Trace Fossils Review positions itself as a refuge for writing that resists easy comprehension—work the editors describe as difficult to put on paper and difficult to submit. The review's stated curatorial posture is one of custodianship: they promise to treat submitted thoughts 'as we treat an old house: tenderly, with open ears & the knowledge that it will never be truly ours.' This is not a venue for polished, frictionless narratives; it is a quarterly publication explicitly constituted for fiction that feels 'hard as stone' and leaves the reader possessed. The submission window falls within the review's Fall period, with a fixed deadline of October 31, 2026. There is no submission fee. The editors accept one piece at a time for fiction, with a maximum of 4,000 words; flash fiction under 300 words is capped at a separate limit detailed in the full guidelines. The review publishes quarterly, and this call is for the Fall issue. The editors, Jessie and Gideon, frame the act of submission as an offering of trust—a dynamic that suggests they read for voice, obsession, and formal risk rather than for market fit. For the serious fiction writer, Trace Fossils Review represents a small, intentional space where difficulty is not a liability but the primary criterion. The review does not promise prizes, broad distribution, or promotional amplification. What it offers is editorial attention of a specific kind: slow, possessive, and respectful of the work's autonomy. Writers should approach this call with the understanding that the editors are seeking work that haunts—stories that cannot be easily summarized, categorized, or forgotten.