Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin
The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan and Decade of the Brain by Janine Joseph.
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Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan and Decade of the Brain by Janine Joseph.
As threats to freedom of expression rise around the world, organizations like the International Cities of Refuge Network and PEN America strive to support writers.
“I can control what I write and how much of myself I put into the manuscript.” —Evette Dionne, author of Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul
The author of The Boundaries of Their Dwelling considers how best to get into characters’ heads.
“Isn’t poetry supposed to be a spiritual practice?” —John Lee Clark, author of How to Communicate
The author of The Boundaries of Their Dwelling explores fiction’s holy commandments—and when a writer has license to defy them.
“Let your sense of language dawn of its own accord.” —Will Alexander, author of Divine Blue Light: For John Coltrane
The author of The Boundaries of Their Dwelling argues that writers should be as open to influence during revision as they are at the beginning of a project.
“It’s up to you to advocate for your books.” —Allie Rowbottom, author of Aesthetica
The author of The Boundaries of Their Dwelling counts the many ways a novelist may get lost, but ultimately find a way through, a book project.
“The most challenging thing, for me, was believing that it could be done.” —A. J. Bermudez, author of Stories No One Hopes Are About Them
“I am only able to write because of consistent and reliable childcare.” —Kate Baer, author of And Yet
The author of The White Mosque troubles the boundary between realist and genre fiction.
“The more you write, the more there will be to write about—so you’ve just gotta cut it off at some point!” —Franny Choi, author of The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On
The author of The White Mosque considers how writing holds space for the accidental, the random, and the stray.
“The first draft is just telling the story to yourself.” —Jeanna Kadlec, author of Heretic
The author of The White Mosque charts the ambience of literary worlds.
“Fixed ideas are always problematic when it comes to writing fiction.” —Dani Shapiro, author of Signal Fires
The author of The White Mosque offers an ode to intertextuality.
A look at four new anthologies, including Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic and When the Smoke Cleared: Attica Prison Poems and Journals.
The Fall 2022 issue of Crazyhorse will be the last under a name that the editors now recognize as a “longstanding appropriation of Lakota culture.”
An organization founded and directed by Reginald Dwayne Betts seeks to bring the spirit of literature into prisons by installing libraries and inviting theater productions, book clubs, and world-class writers inside carceral walls.
While some literary magazines pay up to a few hundred dollars for literary work, many don’t pay at all. A published writer offers an overview of how to find paying markets, when to publish for free, and tips for a submission strategy.
Essays by debut authors Madhushree Ghosh, Sari Botton, David Santos Donaldson, Shareen K. Murayama, and Jane Campbell.
A curated list of twenty-two literary magazines that pay writers cash for their creative contributions.