NARRATIVE Magazine

B R I N G I N G G R E AT L I T E R AT U R E TO T H E W O R L D. O N L I N E . FO R F R E E .

Narrative Background
Mission

NARRATIVE IS THE WORLD’S leading online publisher of first-rank fiction, nonfiction, and
poetry. A nonprofit organization, Narrative is dedicated to advancing the literary arts in
the digital age by supporting the finest writing talent and encouraging readership
around the world and across generations. Our online library of new literature by
celebrated authors and by the best new and emerging writers is available for free.

History

FOUNDED IN 2003 by Carol Edgarian and Tom Jenks, Narrative Magazine has pub-
lished twenty-two issues in the last five and a half years, each containing
approximately two hundred pages of short stories, novel excerpts, essays and mem-
oirs, interviews, and poetry. Narrative is committed to using the Internet as a
platform for the growth and encouragement of contemporary literature as it transi-
tions and thrives in the digital age.
This effort comes at a critical time in the literary world. As Lan Samantha Chang,
the director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, told the New York Times in 2005, “our
country is currently in sore need of fiction.” The Atlantic Monthly no longer regu-
larly prints fiction, and The New Yorker publishes half the pieces it printed two
decades ago.
Not surprisingly, the decline of editorial interest in literary publishing corre-
sponds to a decline in readership. In two recent reports, the NEA documented what
many parents and booksellers have long lamented: young Americans aren’t reading.
While literary reading is declining in all age groups, the steepest decline is among
young adults, ages eighteen to thirty-four; since the NEA began its survey, this age
group has dropped from being the most likely to read literature to being the least likely.
Literature is an essential part of our culture, our past and future. It has the power
to engage, enchant, and instruct us. But books alone can’t compete with new forms of
communication and entertainment marketed to people coming of age in the Internet
Era. This generation is the watershed for literary life in America today.
Using the new technology, Narrative is the bridge that connects readers and great
writers. Narrative is the first of its kind, a dynamic website, a national literary maga-
zine, a learning tool, and perhaps most important, a dynamic, growing community of
readers and writers.

W W W. N A R R AT I V E M AG A Z I N E . C O M