UNDOMESTICATED
UNDOMESTICATED
Women living boldly in the world
 
 

About Us
Why Undomesticated?

A publishing insider once gave us this well-intended advice: "Books by women do better when they're domestic."

We tried to rationalize her comment. Surely she didn’t mean women belonged in the home? Just... in the country? 

Either way, no. Hell no. We jumped into action, and this project was born.

Undomesticated is about literature and lives that exist outside our national borders. We're here to help you get to know the world we live in—and the worlds you want to get to know. Bring on the connections, the misunderstandings, the discoveries.

 
 

Our Mission

To publish stories by and about women who live beyond the domestic realm.

If you support our mission, there are many ways you can help.

 
 
 
 
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Editorial Director
TIFFANY HAWK

For most of her adult life Tiffany has lived, breathed, eaten and slept travel – from majoring in world history at UCLA to flying half a million miles a year as an international flight attendant to working as travel editor of Maggie award-winning Coast magazine. Her novel Love Me Anyway moves between five countries, and her travel stories have appeared in places like the New York Times, GQ, The Week, National Geographic Traveler, and on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” 

While on the road, she’s fallen in and out of love, been awed by wonders like the Northern Lights and the Taj Mahal, been briefly kidnapped by the owner of a Chinese restaurant in London, and fought an inflight fire while 37,000 feet over Ohio. Book nerd that she is, she did all of that with at least one novel in her purse and probably ten on her nightstand. When she’s not traveling, she’s at home in Tucson with her pilot husband and their two kids. You can also find her at tiffanyhawk.com.

 

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Features Editor
YI SHUN LAI

Yi Shun Lai — (say "yeeshun" for her first name; "lie" for her last) — lives in Southern California. Her essays appear at Bustle and Shondaland, and she writes the "From the Front Lines" column for The Writer magazine. Her debut novel, Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu, was a 2017 Thurber Prize semi-finalist and has been in its fourth printing forever. Her short memoir, Pin Ups, was published by Homebound Publications' Little Bound Books division. She teaches in the MFA programs at Bay Path and Southern New Hampshire universities. 

Lai used to be the kind of person who packed library books to travel with. Now she opts for watercolors, a single paperback, and a couple of changes of underwear. In her off-time, Lai volunteers for ShelterBox, an international disaster-relief organization. She's deployed 13 times on behalf of the agency to areas of need. To learn more, visit shelterboxusa.org.

Visit Lai on Twitter @gooddirt.

 
 
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Books Editor
SUSAN BLUMBERG-KASON

Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Good Chinese Wife and the co-editor of Hong Kong Noir, an anthology of dark stories set in her favorite city. She also writes for the Asian Review of Books, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and the South China Morning Post. As a child in suburban Chicago, she dreamed of traveling to countries demonized and even forbidden by the US: Vietnam and Cuba, China and the Soviet Union. She managed to travel to all these places and more. She lived in Hong Kong for nearly ten years, is proficient in Mandarin, and has a working ability in Cantonese. She is now back in the Chicago area, working on a book set in 1930s Shanghai and teaching English in Chinatown.

Connect with Susan at susanbkason.com or on twitter @Susan_BK.

 

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What We Publish

Reviews & Interviews

We aim to publish and review thoughtful work that offers fresh observations.  Our book coverage will celebrate books that:

  • Are written by female writers, whether it’s a page-turning airport read or a collection of literary essays.

  • Portray foreign settings. This could include stories set in the U.S. if written by an author from abroad. 

  • Whether traditionally or independently published, demonstrate the highest-quality writing and a unique viewpoint.

We particularly appreciate post-colonial writing that approaches other cultures with care.  If it doesn’t, we may call that out.

To be considered for a review or interview and excerpt, please email us here. 

Travel & Essays

We do publish commissioned travel stories and essays or interviews by contributors, but we don’t have the budget to pay for unsolicited pieces just yet. We strongly believe writers should be paid for their work, so that’s why we are not calling for submissions at this time.

For professional opportunities at respectable rates, stay tuned as we grow.