Featured Work
The Breathing Dead
short story about the inner workings of a kidnapping from both sides
Roxane Gay on “The Breathing Dead”
“The Breathing Dead…is a story that’s going to twist your heart into a terrible knot. There’s no dancing around this truth… It’s brutal and repulsive… Chelsea Laine Wells will break you with this story but she will do so beautifully. I am certain you will never forget these words…”
Read the entire quote here.
Brett Elizabeth Jenkins on “The Heart of God,” also published in PANK:
“I cried at the end of this story, it was so good. When I opened it and saw it was 17 pages, I was wary. But I couldn’t stop reading; so beautiful and tragic. I want to keep reading this one over and over.”
Read the article here.
Work by Category
Debut Novel
How You Come Back
Releasing February 21, 2026 on Jaded Ibis Press
Published Online
The Boundary, VladMag
Mitigating, Pithead Chapel
Marble, Necklace, Clock, Gravel Magazine (lit mag no longer in operation)
Sometimes This is Enough, Talking Book
Top Ten Resolutions I Will Not Be Upholding in 2017, Talking Book
We Are All At Risk, Paper Darts (lit mag no longer in operation)
Anatomy, Split Lip
Kill Me With It/ Six Underground, New South
She Knows, Corium (lit mag no longer in operation)
Grit, Crack the Spine
War Dolls, Little Fiction
The Creation of Suffering, decomP
Roots Take Over, Revolution John
The Sugar From Your Mouth, Knee Jerk (lit mag no longer in operation)
The Wedding Ring, Hippocampus
His Teeth, The Collapsar
Ten Times Food was Emotionally Significant for me in 2016, Little Fiction
We Are the Hallwalkers, Hobart
Simon Says, I Rebuke You, Litro Mag
Swallow, The Other Stories
The Contents of Her Stomach, Cease, Cows
A Good Brain, People Holding (lit mag no longer in operation)
You Have What I Want, Third Point Press
Breakable, Heavy Feather (no longer available online)
Exit Music, HYPERtext Magazine
An Abomination of Platypus, The Molotov Cocktail
Dogtooth, Change Seven
Gumdrop, The Butter
We Sink Like Ships, Heavy Feather Review
I Knew You Would Belong to Me, HYPERtext Magazine
Fire, wigleaf
The Breathing Dead, PANK
Delaney, originally in Bluestem
Honors and Awards
2024
We Sink Like Ships, Semifinalist for publication with Sundress Publications
We Sink Like Ships, Short-Listed for Publication by Santa Fe Writers’ Project
Top Five Finalist in Dzanc Novel Contest
2019
Slimer, Nominated for Best American Short Stories
2017
His Teeth, Nominated for Best of the Net
Fire, wigleaf top 50
2016
Jack Sprat, Nominated for Pushcart Prize
War Dolls, Nominated for Pushcart Prize
The Creation of Suffering, Nominated for Pushcart Prize
2015
The Contents of Her Stomach, Awarded Best of the Net
You Have What I Want, Nominated for Best of the Net
Dogtooth, Nominated for Best of the Net
First Lines of I Knew You Would Belong to Me and The Breathing Dead, Placed second and honorable mention, respectively, in Easy Street Magazine’s Greatest American Sentence Contest
Exit Music, Finalist in Heavy Feather Review Chapbook Contest
2014
We Sink Like Ships, Nominated for Pushcart Prize
Gumdrop, Positive Review in Change Seven
2011
Delaney , Nominated for Best of the Net
The Heart of God, Nominated for Pushcart Prize
2009
The Heart of God, First place Traditional Fiction Columbia Scholastic Press Association Awards 2009
2007
Chelsea Laine Wells Creative Writing-Fiction Scholarship, The Chelsea Laine Wells Creative Writing – Fiction Scholarship is open to incoming transfer students who intend on majoring in Creative Writing – Fiction at Columbia College Chicago. It was set up in her honor upon her graduation by an alum.
Into the Eye of You, Second place Essays Columbia Scholastic Press Association Awards
2002
Simon Says, I Rebuke You, Second Place Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition
Published in Print
Slimer, Hypertext Review
Ecotone, Flapperhouse
Peaceful Creatures, Dostoevsky Wannabe Cassette 94
Jack Sprat, Black Candies Gross and Unlikeable Issue
Midas Girls, Hypertrophic
Two Souls/ Necessary Dark/ Body and Blood, Witch Craft Mag
The Heart of God: PANK Magazine, Hair Trigger 30, Lark Sparrow Press
