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Articles from Poet & Writers Magazine include material from the print edition plus exclusive online-only material.
Alia Hanna Habib of the Gernert Company talks about taking the pressure off first conversations with writers, the similarities between agenting and dating, and knowledgeably breaking the unspoken rules of the book industry.
For over forty years Julia Alvarez has told stories that have established hers among the biggest names in contemporary literature. A new book, Visitations, offers a personal, poignant look back while proving she’s nowhere near finished.
With his second collection, Horses, award-winning poet Jake Skeets shows us how to contemplate the profundity of our interconnected world, holding space for both grief and beauty, the Anthropocene and queer eros.
T Kira Māhealani Madden’s new novel, Whidbey, asks challenging questions about how we as a society treat and talk about both the survivors and perpetrators of sexual abuse.
Since 2010 we have asked graphic designers and artists to create new, surprising, and uniquely inspiring covers for the first issue of the year; in this portfolio we look back at their work.
Since 2016, Poets & Writers Magazine has showcased authors who have made their literary debuts after the age of fifty in our annual 5 Over 50 series. These are the fifty writers and books that have been celebrated in our pages.
In her latest poetry collection, The Natural Order of Things, out now from Graywolf Press, Donika Kelly celebrates joy as a simple yet radical means of resisting despair.
Essays by debut authors Jennifer Eli Bowen, Princess Joy L. Perry, Yael Valencia Aldana, Vishwas R. Gaitonde, and Lauren K. Watel as well as excerpts from their books.
In her third novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, which comes out nearly twenty years after her Booker Prize–winning The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai considers loneliness in all its states of loss and heartache, possibility and promise, through the lens of a love story.
An executive editor at Scribner, previously a senior editor at Grove Atlantic, Katie Raissian talks about learning to be fearless, what grabs her in a query, and the art of publishing books.
Essays by debut authors Sarah Aziza, Erika J. Simpson, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Amanda Hess, and Samina Najmi as well as excerpts from their books.
Lauren Grodstein, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, and Jonathan Escoffery introduce five debut fiction authors: Sarah Yahm, Jon Hickey, Carrie R. Moore, Aaron John Curtis, and Jemimah Wei.
A new book examines Toni Morrison’s years as an editor at Random House and the complicated art of publishing books of poetry by Barbara Chase-Riboud, Lucille Clifton, and June Jordan.
Superstar literary agent Nicole Aragi talks about what stands out to her in a query, the importance of finding the right agent, and the art of following your nose.
In the poetry collection I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always, Douglas Kearney shatters traditional expectations by transforming images and texts into dynamic conversations about Black identity, personhood, and art.
This series of interviews with over forty book editors, publishers, and agents offers a unique look at the past, present, and future of the book industry and what writers can do to thrive in today’s publishing world.
Karen Russell’s second novel, The Antidote, published by Knopf in March, examines a dark chapter of America’s past, but not without hope for the future.
Excerpts from debut books by Suzette Mullen, Dorsía Smith Silva, Uchenna Awoke, Deborah Jackson Taffa, and Parul Kapur.
In Absolution, the surprise fourth volume of the Southern Reach series of literary speculative novels, Jeff VanderMeer continues to provoke critics and eschew labels while plunging readers into the unpredictable wilds of Area X.
For Mosab Abu Toha, whose entire life and body of work, including his new collection, Forest of Noise, have been shaped by war, poetry is a way for all of us to document, to try to understand, and to act in times of suffering.
Excerpts from Bones Worth Breaking by David Martinez, Little Seed by Wei Tchou, The Lucky Ones by Zara Chowdhary, The Exit Is the Entrance by Lydia Paar, and Come by Here by Neesha Powell-Ingabire.
The former editorial director of Akashic Books, now an executive editor at Viking, talks about his experience moving from an indie press to one of the Big Five publishers.
Laura van den Berg, Jessamine Chan, Akil Kumarasamy, Ayşegül Savaş, and Julie Buntin introduce the authors of this summer’s best debut fiction: ’Pemi Aguda, Jiaming Tang, Michael Deagler, Yasmin Zaher, and Gina María Balibrera.
The principal agent of McKinnon Literary talks about how publishing can be a form of activism, the different ways agents and authors can use comp titles, and how the future of the book business still holds many wonderful possibilities.
Essays by debut authors Alma García (All That Rises), Bernardine “Dine” Watson (Transplant), Tommy Archuleta (Susto), Chin-Sun Lee (Upcountry), and Donna Spruijt-Metz (General Release From the Beginning of the World).
