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Read Issue #318

The Sea of Cortés

By Nate Brown

In Nate Brown’s speculative short story “The Sea of Cortés,” a scientist who, with her partner, studies the migratory patterns of endangered humpback whales finds herself reassessing her life after a new pair of scientists arrives at their remote laboratory outpost.

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Read Issue #317

Nothing That Counts

By Devon Halliday

In Devon Halliday’s “Nothing That Counts,” a man is confronted with the opportunity to turn the misfortune of the person he loves most in the world into an opportunity for personal gain.

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Apply for the 2025 Writing Circle

The One Story Writing Circle is a year-long education program and accountability group. When you join the One Story Writing Circle, you join a small cohort of fiction writers looking to devote a year to improving their craft and process, and will receive access to selected One Story educational offerings.

Applications due November 19

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Give the Gift of One Story - All Gifts $20 Through the Holidays

One Story makes a great gift for all of the readers in your life. They’ll get a great short story every month. You’ll get year-round gratitude.

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Be a Literary Hero: Support Our Literary Magazine

“At a time when literary writing seems like a dying art, when little magazines are folding left and right, when publishers bemoan the sinking bottom line, here lies a spot of hope…It is called One Story.  – The New York Times

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2024 Lecture Series: Alice McDermott

Alice McDermott hosts our final lecture of our 2024 Lecture series. In Is This as Good as You Can Make It? she’ll explore the topic of revision, and the endless pursuit of better sentences,  scenes, characters, and stories.

Online Lecture
December 7

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Revise with Hannah Tinti

Learn tips and tricks for revision at your own pace in this self-guided class. Get five in-depth revision techniques to understand, deepen, and polish your work.

Self-Guided

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The One Teen Story Contest Is Open

For our One Teen Story contest, we ask writers ages 13-19 to enter their original, unpublished fiction. We are interested in great short stories of any genre about the teen experience—literary, fantasy, sci-fi, love stories, horror, etc.

Contest Open through December 2

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One Story arrives in the mail each month like a letter from a friend. Whether you read all of the time, or want to read more, One Story fits into your pocket and into your life.

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Getting to Know You: A Guide to Writing Convincing Characters

In this asynchronous class led by Editor in Chief Patrick Ryan, you’ll focus on how to develop your characters, how to deepen them, and how to use them to drive the story.

Asynchronous
December 5 – 10

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Read Issue #76

The Things We Don’t Talk About

By Lily Scheckner

In “The Things We Don’t Talk About,” one of the winners of our Teen Writing Contest, author Lily Scheckner explores how a strange and disturbing secret shapes the lives of two sisters and that of a boy who’s recently taken an interest in them.

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Support One Story with a Gift of Stock Today

You can now send a tax-advantaged stock gift in minutes. Reduce taxes on capital gains while deducting the fair market value of gifted stock held more than one year.

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Hit Submit: Sending Your Work to Lit Mags, Agents, and Residencies

This class answers frequently asked questions about how to present your work to those on the other side of the submit button.

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Check Out Our Back Issues

Take a moment and scroll through our archives. You might be surprised by who you find there.

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One Story Submissions Are Open

Submissions will remain open until we reach our cap of 2,000 for our fall reading period. We limit submissions to keep our reply time to authors down.

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For Publishers: Submission Manager

One Story provides a free, open-source submission management system to other publishers at no cost.

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Your November Fun Fact

One Story is an independent literary organization. We are not supported by a large organization or single donor. Instead, we are crowd-funded. Last year One Story was supported by 632 individuals, 10 grant funding organizations, and thousands of subscribers. Thank you!

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