The Obsidian Review is a curated literary platform built around a structured editorial cycle. Rather than continuous publishing, it offers a slower, more intentional approach—where writing is given the space to develop before it is selected.
Submissions are not simply received and displayed. They are read, considered, and placed within a larger process that values depth over immediacy.
The result is not just a collection of individual pieces, but a body of work shaped over time.
The Cycle of the Moon
The structure of The Obsidian Review is shaped by the phases of the moon. Just as the moon moves through cycles—beginning in darkness, gradually revealing itself, and returning once again to stillness—so does the process of writing within this space.
Not everything appears at once. Each piece moves through stages: beginning as an idea, taking form over time, and eventually reaching a point of clarity.
Why Obsidian
Obsidian is a natural volcanic glass—formed when molten rock cools rapidly, without the time to crystallise. It is created under pressure, in intensity, and in a moment of sudden stillness.
This idea sits at the core of The Obsidian Review. Writing, too, is often formed in intensity—shaped by emotion, experience, and moments that demand expression.
But unlike obsidian, this platform allows that intensity to settle. To be revisited. To be refined. To take form with intention, rather than immediacy. The name reflects both the origin of creation—and the decision to slow it down.
When You Submit
Enters the Cycle
Your work is received and placed into the process.
Read
It is carefully read, without urgency.
Considered
It is evaluated alongside other submissions.
Held
It remains within the cycle as selections take shape.
Selected / Not Selected
A decision is made with intention.
Becomes Part of the Collection
Selected works move forward into the Lunar Book.
From the Founder
A note from Soubhagyaa, founder of The Obsidian Review.
This did not begin as a platform.
It began as a question—
of where writing belongs,
and whether it is ever truly seen.
The Obsidian Review was created to answer that question.
Not through speed,
not through visibility,
but through time.
If you are here, you have already begun.
There is something you are trying to say—
something that has stayed with you long enough to take form.
You do not need to rush it.
You do not need to force it into visibility.
Let it arrive as it is.
Let it be incomplete, if it must be.
This is not a space that demands perfection.
It asks only for intention.
And if your work finds its place here,
it will not be by chance—
but because something within it remained.
What remains is intentional.
— Soubhagyaa S.
Assembled Over Time — Soubhagyaa
Founder of The Obsidian Review
Global Ambassador at the Harvard Crimson
Member — Youth Founders Network
Published in anthologies with Scholastic and CAAB
Winner — HarperCollins Online Writing Competition
Author of three bestselling titles on BriBooks
Recipient of the National Prodigy Award (all three titles)
"What remains is intentional."
If You’ve Been Holding Something
If you’ve been holding something—
a line,
a piece,
a feeling you haven’t quite been able to place—
this might be where it belongs.
Not because it is perfect.
But because it stayed.
Because it returned to you, again and again,
asking to be written.
You don’t need to be certain.
You don’t need to have it all figured out.
You only need to recognise it.
And let it go.
Submissions are open for the current theme.
If your work meets it, you are welcome to place it within the cycle.
Some things are meant to be kept.
And some things are meant to be released.
Some work takes time to become what it was meant to be.
This cycle exists for that space.
When it’s ready, let it find us.