“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
Narrative
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Non-profit publisher of fiction, poetry, essays & art. Since 2003, where readers, writers, teachers & students meet. Our free library is always open. narrativemagazine.com
“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”
This year’s Summer Reading Kit is all about spark, with stories and poems that capture the season’s hot, offbeat, off-chance days and nights: www.narrativemagazine.com/great-storie...
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. . . . It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” —C. S. Lewis, “The Four Loves” What do you think of this quote? Do you agree?
“A body is a sticker book. A child’s introduction to savoring. My collection, my prized white birds— if sold at auction, might save the world.” —excerpt from “White Birds” by Maria Giesbrecht
“I hold everything closer, trusting the room to stay still, even as the curtains quiver. I couldn’t name what travels through this house, funneling through the doors, the untouched pipes.” —excerpt from “Sweeter” by Yong-Yu Huang
The deadline to submit to our 18th Annual Poetry Contest is TONIGHT at midnight PDT! www.narrativemagazine.com/eighteenth-a...
“Silence is our salvation, that and the reassurance of this earth, this clear air, this forgetting.” —excerpt from “Avoiding the Spirits” by Kwame Dawes
“Touching you is a dash in the paragraph of not touching you fragment in the sentence of not seeing you.” —excerpt from “Illicit” by Cate Lycurgus
Our Annual Poetry Contest closes for submissions on Wednesday! www.narrativemagazine.com/eighteenth-a...
“The fling of dunlins moves loosely, a single being, their sunlit white undersides —the shorebirds bank toward the west at once—flashing too fast to decipher.” —excerpt from “Tidal Motif” by Henk Rossouw
“At the market I am drawn to the seeds unbuttoning their coats, the lewdness of an ossifying winter. What is so difficult to describe about fruit?” —excerpt from “Sweeter” by Yong-Yu Huang
These pieces encourage us to hold on to these summer months with all our might: www.narrativemagazine.com/great-storie...
“Knowing you is unknowable, we—: a period flanked by periods you my always ellipsis.” —excerpt from “Illicit” by Cate Lycurgus
“I recall my childhood soundtrack—you’re playing ‘Recuerdos de la Alhambra,’ a tremolo guitar piece. Your thumb flickers again. Self-taught, you can’t read sheet music, and figure out the arpeggio by ear.” —excerpt from “Tidal Motif” by Henk Rossouw
Calling all poets! There are 8 days left to submit to our Annual Poetry Contest: www.narrativemagazine.com/eighteenth-a...
The countdown is on! Only 12 days left to submit your work to our Annual Poetry Contest: www.narrativemagazine.com/eighteenth-a...
“A body is a sticker book. A child’s introduction to savoring. My collection, my prized white birds— if sold at auction, might save the world.” —excerpt from “White Birds” by Maria Giesbrecht
“I speak at the edge of something else—Pacific asters sinuate in the wind, the tremolo shorebirds arriving and leaving without cease, your fingers arthritic now.” —excerpt from “Tidal Motif” by Henk Rossouw
“If it was not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.” —excerpt from “Maxims” by François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Cool off with our Summer Reading Kit: www.narrativemagazine.com/great-storie...
The deadline for our 18th Annual Poetry Contest is approaching! Just a little over two weeks left to submit your work: www.narrativemagazine.com/eighteenth-a...
“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. What is left of the sun canters dimly through my kitchen window, and I eat in pinches.” —excerpt from “Sweeter” by Yong-Yu Huang
“As he swung his scythe that day, his head throbbing with sun, the flash of the sharp blade spoke, urging him over and over, till he knew what he had to do.” —excerpt from “The Murder of Louisa Suckraw” by Ted Kooser
“The shorebirds bank toward the west at once—flashing too fast to decipher.” —excerpt from “Tidal Motif” by Henk Rossouw
“The longing to know hovered like a star above this child-woman.” —excerpt from “Of the Meaning of Progress” by W. E. B. Du Bois
