About The Aftershock Review
September 2024 - April 2025
After trauma, there is still poetry...
April 2025
The Arts Council funds a magazine that would change British poetry
2025
T S Eliot Foundation
January 2026
A Press Is Born
August 2026
Infrastructure and foundations
Forward Prizes
The Aftershock Review began as an idea by Max Wallis thought up in bed while recovering from complex PTSD. He raised £8,000 in Crowdfunder donations (and private donations) to produce a magazine that would publish poetry based on the aftershocks of experience.
The Aftershock Review was awarded funding by the Arts Council for two more issues of the magazine, and two pocket Aftershocks. In one year we published 5 books, 210 poets, 393 poems.
The T S Eliot Foundation awarded Aftershock with a one-off grant of £15,000 in recognition of Aftershock's work.
The Aftershock Review was awarded further funding by the Arts Council to transition into a press, beyond magazines. 2026 sees the release of two more issues, Ecoshock, and five poetry collections.
By August 2026 The Aftershock Review gained national distribution through Gardners, enabling all of their books to be ordered from any bookshop across the UK. Behind the scenes, infrastructure and relations were developed at breakneck speed to create a sustainable press, based in Chorley, Lancashire, with national and international reach.
Two poems from Issue One were longlisted for the Forward Prizes for Best Single Poem (Written) - Polly Atkin's Pain Parade and Di Slaney's Odontoameloblastoma.
What's next?
The Aftershock Review is rooted in Chorley, Lancashire with global reach. We look to become a Northern cultural asset at a time when it is most needed. We are not alone. We have supporters across the country and the world, and through our communities seek to uplift poets, publish work of cultural importance, all while fostering a community that believes in empathy, hope, and most of all: literary excellence.