Journal Categories
What We Publish
Here are the kinds of stories we like. Use this page to get your bearings—or get inspired.
The Expedition Society Journal is a home for bold, irreverent nonfiction. We publish true stories about dangerous men, forgotten expeditions, strange professions, and moments in history that deserve more grit and less polish. If your piece belongs in a dusty field notebook or a war journal passed around the fire, it probably belongs here.
Below, you’ll find our core categories. These aren’t just filing systems—they’re fuel. Use them to understand what we publish, and as a resource when you’re looking for your next great story.
Whether you’re pitching for the first time or coming back for another round, start here.
If it reads like something that might get you arrested—or canonized—we probably want it.
Men of Action
The men who did the thing.
We publish stories about real men who stepped outside the comfort of civilization—whether soldiers, explorers, criminals, or wanderers. If they fought lions, staged coups, climbed volcanoes, or lived in defiance of modern comfort, we want their stories. This is where we explore character, not just events. The kind of man whose obituary reads like a screenplay.
Think: T.E. Lawrence, Mad Jack Churchill, Frederick Russell Burnham, Beryl Markham (The occasional “Woman of Action” wouldn’t do brand damage would it?).
The Call to Adventure
Essays and manifestos for men who refuse to rot in comfort.
This section is for writers with a bone to pick—not with a person, but with the modern world. If you’ve got something to say about the softening of society, the decline of physical grit, the erosion of purpose, or the quiet death of adventure in daily life, say it here.
We’re looking for writing that wakes people up. Not rants, not recycled outrage—but real fire, sharpened by thought. Your piece should feel like a challenge handed across the firelight. A dare to stop scrolling and start living.
Topics might include:
Modern masculinity in a world of soft edges
Cultural decline through the lens of history
Philosophical reflections on discomfort, risk, and honor
Reclaiming strength, solitude, faith, or grit
First-person stories of struggle, discipline, or resistance to ease
This isn’t about self-help. This is about resistance to passive existence.
If your writing leaves the reader itching to do pushups, quit their job, or throw their phone in a river—you’re in the right place.
Lost Expeditions & Wild Theories
What they were chasing might not have been real—but they chased it anyway.
Disappeared explorers, cities that may or may not exist, failed missions, disputed maps, and the magnetic pull of the unknown. This section is for stories that mix myth, obsession, and adventure—tales that walk the line between history and hallucination.
Think: Percy Fawcett, Atlantis, Hollow Earth, the 1909 Grand Canyon cave hoax.
Rebellion, War & Gunpowder
Where empires crack and wild men fill the gap.
We tell the stories of mercenaries, guerrillas, resistance fighters, revolutionaries, and warlords. From colonial uprisings to postmodern paramilitary operations, this is where history gets bloody and strange. We don’t take sides—but we respect anyone willing to bleed for what they believe.
Think: Mau Mau, Jonas Savimbi, Mike Hoare, Cuban revolutionaries, Rhodesian bush wars.
Animals in the Theatre of Man
Where the beasts are comrades, symbols, or casualties.
Lions that stalked railways. Bears that carried ammo. Dogs that saved Arctic towns. We explore the bond between man and animal in times of adventure, warfare, or survival. This section honors the strange, useful, and mythic roles animals have played in the human story.
Think: Wojtek the Bear, the man-eaters of Tsavo, Hemingway and his cats, camel corps.
Science on the Edge
Discovery at the edge of sanity.
These are the stories of rogue scientists, obsessive geographers, amateur archaeologists, and wild theorists who went too far—or just far enough. From jungles to volcanoes to ancient ruins, this is where discovery and delusion hold hands.
Think: Thor Heyerdahl, Victorian mystics, lost continents, Cold War volcano chasers.
Letters, Speeches & Last Words
History’s most dangerous men, speaking plainly.
A deathbed letter. A wartime telegram. A speech shouted through gunfire. Sometimes what’s said is more lasting than what’s done. This section is for final words, forgotten manifestos, dispatches from the brink—primary sources that crackle with meaning.
Think: Theodore Roosevelt bleeding through a speech, final letters from the Antarctic, desert telegrams from failed uprisings.
Smugglers, Runners & Shadow Routes
The hidden arteries of war, rebellion, and survival.
Here we explore the underground logistics that made history move. Mules over mountains, opium on camels, whiskey in the hull. From bootleggers and smugglers to covert trailblazers—these are stories of movement, secrecy, and danger.
If your story follows a contraband trail across rivers, borders, or decades—let’s go.
Unlikely Professions
The dirty trades, the forgotten crafts, the jobs no algorithm could ever replace.
These are stories of wild vocations—ship breakers, jungle guides, tomb raiders, mercenary translators, bush pilots. People who made a life doing something nobody talks about, but everyone secretly respects.
If your subject could never explain their job at a dinner party, they probably belong here.
The Aftermath
What happens when the adventure ends—but the man keeps going.
Here we explore the strange twilight after the expedition. When the guns go quiet, the trail ends, or the war is over—what’s left of the man? These are stories of return, collapse, obscurity, reinvention, or slow decay.
If your piece reads like an epilogue carved into old stone—send it.
Obscure Corners of History
The footnotes that deserve center stage.
Short, sharp stories about overlooked moments, forgotten inventions, micro-nations, backroom deals, or weird episodes that somehow actually happened. Think of this category like an open crate in an old archive—what you find might change everything.
If your piece answers a question no one’s thought to ask, we want to read it.
Dispatches from the Edge
Field reports from wild places, written by those who were there.
These are journal-style, first-person accounts from dangerous, remote, or forgotten places. Whether it’s a survival story, a failed journey, or a meditation on isolation—this is where the page feels like it was torn from a dirt-stained notebook.
If you’ve bled, limped, or nearly drowned somewhere that doesn’t show up on Google Maps—send us the entry.
Ready to Send Something In?
If you’ve got a story that fits one of these categories—or fights hard enough to make its own—send it our way.
We don’t care if you’re a first-timer or a seasoned war correspondent. We care that the story hits hard, rings true, and makes us want to lace up our boots.
Send pitches or finished drafts to [your email here].
Include a short bio, a quick description of your piece, and anything else you think we should know.
Adventure isn’t dead. It just needs better writers.
Let’s bring it back.