“Hand in hand the two trudged across the plowed land and up to the house, the child dreaming of the days when he should wander to far countries, and the man of the days when he might have.”
—Zora Neale Hurston, “John Redding Goes to Sea”
Cartoon by P. C. Vey
“To be so full of.
Everything. At her age. It is very difficult.
A singer manqué. Among a small host of poets.” —excerpt from “Girl Friend” by C. D. Wright
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“Poems and stories are the whisperings of angels we cannot see.” —excerpt from “Annabel Begins” by Jayne Anne Phillips
“Lit by the golden glow of the season that simmered the city like fire, she was magnetic and romantic.”
—A. T. Steel, “Honey Buns and Cream Soda in the Stairwell”
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“The girls are coming! Forty brave girls, girls from every corner of the city, are speeding with their parents to a school dance, no matter the weather! And boys, those forty boys waiting for them, are hopping around like it’s spring.” —excerpt from Kurt Beattie’s “Dance”
“That’s what I want, to feel terrified, excited, and free, all at once.”
—Kevin A. González, “Cerromar”
Join Carol Edgarian as she explores the complexity of “kismet” in this week’s “A Word, Please.”
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@caroledgarian.bsky.social
Cartoon by RoseAnne Prevec
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“Look, I'm as superstitious as anyone, but not about this. You must time it, as any provincial traveler knows, so that you are well past the black arch before the sun reaches its zenith. Of course this means rising well before dawn . . .” —excerpt from “Ladies’ Mechs” by Kris Herndon
“Writing fiction gives you a legitimate excuse for being a dilettante. But one of the troubling aspects of getting older is that you really begin to understand, in your bones, that there’s so much to learn, and so little time.”
—Vikram Chandra
@vikramchandra.bsky.social
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“This river cut through centuries of rock
to our time when all assertions are suspect,
to our century of assurances gone mute” —excerpt from John Balaban’s “Walking Down into Cebolla Canyon”
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“She was hoping she could start over and become a woman who really lived, pill free and energetic. With cocktail parties and nights on the town and the same father for both her girls. But there was one person in her way.” —excerpt from “Rae Rae” by Bridgett M. Davis
“Because you are good at a thing does not mean that you are obliged to do it.”
—Ann Beattie
Our Winter Story Contest closes on 3/31; see the details: www.narrativemagazine.com/winter-2026-...
“Once in the brain, that is, the bullet came under the mediation of brain time, which gave Anders plenty of leisure to contemplate the scene.” —excerpt from “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff
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“I wish I still knew how to find joy in the pure thrill of the ten minutes before your favorite cartoon comes on, the rush against time, the body so suddenly delayed, cumbersome yet present, the embodiment of coiled anticipation.”
—Ocean Vuong
Cartoon by Kaamran Hafeez
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Enjoy reading “The Jockey” on Carson McCullers’s birthday today: www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/sprin...
“‘Why don’t I go up to my god-damn room and walk around and write some letters and go to bed like a good boy? Why don’t I just—Oh, foo,’ he said. ‘Foo to you. I want a drink.’” —excerpt from “The Jockey” by Carson McCullers
In this week’s “A Word, Please,” @caroledgarian.bsky.social dives into “kind.”
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“At best love is a gift that changes in time from enchantment, wildness, blindness, rage, and fury into sweet companionship. At worst it ruins your life.”
—Lynn Freed
“My mother hoped moving would erase the affair with a married man.” —excerpt from “Rae Rae” by Bridgett M. Davis
