community creativity empathy tshirt design
left hand touching Tendrils journal cover on grass background

Help trauma-shaped, brave, and transformative work find a home. 

various mandala drawings
two women holding Tendrils Issue 1 at book fair

Tendrils is an annual art and literary journal that provides a space for expression, community, and healing through creative practice.

Our unique blend of creative expression and trauma-informed programming is building a community centered on healing.

Your Contribution:

By donating to Tendrils, you're helping us cover essential publishing costs:

  • honoraria for artists and writers, 

  • printing expenses, 

  • tech and software expenses, and 

  • shipping and postage. 

The majority of adults in the US will experience trauma at least once, which often leads to mental health issues such as loneliness and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Donate Today

  • Contribute $40, and you'll be proudly acknowledged as a patron in the latest issue in print and online editions.

  • Contribute $100 or more, and you'll receive the latest printed issue along with being listed as a patron in both our print and online editions.

To donate via the Square app instead of PayPal, click here: https://square.link/u/ARo0Bw4G

The Tendrils impact in 2025

Over $1,000 honoraria paid to artists and writers:

Many small independent art publications DO NOT pay the artists they feature. We believe artists should be paid for their work and are committed to paying a flat fee to everyone we publish.

Trauma-informed workshops:

Our Creative Healing Workshop provided low-cost access to the healing techniques of somatic and mindful breathing practices, as well as art therapy exercises facilitated by an art therapist and licensed professional counselor working with Complex Trauma (CPTSD).

Community building:

Isolation can be a byproduct of being an artist (and a trauma survivor). We held two Artists and Writers Talks, which brought together our contributors from the “Trauma and the Body” issue. This provided a supportive space for talking about how trauma impacts their work, their healing journey, and creative process.

Trauma and the Body, Issue 1 Trauma and the Body, Issue 1
Trauma and the Body, Issue 1
$25.00

An annual art and literary journal that explores how trauma manifests, transforms, and is held inside us.

Tendrils: Trauma & the Body, Issue 1, is an independent art and literary journal that brings together contemporary visual art and short-form literature, exploring how trauma manifests, transforms, and is held inside us.

This first edition features over 60 works selected from more than 1,500 submissions. The artists and writers included here approach trauma from many angles: bold and quiet, surreal and humorous, personal and ancestral. Instead of offering resolution, these pages invite you to pause, witness, and stay with what is present.

This is a printed journal meant to be held. To be returned to. To sit beside you.

What you’ll find inside:

  • 66+ pages of curated visual art, poetry, and short‑form prose

  • Work by artists and writers creating from lived experience

  • A trauma‑informed editorial approach rooted in care and respect

  • Guidance and creative reflection prompts from a licensed therapist

  • Full‑color, perfect‑bound print edition

Each piece was chosen not for clarity or ease, but for what lingered.

Featuring work by:

  • Leah King

  • Bruce Morrow

  • Naila Francis

  • Shelby Hubbard

  • M. Lopes da Silva

  • Megan Mosholder & David Clifton-Strawn

  • Sasha Kelly Jackson

  • Juanita Cox

  • Bolu Adeniran

  • thái lu

  • nat raum

  • Annika Klein

  • Amanda Quaid

  • Marie McCarty

  • Leslie Holt

  • Sandra Kluge

  • Nia “Newt” Pipkin-Glover

  • Ira Joel Haber 

  • Jan Freeman

  • Lisa Wilde 

  • Rama AlFarkh

  • Carol D Guerrero-Murphy

  • Joanna Hoge

  • Kristy Snedden

  • Erick Alejandro Hernández

  • izzy bulling

  • Livia Garofalo

  • S Maxfield

  • Sarah Bachinger

  • Teresa Camozzi

  • Estelle Lewis

  • Federico Muelas 

  • Chanika Svetvilas

  • Victoria Barnes

  • Sheldon Wong

  • Theda Sandiford

  • Pauline Chu 

  • Bo (Boram) Kim

  • Peppa

  • Sam Grabowska

  • Hazel Yan

  • Diana Raab

  • Aiyana Sha’niel

  • Olivia Laura

  • Sarah E. Brook

  • Richard LeBlond

  • Shelby Fleming

  • Regina Berg 

  • Daun Daemon

  • Maudie Bryant

  • Heather Beardsley & Alexandra Carter

  • Angie Meche Kilcullen

  • Dana Donaty

  • Neha Misra

  • ocean

  • Jacqueline Yvonne Tull

  • Oriada Dajko

  • Nakemiah “Kiki” Williams

  • Annette Gagliardi

  • Alex Younger

  • Elijah Angelo Chavez

Bring Tendrils home

Witness, reflect, and fall in love with over 60 works of trauma-informed visual art and short-form literature that asks what is Trauma and the Body.

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