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Read Issue #319

Decomposer in Chief

By Lindsey Godfrey Eccles

In Lindsey Godfrey Eccles’s “Decomposer in Chief,” Tanaka, a hapless mycologist, has been summoned by the Secret Service to deal with a mysterious development: the President, apparently, has been replaced by a fungal entity that looks exactly like him.

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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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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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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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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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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For our One Teen Story contest, we ask writers ages 13-19 to enter their original, unpublished fiction.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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Write with One Story in 2025

Start your New Year by getting new work on the page! Join One Story Executive Director Maribeth Batcha and One Story authors and editors for this online generative fiction writing class designed for writers of all skill levels. Each day, a One Story author or editor who will lead you through a fiction writing exercise designed to help you create a new scene, character, or sketch.

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Photoelectric Cover
Read Issue #77

Photoelectric

By Elane Kim

What do you do when a dear friend is suffering, and you can’t help them? Elane Kim plumbs the depths of that question in “Photoelectric,” one of the winning stories of our Teen Writing Contest.

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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 Closed

We have reached our fall cap. We will reopen in Spring of 2025.

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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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One Story’s program income makes up half of our budget. While that’s a lot for a nonprofit like ours, we depend on individual donors and grants to make up the rest. Your support at year-end allows us to keep publishing and keep working with writers on craft.

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