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UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES AND PROTAGONISTS

We strongly believe representation matters. Our readers are very interested in reading authentic stories featuring diverse and intersectional protagonists. Send us tales of righteous Black covens, LGBTQIA+ time travelers, Latinx Final Girls, and genderqueer vampire slayers.

The Dread Machine stands in solidarity with marginalized writers and is committed to amplifying their voices.

A Gardener’s Guide to the Apocalypse

By Lynette Mejía

A story about disaster and how we endure in its aftermath, "A Gardener's Guide" follows its protagonist and her partner through a year post-apocalypse; watching their garden grow as the world slowly dies around them.

The Brides of Dracula Ponder the Manson Murders

By Avra Margariti

(What are humans but an amalgamation of meat and electricity?) Read this unsettling poem by Avra Margariti.

Fringe Benefits

By Larina Warnock

In a dystopian society where employees are covered by productivity insurance, benefits are earned by competing in deadly company picnic games. Unfortunately for Veronica, sleeping with the boss's wife makes her a prime target.

In Bocca al Lupo

By MJ Mars

When climate change brings about the New Ice Age, along with the hatching of a hoard of monstrous Ningen, it is down to the five remaining members of the Polaris military base to lure the monsters to their doom. Only, the theory behind the lure isn't all that sound. And the Ningen are like nothing they have ever faced before.

One Shot

By Tiffany E. Wilson

What happens when a pandemic hits the failing US healthcare system? When Kiara becomes sick, she can't afford to admit her infection and miss work or even go to the doctor to treat it. Failed by the system, she searches for any way to survive.

San Cibernético

By Monica Louzon

An orphan discovers a mummified cyborg while hiding from scientists on his worldship and turns it into a cult saint.

The Perfect Match

By Ken Liu

Sai can't imagine life without his beloved virtual assistant, Tilly, until his new neighbor Jenny causes him to question her motives, and those of Centillion, the corporation that made her.