‘A JOLT TO THE MAINSTREAM’ — The Guardian
After trauma, there is still poetry.
FROM A BEDROOM IN CHORLEY TO A NATIONAL POETRY PRESS
160,000+ reads / 5 million+ social impressions / 40 countries
Poetry longlisted for the Forward Prizes
Supported by the T. S. Eliot Foundation and Arts Council England
Featured by The Guardian · The Bookseller · BBC Radio 4
2025: a new Lancashire poetry magazine
2026: a national independent poetry press
2027: the next generation of Aftershock
SURVIVAL • BEAUTY • QUEERNESS • MADNESS • LOVE • RECOVERY •
photo by @katiescribbles
The Aftershock Review returns with a third wave.
Britain’s most talked-about poetry rupture.
Where Issue One named the damage, and Issue Two mapped the fragments that remain. Issue Three asks, more dangerously: What do we need but a bit of hope?
FEATURING:
Hollie McNish
Fiona Sampson
Blake Morrison
Helen Mort
Jessica Mookherjee
and 60+ others
Read the Magazine
What began in bed became a crowdfunding success. We raised over £8,000 in crowdfunding and additional private donations. In April 2025 we received Arts Council England funding, and in September a grant from the T S Eliot Foundation. In 2026 we were funded again. This time: bigger, bolder and more sustainable for the future.
Max's Story
Time to rebuild
Following a suicide attempt in London, diagnoses of adult ADHD and complex PTSD, award-winning poet, writer and journalist Max Wallis looked to create a literary magazine that celebrates new and established voices looking at the aftershocks of experience.
“After almost dying, there was only one option in front of me: to survive. But not just that, I had to thrive. This is a celebration of that. It is my manifesto for living. We strive. And we will thrive.” Max Wallis, 2025
Max photographed for The Telegraph
Keep in touch
They said a poetry magazine about trauma wouldn't sell...
In just six months The Aftershock Review proved otherwise, becoming what The Guardian called “a jolt to the mainstream.”
It began in bed, in Chorley, Lancashire: poet Max Wallis, recovering from complex PTSD and a life of addiction and late-diagnosis of severe ADHD returned to the one thing that had always worked: poetry.
(C) Hayley Madden for The Poetry Society, Free Verse, April 26th 2025
Please note, due to unprecedented demand we are posting copies of the magazine out within a week of order. Thank you for your amazing support - it's worth the wait.
Press
