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The place for a thrilling escape into new worlds, chilling fears, and urgent mysteries.
Currently accepting submissions for:
Sci-fi + Fantasy
Thriller + Mystery
Humor
Latest Stories
Publishing stories every week from new and established writers
The Sailor: A Novel Excerpt
K. Wallace KingFor beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror. —Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies December 16, 1932 The sun was as hot as the Fourth of July, though it was almost Christmas. I ran a finger over the note in my pocket: I like what you wrote about that creep who killed the kids. Show […]
Love in the Age of Time Travel
Marianna ShekPROLOGUE ### Event 110107 from the Chronicles of Ideal Histories Translated by Senior Historian Gordon Moyes Classified Information ### This is how it happens. Tyson March kisses his wife, leaves his home, and treks to the Tunnels. It’s early morning, the skydome has just ticked over to dawn mode. Street lights still illuminate the faces […]
The Prison Nurse – Novel Excerpt
Anthony Neil Smith“Still got a boyfriend?” “You know you can’t ask me that.” Rochelle kept it light, her sing-song Mississippi accent adorable. She tightened the suture on Farmer’s fourth stab wound. One more to go. “I told you, though, you’d be first to know if I dump him.” A major rule – no flirting with the inmates […]
Protectors of the Red, Red Earth
Avra Margariti“There is an animal,” I tell my young apprentice, “that can make other species protect it to the death.” Clay keeps notes as we crouch low in the dugout, watching the ant-wasp hill under the soft redlight of the third of our thirteen suns. Strange—the words Mission Log had been printed on the top of […]
Sci-Fi + Fantasy
Love in the Age of Time Travel
Marianna ShekPROLOGUE ### Event 110107 from the Chronicles of Ideal Histories Translated by Senior Historian Gordon Moyes Classified Information ### This is how it happens. Tyson March kisses his wife, leaves his home, and treks to the Tunnels. It’s early morning, the skydome has just ticked over to dawn mode. Street lights still illuminate the faces […]
Protectors of the Red, Red Earth
Avra Margariti“There is an animal,” I tell my young apprentice, “that can make other species protect it to the death.” Clay keeps notes as we crouch low in the dugout, watching the ant-wasp hill under the soft redlight of the third of our thirteen suns. Strange—the words Mission Log had been printed on the top of […]
The Eye of Europa
Christopher L. MorrowAs she floated near the viewport of the Nautilus IV for the fourth day, Faye stared out at what looked like a giant sleep-deprived but pupil-less eye. In actuality, orange-red lines haphazardly scored the white surface of the moon. She had first seen pictures of Europa right after she turned ten in 2230—the same year she […]
Humor
SELECTED APOLOGIES TO SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, WRITTEN IN LICHEN
Tiffany HarrisGene believed the mitochondria were feminist until someone asked him why. That’s how things started going downhill. My husband, Gene Saperstein, fifty-eight years old and retired from the IRS just this past spring, standing there holding a glass of boxed pinot grigio in Lucy Halperin’s living room, surrounded by women with statement earrings. You should know […]
Thriller + Mystery
The Sailor: A Novel Excerpt
K. Wallace KingFor beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror. —Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies December 16, 1932 The sun was as hot as the Fourth of July, though it was almost Christmas. I ran a finger over the note in my pocket: I like what you wrote about that creep who killed the kids. Show […]
The Prison Nurse – Novel Excerpt
Anthony Neil Smith“Still got a boyfriend?” “You know you can’t ask me that.” Rochelle kept it light, her sing-song Mississippi accent adorable. She tightened the suture on Farmer’s fourth stab wound. One more to go. “I told you, though, you’d be first to know if I dump him.” A major rule – no flirting with the inmates […]
Postpartum Ballad of Wendy Rhys
Seth WadeI slink down the street, rotting tot in stroller. Each clack of the wheels on the sidewalk cracks becomes a twist inside my chest. Squeals ringing from the playground. Ladies on benches in neat dresses, reading or chatting or watching kids play. I sit on a bench, soaking up all the happy around me. Wendy? […]
Historical Fiction
CAN I HELP YOU, MISS?
David Landau(Circa 1953) It’s going on full dark when the car turns off the highway into the motel auto court. A ’48 Studebaker Commander careening through one last pothole, running roughshod since Fresno, on fumes since Old Town Calabasas. But it made it. They made it. Just past the red “VACANCY” sign, the car slows then […]
We Undark Night With Our Tongues
Claudia MonpereWe were instructed to point the brush with our lips ––Grace Fryer, a dial-painter for The Radium Luminous Materials Corporation, 1930 1.Glow Twirling the paintbrush in our mouths to sharpen the point glow-in-the-dark watches airplane dials clocks in the company darkroom our glow-in-the-dark cheeks necks hands our radium tongues constellations of luminous dust drifting as […]
Young Adult
A Little Sorrowed Talk
Heather Etelamaki“You know what I heard, Philippa?” Kenzi said. “What?” I said, watching the lifeguards clean the pool beyond the fence. For the last time that summer, we were waiting to get into the city pool and, as usual, had come too early. “Mitchell was watching you the whole time we were here yesterday.” I gripped […]
The Fox in the Hydrangea
C. E. SternOnce upon a time, the house next to the cemetery belonged to the only undertaker in town. But we Talbots haven’t been undertakers since great-uncle Laurence got shot in a hunting accident. It’s been just Pa and me in the house ever since. But that’s fine. The house likes it better that way. At least […]
Submit Your Story
Share your writing with us! We want stories from these genre categories: sci-fi/fantasy; horror/thriller; humor.
Award Winners
The Sailor: A Novel Excerpt
K. Wallace KingFor beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror. —Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies December 16, 1932 The sun was as hot as the Fourth of July, though it was almost Christmas. I ran a finger over the note in my pocket: I like what you wrote about that creep who killed the kids. Show […]
Love in the Age of Time Travel
Marianna ShekPROLOGUE ### Event 110107 from the Chronicles of Ideal Histories Translated by Senior Historian Gordon Moyes Classified Information ### This is how it happens. Tyson March kisses his wife, leaves his home, and treks to the Tunnels. It’s early morning, the skydome has just ticked over to dawn mode. Street lights still illuminate the faces […]
The Prison Nurse – Novel Excerpt
Anthony Neil Smith“Still got a boyfriend?” “You know you can’t ask me that.” Rochelle kept it light, her sing-song Mississippi accent adorable. She tightened the suture on Farmer’s fourth stab wound. One more to go. “I told you, though, you’d be first to know if I dump him.” A major rule – no flirting with the inmates […]
SELECTED APOLOGIES TO SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, WRITTEN IN LICHEN
Tiffany HarrisGene believed the mitochondria were feminist until someone asked him why. That’s how things started going downhill. My husband, Gene Saperstein, fifty-eight years old and retired from the IRS just this past spring, standing there holding a glass of boxed pinot grigio in Lucy Halperin’s living room, surrounded by women with statement earrings. You should know […]
A Little Sorrowed Talk
Heather Etelamaki“You know what I heard, Philippa?” Kenzi said. “What?” I said, watching the lifeguards clean the pool beyond the fence. For the last time that summer, we were waiting to get into the city pool and, as usual, had come too early. “Mitchell was watching you the whole time we were here yesterday.” I gripped […]
By Train Through the Actinic Mountains
Leigh LovedayA carriage, exposed and burning at the foot of a sheer silver peak. Sunlight, intense sunlight. Smoke. Stillness. Blood. No movement. Then: a solitary figure moving away, stumbling from shadow into light. A change claiming him, deep and irreversible, making him something other. But go back. Trace the train’s journey through this unnatural place. See […]
Suburban Slaughter: Twenty Years Later
Carlos ContrerasThe first thing you might notice when watching Suburban Slaughter is the flashing red thunderbolt on the corner of the screen; the camcorder is almost out of battery, and the characters are almost out of time. It starts with blurred static until a moment of clarity reveals two boys crushed by compression. Their bright shirts […]
The Hand & The Sea
Threa AlmontaserThe Hand At eleven o’clock, with my family tucked fast asleep, I tip-toed to the door and tied the last knot on my combat boot, knots that reached my knees. Rounding the corner, I collided with Baba. “Where do you think you’re going this late?” he asked, rolling the checkered foutah tighter around his waist. […]
CAN I HELP YOU, MISS?
David Landau(Circa 1953) It’s going on full dark when the car turns off the highway into the motel auto court. A ’48 Studebaker Commander careening through one last pothole, running roughshod since Fresno, on fumes since Old Town Calabasas. But it made it. They made it. Just past the red “VACANCY” sign, the car slows then […]
Sandstone Ballad
Danielle EmersonThe statue looked uncannily like her mother. Its nose curved up, stout at the base and plump near the nostrils. Long straight hair fell below its waist; flowy, as if caught in the same wind that brushed against Roadside’s ears. If she squinted, a part of her was so sure that the statue would start […]
Latest Contests
Get the guidelines on our current contests, where we offer writers premier opportunities for publication and payment. All winners selected by noted guest judges.
Interviews
Uncharted
by Sophie Drukman-Feldstein I remember first encountering Hal Schrieve’s work and thinking, “Oh, ze gets it.” Hal captures, better than almost anyone else I’ve ever read, what it’s like to be a messy, young trans person within a messy queer social scene. In hir new YA novel Fawn’s Blood, ze takes us to a vampire underworld beneath […]
Uncharted
By Caitlin Taylor So I had the privilege and pleasure of connecting with acclaimed Vietnamese-American author Jamie Jo Hoang in anticipation of the release of her stand-alone companion book, My Mother, the Mermaid Chaser, out September 23rd of this year. 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. In the spirit […]
K. Wallace King
K. Wallace King’s recent short fiction appears in Cosmic Horror Monthly, Chthonic Matter, Nightscript, The Opiate, Underland Arcana, the 2024 double Shirley Jackson Award winning, Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic Anthology, and will be serialized in The Stygian Lepus in January and February of ’25. Ellen Datlow found her story in Chthonic Matter “notable,” in Volume 16 of The Best Horror of the Year. She lives in Hollywood, California, where the handprints of dreamers are pressed into the sidewalks.
See Their WorkMarianna Shek
Marianna Shek works as a librarian by day. Her previous works have been shortlisted for the Times/ Chicken House Fiction Prize (2022) and longlisted for the Bath Children’s Writing Award (2022). Her short stories have won the Children and Young Adult Conference writing prize and the Wakefield Press YA Horror Anthology competition.
See Their WorkAnthony Neil Smith
Anthony Neil Smith is a novelist (Yellow Medicine, Slow Bear, many others), short story writer (Bull, HAD, Maudlin House, Cowboy Jamboree, many others), and a professor at Southwest Minnesota State University. His work appeared in Best American Mystery & Suspense 2023. He is the editor of online lit journal Revolution John. He likes Mexican food, California wine, French noir and Italian exploitation flicks.
See Their WorkAvra Margariti
Avra Margariti is a queer author and Pushcart-nominated poet with a fondness for the dark and the darling. Avra’s work haunts publications such as Vastarien, Asimov's, Strange Horizons, F&SF, The Deadlands, Podcastle, and Reckoning. Avra lives and studies in Athens, Greece. You can find Avra on twitter (@avramargariti).
See Their WorkChristopher L. Morrow
Christopher L. Morrow is a professor, writer, and avid board gamer. His creative works have been previously published in Under the Gum Tree, Bright Flash Literary Review, and Texas Ballot Poetry. He lives in west Texas with his wife, sons, and four Siberian huskies.
See Their WorkMitchell Shanklin
Mitchell Shanklin has been published in Lightspeed Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and a story forthcoming in Podcastle. He is a graduate of the Clarion West workshop.
See Their WorkAmy Flanders
Amy Flanders is an American writer from California who now lives near Oxford in the UK. She has an MA in literary studies, a doctorate in History and enjoys reading and writing historically flavoured fiction.
See Their WorkSeth Wade
Seth Wade is a tech ethicist studying and teaching philosophy at Bowling Green State University. You can read his fiction and poetry in publications like Strange Horizons, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Hunger Mountain Review, PsuedoPod, Apparition Literary Magazine, HAD, hex, The Cafe Irreal, Lost Balloon, X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, BAM Quarterly, Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, and The Gateway Review. He is also a Pushcart Prize nominee. You can follow him on X: @SethWade4Real or Instagram: @chompchomp4u or Bluesky: @sethwade.bsky.social
See Their WorkSam Brown
Sam Brown is a writer and podcaster, born in Gloucestershire and currently based in East London. He has written for various publications, including anthologies, online journals, and literary magazines. He is writing a novel, THE BIBLE OF BOB SMEEK, a queer political satire set in the United States.
See Their WorkTiffany Harris
Tiffany Harris is a short fiction writer whose work has appeared in Buckman Journal, Black Glass Pages, Humana Obscura, Five Minutes, and Westword. She won the Tadpole Press 100-Word Writing Contest, received highly commended in the Bath Flash Fiction's 29th Award, and was longlisted in SmokeLong Quarterly’s 2024 Grand Micro.
See Their WorkLatest News
Novel Excerpt Prize | Judged by Cynthia Pelayo | Longlist
This doesn’t get any easier, narrowing down a large pool of good novel excerpts to a longlist of pieces we wanted to keep reading, with characters we grew to care about in 5,000 words or less. Congratulations to the 31 writers on this list!
2025 Refractions: Genre Flash Fiction Prize Longlist
So many of our writers and editors love flash fiction, so this is always one of our favorite contests each year. It’s so fun to see these genres played out in stories of so few words! Compression is a great way to increase not only the resonance, but also the creativity in what to leave […]
Uncharted Magazine Cinematic Short Story Contest | Judged by Rachel Harrison Winners and Shortlist
This contest is quickly becoming one of our favorites! There’s just something immediate about a short story that creates its world through cinematic craft moves and detail-rich writing! Judge Rachel Harrison chose three winners, and we decided to publish two others that we couldn’t let go! And congratulations to everyone on the shortlist. We read […]
Humor Challenge Winner
We’re excited to announce the winner of the humor challenge! We laughed, we chuckled, raised our eyebrows, but this is the story we returned to the most! We’re grateful to all the submitters who helped us launch a new genre at Uncharted! The Winner: Selected Apologies to Simone de Beauvoir, Written in Lichen by Tiffany […]
Uncharted Magazine Novel Excerpt Prize | Judged by Laird Barron Winners
Congratulations to our three co-winners chosen by Judge Laird Barron! See below for the reveal of the shortlisted authors. We hope these manuscripts find great homes in the future! The Co-Winners: The Sailor by K. Wallace King “Redolent of Ellroy and Chandler, but stripped down. Lean, mean, and to the point. I loved the sense […]
Humor Challenge Shortlist
Congrats to the shortlisted stories and their writers! You’re humor is shining through in these pieces! We’ll be back with the winner of the challenge very soon!
2025 Keynote by Benjamin Percy
Rescheduled for 8/13/2025! As writers ourselves, we know how invigorating and inspiring it can be to hear from successful genre writers who have found a way to finish their drafts and get their projects into the hearts and minds of readers far and wide. Benjamin Percy may have started in the literary fiction space, but […]
Humor Challenge Longlist
It’s always a delight to open up to a new genre and see how our submitters respond to an exciting challenge! Comedy of any kind is hard to pull off, but it’s especially difficult when it’s solely on the page. We’re excited to add these 19 title to our longlist, while we continue to review […]
Uncharted Magazine Novel Excerpt Prize | Judged by Laird Barron Shortlist
We did it! We finally found our shortlist for this contest. They have been submitted to Laird Barron for his judging, and we can’t wait to find out which excerpts are the winners! Congrats to the writers of these 20 shortlisted excerpts!