Ten Questions for Colin Pope
“When I’m in good spiritual shape, I set the timer on my desk for twenty minutes and then look at a blank page. If something comes out, great. If not, better luck tomorrow.” —Colin Pope, author of Losers
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Article Archive
Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
Sliding Into Your Muse’s DMs: The Art of Daily Attention
The author of The Grief Artist (Sarabande Books, 2026) recommends writers observe the world closely and open themselves to daily opportunities for inspiration.
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Ten Questions for Keith Pilapil Lesmeister
“I write while walking my dog. Most days we walk for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.” —Keith Pilapil Lesmeister, author of Ask Me About the Money
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Lacing the Essay Into a Corset: The Use of Poetic Form in Essays
The author of The Grief Artist (Sarabande Books, 2026) encourages writers to experiment with poetic forms in nonfiction.
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Ten Questions for Emma Smith-Stevens
“I find joy in nature and others’ laughter at my jokes and my dogs. I joke, I’m funny, and as long as that’s the case, it’s enough.” —Emma Smith-Stevens, author of Greyhounds
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How to Write With Ghosts: New Experiences to Resurrect the Past
The author of The Grief Artist (Sarabande Books, 2026) encourages writers to reflect on someone they’ve lost through the symbolism of objects and new experiences.
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Ten Questions for Lindsay Turner
“All the life things that seem like they might endanger writing—parenting, especially—are what make the work happen.” —Lindsay Turner, author of Middle Slope
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Q&A: Annie Hwang Launches Renegade
The literary agent Annie Hwang discusses founding her own agency, Renegade Literary, resisting the biases of the publishing industry, and representing poets.
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The Written Image: The Poetry Society of America’s Poem District
The PSA is transforming the neighborhood around its Brooklyn storefront, adding poems to the outside walls of bookstores, public schools, community gardens, cafés, offices, and public housing.
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Small Press Points: Common Notions
Currently based in Philadelphia, Common Notions Press publishes primarily nonfiction books on topics of social justice and radical imagination.
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Relaunching the Rumpus
Under the leadership of Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman, the iconoclastic literary magazine has launched several new editorial and programming initiatives.
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A Century of Book of the Month
The storied subscription service celebrates its centennial of reading and sparking conversation about books.
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Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin
The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including No Such Thing as Monday by Siân Hughes and Lion by Tina Chang.
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92NY’s Literary Audio Archive
Hundreds of digitized audio recordings from decades of literary events at the Unterberg Poetry Center make iconic readings accessible online.
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Literary MagNet: Sara Elkamel
Sara Elkamel highlights journals that have published her translations of Dalia Taha’s poetry, including Modern Poetry in Translation and ArabLit Quarterly.
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The Time Is Now: Writing Prompts and Exercises
Compose a poem based on close observations of your immediate surroundings, vignettes about human and nonhuman characters that reveal multiple points of view, or a lyric essay braiding early memories with stories passed down from ancestors.
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Writing at the Edge of the Body: On Neurodivergence, Sensory Overload, and the Writing Life
For one nonfiction writer with autism and ADHD, perfectionism threatens to “harden the creative process into something punitive.” A sustainable creative practice means regulating intensity, not trying to outrun it.
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When AI Means Artificial Identity: How to Protect Yourself, Your Name, and Your Reputation
One writer gets caught in the crosshairs of AI and shares thoughts on how all of us can defend ourselves and our work going forward.
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The True Measure of Engagement: What Social Media Got Right—Then Woefully Wrong—and How Real Connection Is Still Attainable
For a time, literary Twitter was a haven for community, pithy criticism, and sharp dialogue about the world of books. But even then, as now, the deepest engagements happen offline.
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Cutting Out the Middleman: How Substack Connects Writers to Readers, and What That Means for Legacy Publishing
Substack has emerged as an alternative outlet for short form writing, letting writers reach audiences on their own terms and timelines. Does the platform have the power to displace print publishers?
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Have You Been Listening? The Neuroscience of Audiobooks and Its Implications for Writers and Publishers
From a neuroscience perspective, trading the printed page for audiobooks may not necessarily lose the brain benefits of reading—but it may shift what gets read and our ability to engage with it critically.
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What the Algorithm Hath Wrought: Book Discoverability in the Digital Marketplace
As readers rely more and more on online retailers, what books get surfaces and centered by websites’ algorithms? And can digital recommendations ever compete with advice from a bookseller?
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Touching Grass in the Age of AI: Surprise and Discovery Among the Tall Sedges
When we allow AI to make the writing process less difficult, we lose the exploration that leads to new language and new questions, to insight and revelation. A thorny process is in fact the point.
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Write Against the Machine: Technology and the Author
How is technology changing the way we reach readers and shaping the way we write? What’s lost and what’s gained as literary culture goes digital? And how will literature continue to connect us to meaning, deep thinking, and our humanity?
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Agents & Editors: Nicole Counts
The editorial director of One World discusses writing and publishing in service of freedom, what she’s looking for in a book and what turns her away, and the part of an agent’s query she does not read.
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