Ecotone’s mission is to publish and promote the best place-based work being written today. Founded at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2005, the award-winning magazine features writing and art that reimagine place, and our authors interpret this charge expansively. An ecotone is a transition zone between two adjacent ecological communities, containing the characteristic species of each. It is therefore a place of danger or opportunity, a testing ground. The magazine explores the ecotones between landscapes, literary genres, scientific and artistic disciplines, modes of thought.

Among Ecotone’s contributors are winners of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, as well as MacArthur, Guggenheim, and NEA fellows. But we’re equally excited to honor new voices. Work first published in the magazine is featured in Poetry Daily, Best American Essays, Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Pushcart Prize, and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, among others.

Ecotone is produced by faculty and students in the MFA program at UNC Wilmington. Along with our sister imprint, Lookout Books, we champion innovative and underrepresented work and offer UNC Wilmington students the opportunity to learn the art and craft of publishing.

Now a decade strong, Ecotone continues to celebrate our talented, diverse, award-winning contributors, who in each issue offer new takes on the art of place-based writing.