Looking for creative nonfiction journals this morning led me to West Trade Review. As I scrolled down the front page of their website, a striking image appeared as the cover of their “Volume 16 Winter 2025 Collection of Online Exclusives.”
Below are the words that came to mind immediately upon seeing the image. Whether or not my reaction was the intention of the editors, I’m not sure.
It’s here for your research and discernment.
Journal Cover Art: mutilated, menstruating, marketed
Brains blown out, the back of her head a cavity, grey spiderwebs escape onto empty white canvas.
Strands of gooey, menstruous, membrane spray across the expanse around the scene, not unlike a bloom of jellyfish in shallow waters.
Emaciated and naked, breasts covered with skeleton fingers.
Her gaze is burgundy, blood-stained, burnt.
Covered in red menses finger painted onto her own skin.
Suspended in air, a side profile. Both knees rising in motion, one slightly higher than the other nearly reaches an inclined head.
Sinks in a clear liquid purgatory.
Not unintentionally, where her vulva is hidden but surely must be, is a delicate splotch of dirty red extending into the grimy, grey void around her.
Forever publicly situated in a scene that normalizes the female body as disgusting and worthy of gruesome death.
I doubt the artist asked for her consent.
Artwork: https://www.westtradereview.com/Online-Exclusives-Winter-2025.html
Deanna Oudelha, MA 
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