“Not since the Gutenberg Bible has there been a publishing revolution to match that of the Internet.” So begins the mission statement of Narrative, a literary magazine founded in 2003 “to bring literature into the digital age.”
Naturally, everything in Narrative (and in StoryQuarterly, its sister publication) is available for free online. Better yet, though: If you’re not sure whether you want to shell out for the print StoryQuarterly annual — featuring contributions from Lorrie Moore, TC Boyle, Jhumpa Lahiri, Alice Walker, Robert Olen Butler, Lore Segal, Rick Bass, and many others — you can buy stories piecemeal from your computer and read them immediately, thereby avoiding that painful affliction, literary blue balls.
Addendum: Eric Rosenfield writes in to point out that Narrative charges reading fees for submissions — and evidently sells its subscriber list (to trade journals, literary magazines, environmental and humanitarian fundraisers, and book clubs).