Narrative Magazine[1] is a non-profitdigital publisher of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and art founded in 2003 by Tom Jenks and Carol Edgarian. Narrative publishes weekly and provides educational resources to teachers and students; subscription and access to its content is free.
Narrative is headquartered in San Francisco. It publishes fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and art of different forms from established and emerging writers . Additionally, Narrative coined the iStory—a short, dramatic narrative, fiction or nonfiction, up to 150 words long—and the iPoem—a short poem that fits within no more than two screens on the iPhone (up to 150 words long). It also publishes features on craft, teaching, and other topics related to professional writing. All works of contemporary writing accepted by the magazine are previously unpublished. All Narrative writers are paid for their contributions, but Narrative charges an unusually high submission fee.[2]
Narrative awards various prizes to writers throughout the year. Its namesake recognition, the Narrative Prize,[3] is a single $5,000 prize awarded annually to a new or emerging writer published in Narrative. Narrative Prize winners include:
Other Narrative awards include the Narrative Spring, Fall, and Winter Fiction and Nonfiction Contests, the Annual Narrative Poetry Contest, and more. Each contest awards monetary prizes.
Narrative for Schools[4] is a program that was founded in 2014 by Narrative co-founder Carol Edgarian to provide teachers and students with free literary educational tools and content. Narrative for Schools offers writing video tutorials, reading lists, and the Narrative High School Writing Contest.
The annual winners of the Narrative High School Writing Contest Annual winners are awarded monetary prizes, mentorship, and publication in Narrative. Originally an essay contest, the competition has expanded to include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Narrative Library
The Narrative library includes over 2,000 authors and thousands of works of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and art available for free. It is searchable by themes[5] categorized under the headings "Living," "Social Commentary," "Relationships," "The Environment," "The Spiritual," "Travel," "The Writing Life," and "Holidays."
Controversies
Narrative Magazine's fee structure and contest practices have been subject to extensive criticism.
In particular, Narrative has been accused of fixing their 2008 story-writing contest, going against standard practice to have the editors judge the contest themselves, and granting the prize to a writer with a well-established pre-existing relationship to those editors.
In 2025 the magazine ran a writing contest, charging $27 for entry, but awarded no winner. Although the magazine stated in advance that fees were not-refundable, awarding no first or second place price is strongly counter to the norms of literary contests, and some critics have suggested that the contest amounted to a scam.104.159.64.53
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