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 Five: Thresholds (closing in 28 days) Free
Issue Six: Seasons (closing in 150 days) Free

Issue Five: Thresholds Free Tip Jar Option Open

Closes on Thursday, October 1, 2026 11:59 PM E. South America Standard Time (in 28 days).

A threshold is a place of suspension. It is the moment before the door opens, the breath before the word, the last look back.

For those of us who have left, life is lived in the thresholds: the one we crossed when we chose to go, the ones we cross each time we move between languages, between the people we were and the people we are becoming.

Issue 05 of Unbordered invites essays, nonfiction, poetry, and art that sit with these in-between moments. What does it mean to stand at the edge of something? What do we carry across, and what do we leave behind?

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Issue Six: Seasons Free Tip Jar Option Open

Closes on Sunday, January 31, 2027 11:59 PM E. South America Standard Time (in 150 days).

Issue 06: Seasons (Deadline: January 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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