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

STORY OF THE WEEK

The Fall Line

By Tim Erwin

We were so high up now that all the other mountains in the distance looked like dirt clods. I suddenly understood the poetification of mountainous places, the romance of scale.

POEM OF THE WEEK

You’d Be Thirty Today

By Lo Naylor

I’ll take you to her said the mortician when I returned to collect you & he gestured toward a pedestal, lit by a spotlight, guarded by a velvet rope. I froze because, the absurdity.

FALL STORY CONTEST

Deadline: Fri., Nov. 21, at 11:59 p.m., PST.

We’re looking for short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, and excerpts from long fiction and nonfiction.

Please see the Guidelines.

FICTION

Heart Songs

By Annie Proulx

Dangerous heat came from him, the heat of some interior decay smoldering like a lightning-struck tree heart, a smothered misery that might someday flare and burn.

FICTION

CLASSICS

FICTION

Tort

By Andre Dubus III

Maybe if Jim had not been so lonely himself, she would not have returned that smile with a kiss and their clothes would not be coming off as if something larger than the two of them was pulling the fabric away from their skin.

CLASSICS

Dream Children

By Gail Godwin

And as she floated in this silent world, transparent and buoyed upon the dream layers of the mind, she heard a small rattling sound, like pebbles being shaken in a jar.

CLASSICS

Walking Out

By David Quammen

The boy knew he was supposed to feel great shame, but he felt little. His father could no longer hurt him as he once could, because the boy was coming to understand him. His father could not help himself.

CLASSICS

American Express

By James Salter

They never knew the girl at the reception desk with her nearsightedness and wild, full hair. They knew various others, they knew Julie, they knew Catherine, they knew Ames.

NONFICTION

A Poetics of Fiction

BY TOM JENKS

Based on forty years of editing and teaching, A Poetics contains a detailed pattern for study of creative writing, including a great deal of practical knowledge not generally available elsewhere.

NONFICTION

Some Remarks on Humor

By E. B. White

You certainly don’t have to be a humorist to taste the sadness of situation and mood. But there is often a rather fine line between laughing and crying.

POETRY

The Brute

By Jaia Hamid Bashir

I bite the lemon—whole—its burning light floods my mouth, like Icarus caught on a rope of sun. I open the gift: a small ocelot, its mouth a cave, pearl teeth waiting.

POETRY

First Night of Shiva, 11/6/2024

By Arne Weingart

A year from now we’ll say a prayer for the dead over a candle in a glass so ugly you have to imagine that its only purpose is to convince us forever not to fall in love with death.

GRAPHIC STORIES

CARTOONS

GRAPHIC STORIES

Reasons I Never Tried Smoking as a Teenager

By Ali Solomon

An amusing exploration of a teenager's fears of—and resistance to—smoking.

CARTOONS

Cartoon Art Volume 2025-08

By Various Artists

Great new toons by Kaamran Hafeez, P. C. Vey, Jon Adams, Mick Stevens, Alex Pearson, and Joseph Dottino.