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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 7h

Ola Szczecinska has won the 2026 Narrative Prize for “Hunters.” Please join us in celebrating the twenty-eighth recipient of Narrative’s annual award for an exceptional new or emerging writer. www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/stori...

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

“imagine a country a house on fire good gen z millennial kids good upstarts brown denizens who’ve discovered their rights are sticks are legs to walk the streets dearly beloved.” —excerpt from “The Stormtroopers of My Country” by Tishani Doshi

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

“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.” —excerpt from “Another Name for Red” by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

On September 30 a new voice joins the ranks of the Narrative Prize winners. Meet the 2026 winner next week. Learn more about the Prize and read the winning works: www.narrativemagazine.com/great-storie...

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

In less than a week we’ll be announcing the next winner of the Narrative Prize! www.narrativemagazine.com/great-storie... Follow us to be the first to know on September 30.

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

“The village had no name he ever learned. Tires crunched over broken glass and brick. Women pulled children back from doorways. An old man watched them as if they were weather.” —excerpt from “The Distance to Fallujah” by Gregory Clyde

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A stunning interpretation of the American immigrant experience, Narrative Prize winner Min Jin Lee’s debut novel, “Free Food for Millionaires,” chronicles the struggles of Casey Han, a first-generation Korean woman living in New York City in the 1990s.

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

“All I remember is waking up in a pool of sweat, alone, clutching my heart like I’d had a bad dream, and then it dawned on me: I was not dreaming. My daughter, Maria, flesh of my own flesh, had cut me off like a loose thread from a skirt.” —excerpt from “Tilling the Land” by Tryphena L. Yeboah

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

“My uncle told me that John lived on land that had been stolen by the state years ago during Allotment from my great-great uncle’s family. Rumors said that John killed any rez dogs that walked onto his property.” —excerpt from “Another Name for Red” by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The countdown is on for the announcement of the next Narrative Prize winner! The $5,000 Narrative Prize is awarded annually for the best short story, novel excerpt, poem, graphic story, or work of literary nonfiction by a new or emerging writer.

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

“Like passports, the books were stamped with their travel history and then stamped with mine.” —excerpt from “A Library Grows in the Bronx” by Ali Solomon

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

A HUGE congratulations to the winners of our 18th Annual Poetry Contest! 🥇 In first place we have Mara Adamitz Scrupe’s “Blood Root.” 🥈 In second place is Leah Brand with “Caput Mortuum.” 🥉 In third place is Leila Chatti’s “Where I’m From.”

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

In a show-stopping performance of “Downhill Triolets,” award-winning poet and Narrative Prize winner Natalie Diaz uncorks the deep love and pathos in her brother’s story. www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/winte... On September 30 the next Narrative Prize winner will be announced. Stay tuned!

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Narrative for Schools provides access to our complete library of literature, instructional materials, contests, curated reading lists, and video tutorials—free of charge—used by teachers and students throughout the US and in more than sixty countries.

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

“ ‘We may live roughly, but at least we are free from anxiety. You live in better style than we do but though you often earn more than you need, you are very likely to lose all you have.’ ” —excerpt from Leo Tolstoy’s “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

“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.” —excerpt from “A Library Grows in the Bronx” by Ali Solomon @alisolomain.bsky.social

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

“Grandfather advised me: Learn a trade I learned to sit at desk and condense.” —excerpt from “Poet’s Work” by Lorine Niedecker

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

We believe students and readers everywhere deserve a great and free modern library, inside of which they can get deliriously, entertainingly, profoundly lost. And found.

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

“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.” —excerpt from “Self-Portrait as Boo Radley” by Harrison Hamm

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

“I like the names of all your plants: purple haze, skywalker, blue dream, northern lights. I reach over you to the bed stand for my glass, lured by your scent, intoxicating as wine.” —excerpt from “Hunters” by Ola Szczecinska

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

“Keep running down this wheat path and by sunrise, we zig-zag to the county fair: All rides open, we reach toward any moving object. Our hands flail upward: spinning teacups where vertigo numbs our teeth.” —excerpt from “Time Jump” by Chelsea Zhu

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

“The survival of poetry, in fact the survival of humans and their world, depends upon the cultivation of better language.” —excerpt from Wendell Berry’s “A Matter of Necessity” Today we honor the life and legacy of Wendell Berry. www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/stori...

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

“the children huddle nibbling orange crusts from diesel-soaked butterfly wings.” —excerpt from Sherwin Bitsui’s “From Flood Song”

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

A huge congratulations to our Spring Story Contest Winners: Gregory Clyde, Tryphena Yeboah, and Jiachen Wang! www.narrativemagazine.com/spring-2026-...

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

“The American laughed a little—a high, tinkling sound—and then sighed deeply into the massage table as Butterfly pressed down on her spine.” —excerpt from “Butterfly” by Vivian Ludford

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Enjoy Tracey K. Berglund’s graphic story “Some Things I Actually Would Like to Elevate . . .”: www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/narra...

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

“In this way, the great lie has become a truth, or something like it. All the while, they drive on, looping around and passing back through the front gate, down the road, and back into town. Alex doesn’t speak, nor does anyone else.” —excerpt from “Motherland” by Baird Harper

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

“I imagine the hunt—visions of truth, revelations, forgiveness. A sudden, radical acceptance of the way things are: all the pain, the cruelty. It reeks of swamp in the campground where your hunting trailer slumps. Of blood and mud, endings and beginnings.” —excerpt from “Hunters” by Ola Szczecinska

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

“I do not say aloud, distant shame yanking at the hem of my mind.” —excerpt from “Brawl,” an exclusive poem from Paisley Rekdal’s (winner of the 2018 Narrative Prize) forthcoming collection “Heritance”

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Rereading Robert Stone’s Hollywood novel, “Children of Light,” thirty-some years after its publication, we were surprised to find a vividly remembered part of the original manuscript missing from the finished book.

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Students and teachers, welcome back to school! We’re kicking the 2026 school year off right with some classic poetry, the winner of our High School Contest, and answers to questions on the use of detail, and practical tips on how to work from one’s particular strengths.

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

“A good writing day would include working early in the morning, and then again mid-morning after (more) coffee, then running in the afternoon while listening to new parts of what I’ve written.” —excerpt from the exclusive Narrative 10 interview with Tommy Orange

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

“Do all lovers begin in hell and end in knowledge? I ask him. I wish I could play an instrument. I’d write a song about her. I wish I could sing. I’d sing about her. I wish I could write a poem. Every line would be about her.” —excerpt from Li-Young Lee’s “The Invention of the Darling”

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

“Some things I would actually like to Elevate . . . the temperature in my apartment the elevator in my building.” —excerpt from “Some Things I Actually Would Like to Elevate . . .” by Tracey K. Berglund

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

“I only intuit what the phone can’t catch: the insults of this white man, strutting and puffed, parboiled before the Black captain whose arms windmill at a slip” —excerpt from “Brawl,” an exclusive poem from Paisley Rekdal’s (winner of the 2018 Narrative Prize) forthcoming collection “Heritance”

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Love what you’re reading in Narrative? Narrative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, publishing first-rank literature, providing mentorship to underserved schools around the globe, and offering our library of thousands of stories, poems, and essays for free.

narrativemagazine.com

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

“In another 5 billion years, she’s blown into a cloud of hydrogen dust, food for a future Earth, and I still haven’t finished her song.” —excerpt from “Once Again, in August” by Dan Gerber

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

“Women are constantly encouraged to ‘Elevate’ our careers, our lifestyles, our portfolios, our skin care regimens, and our get-aways.” —excerpt from “Some Things I Actually Would Like to Elevate . . .” by Tracey K. Berglund

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Join Carol Edgarian as she explores a word that we don’t hear often anymore, “gadabout.” @caroledgarian.bsky.social bit.ly/3t85Mqp

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

We’re getting excited to announce the Spring Story Contest winners on August 31st! In the meantime, enjoy last year’s winner: www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/fall-...

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

“When I’d wake I’d remember everything. Plunge straight back into sorrow and fear.” —excerpt from “Hunters” by Ola Szczecinska

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Join @caroledgarian.bsky.social as she explores a couple of lines that are all about what to keep in and what to leave out of our hearts and minds. bit.ly/3t85Mqp

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Enjoy Tracey K. Berglund’s graphic story “Some Things I Actually Would Like to Elevate . . .”: www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/narra...

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

“The survival of poetry, in fact the survival of humans and their world, depends upon the cultivation of better language.” —excerpt from “A Matter of Necessity” by Wendell Berry

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Narrative @narrativemag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

“He and his wife live in the woodpile by my back door, and they are so equal I cannot tell which is which when they poke their noses out of the crevices among the sticks of firewood.” —excerpt from Hayden Carruth’s “Little Citizen, Little Survivor”

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