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.

Oct 2nd | 7:00pm

2026 LAUNCH PARTY

The Grolier Poetry Book Shop

a reading & book signing at

6 Plympton St, Cambridge, MA

Sign up now

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 collage-style portrait of a person with long hair, created with various small pieces of paper, fabric, and other materials in a mosaic technique. The portrait features a frontal view with a neutral expression, and the background is filled with a colorful array of small fragments.

Lobular

Sheila Black | Poetry

A Transience

Benjamin Ficklin | Fiction

Abstract collage artwork created with torn paper, featuring bright colors like yellow, red, green, blue, and black, with layered textures and patterns.

Caterwaul

Casey McConahay | Fiction

A collage art piece with a portrait of a woman created using various small pieces of colored paper and magazine cutouts, with a focus on orange, black, and blue tones.

The Astronaut

Ambrielle Butler | Poetry

Abstract collage consisting of torn paper, magazine clippings, and painted elements, creating a textured, colorful composition with swirling patterns and layered materials.