Unbordered Gold Star Program Gold Star

Unbordered is a magazine by and for the American emigrant. As the far right rises in the United States, more and more of us are being pushed to the margins—and beyond them. Unbordered is a space for those of us who’ve crossed borders, left home, or found ourselves redefined by distance.

We look to publish art, essays, poetry, and political commentary that explore what it means to leave—and what it means to begin again. We’re interested in the in-between, the unresolved, the complicated. We’re not here to romanticize exile. We’re here to document it.

Unbordered publishes work by people who have lived in the United States and are now living abroad or in the process of leaving, regardless of citizenship.

Quick Links to Open Calls:

Issue Seven: Translation (closing in 145 days) Free
Issue Six: Seasons (closing in 55 days) Free

Issue Six: Seasons Free Tip Jar Option Open

Closes on Thursday, December 31, 2026 11:59 PM E. South America Standard Time (in 55 days).

Issue 06: Seasons (Deadline: December 31, 2027)

Time moves differently when you leave. Summer no longer smells the same. You find yourself grieving October and the way it felt on your skin. Holiday celebrations are upside down, the climate all wrong in a new hemisphere. But over time, with enough turns of the Earth around the sun, you begin to build new associations. You begin to redefine what a season means to you. For Issue 06, Unbordered is looking for essays, nonfiction, poetry, and art that explore both the literal and figurative seasons of a life lived abroad.

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Issue Seven: Translation Free Tip Jar Option Open

Closes on Wednesday, March 31, 2027 11:59 PM E. South America Standard Time (in 145 days).

Deadline: March 31, 2027

Every move asks us to carry our words into a new language, and something always gets left behind. A joke falls flat. A word for homesickness has no equivalent. This issue asks writers to look closely at what is lost when meaning crosses a border, and what turns up in its place.

Submissions should be original writing in English that reflects on your own experience of language and the gaps between them. We are not accepting translated works for this issue.

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