Personal essays, documentary photo essays, guides, reading lists, and humor from outside the world's most-traveled 10% — the Global South and underreported regions. 

Free open calls. Paid subscribers can submit year-round.

Scott Monaco is an independent online travel publication. It begins from what we believe to be a shocking statistic: 80% of travelers visit 10% of the world's destinations, and the result is a feedback loop - the same places generate the most stories, which send more travelers to the same places. Scott Monaco exists to break that loop and inspire readers to travel where others aren't by publishing personal essays, documentary photo essays,  guides, reading lists, and humor from outside the 10%. Our focus is on the Global South and underreported regions: Africa, Central and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Pacific Islands. If you have lived in, traveled through, or carry a story from these places, this is a publication for you. It was founded in 2026 by the award-winning travel writer and photographer Scott Monaco; contributors' work has appeared in National Geographic, GQ, and Travel + Leisure. The publication runs weekly at read.scottmonaco.travel, all submissions are read blind, and contributors are additionally featured on the sister site, scottmonaco.travel. Open calls run periodically and are posted here on Chill Subs; paid subscribers to the publication may submit their work year-round. All contributors are paid.

Scott Monaco

Personal essays and reported features grounded in firsthand experience of the world outside its most-traveled 10% — the Global South and underreported regions. The piece doesn't have to be about travel itself; culture, food, art, and language all fit. We want writing that could only have come from having been there.

Personal Essays & Reported Features

6–15 documentary images paired with 700–1,500 words of prose that together tell a single story, from the Global South and underreported regions. Read blind; no identifying material in files, and no photos of yourself.

Documentary Photo Essays

Travel-related humor, 500–1,000 words. For the register we're after, read the pieces under the publication's humor tag before submitting.

Scott Monaco

Highlights

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