STORY OF THE WEEK

The Painted Veil By W. Somerset Maugham

The Painted Veil

By W. Somerset Maugham
He was a very odd creature. But now that he had told her she felt in some mysterious way that his love was something she had never met before.

POEM OF THE WEEK

Washington By Caitlin Roach

Washington

By Caitlin Roach
In our first half year here, time pitches impossibly. The baby stumbles into his first steps, the older boy begins dreaming in daylight away from us.

POETRY CONTEST

POETRY CONTEST

Open to all poets. Narrative is always looking for new voices, and all entries will be considered for publication. Each entry may contain up to five poems.

Please see the Guidelines.

RECENT AWARDS

Recent Awards for Our Authors

Recent Awards for Our Authors

Year in and out, many of our authors receive notable awards, including the BASS and O. Henry prize, and many others. You can find their works here.

FICTION

INTERVIEWS

FICTION

The Rooms By Susan Minot

The Rooms

By Susan Minot
What she wanted, she found herself saying before the sob choked her, was to be able to live—not just with another person, but with herself.

INTERVIEWS

Narrative 10 By R. O. Kwon

Narrative 10

By R. O. Kwon
I often think of something my graduate-school mentor Michael Cunningham once said, that our characters are not floating balls of disembodied energy.

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

NONFICTION

The Measure of All Things? By Hal Crowther

The Measure of All Things?

By Hal Crowther
There are mornings, not few enough, when I feel like burning my birth certificate and resigning from the human race.

NONFICTION

Tina Turner and My Father By Deborah Paredez

Tina Turner and My Father

By Deborah Paredez
A diva’s voice elevates a song into a diva anthem by carrying both struggle and perseverance, both trauma and triumph.

CARTOONS

CARTOONS

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2024-04 By Various Artists

Cartoon Art Volume 2024-04

By Various Artists
New laughs with a modest matador, some fashionable wishes, a new approach to exercise, the fruits of hard labor, and more.

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2024-05 By Various Artists

Cartoon Art Volume 2024-05

By Various Artists
New laughs with some up-close exposure, muscles that just won’t let go, surprising answers about job security, and more.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Food Poem By Emily Alexander

Food Poem

By Emily Alexander
After olives after almonds after anchovies. After baguettes, every seasonal berry smashed into jam and dripped down the fronts of shirts.

POETRY

Fire Emblem By JP Allen

Fire Emblem

By JP Allen
Autumn to autumn, I hold your face in cardboard under my bed till I place it on my paper altar for the Day of the Dead. Well. Most years I forget.

POETRY

Requiem By Bruce Bond

Requiem

By Bruce Bond
The more dissonance you hear, the more you listen, the more it tears from the bone. You could weep for months, years. And then, you stop.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

Passing and Other Poems By John Freeman

Passing and Other Poems

By John Freeman
I look up and meet a woman’s eyes. It’s early evening the night could go another way and for the length of a stride it could.

POETRY

Gargantuan By T. De Los Reyes

Gargantuan

By T. De Los Reyes
My childhood is a city where tenderness was frowned upon, yet you are now holding my body, whose shape is exactly what I need it to be.

POETRY

Rasam and Beans Curry By Supritha Rajan

Rasam and Beans Curry

By Supritha Rajan
When I raise a spoon of beans roasted with coconut to my mouth, what I see condenses to a series of images.

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

POETRY

The Reader in Quarantine By Sharon Olds

The Reader in Quarantine

By Sharon Olds
The reader was no longer fifty, or sixty. She did not really think of herself as an old woman, though she called herself one.

POETRY

Lightning Takes the Form of Hope By Reed Turchi

Lightning Takes the Form of Hope

By Reed Turchi
There is nothing I can do, or say, so I turn up the radio, drown myself in climax of guitar to match the boiling in my blood.

POETRY

The Baby Survives By Sam Stokley

The Baby Survives

By Sam Stokley
Imagine shucking the whole cob in one go. A legion of hands gripping the fresh sweet corn and yanking, sun-kissed hair and husk left on the stalk.