About The Anvil

The Charleston Anvil is Charleston, WV's black and white showcase of admixt art and literature- equal parts indie zine, underground comic, pulp magazine, anthology collection, and the avant-garde.

The magazine is intended, principally, as a forging tool, a place where anyone may have the chance to to temper their wordsmithery or hone their art making... hammer out their ideas communally.

As a communal project, the core tenet of The Anvil is inclusion - i.e., a completely level playing field, devoid of politics, nepotism, or any other special treatment or favors. Contributors are welcome no matter what their level of experience, and need not be "established" in any way.

Composed entirely of volunteered works, all content within the magazine is creator owned. No one is paid, all work remains the original property of its creator or creators, and any money made in sales will be used purely to recoup the cost of printing the current issue, or used to print the next Anvil.

Submissions can be as ambitious or modest as desired, as long as it can be printed on the page of a paper magazine. Prose, poetry, art, short stories, comics, stories either with or without illustrations, essays, photography and more will all be considered, and collaborations are encouraged. The Anvil welcomes all genres, included but not limited to fiction, non-fiction, sci-fi, horror, memoir, slice-of-life, romance, and mystery. All mixed media is accepted as well, and no single style or subject matter will be outright rejected.

Please keep in mind, however, that only finished works will be accepted, and the magazine itself will be printed in black and white.

Naturally, and unfortunately, not everything we receive can be printed. But just because your work wasn't accepted for the current issue doesn't necessarily mean we didn't like it or it wasn't good enough. Our current goal is to print The Anvil two times a year, meaning there is always the next issue.

Of course, that all depends on the community, and its drive to create and submit. And that community is not limited to local artists! The Charleston Anvil views Charleston as centrality- the midpoint of everywhere in WV, a pit stop or drive-thru for anywhere else you may be going. The intended meaning is centrality, not geographical elitism. We welcome submissions from everyone.