Narrative Magazine | Writers, Fiction, Poetry, Storytelling, Nonfiction, Art

STORY OF THE WEEK

Another Name for Red

By Amber Blaeser-Wardzala

His name wasn’t really John. He told me that soon after he took an interest in me. What his real name was I don’t know—I’m not sure if anyone but John himself knew. I suppose he liked it that way. Liked the mystery of it.

POEM OF THE WEEK

Self-Portrait as Boo Radley

By Harrison Hamm

When I was no longer welcome in church, I was welcome to my solitude. To question religion in a big empty house, haunted by bigger emptier questions.

FALL 2026 STORY CONTEST

Open to all fiction and nonfiction writers. We’re looking for short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, all forms of literary nonfiction, and excerpts.

Please see the Guidelines.

RECENT AWARDS FOR OUR AUTHORS

Notable awards for our authors include the National Book Award, Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prizes, Pushcart Prizes, the Nobel Prize, the MacArthur “Genius” Award, and many others.

POETRY

Sweeter

By Yong-Yu Huang

This is what passes for dreaming in the blue house, the decay of my good days. Again, the bowl of fruit awash in the creeping light.

POETRY

Illicit

By Cate Lycurgus

touching you is a dash in the paragraph of not touching you fragment in the sentence of not seeing you seeing you is a colon amid clauses of not seeing

GRAPHIC STORIES

Some Things I Actually Would Like to Elevate . . .

By Tracey K. Berglund

Women are constantly encouraged to “Elevate” our careers, our lifestyles, our portfolios, our skin care regimens, our get-aways.

GRAPHIC STORIES

A Library Grows in the Bronx

By Ali Solomon

We used to visit with my grandfather in his Bronx apartment. His building's laundry room was like a little free library, only big and musty.

LEARN!

NARRATIVE HIGH SCHOOL WRITING CONTEST

LEARN!

Best Advice

By Kirstin Valdez Quade

The fiction writer must merge with the character on the page and see things clearly though the character’s eyes.

NARRATIVE HIGH SCHOOL WRITING CONTEST

Shattered

By Charley Burlock

It took less than three seconds and twelve feet of vertical air to shatter my world. Grief moved in shortly after. Grief is a rude houseguest. She stays up late. She leaves messes. She is lazy.