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.

Summer

Sheila Black

Juliana Briggs

Ambrielle Butler

Benjamin Ficklin

Casey McConahay

Jillian Wardell

G. J. Gillespie

Issue

Summer 2026

An abstract collage artwork with various textured and colored papers, paint strokes, and mixed media elements creating a layered composition.

Summer 2026

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.