I Need Your Help

Yo Vocalites!

It has been a hope of mine to get published in Uncanny Magazine—one of the most competitive venues in speculative fiction today.

Their acceptance rate hovers below 1%, with thousands of submissions pouring in during rare open windows. Every story must not only shine with polished prose and fresh imagination, but also match Uncanny’s reputation for stories that are emotionally searing, politically aware, and unforgettable in voice. To publish there is to stand among the very best in the field—writers whose work shapes the future of speculative literature.

I have been working on a piece for this aim for more than six months. It is a thought experiment. I wanted to see if it was possible to write an epic on the chassis of a short story without it folding under the constraints. Is it possible to write something mythic and for it to mean something without being didactic; could it re-envision genre tropes in a fresh, compelling way without being derivative; is it possible to write something archaic without being pastiche; could I grapple with archetypical structure without being just another clone?

This was my aim. I am one or two revisions away from submission, but I have had very little human input to assess the piece.

This is where you come in.

I’m standing at the edge of this work—nearly ready to send it into the crucible of Uncanny’s slush pile—but before I do, I need honest eyes. Not flattery, not surface-level “nice job,” but real feedback from readers who care about story as much as I do.

I’m looking for five brave beta-readers willing to step into the fire with me. You’ll get the story raw, in its nearly final form, and your input could make the difference between a piece that just survives and one that sings.

If that stirs something in you, drop a comment below. Let’s test whether this story can truly carry the weight of an epic in the body of a short.