Publishing essays weekly online, bioStories features literary essays portraying ordinary and influential lives, revealing moments of grace through vivid, empathetic word portraits. Recent essays include “Attempting Fate” by Adam Perry, “The Gymnast” by Mark Lucius, “FedEx: When You Absolutely, Positively Need That Third Job” by Patrick D. Hahn, “Rocket 88” by Sydney Lea, and “The Scottish Play” by Naomi DeMarinis. Readers will also delight in reading bioStories 2025 Pushcart Nominees: Elizabeth Bird for “On Love, War, and Loss: A Life in Three Acts” and Lee Jeffers Brami for “My Grandmother’s Secret.“

bioStories accepts submissions of nonfiction prose submissions only 500–7500 words (their typical piece runs an average of 2500 words). bioStories is also always on the look-out for art that is representative of their mission and that fits well with essays they feature as well as cover art for digital issues and digital/print anthologies. See the bioStories website for more information.

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bioStories online features new essays every week contributed by writers from around the world offering readers “portraits of the people surrounding us in our daily lives, of the strangers we pass on the street unnoticed and of those who have been the most influential and most familiar to us but who remain strangers to others.”

Contributors in 2024 include Nicole Alexander, MerriLee Anderson, Beth Benedix, Phil Cummins, Mark Cyzyk, Sarah DeParis, Sky Karam de Sela, Hailey Duggirala, Michael Engelhard, Mary Fairchild, Erin Hesse Froslie, Paul Graseck, Lory Widmer Hess, Barbara Krasner, Angela Lam, Zoe Lambert, Sydney Lea, Mark Lewandowski, Alexandra Loeb, Mark Lucius, Bryan Mammel, J. Bryan McGeever, James McKean, Mario Moussa, David Newkirk, Sharman Ober-Reynolds, Leanne Phillips, David Riessen, Anup Saswade, and Clare Simons.

bioStories publishes semi-annual volumes of collected works, all available open-access online.

The newest issue of bioStories (13.1) features twenty new essays, including three of their 2023 Pushcart Prize nominees. Featured writers in this issue include Andrea Abbot, Dina Alvarez, Michelle Cacho-Negrete, Sally Carton, Yoon Chung, Madison Christian, Phil Cummings, Ria Parody Erlich, Cathy Fiorello, Lynne Golodner, Maria Hewett, Brian Huba, Pamela Kaye, Joshua David Laine, Sydney Lea, Julie Lockhart, Alli Mancz, Anthony J. Mohr, and Paolo Paciucci. Cover art is by another of the featured writers, Bradley Wester.

The majority of the creative nonfiction in this issue is in the form of personal narratives exploring everything from an Irish report on COVID isolation to journeys into the natural world and from a doctor’s experience with a young patient at the outset of the AIDS crisis to sustaining the camouflage required as a young gay man in a Catholic High School in 1969. All of bioStories’ content is free and accessible to read online.

Publishing nonfiction prose only, bioStories offers readers writing that focuses on the skilled craft of storytelling, with biographies that express the understanding that “real life is messy,” yet acknowledge: “human nature is idiosyncratic and frequently contradictory, and, quite often, when you look close enough, it is downright graceful.” The publication features a weekly essay on its homepage. Recent contributors include Julie Lockhart, Yoon Chung, Cathy Fiorello, Joshua David Laine, Pamela Kaye, Michelle Cacho-Negrete, Sally Carton, and Sydney Lea.

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Publishing nonfiction prose only, bioStories offers submission guidelines that help writers focus their craft on what the editors are looking for, and express the understanding that “real life is messy,” yet acknowledge: “human nature is idiosyncratic and frequently contradictory, and, quite often, when you look close enough, it is downright graceful.” The publication features a weekly essay on its homepage and prints two issues each year. Recent online contributors include Alisa Vereshchagin, Jane Frances Hacking, Elizabeth Bird, Alden S. Blodget, Joseph O’Day, Mary Ittelson, James Seawel, Liza Wieland, and Rhiannon Koehler.