Poets & Writers Magazine
In addition to features from the award-winning print edition, the magazine online offers daily news items, advice from writers, and our popular blog about writing contests.
Subscribe | Give a Gift Subscription
Sign in or Register | Help | Contact Us | Donate
Advanced Search
Poet Jen Bervin. Credit: Florian Holzherr
In addition to features from the award-winning print edition, the magazine online offers daily news items, advice from writers, and our popular blog about writing contests.
by Staff
Online Only, posted 2.09.10
Barnes & Noble stocks up on Nooks; publishers sit down at Google's bargaining table with some newfound confidence; forensic experts trace bloodstain to nineteenth-century poet; literary bloggers and readers are offended by Bud Light commercial; and other news.
by Staff
Online Only, posted 2.08.10
Major British publishers plan to follow Macmillan's lead in e-book pricing; the Authors Guild launches a Web site tracking buy buttons on Amazon; the new war literature is like the old war literature; a major international literary prize gets scrapped; and other news.
by Staff
Online Only, posted 2.05.10
Dates have been announced for the 2010 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival; Hachette announces plans to join Macmillan in e-book pricing; the Justice Deparment files a brief criticizing the Google Books Settlement; indie bookstores in the U.K. are closing at an astonishing rate; and other news.
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
Feature
September/October 2008
Known as a heavy-hitting agent willing to go to bat for her clients, Molly Friedrich discusses how an author should choose an agent, what she looks for in a manuscript, and what separates great agents from merely good ones.
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
Feature
January/February 2009
Four young literary agents meet for an evening of food, wine, and conversation about the writing they’re looking for, how they’re finding it, what they love, what they hate, and ten things writers should never ever do.
by Seth Abramson
Special Section
November/December 2009
In this excerpted version of his article from the November/December 2009 issue, contributor Seth Abramson reveals the methodology behind his ranking of the top fifty MFA programs in the United States, plus a ranking of the additional eighty-eight full-residency programs. For the full article and additional data for each program, including size, duration, cost of living, teaching load, and curriculum focus, see the current issue.
by Staff
Daily News
McSweeney’s founder Dave Eggers says his quarterly’s next issue intends to prove the viability of print by adopting a newspaper format. Eggers made the announcement at an Authors Guild gathering in New York City last month, where he was being feted for his charity work with the nonprofit 826 National.
by Suzanne Pettypiece
Postcard
On a warm, breezy Saturday evening, hundreds of people who had spent the past three days at the annual BookExpo America took a break from the hubbub to attend You Are Not Alone, a celebration featuring comedy, music, and, of course, some top-notch literature.
by Joe Woodward
News and Trends
November/December 2008
As the presidential election approaches, our national hand-wringing has ramped up and everyone is once again focused on the perennial question: What makes America America? Two recent literary anthologies show just how far this popular introspection reaches into our creative communities of writers and artists.
Founded in 1970 by Galen Williams with a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, Poets & Writers has grown to be the largest nonprofit organization in the country for writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Read Galen Williams's story of how P&W was born.
View a slideshow of photographs from Poets & Writers’ image archive.
Read articles from the Poets & Writers Magazine archive. This week's installment is a 1988 interview with author Tess Gallagher.
Throughout 2010, we’ll continue to bring you photos, videos, and stories in celebration of our fortieth anniversary.
If you’re looking for writing competitions, or literary magazines and small presses that welcome both new and established writers, begin here. If you're seeking employment in the literary world, be sure to visit our Job Listings.
Make your connections in the Speakeasy Message Forum and join discussions about literary agents, conferences, writing contests, MFA programs, and other topics of interest. Search our Directory of Writers to find contact info, publication credits, and bios of over 8,100 authors.
Poets & Writers can help pay the fees for writers participating in events in New York State and California, and in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, New Orleans, Seattle, Tucson, and Washington, D.C.