A storytelling platform & production company that celebrates humanity through diverse, authentic, high-quality stories.

Our human-centric work spans longform writing, digital video, podcasts, TV and film and our platform, Narratively.com (one of TIME’s “50 Best Websites”), is the creative engine behind much of that storytelling. It is home to thousands of true, original human-interest stories fueled by Narratively’s highly-vetted global network of journalists and storytellers who come to us with their passion projects that are too unique, too quirky, too in-depth, or too evergreen for mainstream media. 

Your life flashing before your eyes in brief glimpses. These magazines want short-short memoir—snapshots, fragments, and compressed life stories.

Lit Mags That Want Short & Sweet Memoir

Some stories grab you and don't let go. These mags do that and then some, celebrating creativity and community through positive human experiences. Editor picks from Tadpole Press.

Magazines Celebrating Community & Creativity

These magazines are well-established, very reputable, and they want you to hit 'em with your best shot.

Prestige Mags That Want Your Beautifully Unhinged Life Story

These magazines have the fastest response times, so you won't be left hanging for months. No more endless waiting. Just, you know, regular waiting.

Literary Magazines with the Fastest Response Times

Explore the most popular literary magazines of all time. These long-established publications are a staple in the literary world for writers of all genres.

Most Popular Literary Magazines of All Time

Narratively

Deep Dives

My Secret Obsession

Hi there! If you’ve got an extraordinary personal story to share, you’ve come to the right place.

Narratively Memoir Prize

Memoir

"Secret Lives" is one of Narratively’s most popular ongoing series, and one for which we’re always looking for new stories. 
The series includes both reported profiles and first-person essays, and is defined by stories that bring readers into a slice of life they normally wouldn’t have access to.
Like all Narratively pieces, “Secret Lives” stories are narrative-driven, not topic-based. This means they go beyond “this is what it’s like to have this job” and take the reader through a *story* about the job or experience at hand. There needs to be a narrative arc with a clear beginning, middle and end. The writer or subject needs to be transformed in some meaningful way over the course of the story, and that transformation needs to be communicated through active, engaging, vivid scenes. 
There has to be something at stake, something universal and human that’s being unraveled and examined. The most successful “Secret Lives” stories draw the reader in thinking that they have nothing in common with the writer or subject, and by the end leaves them feeling connected to their experience in a way they never imagined possible. 
Word count for Secret Lives stories is usually between 2,500 and 5,000 words, but we can be a bit flexible there. Note: We are only accepting submissions for these at this time. 
Some favorites:
Meet Ladybeard, the Crown Prince of Japan’s Strangest Music Scene
Porno Power: The Next Generation
The First Family of Human Cannonballing
The Deep South’s Dames of Dildos

Submissions: Secret Lives

From Friday, October 24, through Sunday, December 7, 2025, Narratively is accepting entries for our 2025 Memoir Prize. We’re on the hunt for revealing and emotional first-person nonfiction narratives from unique and overlooked points of view. Entries will be judged on a rolling basis in four rounds: the first three by experienced Narratively readers and staff, and the final by our incredible and generous guest judge, critically acclaimed writer Susannah Cahalan.
Susannah Cahalan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire, which has been translated into more than 20 languages. Her second book, The Great Pretender, was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s 2020 Science Book Prize. Her third book, The Acid Queen was published by Viking in April 2025.
We’ll award the top writer a $3,000 cash prize, as well as publication on Narratively.com and in a special limited print edition — plus, a virtual awards ceremony to celebrate.
Competition Info:

  Prize period opens: 9 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on October 24, 2025. 
  Prize period closes: 11:59 p.m. EDT on December 7, 2025. We will not accept entries once the prize period closes.
  Final decision announced: On or around February 26, 2026. Entrants will be notified via Submittable and/or email.
  Entry fee: US$20, nonrefundable and due at time of entry; free entry for paid subscribers to Narratively.com (head here to subscribe!) or sister site Narratively Academy (become one here!). If you’re already a paid subscriber to either or both, first of all, thank you for supporting indie journalism! Second of all, head to the prize announcement page here to access both subscriber-only links. 
  Eligibility: Open to folks 18 years of age or older on or before 9 a.m. EDT on October 24, 2025, and who are not employed by, related to or sharing living quarters with Narratively staff or our guest judges. This competition is open to anyone, including past and current Narratively contributors. Current and former Narratively editors are ineligible.

What should my entry look like?
As with all Narratively stories, submissions should be composed of vivid, active scenes, unique characters and an engaging narrative arc. We have a few rules to follow, but encourage maximum creativity within these guidelines. The best way to get a sense of what we’re looking for is to read the stories on the list of examples we love below. 
Here are a few examples of first-person Narratively pieces we love:

  I Was the World’s Most Cancer Mom
  The Adventures of a Pakistani in Texas
  My Bizarre Reign as New York’s King of “Virgin Russian Hair”
  I Was Taught to Hate My Lesbian Neighbors. They Took Me In Anyway.
  Diary of a Bachelor Who Suddenly Became a Solo Dad to a Teenage Girl
  My Secret Life Tracking Down Debtors
  How I Wrote Myself into a Real-life Romantic Comedy — That Turned into a Survivalist Thriller
  My Coming Out Story, Starring a Priest, an Animal Sacrifice and Ricky Martin

Why do we charge a fee? 
Your entry fee will allow us to compensate the people who are helping us effectively and fairly evaluate every single prize submission — from our freelance readers to our prize editors, copy editors, fact-checkers, visual editors and producers. 
Submission Guidelines:

  Ready-to-publish pieces only — no pitches accepted
  Word count: 2,000 to 5,000
  Nonfiction, written in the first person and in English (translations permitted)
  Original and previously unpublished as a written work
  Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but must notify Narratively if entry is accepted elsewhere.
  Multiple submissions from a single author are permitted, but each must be submitted and paid for individually (with one entry per paid subscriber).
  Adaptations from other media (podcasts, scripts, etc.) are permitted with disclosure.
  Any citations should be in endnote form and listed at the end of the submission.
  Please remove your name and contact information from your submission.
  Narratively prefers common fonts such as Times New Roman and Arial, at 10-12-point size, double spaced, for ease of reading. Please do not include images or graphics.

To answer your questions: 

  This competition is open to anyone, including past and current Narratively contributors. (Current and former Narratively editors, however, are ineligible.)
  The grand prize winner will be required to sign our standard contributor agreement.
  These are a few of the key points in our agreement:    
  You retain print publication rights, should you pursue a book version of your story now or in the future.
  Narratively has the right to pursue TV and film projects based on the work. These projects could be either unscripted/documentary or fictional (inspired by your story).
  Revenue from any TV or film projects is shared with contributors.
  We publish Narratively Out Loud, which features read-aloud audio versions of select Narratively stories, so the contract also gives us the rights to produce those.

Take a look at our FAQ page here. 
Please review our complete Official Rules & Submissions Guidelines here.
Not yet ready to submit? Subscribe to Narratively Academy here to receive helpful reminders about deadlines, prize updates and announcements and news about future prizes on a variety of topics.
Having trouble logging into Submittable? Click here for help.
Best of luck!

Mini Flash Essay Contest

2025 Narratively Memoir Prize

Did you read Narratively Classic "The Teenage Prank That's Lasted 60 Years" and feel inspired to share your own best prank story? Well, we want to hear about it! 
Details: 
Write a mini flash essay about the best prank you've ever pulled. We want to know what you did, how you did it, who thought it was funny (and didn't), and if people are still talking about it as we type…  
Word Count: 300 words max — longer drafts will not be considered.  
Deadline: Friday night, January 23, 2026, at 11:59 ET.

Best Prank: Mini Flash Essay Contest

If you’re a fan of Narratively, you know that we are all about the BIG story. We like an epic narrative that unfolds in several acts and consists of vivid, cinematic scenes. But part of what we like, too, is a unique perspective. We want to be surprised and delighted — we want to not see it coming. And sometimes that looks like one delicious slice of pie rather than the whole thing… 

Enter The Personals. These first-person pieces still meet two of the main criteria for Narratively stories: They’re about something super unique and interesting, and they’re rooted in detailed and colorful scenes. BUT they instead focus on one moment, one day, one week, one summer, etc. (And consequently, they’re much shorter.) We want your best pieces about a surprising moment, a split-second, life-changing decision, an upside-down view of something that we, as a society, are used to looking at head-on. Send us your story about that time you decided at the last second to leave the altar and make a go of it with your unforbidden love instead, the stranger who gave you advice that changed the trajectory of your life forever, that time you confronted your bully 25 years later only to learn about the hardship they were going through at the time. 

What The Personals Is: You can tell us a story on a subject we’ve heard about before, but give us a unique way in. 

What The Personals Isn’t: We love a good internal-based story like everyone else, a writer working out their opinion or recent revelation on the page, but that is not what we’re looking for here. We want active, exciting first-person stories that revolve around dramatic scenes and moments.

The Personals

Writers, we’ve got a brand-new flash contest for you. This one is inspired by a craft piece from Marion Roach Smith about how to show and not tell in which she shows us — by sharing a very detailed act of love she was the proud recipient of — the difference between the two.
Her post got us thinking about acts of love in our own lives, and we thought you might have some thoughts, too. So, what was an act of love someone did for you, big or small, that has stayed with you? Did your girlfriend hire a blimp to tell the whole world they loved you, or did your partner surprise you with your a lizard, your dream pet, despite their (minor) fear of reptiles? We want to know!
Details:
Word Count: 300 words max — longer drafts will not be considered.
Deadline: EOD Tuesday, June 16
And lastly, the winning story will be published on Narratively.com within the next week.

Act of Love: Mini Flash Essay Contest

Writers, we’ve got a brand-new flash contest for you. This one is inspired by our latest Personals, piece, “‘You’ve Got to Keep Going Till It Bleeds,’” which details advice the writer, Dr. Christopher Hartnick, received from a patient early on in his career that he’s held close ever since.
With this piece on our minds, we’ve been thinking about times when we’ve learned from someone unexpected. We wanted to turn the question to you, as well. So, tell us about a time when you have learned from someone unexpected or surprising. Did your seatmate on the bus offer the very words of wisdom you’ve been needing to hear? Maybe your niece came through in a way you hadn’t seen coming? Share it in a mini essay! We can't wait to read what you've got.
Details:
Word Count: 300 words max — longer drafts will not be considered.
Deadline: EOD Sunday, August 2, 2026
And lastly, the winning story will be published on Narratively.com within the next week.

Unexpected Lessons: Mini Flash Essay Contest

Writers, a new flash essay contest for you! This one is inspired by our latest Personals, piece, "He Took Me Belly Dancing in the Middle East. I Didn’t Know I Was His Cover," which gets into one writer's experience in a relationship that takes a turn she did not see coming! Maybe you've been there, too?
Tell us: Can you think of a time when you’ve had the rug virtually pulled out from under you? When something turned out to be not quite what you thought? Perhaps your dream boyfriend turned out to be a classmate pranking you, or what you thought was the perfect job wound up being a scam (or just a really bad job). Whatever it is, we’d like to hear about it.
Details:
Word Count: 300 words max — longer drafts will not be considered.
Deadline: EOD Sunday, August 30, 2026
And lastly, the winning story will be published on Narratively.com within the next week or so.

When Something Wasn’t As It Seemed: Mini Flash Essay Contest

This fall, we’re looking to test a handful of new columns, series and storytelling formats, and we want YOU, i.e., writers, journalists, videographers, audio storytellers — really, anyone with a creative mind — to help us produce them.
Your idea could be a recurring first-person column. A reported series you’d guest-edit, bringing in different contributors for each installment. Short self-recorded videos. Bite-size audio stories. Interviews. Illustrated narratives. A storytelling game or experiment. Or, best of all, something we haven’t thought of yet!
We want concepts that make us immediately think: I want to see the next one.
Most importantly, we’re looking for a strong, repeatable idea. Think beyond one great story. What’s the engine that could produce five great installments? Ten? Twenty?
Maybe you have unusual access to a subculture we should keep returning to. Maybe there’s a deceptively simple question you want to ask a different person every week. Maybe you want to document an overlooked corner of life today through 90-second videos. Or you have an idea for a first-person column unlike anything we’re publishing now.
We’ll select a small number of ideas to test out (for payment) on Narratively this fall. If one or more connects strongly with readers and feels like something we want to keep building, our hope is to turn it into an ongoing Narratively column or series.
Rates will depend on the format, reporting involved and frequency, most likely ranging from $100 to $1,000 per post.
Narratively publishes narrative nonfiction — not fiction or poetry. We’re also generally not looking for opinion columns, cultural commentary or straightforward news analysis. Whatever format your project takes, it should be centered on the story.
And while we’re always interested in individual Narratively stories, this particular call is for repeatable columns, series and formats rather than one-off story pitches.
Most importantly, pitch us something new. Something weird. Something irresistible. Something that makes our readers say: “Tell me more!”
In both our existing series and anything new we might publish, our stories aren’t defined by a particular subject or topic. They’re defined by the fact that they’re:
Human. There are real people at the center of what we do. In general, we’re much more interested in ordinary people with extraordinary stories than the same celebrities and public figures every other publication is covering.
Untold. An overlooked subculture. A hidden history. An unusual obsession. A person or experience we’ve somehow never encountered before.
Surprising. We love premises that pique our curiosity — the kind that make you immediately think, Wait, what? I need to know more. Once you’re reading, the best Narratively stories take a turn we didn’t see coming, upend a common assumption, or show us something familiar in a completely different way.
Narrative. This one, you may have guessed from our name :) Our stories are cinematic in scope and immersive in tone. There are scenes, stakes, discoveries, twists and transformations. We want readers to have the experience of being invited into a new world, and then going on an exciting journey.
Submit away! We can't wait to hear from you…

Call for Narratively Columns + Series — Fiction

Call for Narratively Columns + Series — Nonfiction

<div>This fall, we’re looking to test a handful of new columns, series and storytelling formats, and we want YOU, i.e., writers, journalists, videographers, audio storytellers — really, anyone with a creative mind — to help us produce them.</div><div><br></div><div>Your idea could be a recurring first-person column. A reported series you’d guest-edit, bringing in different contributors for each installment. Short self-recorded videos. Bite-size audio stories. Interviews. Illustrated narratives. A storytelling game or experiment. Or, best of all, something we haven’t thought of yet!</div><div><br></div><div>We want concepts that make us immediately think: I want to see the next one.</div><div><br></div><b>What are we looking for with this call?</b><div>Most importantly, we’re looking for a strong, repeatable idea. Think beyond one great story. What’s the engine that could produce five great installments? Ten? Twenty?</div><div><br></div><div>Maybe you have unusual access to a subculture we should keep returning to. Maybe there’s a deceptively simple question you want to ask a different person every week. Maybe you want to document an overlooked corner of life today through 90-second videos. Or you have an idea for a first-person column unlike anything we’re publishing now.</div><div><br></div><div>We’ll select a small number of ideas to test out (for payment) on Narratively this fall. If one or more connects strongly with readers and feels like something we want to keep building, our hope is to turn it into an ongoing Narratively column or series.</div><div><br></div>

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Call for Narratively Columns + Series — Fiction

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