Narrative

“When I saw my wife again standing by the tracks as the train came in by the piled logs at the station, I wished I had died before I had ever loved anyone but her.”

—Ernest Hemingway, “A Moveable Feast”

Last chance to enter our HIGH SCHOOL WRITING CONTEST!

We’re in the last few hours for a chance to have your work reviewed by our founder and editor Carol Edgarian, win cash prizes, and be published in Narrative!

TOMORROW is the final day to submit your work to our High School Writing Contest!

Get your work published, and share your voice with our global readership: www.narrativemagazine.com/narrative-fo...

“beauty yields
beyond all earning”

—Elizabeth Willis, “A Fisher King”

Enjoy our Story of the Week: www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/stori...

“The next day I woke to a world turned upside down. It’s a small town; word had got around. Every resident of the neighborhood crowded into Granny’s kitchen and yard. My friends no longer knew how to behave around me.” —excerpt from “Ladies’ Mechs” by Kris Herndon

We’re in the final sprint of our High School Writing Contest!

The submission deadline is Feb 4 at 5pm PST, so the time for procrastination is over.

Think: publication, mentorship, cash prizes. We can’t wait to hear your voice.

“With the right words

in the right tone, I can pilot my sheepdog
around the field like a radio airplane, though I own

no sheep, so it’s emptiness she encircles.”

—J. P. Grasser, “Gone, the Old Verve, Gone”

Cartoon by Chris Weyant

We’re celebrating Anton Chekhov’s birthday today: www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/fall-...

“Hearing the baby’s cry, Varka finds the enemy who is crushing her heart. The enemy is the child.” —excerpt from Anton Chekhov’s “Sleepy”

“Love is like the sea. It’s a moving thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from the shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.”

—Zora Neale Hurston, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”

Join @caroledgarian.bsky.social as she explores “hubris” in this week’s “A Word, Please.”

bit.ly/3t85Mqp

Our Annual High School Writing Contest is open for submissions until February 4!

We can’t wait to read what only you can write:

“Trying not to. I’m trying caving in on what I eat and not what I do.
Will you tell me, what did I do?” —excerpt from Taneum Bambrick’s “Gerunds for You”

Camera captures, from the ground up toward the sky, a youth in jeans and sneakers jumping over the view with "Narrative High School Writing Contest" in white type across the upper sixth and "One True Thing" in red type, larger, below that.

Using the prompt “One True Thing” as a springboard, our friends at @narrativemag.bsky.social invite high-school students to write a story, essay, or poem that takes readers on a journey toward a moment of truth. Submissions accepted through Feb 4, 2026: bit.ly/4qTTPyj #EduSky

“But everything changed one afternoon. I was killing time at a neighborhood bar, pretending to read a book but hoping I might get noticed.”

—Kaitlin Roberts, “Society”

www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/winte...

“both man and woman
calling a few words back and forth
across the axis of the car’s hot roof
as they stoop and fit themselves inside” —excerpt from “Changing Drivers” by Ted Kooser

Cartoon by Suzy Becker

“What was perhaps most terrifying about losing her god was that, without the promise of a never-ending paradise, the imperfect and the limited were all she had.”

—R. O. Kwon, “Superhero”

@rokwon.bsky.social

Wives | Narrative Magazine Wives by Kate Cayley — The rain ended as they got out at what the driver told ...

Enjoy one of last year’s Winter Story Contest winners, “Wives,” by Kate Cayley: www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/sprin...

Submit your work: www.narrativemagazine.com/winter-2026-...

“The dry-stone wall jutted out at angles, and she thought of a frightened child borne off into the wilder forest, a dark seam soldering the earth to the sky.” —excerpt from “Wives” by Kate Cayley

“I hold on to the shape of a star
the way my aunts hold on to Jesus’s gown,
his whiteness they have never trusted on anyone else.”

—Tyree Daye, “The Shape of God”

www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/stori...

“His pitiable forlornness filled her with an unshakeable sense of worthlessness. No failure! No worthlessness! Not today. Today was different.” —excerpt from “Surrender” by Jennifer Christman

Join @caroledgarian.bsky.social as she explores this word popularized by Michelangelo!

bit.ly/3t85Mqp

Our Annual High School Writing Contest is open until February 4!

What are you going to write?

“Loving you is every bit as fine
as coming over a hill into the sun
at ninety miles an hour, darling”

—Denis Johnson, “Poem”