Atlantic Monthly, one of the few American magazines that still publishes fiction, announced Thursday it will eliminate regular publication of short fiction.

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The magazine said it will publish a fiction issue each August instead.

Writing in their monthly letter to readers in the May issue, editors of the 150-year-old publication said subscribers would have access to the fiction issue online and other readers will be able to buy the issue on newsstands. C. Michael Curtis, fiction editor of the magazine, said it chose to publish as much fiction in the special issue as it has done previously throughout the year.

The change was explained as necessary to devote more space to "long-form narrative reporting of world events that has increasingly become the Atlantic's signature."

Removal of fiction from multi-interest magazines has been a trend since World War II. In the heyday of magazine fiction, the Atlantic Monthly was among the first magazines to publish works by Mark Twain, Henry James, and Ernest Hemingway.