues, and more! Thanks for visiting, traveler! ☆
for optimal viewing, use computer!
☆ issue 04 : memento vivere
For this submission period, you can submit to the general issue with no theme, or the sonder subsection, with the theme: Memento Vivere! We are looking for works based on grief, retrospection, and remembrance. As the world rushes by, we aim to come together to express our toughest emotions through the power of art.
☆ / issue 01 :
a digital version of sonder literary's inaugural issue. dive into 88 pages of works by 37 uniquely brilliant creatives and read the perspectives of the people you pass by. this issue has no theme.published on june 7th, 2025.
☆ / issue 1.5 : glimpse
a digital version of sonder literary's mini issue: glimpse. read the work of the 15 masterful contributors with the task of writing a poem with 8 lines or less and take a glimpse into their creative minds.published on july 15th, 2025.
☆ / issue 02 : sonder
a digital version of sonder literary's second issue. get ready to delve into not only creative stories with no concrete theme, but our subsection: sonder. 41 contributors pour their heart into their works and show us what the namesake of our zine means to them.published on november 13th, 2025
☆ / issue 2.5 : dream suite
a digital version of sonder literary's mini issue: dream suite. based off of the hit album: hawaii: part ii,
immerse yourself in 15 unique stories-- then explore hidden meanings and words unsaid within the blacked out abyss.published on january 2nd, 2026
☆ / competition 1: box of trinkets
a collaborative competition between sonder literary, juni zine, utopia magazine, and sacred lotus zine. participants were asked to express themselves using each magazine's chosen trinket, then were rewarded based on a myriad of compelling categories.published on march 22nd, 2026
☆ / issue 3 : i hope you find your way home
a digital version of sonder literary's third full-length issue. a colorful celebration of culture, nostalgia, and the tiny intricacies of comfort from the perspectives of 30 contributors across 16 different countriespublished on may 31st, 2026
☆ / competition 2 : THE SPREAD
a 20+ magazine collaboration themed around a tarot card deck. sonder literary has chosen to represent the hanged man; gathering pieces surrounding surrender, new perspectives, letting go, waiting, and sacrifice. press the image to view the winning written work.pictured: visual media competition winner: all of me by zjoeiewinners announced on july 10th, 2026
☆ / issue 3.5 : OPAL
a digital version of sonder literary's third mini issue: OPAL. based off of jack stauber's short film of the same name, our eight talented contributors were tasked to craft touching contrapuntal-style poetry.releasing on july 31st.
hmm... it seems like construction isn't quite done yet.
cicadian ★
— by Sarah Moore
When you’re seventeen, there’s no sweeter sound than the cicadas. How, in this sticky summer heat they emerge singing shrilly. That when they burrowed up, tiny bodies digging through hard and soft layers of soil, even they could not know what was next. That’s how it felt on your seventeenth birthday. You knew you were getting older. You thought that something very big and grand would happen at this age, that there was some great metaphor out there for it that would prove you were not alone. But the truth is, nothing great happens to you when you turn seventeen— at least, not in the large ways you imagined. You feel it change in the way that everyone questions you about your future. You look at your friends and wonder if they’ll be there next year, like they always have been. There are pictures of yourself in your family’s photo album; seven, ten, thirteen— you stare at them, trying to remember what you were like at that age. What you felt in that picture. Without knowing, you still wish that you could be that way again. Now, you go outside and it smells like it did when you were eight. The sun is hot on your back and the cicadas are chirping. The sky is a delicate blue, the breeze cool. You think, this is it. The swaying leaves whisper to you. Whatever childhood had been, it was over, and this summer is the last one you’ve got. The daffodils nod melodically in the wind. So you think about the cicadas, how the earth held them so tightly in their quiet stasis, how it was just another day for them when they burrowed out of the dark soil and emerged; unafraid, ready to fly. You think about what it must have felt like when they saw light for the first time, discovered the wind, their wings— they could not know how good they had it. You’re seventeen now, and it’s a metaphor. You could not know your wings
staff directory ★
hiring opportunities ★
we are currently looking for layout designers, graphic designers, and content creators. apply here.
august brooke calloway:
founder & eic
⎯ reviewing team
Caelia ★
Caelia is a 16-year-old high school student based in the Philippines who loves mythology and all things lyrical! You can find them on Instagram at @zacharielled or maybe in the corner of the library listening to Hozier while yearning for that sweet, sweet taste of academic validation
Dyuti ★
Dyuti is a 16-year-old high school student living in the U.S. she loves writing, singing, reading, and listening to every kind of music! She's an aspiring lawyer and when not freaking out about school or her future, can usually be found drinking boba!
★★★
Ins ★
Ins is a high schooler and poet with a love for math, writing, and daydreaming about the future; they’re currently trying to survive school through the magic of music and too many ideas. When their attention isn't consumed by books or playlists, you can probably find them overthinking, doodling, or coming up with yet another plan they may or may not actually finish.
Lily ★
Lily Lovelle is an Australian teen singer-songwriter and poet. You can often find her having an existential crisis, writing about connections long gone, or scrolling Pinterest. She loves vampires, dark red, sapphic media, joy, whimsy, and her friends. Lily also works at Sonder as a content creator.
Vivienne ★
Lover of words and tales told through their whimsical nature, Vien is in her senior year of high school so you can imagine the amount of stress she's under. You'll find her in an empty practice room playing her French horn or bursting out into showtunes at every opportunity, so come sing-along!
Yeoubi ★
Yeoubi is a 16-year-old student from Melbourne, Australia, with a slightly concerning obsession with coffee. She loves R&B, making jewellery, photography, and pilates, and has a soft spot for quantum physics. When she’s not buried in schoolwork or sleeping, she’s probably bingeing a new C-drama or is out shopping (despite being completely broke).
⎯ artistry team
Arethusa ★
Arethusa, as you can call her Thusa, is an Indonesian art student trying to keep it together in studying to become a full time graphic designer! college is heavy but that doesn't stop her from doing everything she likes! such as drawing, dancing, and edit videos!. If she's not online, that could mean shes sleeping!
★★★
Marissa ★
Marissa is a digital artist based in the U.S. and a rising senior specializing primarily in concept art, character design, and illustration. Her work often involves visual storytelling through design and composition. An experienced freelancer, she enjoys writing, journaling, sports, and collecting trinkets in her free time.
Yiyi ★
No bio yet.
⎯ design team
August / Brooke ★
graphic/layout/web design
Brooke, more professionally known as August is a 15-year-old creative from South Florida. They have found their love in graphic design and zine management, which inspired them to begin Sonder Literary. If they aren't working with zines, you'll find them at a theme park, playing a sad game, or listening to music (the same album all day, of course).
★★★
Mei ★
layout design
Mei is a Filipino artist based in Qatar, specializing in graphic design as a hobby. When she's taking a break from creating art, graphic design, or studying for college, she's usually listening to music (rotating through jazz, R&B, and hip-hop), gaming, reading, writing poetry, or swimming. Mei is a lively soul to talk to and loves communicating with others through conversations or art itself. You can usually find her with a cup of coffee while she's in a library, cafe, or in the comfort of her own home, browsing the internet.
Milena ★
graphic design
Milena is an 18-year-old artist raised in Hungary and currently living in Florida. She loves exploring themes of memory, grief, and imagination through painting, digital art, and mixed media. When she’s not making art, you can find her thrifting for trinkets, playing guitar, creating handmade gifts for her friends, or hanging out in nature. In the future, she dreams of blending her love for creativity and mental health by becoming an art therapist.
Yashvi ★
layout design
No bio yet.
⎯ management team
Gilly ★
creative manager
Gilly loves exploring marketing in the mag community and finding creative outlets through fashion and writing. Recently, she's been really into Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony, drawn to the rhythm and creativity in the group’s music. Her aesthetic blends Street Goth and Grunge Academia, reflected in both their style and the hobbies they enjoy.
Lilia ★
social media manager
Lilia is a 18-year-old writer in the US and adores all forms of art. while she specializes in writing poetry, she dabbles in everything, collecting hobbies such as crocheting, origami, and building her menagerie of snoopy merchandise. she loves neuroscience and language and can often be found finding a way to intersect her multitude of interests together. Lilia also works at Sonder as a literature reviewer.
★★★
Dorothea ★
interview manager / granny smith's executive
Dorothea Spencer-Walton is whom one describes ‘a person in search of doors that lead elsewhere’. She is a writer of poetry, prose and screenplays, and is studying literature at university to become a librarian. She is the creator of "Comma, However", a blog that is a memoir, soapbox. and review platform all at once. Additionally, she is the co-editor-in-chief of Meridian Literary, and the head writer for Hiraya Literary. She can typically be found reading, knitting, or playing video games in her spare time. When not trudging up beaches or haunting lecture halls, you can surely find her.
Vanessa ★
creative manager
Vanessa is a student, poet, senior editor, and writer from Kurdistan. She spends her days reading written pieces from all over the world, juggling cinema, and writing. Writing, she believes, is a way to process things. Whether it’s love, loss, or the mess in between. Her work has appeared and is forthcoming in various literary online magazines. Vanessa does not write solely for herself, but to speak for those who cannot put their feelings into words.
⎯ reel creation team
Hae ★
No bio yet.
★★★
Iris ★
Iris is a hobbyist photographer, award-winning writer and musician. As a jazz and literature lover, she can often be found playing the saxophone or singing for her beloved jazz band or writing poetry and prose in the little corner of her bedroom. If she is not doing either of the things mentioned before, she's probably playing with her dog.
⎯ writing team
Julian ★
No bio yet.
Chill ★
No bio yet.
★★★
Yonsiri ★
Yonsiri Rojas employs literacy art as a manner of sociocultural expression. Through it, he declares narratives imbued with queer shades, carrying the hope of introducing the outer world to the undiluted experience of being liberated.
Giulia ★
Giulia is an art major with a love for writing, gaming, fashion, art, movies, and just about anything creative. she collects hobbies like she collects trinkets - always bringing home a new obsession.
⎯ sonder literary's very own support group for new zines.
sign up here ★Made for magazines created using our Zine Guide to foster special communities of editor-in-chiefs to uplift their work.ABSOLUTELY FREE!
perks ⎯
- one-on-one elaboration & advice from zine guide writer & editor-in-chief of sonder literary.- special support from sonder literary through unique promotions.- support groupchats with other apple tree members. create special bonds!
+ find the zines growing on our apple tree here! +
⎯ hiraya literary
Hiraya Manawari! Hiraya Literary is a global, non-profit, literary and multimedia digizine committed to bringing aspiring creatives talent and spark to fruition. We hope at Hiraya, your dreams and aspirations can bloom further.
⎯ their audience
Individuals dedicated to uniting the Bookstagram & Digizine community.
⎯ what they publish
Prose, articles, media reviews, and many more art forms!
editor in chief: mikayla bolilia
⎯ calico literary
Calico Literary is a youth-led literary magazine for all bookish cat-loving creatives ages 13-26 focusing on creativity, advocacy, and service.
⎯ their audience
People aged 13-26 that love writing, art, and cats!
⎯ what they publish
Poetry, short stories, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, articles/essays, art (all mediums), photography.
editor in chief: brianna andrade
⎯ feel your feelings! zine
FYF!Z is a place where people can be unapologetically themselves or find that missing part of themselves.
⎯ their audience
Anyone who's ever been told they were "too much" or have repressed themselves to fit into a mold.
⎯ what they publish
Poems, prose, essays, short stories, screenplays, comics, photography, art, mixed media works, and basically anything that has a soul.
editor in chief: karmin loy
⎯ whatsarequiem literary
WhatsaRequiem literary is a digital publication dedicated to young creatives who write with depth and conviction. We believe literature should unsettle, question, and endure. Our pages exist for voices that resist simplicity work that is layered, reflective, and unapologetically distinct.
⎯ their audience
Alternative people!
⎯ what they publish
All forms of literary, like poems, prose, blogs, photography, mixed media, essays.
editor in chief: tanishi singh
