top of page
All My Stories
All Posts
Hedgehog Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 2/5 stars ★★☆☆☆ Hedgehog by Maggie Koons (to be published March 2027) is a horror novel that revolves around two young women: Riley Kilkenny and Irina Lebedev. Riley is a well-off writer of daily news briefs for influencers, and who is struggling to come to terms with the breakup of her girlfriend Markie, which happened almost a year ago. She finds a new coping method consisting of the killing and torture of animals, which she begins to upload to the intern
Catalina Bonati
Oct 18
Old MacDonald: A Ruthless Visionary
by Paul Burgess When rustic Old MacDonald had a farm, the city people thought it was so cute. They praised the place’s humble rural charm and loved to hear the farmer play the flute for animals to join in song and dance to jolly jingles Mac had loved to make. The tourists often left with catchy chants and bags of liver, chitlins, ham, and steak. But other tourists only left in sacks containing cuts of Farmer’s Famous Meats. The song of human flesh against the axe
Paul Burgess
Oct 15
Dead Teenagers Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.25/5 stars ★★★☆☆ Dead Teenagers by Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Caitlyn Yarsky (published March 2026) is the first comic in a five-comic installment. It centers on a group of four friends who go to prom in 1997, and are horrifically killed that night. This night resets at its end into a continuous loop of horrors in which the killings change every night and become increasingly gory. The friend group tries to figure out what is keeping them caged in this time
Catalina Bonati
Oct 8
The Man in the Watch Still Visits Me At Night Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 2/5 stars ★★☆☆☆ The Man in the Watch Still Visits Me at Night by Joshua Chaplinsky (to be published September 2026) is a multiple timeline horror story about Jenna and her boyfriend Brian who visit an abandoned house called the Vogel house and become trapped in the games of the ghosts of its past and are unable to leave. It follows multiple characters in what appear to be different timelines. The plot is non-linear and is a bit disjointed and confusing. In
Catalina Bonati
Aug 26
Mother is Watching Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 2.75/5 stars ★★★☆☆ Mother is Watching by Karma Brown (to be published March 2026) is a literary sci-fi horror novel which focuses on Mathilde, or Tilly, and her art conservation job. In the near future, she receives the opportunity to restore the last artwork of a deceased artist named Charlotte Leclerc who used human body and insect parts as part of her paintings. However, as she becomes pregnant and becomes part of the MotherWise organization, the paintin
Catalina Bonati
Mar 15
The Willow's Curse
by Walid Abdallah The village of Qaryat al-Nahr lay sprawled across the Nile’s fertile banks, its people rising and resting to the rhythm of the river. By day, the place glowed with a charm no painter could capture. Willow trees lined the water’s edge, their long, green branches bending gracefully, dipping into the current like women washing their braids in the Nile. Children played beneath them, lovers met in their shade, and farmers bathed their weary feet after long days i
Walid Abdallah
Jan 22
Refugium Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.75/5 stars ★★★⯪☆ Refugium by Eric Nicholas (2025) is a novel set in the Pleistocene, where several different types of pre-humans co-habitate as they take refuge from the Toba super-eruption aftermath in Sumatra. Set in an unspecified area of lower Asia, an Homo Erectus named Last is the lowest-ranking person in the tribe who must make do with scraps but who is sustained by the love of his little brother. The Erectus tribe is beset by a tribe of Homo Deni
Catalina Bonati
Jan 5
Anthropophagy for the Urban Hipster, Or, What to Do With Your Hands at Pretentious Parties
by Elissa Hunter Rebecca can tell Mickey’s a douchebag from the moment he introduces himself. Not just because he goes by Mickey instead of Mike or Michael or even Mikey. He’s also wearing too much cologne and has an unfortunate soul patch that looks like a bunch of blond pubes glued to his chin. Normally, even in her most desperate of dry spells, Rebecca would have run as soon as she saw him coming. But here they are, at a holiday party in a too-small apartment in Brooklyn,
Elissa Hunter
Dec 22, 2025
Letter 26 Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 2.5/5 stars ★★⯪☆☆ Jacob Moon’s Letter 26 (2024) is a thriller that centers around Abby, a dietitian who is abducted by a serial killer who is focused on collecting corpses from women whose first letter of their jobs eventually make up the whole alphabet. Detectives Randall and Tan are on the trail of the elusive PK (Profession Killer) and must find Abby before her time runs out. The strength of this book lies in its truly disturbing ambiance and in the kill
Catalina Bonati
Dec 11, 2025
The Cold Visitor Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.75/5 stars ★★★⯪☆ Jonathan Butcher’s The Cold Visitor (published October 4, 2025) is a haunted house and cosmic horror novel that centers on the marriage of Sally and Herbert, who have reached their twilight years and now live in the retirement village of Heaven’s Sent. Sally comes from an accursed family who every half a century must complete a gruesome ritual in order to keep a demonic cosmic monster at bay, and the time has now come for the ritual to be
Catalina Bonati
Nov 16, 2025
The Midnight Muse Review
by Catalina Bonati 3/5 stars The Midnight Muse by Jo Kaplan (to be published March 10 2026) is a mushroom horror and body horror novel...
Catalina Bonati
Aug 13, 2025
Linghun Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.5/5 stars Linghun by Ai Jiang (2023) is a short novella of light paranormal horror. Wenqi and her family have moved...
Catalina Bonati
Jul 14, 2025
The Ruby Demon Book Review
by Catalina Bonati The Ruby Demon: A Western Horror by Oscar O’Rourke is Western story in which Jack, a teenager, is on the trail with...
Catalina Bonati
Jun 1, 2025
The Ballad of Black Tom Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 4/5 stars The Ballad of Black Tom (2016) by Victor LaValle is a short horror novel based on “The Horror at Red Hook”...
Catalina Bonati
Mar 28, 2025
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 3.25/5 stars Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (2021) by Eric LaRocca is a short 100 page novelette about...
Catalina Bonati
Feb 27, 2025
Highway to Damnation
by Arun Hariharan "Raayan" “Am I walking away from something I should be running away from?”— Shirley Jackson, “The Haunting of Hill...
Arun Hariharan "Raayan"
Dec 15, 2024
Articles
The Morning It Started
by Elizabeta Žargi That summer I was travelling through Europe on an Interrail ticket — a month of trains and no fixed schedule beyond a language course waiting in Ljubljana. I had already spent a week in Malmö, made a delayed stop in Hamburg after sleeping through it once, then gone down to Geneva to visit Milena. Eventually I returned to Vienna, where I was staying with Gregor and Sandy. They were also planning to attend the course in Slovenia. I was meant to leave on the 2
Elizabeta Žargi
Apr 5
Dreaming of Kalbarri
by Meredith Stephens “Wake up! If we don’t get going now it will be too hot!” urged my fiance Alex. I couldn’t understand why we had to leave for Kalbarri National Park at 5:30am in darkness. Was it really going to get that hot? We quickly arose and headed to the car for the long drive. By the time we arrived, the day was breaking and we were among the first tourists to arrive at the famed Nature’s Window. We made our way along the trail to the window where international tour
Meredith Stephens
Nov 2, 2025
Between Two Skies: An Egyptian Heart in Albany
by Walid Abdallah When I first arrived in Albany, New York, in the winter of 2014, I felt as if I had stepped into a painting. The air...
Walid Abdallah
Oct 13, 2025
Reviews
Salvage Comic Review
by Catalina Bonati 4.5/5 stars ★★★★⯪ Salvage: A Graphic Novel by Renée Nault (published July 2026) is the colorful and lighthearted story of Paolo, a boy who lives in The Flats, where houses float on the water and the main income comes form diving into the Old City, a submerged city center where priceless artifacts, such as old designer clothes, phones, and music records, must be scavenged and brought to the surface to be salvaged and sold. Paolo dreams of more—he wishes to e
Catalina Bonati
1 hour ago
Hedgehog Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 2/5 stars ★★☆☆☆ Hedgehog by Maggie Koons (to be published March 2027) is a horror novel that revolves around two young women: Riley Kilkenny and Irina Lebedev. Riley is a well-off writer of daily news briefs for influencers, and who is struggling to come to terms with the breakup of her girlfriend Markie, which happened almost a year ago. She finds a new coping method consisting of the killing and torture of animals, which she begins to upload to the intern
Catalina Bonati
Oct 18
To The East of the East Book Review
by Catalina Bonati 1.75/ 5 stars ★★☆☆☆ To the East of the East by Ping Lu and translated by Jeremy Tiang (to be published October 2026) is a translated literary fiction novel about Min-Hui, a Taiwanese writer who after the disappearance of her husband, Chien-I, a Taiwanese businessman, must stay in Beijing to help authorities figure out his whereabouts. She meets a strange man named Shangjun who begins to accompany her in conversation in her hotel room every day, which makes
Catalina Bonati
Oct 15
Short Stories
Back in the Day
by Robert Lowinger I was in the seventh grade, in 1969, living in a little town outside of Buffalo, New York when me and Danny Nissen, who was almost 15, threatened to beat the crap out of Larry McKoon for telling Danny that he wasn’t good at basketball, and he should get booted off the team. Well, Danny said, “Jimmy, you got to be a man and not let anyone diss your friends, certainly not a little prick like Larry,” and ever since Danny killed that cat with a knife behind the
Robert Lowinger
Sep 24
Ticket to Ride
by Sara Etgen-Baker "You gotta have a ticket to ride!” snapped the Carney. “Get a ticket or move outta da way, kid. You’re takin’ up space!” I stared motionless as the Ferris wheel cut through the heavy summer clouds. “Here’s her ticket, sir. We three are ridin’ together.” “Not happenin’ lady—only two per chair. One of youz has to ride by yerself.” “No problem! She’s the oldest; she’ll ride by herself.” “Whatever ya say, lady. She seems a bit scared to me though.” “Your broth
Sara Etgen-Baker
Sep 15
Intangible Ingredients
Sara Etgen-Baker After Granny died, Mother requested only one item from her mother’s possessions. “All I really want,” Mother told my uncle, “are her old recipe cards and antique file box.” Mother’s request puzzled me, for I knew Mother didn’t need the recipe cards and file box for any practical reason. She’d known for decades how to make Granny’s pumpernickel bread, sauerkraut, and her breakfast specialty—streusel kuchen. But when the file box arrived a few days later, Mothe
Sara Etgen-Baker
Sep 13
Poetry
The Lying Ashes
by Francis Godoy The match’s offering to consume oneself, Accepted by the candle’s curiosity— Its light radiant. Yet the match has burned its purpose. While the candle burns its own. An endless, sterile fire The lighter’s glow The shine gnawing at the candle’s wick Beside the ashes. The match’s silver, powdery helmet Shines as it leaves. The lighter stays as plaque, Coating its metal ridges. The match and candle Die together Merging into one final canvas. Th
Francis Godoy
1 day ago
La Romana
by Robert Wardell Vermilion shoes stepping over the vermouth-soaked tiles, the clasp of wine glasses holding those exquisite dry grapes against porcelain plates with tongue twister dishes. A cuisine of spoken incantations chanted like ancient spells and hymns. Like the flamingos trotting through the sapphire marina water, they move so confidently, gracefully. At no older than 20 a collective mastery of form, restraint and elegance draped over the drunken stupor. A bise here,
Robert Wardell
4 days ago
Two Poems by Megan Mealor
by Megan Denese Mealor A Serial Killer His victims could have been sisters: ladylike, dewy-eyed, halcyon, the swaggering Southern belles of a flaxen new era. Panache shot out of their fingertips like searchlights. Eva was exploring nursing and dancing off her teenage years in democratic nightclubs. Scrappy Regina swam for state two days before her blustery end; she scratched like a black-footed cat. Alyssa was at home with three brand-new boys too young to define his church
Megan Mealor
Oct 29
Art & Photography
Submission Guidelines
-
We do not publish homophobic, transphobic, racist, or misogynist works of any kind.
-
If the piece you wish to submit has italics or an image attached, please email us your submission at ultramarineliteraryreview@gmail.com rather than using the submission form.
-
Art and photography must be uploaded to an email and must NOT be shared as a Google Drive document.
-
Prose must be less than 3,000 words.
-
Poetry must be less than 3 pages, single-spaced.
-
We do not accept AI work or AI-assisted work.
-
We respond to submissions within the span of two weeks.
Submissions
Contact
Terms and Agreements
By clicking on the SUBMIT button, you are agreeing to the following terms:
a) The submission is an original work that has not been previously published.
b) You have obtained permissions by the third party involved if the submitted work contains intellectual property not attributed to your authorship.
c) By submitting, you guarantee you hold the rights to the work, and you grant Ultramarine Literary Review the rights to publish the submitted work. After publication, rights revert to the author.
d) Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but the author must let us know if their work has been accepted elsewhere prior to publication.
e) Submitted articles, reviews, poetry and short prose fiction may potentially be translated by translation students of the Universidad de Atacama and published on our site.
bottom of page