Narratively

1 week ago | narratively.com | Matt Miller

What I recall about the prison is the smell. Not some dirty or rotting smell or even the fleshy old cheese odor of people who worked too hard and lacked proper access to deodorant. It was not that at all, even if that was what I expected when I was first buzzed into New Hampshire State Prison for Men to teach a class in literature and creative writing. No, the smell was clean. Too clean. Even beyond the antiseptic clean of a hospital. This was a scrubbed-too-hard-with-rendered-animal-fat-soap clean.

1 week ago | narratively.com | Jesse Sposato

The day a new story publishes is always my favorite. It’s so exciting to finally get to share with the rest of the world the thing that’s been taking up so much space in our brains during the previous days, weeks and months. The thing, the story, that we know is so amazing that everyone needs to read it ASAP. The only down side? What if readers were busy or skipped checking their email the day it went out altogether and missed it?

2 weeks ago | narratively.com | Brendan Spiegel

We’ve all been there. You know you have revealing and relatable stories to share, but you rarely find the time in your busy schedule to write — and when you do, you catch yourself staring at that dastardly blinking cursor on the white screen and just can’t find a way to start. This June is the time to break those habits and get to writing.

2 weeks ago | narratively.com | Jesse Sposato

While Memorial Day weekend usually marks the unofficial beginning of summer, from where I’m sitting right now, the forecast is calling for rain, it’s a bit gray and there’s a chill in the air. By the time Monday rolls around, though, things will be looking up. In the meantime, there might not be a better way to channel warm, summer vibes this long weekend than by reading some of our favorite summertime stories, which you can find below.

3 weeks ago | narratively.com | Leigh Kamping-Carder

When our expert copy editor, Rob, sent back this piece after he had finished working on it, he wrote: “Boy, that certainly did not disappoint!” And that’s exactly how I feel, too. Leigh spent countless hours researching, reporting, writing and shaping this exhaustive story about a chilling mystery she felt a personal connection to — and it comes through in every sentence.