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The 10 Most Popular Narratively Stories of 2016

A Night Flirting at the Bar with New York’s Premier Professional Wing Woman

Hostel People #11: I Could Feel Myself Getting Older. Something Had to Be Done.

My Secret Life on the Front Lines of America’s Conservation Movement

The Lurid Legend of Panama’s Wife-Swapping Streetfighters

How I Learned to Love Being Aromantic

There Is No Christmas in Iraq This Year

Editors' Picks: The Best Narratively Stories of 2016

The Flying Santas Who Airdrop Christmas Cheer to America’s Lighthouse Keepers

Jerusalem, Before and After Converting to Orthodox Judaism

That Christmas When Mom Called Dad a Miserable Jew and He Called Her a Nazi Pig

Hostel People #10: The World’s Second-Best ‘Game of Thrones’ Card Player Is Hungry for Revenge

How Trump Seduced the White Working Class By Preying on Their Physical Pain

Tulum Was the Perfect Place to Escape Wedding Planning...So Perfect We Eloped

This Long Island Drag Queen Was North America’s Top Tupperware Seller—Until She Came Out as Trans

Make 'Em Think Santa’s Lighting Designer Is On Your Payroll

The Millennials of Afghanistan Have Never Known a World Without War. So Why Are These Kids So Hopeful?

This Tiny Box Can Keep 1 in 4 American Adults Out of Work

She Killed Her Abuser Before He Could Kill Her—Then Served 17 Years. Now She’s Taking on the System.

Our 2016 Was a Year From Hell. Here’s Why I’m Grateful It Was So Hard.

I Was Heartbroken to See a Modern-Day Metropolis Instead of the Idyllic Goa I Remembered

Hostel People #9: Growing Up We Had Nothing and War Was Everywhere. Now I Travel the World and Have It All.

'Truthers' Insist My Photos of Sandy Hook Were Faked. They Can Go to Hell.

I Have Exploding Head Syndrome. This Is What It Feels Like to Hear Gunshots In Your Mind.

How One Fast Food Superfan Brought a Beloved Cult Chain Back From the Dead

This Millennial Makes More Money Posting Selfies From Bed Than You Do at Your 9-to-5

After the Ghost Ship Fire, Looking Back on Thirty Years in the Warehouses of Oakland

Winter Is Coming: Eight Stories That Will Chill You to the Bone

The Quiet Death of the Man Who Built America’s Electric Chairs

Our Dog Would Eat Anything. This Time the Takeout Fought Back.

Hostel People #8: The Skyscrapers Tried to Expel Me

I Kid You Not: My Arm Was Eaten By An Escalator

This Obsessive Utah Artist Spent a Half-Century Building a Personal Shrine

My Dog Insisted I Go Crotchless

The Secret Story of the POWs Who Tunneled Through a Toilet to Freedom

Fidel Was Robin Hood. Fidel Was a Monster.

Welcome to the 'American Idol' of Hair Styling

My Magical First Job Running Wild in an Indonesian Zoo

I Had Extreme Postpartum Depression. Don’t You Dare Call It the Baby Blues.

Our Puppy’s Guide to Digesting an Entire Wedding Album

Hostel People #7: How This Botox Belle Became a Yogi Goddess of Liberation

Step Inside Madam Jones’ Bawdy Blue House of 19th-Century Pleasure

The Lovable, Loudmouth King of NYC Basketball

Fidel Castro Is Dead. What Will Cuban-Americans Like Me Do Now?

My High School Girlfriend Became America’s Most Wanted Drug Queenpin

My Father’s Dying Days Showed Me There’s No Such Thing As ‘Death With Dignity’

5 Family Feuds That Will Make Your #Trumpsgiving Look Easy as Pumpkin Pie

The Man Who’s Building Homes From Plastic Bottles

Hostel People #6: How the Vietnam War Prepared Me for the Appalachian Trail

That Time We Discovered Dad Was a Lying, Cheating Nudist

What It’s Really Like When a Prison ‘Lifer’ Gets a New Shot at Life

I Found My Grandparents’ Sorrow Buried in a Trove of Forgotten Letters

Driving Faster Than God on Utah’s Disappearing Salt Flats

Every EMT Has One Day That Changed Their Life. This Was Mine.

Long Before Internet Porn, This Pervy Pixelated Playground Prevailed

Hostel People #5: The Lovely Luck of Being Pooped on by a Pigeon

What Does a Therapist Do When She Has Turmoil of Her Own?

The Former Slave Who Became an Executioner

This Transgender Bodybuilder Is Crushing Barriers in Vietnam

6 Smile-Inducing Stories to Help You Look Beyond the Election

I’m a Fifty-Year-Old Mom. I Just Had Sex in the Back Seat of a Car.

I Was 38 Weeks Pregnant When I Fired My Doctor

When Your Farm Becomes a War Zone

Hostel People #4: Oh, That Scar On My Forehead? Just a Little Run-in with a Livid Leopard.

The Hidden History of Gas Station Bathrooms, By a Man Who Cleans Them

Why Women Keep Asking Me to Be Their Brides-man

This Trailblazing Feminist Was the First Woman in the New World to Demand Her Right to Vote

The Hardest Working Trump Impersonator in Showbiz

Before Trump, This Governor Set the Gold Standard for Outrageous Politicians

These Amateur Fact-Checkers Took on Their Country’s Lying Politicians

These Crazy-Determined Runners Have Each Finished Fifty Marathons in Fifty States

Hostel People #3: The First Time That Times Square Has Ever Stopped an Anxiety Attack

This Cop Made It His Mission to Fight Islamophobia. Then His Family Was Targeted.

I’m a World Champion in Backwards Running

Killer Croutons...and Other Ways My Wheat-Allergic Cousin Has Nearly Died

This One-Eyed, Insult-Spewing Senator Was the Donald Trump of the 1890s

Haunting Narratives: 7 Ghostly Stories for Halloween Weekend

I Was 12 and Suicidal. Cleaning Cat Piss for a Year Made Me Realize I Wasn’t Worthless.

This Political Consultant Found His True Calling — by Becoming Teddy Roosevelt

Hostel People #2: Still a Buck for a Cherry Ice? At Least One Price Stayed the Same!

This Presidential Speech on Race Shocked the Nation…in 1921

The Most Hardcore ‘Macbeth’ to Ever Grace a Stage

The Embattled Bad Boy of Major League Baseball

The Man Who Vowed to Make New Amsterdam Great Again

I Met My Long-Lost Brother…And I Was Overcome With Lust

Did I Kill Anyone in Iraq? The Truth Is, I’ll Never Know.

Confessions From My Bubbe's America

Hostel People #1: A Crazy Man Punched Me…Welcome to New York!

Shhh! My Not-So-Quiet Life as a Librarian with Tourette’s

Why Do These Straight Men Want Nothing to Do With Women?

Us: 'We're Getting Married!' Them: 'How Can You Be So Selfish?!'

The Thrill-Seeking Bodysurfers of California’s Most Terrifying Wave

World Food Day Roundup: 6 Stories About the Battle Against Hunger

Why I’ve Always Been Silent About Israel and Palestine. And Why I’m Speaking Out Now.

Pauline Hanson is the Donald Trump of Australia

This Native American Trans Beauty Queen Is Reviving an Ancient Tradition

I Was a Young, Broke Lawyer When I Found the Perfect Job On Craigslist

The Extreme Travelers Who Self-Exile in Siberia

20 Years Ago Today, I Helped Launch Foxnews.com

Fighting South Korea’s Suicide Crisis With Fake Funerals

The Super-Secret Outlaw Doula in Backwoods California

This is What Sound Looks Like

What's a Nice Jewish Boy Like You Doing at a Mosque Like This?

How to Mourn a Sexually Abusive Father

Nine Narratively New Beginnings

I Was a Hells Angel for 40 Years. This is the One Time I Doubted the Outlaw Lifestyle.

That Time a Guy Asked Me to Channel My Novel’s Protagonist On Our Creepy First Date

Iran Unveiled: The Street Photography Collective That Shows the Softer Side of Iran

She Had an Abortion Without Telling Me. Is That Ok?

A 93-Year-Old Icon of Photography Contemplates His Legacy

A Racist Runs Through It

My Baby Was Stillborn. But I Refuse to Hide Him From the World.

Grandma, You’ll Want These Selfies for Your Funeral

Meet the Star Wars Fanatic Fighting to Save Brazil from Environmental Destruction

I Was Crushed By an 18-Wheeler. But I Wouldn’t Change a Thing About That Day.

8 Narratively Stories of Long, Hard 'Falls'

I Used to Terrorize This Neighborhood. Can I Give You a Tour?

Babies For Sale: The Secret Adoptions That Haunt One Georgia Town

The Most Offensive Thing My Therapist Ever Said to Me

Secret Life of a Seven-Year-Old Instagram Star

When You Die, I’ll Be There to Take Your Stuff

I Had an Emergency Appendectomy in Egypt…So Why Do I Still Have My Appendix?

Five Strangers Picked to Live in a House and Play Video Games All Day Long

Why Gay Sex in a Park is Still Popular

I Was Taught to Hate My Lesbian Neighbors. They Took Me In Anyway.

I Started Taking Zoloft Five Years Ago. I Haven’t Felt Sexual Sensation Since.

Training the Next Generation of American Oil Workers…For Jobs That Don’t Exist

10 People Who Truly Deserve a Day Off: A Narratively Best-Of Collection

Thirty Years Ago I Watched My Friend’s Father Drown. I Think About It Every Time My Children Go Near Water.

A Doula for Every Birth—and Every Abortion

And Now, Time for a Comic About Abortion Doulas

My Inspiring Year Uncovering Forgotten African-American Graves

Too Rich to Be Poor, Too Poor to Get By

That Time I Tried to Be a Stripper…But Pepper-Sprayed Myself in the Face

This Undertaker Buries the Bodies Nobody Else Will Touch

My Family’s House Burned Down…Twice. Then the Bank Took It Away.

An Imam Was Shot Dead on the Streets of Queens. We Spoke to the Man Who Washed His Bullet-Ridden Body.

Meet the Enterprising Ecuadorian Street Vendors...of Istanbul

Healing Hasidic Masturbators and Adulterers — With Psychiatric Drugs

I Was a Hard-Nosed Amateur Boxer. Now I’m a Buddhist Monk.

Contributors' Picks: 6 Writers on Their Favorite Narratively Stories

Meet the 16-Year-Old Leader Of OCCUPY Rio’s Fiercest Standoff

I Made My 16-Year-Old Watch the Video of His Birth

Before Marriage Was an Option, These Gay Couples Adopted Each Other

The Women in My Family Had to Be Good With Money

How 26 Elvises Taught Me to ‘Follow That Dream’

Editors' Picks: 6 Stories of Champions, Far From the Olympic Arena

What Have You Done With My Husband?

I Survived the Razor Blade

The Last Time New York Was Hardcore

Could I Ever Abandon My Disabled Son?

Just Another Day Dodging Storms and Raising Babies on a Wild Alaska Tugboat

Editors' Picks: 6 Narratively Stories That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

The Camera That’s Flipping Stereotypes of Fatherhood Upside Down

I’m Not an Asian Stereotype, But I Play One on TV

Becoming a Widow… Just As I Was About to Get Divorced

Confessions of a Jewel Mule: That Time I Smuggled a Fortune in Precious Gems Through US Customs

The Donald Trump of the 1840s

7 Adorable Dog Stories to Get You Through the Dog Days

I Wanted to Be His Prized Possession

Can San Francisco Stop Public Urination with Paint That Pees Back?

Why This Band of NYC Men Love Painting Each Other in the Nude

An Aging WWII Refugee: 'We Can’t Turn Our Backs on the Refugees of Today'

Confessions of a Failed Timeshare Saleswoman

Editors' Picks: Narratively's 10 Best Music Stories

Meet the Elite Air Force Bomb Squad That Defuses…Cannonballs from the Civil War

Shadowing My Gregarious GOP Grandma at the Republican National Convention

Can This App Help Syrian Refugees Survive in Exile?

Stalin Exiled These Two Sisters To Kazakhstan. A Lifetime Later, They’re Finally Breaking Their Silence.

There’s a Mathematical Equation That Proves I’m Ugly — Or So I Learned in My Seventh Grade Art Class

Editors' Picks: Narratively's 6 Best Stories of Camping Out

Drought Destroyed Their Fields. But When These Farmers Asked For Aid, They Got Shot.

How the Intimacy of Massage Helped Me Recover From Childhood Trauma

Riding Shotgun with a Real-Life Mad Max

For the Perfect Jerk Chicken, Fly to Newfoundland

That Time I Made a Doctor with a Broken Leg Hobble Up the Stairs Because I Was a Paranoid Parent

Editors' Picks: The 20 Best Narratively Stories

48 Hours on the Dark Side of Las Vegas

What I Learned About Life By Welcoming My 22 Kids and Grandkids Into This World

That Time I Met Bill Clinton…And He Stole My Favorite Pen

Why I Apologized to My Rapist

That Time I Dated — and Dumped — a Nice Guy Just to See What It Was Like

War Heroes, Immigrant Lives and Lady Liberty: The 6 Best Narratively Stories About Freedom

‘You’re So Pumped You Could Fight an Alligator’: The Promise and Pain of Pro Bull Riding

Why It Feels So Damn Good to Laugh at a Funeral

Inside the Mind of a Die-Hard Prepper

I Was an Angry Men’s Rights Activist. Now I’m a Fierce Feminist.

I Thought I Knew Everything About Autism—Until It Hit My Own Son

I Was a Cop for 31 Years. This Is the One Night That Still Haunts Me.

Pride and Prejudice: The Eight Best Narratively Stories of the LGBTQ Experience

I’m Gay. That Means I Have AIDS, Right?

How One Bolivian Hospital Is Battling Maternal Mortality—By Reaching Back Thousands of Years

Things My Dying Sister Taught Me: Live Freely. Love Openly. And Never Wear Beige.

That Time I Hit a Parked Car—and Just Walked Away

Why I’ll Never Date a Man Whose Skin Looks Like Mine

They Couldn't Afford a Haircut. This Former Inmate Changed That.

The Good, The Bad and the Fatherly: Narratively's Best Stories of Fatherhood

He Runs Rocky-Mountain Marathons With a Donkey. It Was the Perfect Preparation for Being a Dad.

A Chicago Cop Killed My Son. Five Years Later, I’m Still Seeking Answers.

Visiting My Dead Dad on Google Street View

Single Woman Seeks Responsible, Caring, Tough…Uncle

My Dad, the Master Calf Castrator

My Father's Four Years of Passionate and Earnest Love Letters — to Jamba Juice

The Diehard Fans of Belmont

I Got Kicked Out of Camp

Lies I Told At Camp

The Nighttime Incident and the Mysterious Log

Forces To Reckon With

Ice Cream, Swimming and Stoops: The Best Narratively Stories of Summer

The Path to Triple Crown Glory Is Through a Horse's Heart

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace My ‘My Little Pony’ Obsession

I Was 20 Weeks Pregnant When They Told Me My Baby Might Never Be Able to Walk

The Man Who Saves Carousel Horses from the Glue Factory

That Time I Tried to Murder My Dog

This Native American Cowboy is Turning Up the Heat in Wyoming’s Prisons—And the Inmates Love It.

Ripe Tomatoes: The Best Narratively Movie Stories

I Was Paralyzed with Irrational Postpartum Paranoia. Then the Terrorists Came.

What It Feels Like to Hold the First 60 Seconds of a New Life in My Hands

On This Reservation, Cannabis Is the New Casino

This Exiled Musician is Reclaiming the Sounds of War-Torn Darfur—In the Arctic Circle

Zika Patients Are Coming Down With a Rare and Paralyzing Disorder. I Had it 13 Years Ago.

Theater of Dreams: The Best Narratively Sports Stories

Digging Up Lee Harvey Oswald

My Brother Burned Our House Down—and Now I Understand Why

This Woman Watches an Ungodly Amount of Porn…Because It’s Her Job

I Was Adopted—When I Was 41

You’ve Just Been Released From the Largest Detention Center in America. This Is Your Next Stop.

I Was Ready to Go to Prison for My Anti-War Beliefs. Then One Man Changed My Life.

The People Who Make Pimlico Run

American War Stories

My Dad Oversaw Sound for the Super Bowl. So the Audio at His Funeral Needed to be Epic.

Meet the World’s Greatest Batting Stance Imitator

How Uncle Billy Saved My Family—By Going to the Slammer

How to Catch a Cat Killer

I Went to the Hospital to Give Birth…And Tested Positive for Meth

My Family Fled Communist Cuba. Last Week I Took a Cruise There.

Very Superstitious: A Selection of Narratively's Spookiest Stories

The Day I Discovered I Had a Secret Sister

The First Time I Said ‘No’ to My Drug-Addicted Mom

Secret Life of a Medieval Fight Club Warrior

When Your Hometown Becomes a Permanent Battlefield

My First Visit to See Dad in Prison

The Buffalo Brigade Protecting Yellowstone’s Noble Beasts

The Curbside Hustlers of Churchill Downs

Mum's the Word: The Best Narratively Stories About Motherhood

The Secrets in My Mother’s Nightstand

How to Bury a War

The Greatest Bourbon Ever Stolen

My Psychic Told Me to Date a Psychopath

Is California’s Cottage Cannabis Industry About to Go Up in Smoke?

My Son’s Mystery Medical Condition and Our Family’s Brave New World

The Day I Realized I Could Never Make My Mom Grow Up

Jew-anced: A Narratively Exploration Of Modern-Day Judaism

Happily Ever Afterbirth

'Drinker with a Writing Problem'

The Ugandan Dictator and the Louisiana Crayfish

Putting My Camera Down, and Finally Mourning My Parents

Hunting Among Wolves

The Day I Told My Father to Shoot Himself

High Points: The Best Narratively Weed Stories

Nine Years Ago, the Cops Came for My Father

The Milkman Cometh

Should Pro Athletes Have to Keep off the Grass?

The Painful Reality of Marriage After Alzheimer’s

The Passion of Hobo Hank

Is This the Future of Lacrosse?

My Life Sentence of Shame

The Resurrection of Ringmaster Chakravarthy

How The First Church of Cannabis Got Serious

My Mom Had a Massive Stroke Two Weeks Ago

I Rejected My Prosthetic Hand and Finally Learned to Love Myself

Who You Calling Chicken Legs Now?

A Cuban Prodigy and the King of Instruments

Fleeing My Own Father

Where Were You, When Men Were Men?

My Life on (Simulated) Mars

The Village That Turns Bombs Into Spoons

What a Double Life-Sentence Feels Like, to a Daughter Left Behind

Who Wants to Be a Mama’s Boy?

Shooting While Sleepwalking

Where Jail Has No Bars

I Thought Sex Work Would Be Empowering and Feminist. I Was Dead Wrong.

I Was a Child Soldier—and I Never Stopped Fighting

The Extraordinary Story of Prisoner 16389067

The Fear of Losing Everything in the Blink of an Eye

Why Are So Many French Farmers Taking Their Own Lives?

The Godfather of Brooklyn’s Feral Parrot Colony

Secret Life of a Sexy Waiter at the All-Male Answer to Hooters

Portrait of an Artist in an Endless War

The Soul-Crushing Reality of the Stay-at-Home Dad

Inside a Social Club Where Black Lives Always Matter

The Trail of Blood That Changed My Life

The White-Boy Comic Who Crushed the ‘Chitlin Circuit’

Single, Gay and Ready for Fatherhood

The Brooklyn Fashionista with a Hijab for Every Occasion

I Was Huge in Taiwan—For Two Months

Capturing the Overwhelming and Inspiring Reality of Working Moms

Confessions of a Failed Self-Help Guru

Confessions of a Phony Telephone Psychic

Meet a Kurdish Commander Who Stares Down ISIS Every Day

That Time I Almost Had to Saw My Kitty’s Mitts Off

How to Talk to a Loved One Who Has No Words

Apology To My Sister

Am I Dreaming?

The Great Ankle Weight

Return to Rikers

Two Men. Two Planes. One Race to Conquer the World.

I Paid Off My Student Loans…and All I Had to Do Was Win a Mercedes-Benz

Mr. Ince and the Hope of Being Needed

The Guatemala Guerrilla Who Never Stopped Fighting

Dead Batteries

Walking a Cabbage in Kashmir—to Protest the Absurdity of War

The Drab Ukrainian Office Block That Birthed a Revolution

Flirting with Fame and Dodging a Predator in 1970s Iran

The Reckoning of the Wheat

An English Teacher’s Escape from ISIS

Narratively In Love

The Dual Lives of Cape Town’s Congolese Dandies

The Most Raucous, Mystical, Sensual All-Night Wedding New York City Has Ever Seen

How a Homeless Stint in High School Brought My Family Together

Secret Life of an Old-School New York Bookie

Bringing a Bite of Old Brooklyn to Ukraine

Spreading Nuyorican Pride From His Tricked-Out Tricycle Ride

The Fearless Eco-Vigilante of Cambodia’s Troubled Waters

Bach to the Future in a Nairobi Slum

Why I Quit the Army

The Hole in the Sheet

My Acerbic Aerobics Class with O.J. Simpson

Going Deep With the Raiders Superfans Benched by Betrayal

Searching for the Nazi Who Saved My Mother’s Life

Playing ‘Street Fighter’ With the Chinese Mafia

The Luckiest Unlucky Woman in Wartime Sarajevo

What I Learned While Exposing Myself on LiveJournal

My Semester With the Host Mom From Hell

How I Came to Terms With My Secret Sex-Work Past

Visualizing The Overlooked Legacy of Mass Incarceration

Meet the World’s Youngest Female Monster Truck Driver

I’ve Always Been Hungry

The Grandchildren of Genocide

Surprise, My Gay Dad is Sexist!

The Roaming Beach Kids of Byron Bay

The Country That Was Orphaned by Emigration

The Disappearing Nuns of Italy

Luxury Cruising in the Wake of Refugees

Where Hair Pullers Like Me Are Not Alone

The Al Gore of Polynesia

Narratively's Best of 2015